Characters: Judy/Karen

show: Once and Again

Title: Bookl?vers

Judy never really talked to Karen before mostly because she's Rick's ex-wife and due to the fact that Rick has now something going on with her sister Lily, she never had the urge to do so.

When she was about to start booklovers, no one really believed in that “thing”. Not even her sister Lily. But Judy decided to do it instead and she liked it.
From the first moment she started preparing the first meeting, she was in love with it. Not knowing that this is the only thing she'd fall in love with during the following days.

Judy walks through the little bookstore and puts some books in the shelf on the right side of the room and sees a blonde woman entering the store. She stops, actually surprised that there's a customer, and then she realizes that she already saw that woman and it took her a few seconds to remember where she already saw her.

It's Rick's ex-wife Karen Sammler. The Lawyer.

“Hello,” she says a bit hesitant when Judy doesn't say a word.

“Hey,” Judy answers and waits for Karen to do or says something. “You need a book?” Judy asks because this is the first day that comes to her mind.

For a moment Karen looks like she doesn't know what to say. She's in a bookstore so what else should she want? But actually she didn't come to buy a book in the first place. She wanted to talk to Rick, but why does she come here then? Or does she want to see Lily? But what should she says and to be honest there's no reason why Karen should talk to her. She's not really sure what she wants in this tiny bookstore.

“Yes,” she answers with a smile and walks further into the little shop. “You thought about anything special?” Judy asks although she got the impression that Karen didn't come to buy a book.

“Well actually I didn't,” she admits and Judy turns around. “Can you recommend something?” Karen wants to know.

“Sure,” Judy answers and can't help but smile at the blonde woman.

Karen watches Judy getting a few books for her and while she walks through the shelves, she thinks that Judy is a very nice woman. She never really talked to her before but she likes it.

She listens to Judy's recommends and watches in her eyes, until Judy breaks the eye contact because Judy feels that the look in her eyes is different from the ones she always gets but from time to time and right now she's not sure how to deal with it.

They kept on talking for a while and start to enjoy the presence of each other and Judy asks herself why she'd never talked to Karen before because she seems to be a very nice woman.

When she leaves, she isn't sure whether she'll see Karen again but the place they life in is quite small, maybe they'll walk into each other at the street or meet in the mall.

They never did before but didn't they say that you always meet a person twice?

A couple of days later, when she's pretty occupied with the preparations for the first “Booklover” meeting, she thinks that she needs some time to breathe and get herself a coffee. While she waits for a waiter to come over, she looks at the “Booklover” add in the newspaper and smiles to herself. She really hopes that it'll be a good thing.

After a while she's tired of waiting and stands up to get a coffee at the bar and when she looks up she sees a blonde woman waiting by the bar and a smile appears on her face.

“Hey,” Judy says friendly when she steps beside Karen. She turns around with a surprised but happy look on her face.

“Hey! Nice to see you, how are you?” she asks.

“A little stressed,” Judy admits and shows her the add. “There are still some things to do before the big day,” she says and Karen takes the newspaper.

“Booklovers”?” she asks and looks up.

“Yes,” Judy says, her face radiant. Karen listens when Judy explains her what “booklovers” is and when she finished explaining, Judy says:”You should come!”

“Oh...” Karen begins, a little surprised because of the invitation at first. “I'll see if I can make it.”

“Come on it'll be fun,” Judy says. “And I'll be there too,” Judy says and winks at her. “I won't leave you alone with all the singles.”

“That's nice of you,” Karen says and of course she likes the fact that Judy will be there. “Despite the fact that I'm one of those singles too.”

“We're in the same boat I guess,” Judy says and they laugh.

“I'll see what I can do,” Karen says and Judy takes the newspaper from her. She doesn't want coffee anymore, Karen distracted her a bit and she still has enough work to do.

“So have a nice day,” Judy says.

“Thanks, you too,” Karen says and when Judy almost reached the door she turns around one last time.

“Karen?”

“Yes?” she asks and turns around.

“See you on Friday,” Judy says and leaves. Karen smiles to herself and thinks that she'll go to the meeting in any case.

On Friday afternoon Karen stands in front of the mirror in her house and tries to make up her mind whether she should go and once that decision was made, she struggles with deciding on what to wear.

Judy invited her and it'd be unfriendly to turn it down. She seems to be a nice woman Karen thinks and it's probably the hundredth time that this comes to her mind.

There's nothing to loose she thinks and enters her bedroom to get some clothes.

At the same time Judy has no time to decide what to wear because there's already a lot to do. The whole week people came and had there pictures taken to put them on her “booklovers” wall and she never imagined it to be so successful right from the beginning.
She greeted guests friendly and tries to keep everything under control and after a while, when she thinks that she needs just a minute to relax she sees Karen walking through the door and the smile returns to her face.

She's glad about the fact that she decided to come and there'd be at least one person tonight to who she really loves to talk to. There's Jake and Lily's crazy boss Christie but Judy could also spend the evening without the two of them and be a lot happier.

“I'm glad you came,” Judy says when Karen approaches.

“Good evening,” she says and looks through the little shop. “There's still a lot going on here,” she says and faces Judy.

“Yes, it's more than I expected.”

“I guess it's good for the first time,” Karen says.

“You want something to drink?” Judy asks and they go to the bar.

“Sure.”

A few minutes later Karen started to walk through the shop to talk to some strangers here and there and Judy keeps on watching her secretly. She also notices that Karen looks at her every once in a while, but every time it happens Judy pretends that she didn't see it and looks away, a shy smile on her face.

It's late when Judy starts to clean up the little mess they made and realizes that Karen stayed to help her.

“You really don't need to do this,” Judy says friendly.

“It's fine,” Karen answers. “I like to help you.”

A few minutes later, Judy gets an idea. “You wanna see something?” she asks Karen who looks at her with a surprised look on her face. “Come on,” Judy says and Karen follows her through the door to the back of the store.

She wants to say something but what she sees makes her speechless immediately.

“Oh My God,” she whispers. “This is beautiful,” she says and walks further to see the complete little court. The lights are dimmed. Due to the fact that the sky above them is dark the little lights look even more beautiful.

While Karen is still amazed by the things she sees Judy approaches slowly.

“Will did it,” she says in a low voice.

“That's so nice,” she says and turns around. Suddenly she faces Judy and there's silence. A wonderful silence and this time Judy doesn't feel uncomfortable when Karen looks in her eyes again. She feels good with keeping it up and she's too stunned to do something when she sees Karen coming closer, so close that she feels Karen's breath on her face. She feels a thrilling tingle in her stomach and when she feels her warm, soft lips on her own.

She feels swept away by the feelings that flush her so suddenly and she never thought that she could feel something like this by being kissed by a woman but right now there's no time to think about that.

Slowly she opens her mouth and replies the kiss when Karen takes her face in her hands to deepen the kiss.

Everything around them seems to turn around but during the kiss, their time seems to stand still. Moments later, they break the kiss and Judy feels unsure what to do next. She takes a step back, still a little shy.

“Good night,” Karen whispers, still confused and surprised about herself at the same time.

“Night,” Judy whispers, her cheeks flushed red and a smile on her face. “Good night,” she whispers again but Karen already left.