The Rooftop (Audio Script)

Stories

I always forget how much I love the view from up here. But it’s just what I need after such a stressful day.

But it’s a clear night, and now I’ve got time to unwind…

Plus, this cheap bottle of wine is much better than I expected.

Maybe that’s my secret win for the day, since nothing else worked out the way I hoped… honestly not mad about it if it is.

Looking out over the city like this really has a way of making you feel small, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s like all the stuff that’s bothering me is small too.

Sure, I can’t see as many stars as I could in the country, but I can see people rushing from one place to the other, look- that girl down there is laughing like she’s just heard the funniest thing and from up here, I can imagine anything I’d like about her day.

“Ouch!”

What even is this? Where did all these come from? There must be like, a hundred kinds of soil and plant-y things.

Did a gardener move in? I swear this shelf’s been empty since I moved in… oh, did something roll under… ugh, let me just flip the flashlight on to-

“Almost… here we– GOT IT!”

I can’t believe I came up here to relax and ended up knocking over half a greenhouse worth of gardening stuff… I don’t even know what all of this is doing up here, it’s a rooftop! In the middle of the city.

And last I checked, no one in this building has much of a green thumb.

“I just wanted this night to go better than the day did. Is that so much to ask?

”

“Doesn’t sound like it to me.”

“Holy shit!!!! Where did you come from?”

The woman standing to near the fairy lights looks vaguely familiar, but I don’t think I know her and I definitely didn’t hear her come out here.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.

I kinda thought you’d hear the big, steel door when I closed it?

”

She’s got a point, that door is so loud. But I’d been lost in my own world, I guess.

“Kinda hard to hear anything from down here… besides, I didn’t think anyone else came up here. Except apparently Glinda Greenthumb and all this gardening stuff…”

I’m not really annoyed, it’s just that she snuck up on me and I hate being surprised… especially by blindingly hot women when I’m in my sweats, alone with a bottle of wine.

As I stand and begin to clean up the mess I made, I try to take careful glances at her without looking like a creep. She’s tall, or taller than me at least, and she looks effortlessly relaxed but put together.

Her jeans ride low on her hips, a thin tank top the only thing insulating her from the cool breeze blowing across the otherwise warm rooftop. Her hair is long, messy and lived-in, in a way that gives her that kind of effortlessly cute look.

She looks familiar, but I definitely don’t know this woman…

“Have we met?”

“Not officially, but I’ve seen you around, I live above you…”

“Right! You moved in a few months ago, just before the

Big snow!

”

“Big snow!”

“I did, that’s me… Glinda Greenthumbs, at your service. That snow storm was really something, huh? It looked incredible from up here.”

She raises her hand and I notice for the first time, a tiny pot with a little white flower peeking out of green shoots of grass. I have no idea what it is, but am briefly struck by how similar it looks to a clitoris before I shake off the highly specific analogy.

“So you’re the gardener! Looks like I owe you an apology… but wow, all of this is yours?? How have you pulled all this off, if I’ve never seen you up here before?

”

“I mean, not much planting I could have done before now, is there? I don’t usually come up at night though, maybe that’s how we’ve missed each other… but I’ve seen you around.”

I watch her watching me as she speaks, she seems so confident that she’s seen me around and maybe she has, but I’m equally confident that we haven’t actually met because I definitely wouldn’t have forgotten a woman like her.

How could I, when she looks like she does?

Maybe I was wrong about the good wine being my win tonight… maybe this gardening goddess is the real win. God, I could be so lucky…

She’s still watching me, looking amused, and I realise I must have been staring.

“So, if you’re not usually up here at night… what’s brought you up now?

”

“I was listening to public radio-

I know, I know, but it helps me relax-

And heard there’s a blackout spreading across the city. I wanted to see it for myself.

”

“Blackout?”

The surprise I feel is evident in my voice as I whip around, turning my gaze toward the sprawling city lights below.

Except even as I move, the city is being plunged into darkness.

I feel my neighbor move, feel the warmth of her skin as she brushes my shoulder when she comes to stand beside me.

We stand silently as the blackout seems to swallow the city, like a giant blanket putting all the buildings to bed.

“It’s kind of poetic, isn’t it? Almost...

Romantic, seeing the whole whole city so bare.

”

“Yeah, I didn’t really think of it like that, but I can definitely see it…

”

She looks skeptical, tilting her head as she seems to try to change the angle of her vision - as if she could capture my perspective if she looked a little to the left.

