#creloise I would think

[bats-baby]

Eloise calling on Cressida to check in on her, Cressida not caring what her father says and still wanting to be around Eloise, Eloise sharing a secret to Cressida and her keeping it because she knew it was important to Eloise, the both of them being by each other’s side at all of the events this season.

In my mind they’re falling in love 🧡🤍🩷

[bisexualchrissycunningham]

I have a season-ending scene prediction that I can't get out of my head: Cressida shocking Eloise by kissing her, who is rendered speechless.. and Cressida can't deal with what she just did so she runs away and marries Lord Debling, leaving Eloise to spend the year until the next season when Cressida returns from the country to ruminate on what the kiss meant to her.

[thegayestdiaz]

hate hate hated cressida’s arc and i hope she gets to come back and be properly redeemed in future seasons because the way they handled her story was so frustrating

[wittywallflower]

What if Cressida and Benedict invent the lavender marriage?

And ‘spinster’ Eloise sets up house with them?

[change-the-rules]

me opening my silly little word document and my silly little tumblr post window with all my equally frustrated little friends to make silly little art bc Fuck Em that's why

[brekker-by-brekkerr]

There's no way you can convince me the writing for Eloise in part 2 of season 3 was good.

We're expected to believe that Eloise Bridgerton, who gets so upset about injustices to women, who cares deeply for her friends, would hear about Cressida's issues and be like "hmm yeah sucks to suck."

And people can't say it's because Eloise is only concerned with herself because we've seen her get so upset about the plight of other people, we've seen her going and engaging with conversations outside her circle, we've seen her empathizing with Theo and his circumstances, we've seen her trying to hunt down LW to help Pen back before she knew the truth.

JUST THIS SEASON we saw Eloise go to Cressida's house to check on her because she noticed that she was acting off. So you can't even tell me Eloise doesn't care about her. I feel like the writers are trying to gaslight the viewers in part 2 to thinking Eloise didn't ever care that much about Cressida when WE LITERALLY SAW THAT SHE DID. Cressida even says Eloise was a great friend to her.

Yeah, I understand that Eloise has a lot going on right now, and so to some extent, I could see her not being as present for Cressida as she needs. That happens. But the level to which they made Eloise act like she doesn't care is so insane and is clearly just to prop Pen up.

Eloise heard Cressida tell her about her circumstances so she should understand why she's doing what she's doing.

It just felt like such an insane 180 for Eloise to turn around and suddenly be like "Cressida is a viper" and "our friendship was falling apart anyway" and "I should never have trusted her," when the last thing we saw before part 2 was them BEING GOOD FRIENDS!! And when Cressida hadn't done anything bad, she just claimed to be LW RIGHT AFTER she had explained to Eloise how messed up her circumstances were and that she needed help getting out of them.

I get that the show was going to put Eloise and Pen back together because they have such a clear bias towards her character, but did they have to decimate Creloise in the process? Is Eloise not allowed to have multiple friendships?

Like, Pen can do all these terrible things and cry and be like "sorry about that" and it's fine El and her can be besties everyone will love her and forgive her. But Cressida was sometimes mean (and the show goes to lengths to show us how she became that way, even explicitly spelling it out with her mother's comments about how she raised her to believe in "every woman for herself" AND shows Cressida acknowledging her mistakes and showing true change and growth) and lies about being LW and she's dragged through the dirt, she's "the absolute worst," every single character says awful things about her while we see snippets of her in this dark awful house with her life falling apart and this is supposed to be something we root for?? Literally why. Why even make Cressida sympathetic if this is what you're going to do with her.

It feels so out of pocket for Eloise to be saying Cressida is soo horrible and etc. etc. when we SAW their friendship before. We saw Cressida taking in what Eloise was saying and making changes, we saw Cressida challenging Eloise's beliefs and making Eloise self-reflect. Eloise got a peek into how awful Cressida's home life was and into the kind of good person Cressida could be and that's just suddenly thrown out the window with such little support to back it up.

