update from sparkleup

writing/sawtooth/happy-lesbians.html

@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@
 <p>The lynx nodded.</p>
 <p>"It'll be okay, love. I promise." Her smile was tired, but warm all the same.</p>
 <hr />
-<p>(A week goes by of job hunting, Katrin suggests Winter try contracting, Winter decides on gig economy)</p>
 <p>Gone were the days of sitting up at the kitchen table, circling help-wanted ads in the newspaper. Hell, gone were the days of the newspaper, it felt like.</p>
 <p>Instead, Winter grew addicted to job posting boards, both local to her town and some that ran on a wider scale. Once she got her résumé all fixed up, she started flooding local stores with it, starting with all of the local grocers --- as Stevenson's had been --- and then broadening her search to related retail outlets.</p>
 <p>And then unrelated.</p>
@@ -60,8 +59,7 @@
 <p>She had set herself a week to exhaust all of the usual application channels. On the third or fourth day, she started driving around to stores and dropping off paper copies of her applications as well.</p>
 <p>It was on one of those outings towards the end of her timeboxed week that she first noticed the ride share sticker in someone's window.</p>
 <hr />
-<p>(Honeymoon phase with driving and odd jobs)
-"Winter? For Malina?"</p>
+<p>"Winter? For Malina?"</p>
 <p>"Yep, that's me," the lynx replied cheerfully.</p>
 <p>"Great!" The badger hauled a few sacks of groceries into the back seat and slid in after them. "Thanks so much for the ride. Car's in the shop and all."</p>
 <p>"Oh, no worries." Winter waited for Malina to get herself buckled in before tapping at the GetThere app on her phone to set the satnav to navigate to the badger's destination. "Hopefully nothing expensive?"</p>
@@ -101,9 +99,33 @@
 <p>The lynx lost track of how many times she was called an idiot. She lost track of the number of times she was lured in by a sizeable tip, only to have it withdrawn after she had completed the project during the three-day grace period. She lost track of how often she was brought on to make someone feel bigger.</p>
 <p>Still, she had to pay the bills, didn't she?</p>
 <hr />
-<p>(An argument over something big that happened while driving. Maybe someone said something gross to Winter?)
-Winter don't know how long she sat in the car, forehead resting against the steering wheel, before there was a soft knock at the driver's side window.</p>
+<p>(An argument over something big that happened while driving. Maybe someone said something gross to Winter?)</p>
+<p>Winter don't know how long she sat in the car, forehead resting against the steering wheel, before there was a soft knock at the driver's side window.</p>
 <p>"Love?" Katrin's voice was muffled from outside the car.</p>
+<p>Winter looked dully out the window at the vixen, unseeing. Some part of her knew that she should get out of the car and head inside, should at the very least lift her head from the steering wheel, and yet she lacked the executive function required to even do that.</p>
+<p>"Winter, can you come inside?"</p>
+<p>The lynx took a deep breath. Perhaps it was simply the lack of something that was keeping her trapped here. The lack of oxygen. The lack of motivation.</p>
+<p>When the breath did not bring any further energy, she let it out in a rush and, through force of will, sat up straighter and unlocked the door. She may have sat there longer, but Katrin didn't give her the chance; the door she was leaning against angled smoothly away from her.</p>
+<p>No helping it now.</p>
+<p>Winter unbuckled her seatbelt and accepted her wife's paw to help lever herself out of the driver's seat. Together, they shut and locked the car and made their way inside.</p>
+<p>Only once she was settled at the kitchen table with a small plate of dill-heavy dumplings --- some new recipe Katrin was testing out --- was she able to loosen up.</p>
+<p>"I'm sorry, Katrin. I just...long day."</p>
+<p>The fox nodded, frowning. Never quite able to cease working, she seemed to be dissecting one of the dumplings she had made and was poking at the insides of it with the tip of a knife. "You've been having rather a lot of those lately, sötnos."</p>
+<p>Winter frowned. "I suppose. I know it's not exactly ideal."</p>
+<p>"It's okay, don't get me wrong. I'm glad to see that you're out and about doing work. I just worry."</p>
+<p>"Yeah..."</p>
+<p>Katrin, apparently satisfied with the internal texture of the dumpling, popped half of it in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. When she had finished enough to do so, she continued. "Tell me about your long day, love. I want to hear, because it sounds like it was more than simply the length."</p>
+<p>"I suppose." Winter stalled for time by eating a few of the dumplings. They were quite good, though perhaps saltier than she would have liked. "Just had a really gross ride partway through and never quite recovered."</p>
+<p>"Gross how?"</p>
+<p>"He was just really adamant about sitting up in the front seat with me."</p>
+<p>Some inner part of her smiled, despite the competing emotions. She knew she had Katrin's full attention when the fox finally put down her silverware. "I...see. Are you okay?" she asked.</p>
+<p>Winter nodded. "He didn't do anything super gross physically, but it was just everything else he did."</p>
+<p>Katrin blinked slowly, ears tilted back. Winter was never quite sure what emotion went along with such an expression, but this time, she was certain it was one of concern or worry.</p>
+<p>"I'm alright, though, I promise. He just got really pushy about sitting up front and kept saying all these vaguely...uh, sexy things, I guess, and kept staring at me."</p>
+<p>"Did you report him?"</p>
+<p>"Yeah, I mentioned it on his review."</p>
+<p>The vixen nodded.</p>
+<p>"It just made the rest of my shift feel extra long, is all. Every time I'd go to accept a ride, I'd get nervous. I drove to the other side of town just to be sure he wouldn't request another from me."</p>
 <hr />
 <p>(Winter splits time between looking again and gigs)</p>
 <hr />