“How did you imagine it then? What does it make you feel?”

Her hip bumps mine as she considers the question, and electric tension sparks across my skin from the place she touched me. It’s thrilling, and I want more… It’s been so long since I had sex, since I even kissed a woman, and it’s almost embarrassing how strongly I’m reacting to her mere proximity.

“It makes me feel overwhelmed, I think.

”

“Overwhelmed how?

”

I say this instead of telling her I can relate, because then I’d have to tell her I’m overwhelmed by her beauty… her proximity… being alone with her like this in the dark.

I try not to sink into the thought, and focus on the oblivion beyond the edge of our rooftop while she thinks it over.

“Well, to be honest… I can’t decide if this is amazing or a little bit terrifying”

“Why not both?

”

“True. It’s definitely both… can you imagine being down there at the bodega, just trying to get your dinner and being plunged into pitch black like this?

”

“If anything’s worth that in this city, it’s definitely their food… but can you imagine trying to cross the street?

”

“God, no. It’d be like playing real life Frogger… and I was terrible at Frogger!

”

I turn when I feel her shudder next to me, and in the low light, I’m rewarded by the curve of her smile.

God, she’s gorgeous. She’s got one of those faces that makes me want to trace every curve and memorize the way every feeling looks when she wears it on her expressive face.

I need to do something with my hands before I reach out and touch her, so I turn away, looking for the glass of wine I set down before she appeared.

“But we don’t have to worry about that from up here, at least… and I guess I don’t need to finish that work project tonight after all, if the whole city’s lost power”

“No, looks like the only thing you’ve got to worry about is that empty glass tonight.

”

“And as far as worries go, that’s an easy one. I’ve got the solution right here!”

“Ooh, a whole bottle. Don’t suppose you’re inclined to share?

”

I’d probably share whatever she wanted if she asked me to, especially with the way she’s looking at me right now.

Her eyes are wide and fixed on my mouth as she asks. I briefly wonder what she’d say if I sipped the wine and told her to come get it.

The thought takes me by surprise, even as my cheeks turn pink and a warm arousal pools low in my belly.

“Is that a no then? Or is there something on my face?

”

I was definitely staring again. Crap, I’ve got to stop doing that.

“Definitely happy to share… and no, nothing on your face except that pretty smile.

”

I freeze after I say it, utterly horrified at myself for a moment before I rush out…

“You like merlot?”

I watch her, trying to be casual, and definitely hoping she doesn’t dwell on that inside thought that accidentally became an outside thought.

“I do like merlot… and I like that you like my smile… got another glass?”

“Oh.. I, uh, don’t actually… let’s see..”

“Well, I’m not above drinking from the bottle”

She leans even closer, fully in my space now, as she takes the bottle from my hand.

“If you don’t mind swapping spit with me.

”

She stays in my space as she begins to fill my glass while holding eye contact with me.

It’s so intense, I can’t speak, so I just nod.

“Cat got your tongue, pretty girl?”

My heart rate doubles in an instant as her fingertips brush mine with the words. She’s so close now, just the bottle of wine held between us, and the rapidly growing sexual tension.

“Or maybe you’d rather I share your glass?”

She leans forward, her hand lightly covering mine on the stem of my wine glass. Slowly, so she can be sure I’m watching her, she brings the glass to her lips and takes a sip.

The way her throat moves as she swallows may as well be porn with the way my body responds. The heat in my belly spreads like wildfire, tingles racing across my skin until my chest peak beneath my hoodie.

“You can do whatever you’d like.”

“To you? Or the wine?”

She’s bold, bolder than I could ever be, but I’m grateful for it because it means she’s already in my space, already saying the things I’m thinking.

And maybe, if the heat in her eyes is anything to go by, she wants the same things too. Because what I want right now more than anything is her lips on mine instead of on my glass.

“Both”

The darkness of the city below feels really stark now as she pulls my wine glass away and sets it down on the rooftop’s edge, along with the still mostly full bottle of merlot.

Without the glass in my hand to give me something to do, I’m acutely aware of how close she is, and how badly I want her to be closer.

With the sprawling dark surrounding us, it kind of feels like we’re the only two people in the entire city.

My whole world seems to shrink and pulse in the space between us as we watch each other on this dark rooftop.

“I’ve never wanted anything so badly.

”

“Do you mean that?”