Even if Creloise just HAD to stop being friends, weren't there better ways of going about it? Couldn't they at least have waited till after the fake LW paper came out bashing the Bridgertons for Eloise to break off the friendship? Yes, that was Cressida's mom writing that, but Eloise wouldn't know that and that would more logically line up with Eloise's random coldness towards her.

Still, why exactly do they have to stop being friends? Why can't Eloise have different kinds of friendships, especially one like hers with Cressida that challenged her, one where they mutually helped each other become better people? I love that Eloise is going to go off on this adventure to Scotland and meet other people but could she not also have retained her friendship with Cressida??

I would have loved to see the Eloise I know and love in part 2 teaming up with Cressida to help her, scheming together, doing everything in her power to help her bestie because that's who she is. That's what we should have seen. Maybe it would take her a second to get there, since she was already wrapped up in the drama with her brother and Pen, but she wouldn't just completely brush off her friend. She would do something.

And I could go on about how messed up it was for the writers to make it pretty clear how bad things have become for Cressida and then make her face the most consequences ever, while Pen gets to ride off into the sunset all happily ever after despite doing things 1000x worse than anything Cressida ever did. I'm actually disgusted.

[eloiscbridgerton]

thinking about the deleted creloise ice cream scene from 303 (eloise's supposed next scene after she apologizes to penelope)... i wish they'd left it in bec it would make sense that that would be the scene where eloise apologizes to cressida for accusing her of spreading pen's secret in 202, and why in their next scene together in 303 is eloise offering her natural history books to cressida in order to help her w lord debling, even tho eloise has her doubts in cressida's choice. makes me wonder how much more scenes of those two together were deleted bc the transition from 305 to 306 was too abrupt and were detrimental to both characters

[grace-williams-xo]

RAMBLING THOUGHTS AFTER FINISHING PART TWO. GONNA ADDRESS MY P1 THOUGHTS FIRST. SPOILER WARNING.

1 & 2: I think Debling could’ve worked in the second half, and I’m kinda sad Cressida didn’t get a happy ending. The Creloise fell of a CLIFF after ep 5 but I think it could still be saved

5: no cishet man has ever loved his wife more than Anthony Bridgerton I’m gonna be ill

6 & 12: kanthony’s absence was felt BAD in the finale, I think their reactions to LW were sorely needed. Also Jonny and Simone have both said they’ll be at every sibling’s wedding and stick around for years but they missed Francesca’s??? Also felt their absence too much then. They’re both booked and busy I think we’ll continue to only get a couple episodes a season from them

8: Francesca did get to thrive happy in pt 2 my baby I love her

9: I think they managed to disconnect the mondrich plot even further like 😭 once again, I don’t mind them their plot just feels very empty

10: Pen and Delacroix CONTINUE to be my fave duo I love them so freaking much and they can never get rid of it

13: Portia’s growth this season continued to be 10/10 I loved her and Penelope’s relationship it really showed what it’s like to be closely related to people you oppose and the process of needing to forgive and understand them for your own peace of mind

14: that was not how I was expecting Colin to find out about Whistledown

15: Marcus felt a little rushed in part two but I think I need to watch the whole season together to fully decide

17: this was indeed the longest 27 days of my life I got Covid day after it dropped lmfao

MY ~NEW~ THOUGHTS:

We finally got character development from Cressida and if they write her out I’ll be inconsolable (as will Jessica Madsen)

I hope they paid Golda Rosheuvel good for her feet exposure. Worth more than titties in this economy

I feel the need to tell everyone that £5000 in 1815 is in the realm of £500,000 today and we cannot brush over the fact Penelope has made herself the equivalent of a literal millionaire

Anthony has two moods ‘I’m obsessed with my wife’ ‘I want to win this game’ like it is comical how drastically different his facial expression is in the game of charades compared to pretty much every other scene

Anthony saying the marriage is perfect and not hard work and Kate being like BOY I will humble you,,,, doing the lord’s work I love her so much

At some points I felt like Francesca was fighting Anthony for ‘Violet’s least favourite child’ award lmao

