Rimshot ❁ d.j.h

• chapter one •

Fumbling. If there was one word to describe this moment in its entirety, it would be fumbling.

Everything from their lips to their hands to the hair tangled between one woman's fingertips, the pair of women just couldn't seem to catch a break.

"Has anyone seen Normani?!" A voice raged outside the door. The blonde sucked on the shorter woman's bottom lip in an attempt to absorb her laughter and smile.

The black woman leaned into her with ease, wounding her arms around her neck. Things seemed so easy with Dinah like this.

...In the supply closet.

"I have to go run my lines." The brunette pulled back to say, mumbling against her lips nonetheless.

"No, you don't." The taller woman smiled, stroking her cheek. One hand on her throat had her pulling Normani back, and their lips went at it again.

"I'm serious." She breathed. "This is the scene right before yours and I've been practicing all night, I need to nail this."

"You're Normani fucking Kordei, you don't need to practice anything." DJ looked down in admiration, pulling back to catch her breath. "You walk circles around me and you know it."

"In a heartbeat?"

"Mmhmm."

"Flattery gets you nowhere."

"It gets me one more minute with you."

Normani pulled on her shirt until they were chest to chest and their bodies flush against each other. She laid a kiss on her jaw with a small smile.

"No, don't leave." Dinah whined. "Kiss me again."

Normani tipped the blonde's head down to lay another kiss on her lips. Just when she began to melt into it, the brunette separated herself with a smile.

"Don't leave for another five minutes."

The blonde's hands faltered as her body slumped back against the wooden cabinet.

"I know... We've been doing this long enough for me to remember by now."

The brunette's smile weakened. "I know. I'm just reminding you."

"I know." Dinah's expression grew distant in the slightest. Her hands fell to her sides. "I don't need it."

"Okay." The black woman nodded softly. She cleared her throat. "So I'll see you out there?"

DJ looked away at the shadow of light underneath the door. She tried to shield her annoyance but it was hard with the tensing of her jaw. "Yeah."

"Okay."

Like the most vicious of ghosts, the shorter woman disappeared from the room without so much as a trace, leaving the blonde alone. The room felt quiet and lonely without her there. But in eight months of filming, that's what you got, right? You couldn't have the movie and the girl. You had to pick one.

Normani picked the movie. And given the option, if someone would've asked her for once, Dinah would pick the girl.

Normani Kordei. The opposing leading lady in a movie that she could only dream of working alongside. She almost couldn't believe it when the casting was revealed. She saw her briefly on audition day. The two had just nearly crossed each other without a word. She couldn't help but remember how her heart felt like it was dropping into her ass, but Kordei barely even looked at her. She was too engrossed in whatever conversation was taking place with some man who was next to her, no doubt her manager.