“Don’t you have to get up?” A voice whispered in Mia’s ear. “I think you forgot to set your alarm.”

“What?” Mia opened her eyes and looked into Lou’s face. She burst into a smile immediately.

“The Pink Bean will open soon. Don’t you have to be there?” Lou smiled back. Her hair was all over the place, half of it covering her face, some of it tickling Mia’s shoulder.

“What time is it?” A slight panic took hold of Mia, but not enough to deter her from the utter beauty of this moment, of waking up next to Lou—even though it was a bit of a rude awakening.

“Six fifteen.” Lou quirked up her eyebrows as she said it.

“Looks like I’m going to be late.” She couldn’t stop staring at Lou.

“That’s your reaction? What if I see it as my duty to inform Kristin about the laxness of her employee’s timekeeping?”

“Then I would have to change your mind. Give you a really compelling reason not to.” Mia threw her arms around Lou’s neck and pulled her close. “And I have no time to waste.” She sank her teeth lightly into the flesh between Lou’s neck and shoulder and as a shudder of morning lust ran up her spine, she caught a glimpse of all the times she would pull Lou close like this, all the mornings they would wake up next to each other, all the times they would share a joke between them and distance themselves more from who they used to be.

“Not compelling enough,” Lou said into her shoulder. “Not nearly.”

Mia pushed Lou onto her back and straddled her, touching down with her pussy lips on Lou’s warm belly. “If you keep this up, you’ll be the reason I’m late and you’ll have no claims to make about my loyalty to my boss.” Mia bent down and kissed Lou on the nose. “Besides, both Jo and Kristin know about our date. They’re probably already blaming it on you. And rightly so.” Mia kissed Lou on the lips.

“They all know?” Lou asked as soon as they broke from their kiss.

“Jo read it off my face and Kristin is too smart not to know.”

“There are no secrets in the Pink Bean.” Lou smiled up at her. “I kind of knew that all along.”

“I’ll try to do a better job in the Newtown branch. We’ll have a strict non-gossip policy.”

“You can try, but don’t forget I have a direct line to any antics you might be up to. Just one phone call to Annie is all it will take.” Lou narrowed her eyes. “I think I might ask her to keep tabs on all the hot lesbians who come in for coffee when you’re there.”