John saying he’s off to look at the wainscotting was unfairly funny

Cressida in the red dress is even better than I imagined fuck even if she’s not gay then I am

Peneloise back together the universe is healing I love my babies all we need now is creloise lovers and peneloise friendship simultaneously I don’t like it being one or the other sue me

However much Brimsley is getting paid isn’t enough,,,, Hugh Sachs the man that you are

I adored Penelope’s wedding dress so much and as bitter as I am still about no kanthony wedding in s2, it felt kind of right somehow for Polin to be the first wedding we properly see in this show

Most of the costumes and makeup feel like they got worse,,,,, big ‘I hired a 14 year old’ energy. I don’t need historical accuracy but I would like a modicum of care and the costume/hair/makeup dept looking at a single historical reference from before 1850,,,, please

We all got the bi Benedict we’ve been asking for and I appreciate it, and recognise that he needed Tilley to explore that, but I still would’ve preferred if they first main queer experience was not a threesome

If they go straight into benophie in s4 (which idk, I’m so torn bc I feel like F, E and B all could work well next season) then I also feel like bi Benedict was just them throwing a bone for 5 mins but meant nothing

The CONTENTIOUS Michaela Stirling,,,,, I was undecided until I saw it but that was the definition of gay panic from Francesca and it worked so well I am so excited.

As your resident peerage expert, it is much easier for women to inherit titles in Scotland than England so I wonder (not that anyone on this show knows anything) if that was a reason they chose Francesca to be sapphic [general peerage info and female inheritance info if you care]

On the above, if they can canonically end racism with one marriage then they can end homophobia with one marriage as well

We all know Eloise was the easy and obvious choice to be the queer love story but part of me does kind of like them not taking the easy route, and them going something more unexpected, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want Creloise/Sapphic El like they had eight children let’s be honest

Finch’s sneeze and Phillips’s “now Varely! The bugs!” were unfairly funny

Everything Lady Danbury said to Penelope about suspecting her and what not felt very in character and you can fight with the wall idc

Did they tell us the name of Polin’s baby boy???

Hyacinth saying she thinks of Gregory as the family pet,,,,, girl you an icon walking amongst mere mortals

Predictions I got right:

Anthony didn’t kill Colin, but “are you gonna duel your own brother” lmao I was on the right track

I knew Polin would win the Featherington baby race and I love that for them (but why were Prudence and Phillipa pregnant most of the season, barely showing, Kate was showing almost immediately, and then in the epilogue the sisters all had baby’s similar-ish ages???? Give the writers room a calendar please)

I SAID FROM DAY DOT THAT THE FURNITURE THEY BROKE FROM SEX WAS A CHAISE I CANT FIND THE POST BUT I KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW IT WHERE DO I COLLECT MY PRIZE SOME OF YOUR GUESSES WERE TRULY FUCKING COOKED

Okay that was too long if you made it this far I’ll make you cookie ily

[jazzyjazzin]

over on what used to be the bird app i am noticing that everyone seems to think creloise angst will be cressida being upset with eloise for their friend breakup but look me deep in my eyes without blinking and you tell me right now that cressida is capable of holding a grudge against eloise of any kind, because idk about you but that stage 5 clinger would last five second at most being mad at her, all eloise has to do is bat her big blue eyes and she’s putty

[austenhowe]

when do you think cressida realizes that eloise has completely forsaken her?

because before she found out penelope was lady whistledown she still thought she was the one to completely break their friendship by allowing her mother to write disparagingly about the bridgertons.

she did not know that eloise already knew who lady whistledown was when she asked for her help to write the column. she probably thought that eloise cut their friendship because her assuming the mantle of lady whistledown implies that she was the one who wrote ruinous things about her last season.

do you think she realizes that this was the reason for the fallout of eloise and penelope's friendship once she found out who the real lady whistledown was? do you think she realizes that eloise knew and that she was content to let her take the fall for perez hilton featherington? that she refused to help her knowing that she wasn't the real lady whistledown and knowing that she was desperate to escape her circumstances? and that she could not even spare her a sympathetic ear even if she didn't want to help and instead doubled down in drawing the line in the sand by cutting their friendship?

