The Sullivan Sisters

Layers

"Paloma, let's go!"

Ava glanced at the time stamp on her cell phone, an annoyed sigh slipped past her lips soon after. The couple was already twenty minutes behind schedule and they weren't even out of the house yet.

She momentarily looked up at the staircase following Paloma's lack of response. She only ceased her gaze when Quinn, who was snacking on a small bag of potato chips, joined her in the kitchen with an entranced Siberia following closely behind.

"I don't get it, she's on time literally every other day. I mean, she's usually the one dragging me out of the house before work," Ava groaned.

Quinn languidly shook her head and laughed softly, "Ava, Ava, Ava. You're referring to work Paloma, now, you're dealing with vacation Paloma. Your girlfriend has many layers. Educate yourself and survive."

Ava's partial frown disbanded as she examined the girl. "Enlighten me."

Quinn lazily dusted the salt from her digits and smirked. "Work Paloma is punctual and...almost scary. She's your standard twenty-first century, responsible, adult woman. Vacation Paloma, on the other hand, is the antithesis of work Paloma. Laid back, not at all punctual, and kinda annoying but, admittedly, pretty fun too, so it evens out. And, after three years, I'm guessing things haven't changed."

The teenager giggled at Ava's inquisitive but amused look.

"You guys never went away together? Even as friends?"

"Nope." The mahogany-haired woman said with a grin. "It's a first. I'm excited albeit a bit worried that we'll never leave the house."

Quinn snickered and tossed Siberia a potato chip. "You'll learn soon enough."

Ava busied herself by scanning the contents of the fridge. A content smile made its way onto her features upon spotting the case of beer that peaked behind a bright green head of lettuce.

Following Paloma's less than pleasant behavior the week before, the brunette promised Ava that she'd refrain from partaking in anything other than non-alcoholic beverages.

At least until Ava's birthday festivities passed.

Despite the short period of sobriety, Ava was proud of the younger woman considering not once in the three-plus years she'd known her had Paloma ever willingly allowed a fresh case of beer to fester in the fridge.

Because she too decided to join Paloma in her drinking hiatus in hopes to help ease her girlfriend's desires, the alcohol remained untouched.

She latched onto the case's handle and pulled it from the fridge just before sucking in small, courage-filled breath and dropping it into the trash can.

While she wasn't a heavy drinker per se, she thoroughly enjoyed cracking open a cold one after a particularly stressful day of work so trashing a perfectly good case of beer stung a little. Nevertheless, she was well aware that such an act would strike Paloma to her core, so she took it upon herself to save the brunette from further temptation.

"Whoa, was that defected or something?" Quinn gathered, her mouth slightly agape.

At this, Ava laughed, "Not defected, just unhealthy for all of us, especially you."

The teenager let out an insincere scoff.

"Look on the bright side, this way, you're not tempted." Ava's teasing smile induced a laugh from Quinn.

"I'm appalled at your lack of faith in me, Ava."

"Yeah, well, you've come home drunk enough times for me to know that, on your most resilient day, it only takes, what, one, maybe two of those to get you wasted?" The woman briefly rested her arms on the island bar and leaned closer to the girl, a simper accompanying the action. "Am I in the ballpark, lightweight?"