how would she feel about that when she finally works it out? when she realizes that eloise did not value their friendship as much as she did? that she probably never even valued her as a person capable of deep thoughts, of feelings, of dreams? (please don't get me started with the whole, "I did enjoy her at the start" line they gave eloise, my god that was cold)

do you think the show will even give the space for cressida to have these realizations in the next season or am I out of my mind to expect them to actually do cressida's character justice? (the show did love to laugh at her misfortune)

even if they never acknowledge this aspect of their break-up, cressida has a long carriage ride to wales to reflect on this betrayal (yes I will call it a betrayal, of their friendship and of eloise's character development in part 1) and god only knows what kind of mindset she'll end up having after realizing that she is truly alone, unwanted, unloved, and unworthy of help.

I hope at the very least that this informs her character in the next season and that we see her finding her purpose, her strength, and her place in or out of polite society. I don't ask for much. I just want her to have a good, loving, and happy life, with or without eloise.

I'll take creloise endgame if they actually manage to fix what they broke when they wrote eloise as OOC as possible so that they could have their penelope and eloise friendship as quickly as they could. I don't know about other people, but I do have standards and that includes EARNED reconciliations. I find it so cheap and lazy when writers just skip to the good part, like have some respect for your viewing audience.

I don't know why I'm still mad about this but you really shouldn't put a character that's doomed by the narrative in front of me and expect me to just leave it to die in a ditch.

I'll always root for the underdog, especially one that's been beaten down and publicly dragged through the mud for daring to escape their doomed fate.

[happypiesmile]

How do you think Violet would react to Creloise? Do you think she will be surprised or she saw it coming all along? Would Eloise come out to her first or she would tell her when they're already together? Would Violet be supportive? Would she eventually warm up to Cressida?

I think Violet would support them, because at the end of the day it's a love match even if it goes against society. I think she will see it coming she would notice how Eloise is content after the summer she spent with her in the countryside, how her smiles are only directed to Cressida during their walks, how her dresses become a subtle reflection of Cressida. How Eloise is excited to attend the balls but still not interested in male suitors, just enjoying talking with Cressida or staring at her when she's dancing with suitors. I could continue but now I'm thinking about writing a fic.

[benjinoff13]

okay let’s talk about 3B a bit

the first thing i’m really really upset and disappointed by is how they handled cress and eloise’s friendship, yes i’m sad creloise will never happen (that’s what i’m assuming cause i really don’t think they would ever make 3 of the bridgertons queer), but i’m more upset about their friendship and mostly, how much they have messed up eloise’s character

it was said and implied in 3A that their friendship was a learning opportunity for them both, eloise taught cressida to be more open, vulnerable, honest and kind, this has definitely happened, we see that happen during cressida’s conversation with colin, she doubles down on they amount of money she asks for but i think we all know she had no other choice and frankly, i would’ve done the same if someone had said the stupid shit colin said, but we see her be honest and truthful and emotional

eloise was said to learn about her privelege, we were told that she was gonna learn that not everybody has the fortune the bridgertons have, not all women can afford to do whatever they please and go wherever they wanna go, eloise learned this in 3A and then completely forgot it in 3B, demonizing cress for taking action to safe her from being a victim of the patriarchy and the marriage mart, something eloise was supposed to learn about

we see how cressida was raised, she was abused, she’s treated like an object and she has absolutely 0 say over her life and her choices, eloise knows this but the second cress takes action to safe herself from a situation eloise knows she’s in, eloise turns on her because she’s starting to forgive pen, el takes it personal eventhough it has absolutely nothing to do with her, her family’s name is harmed a bit but that honestly doesn’t matter and it was purely circumstantial + it wasn’t even cressida who decided to do that but ofcourse she doesn’t even get the chance to explain herself cause eloise doesn’t bother

they could’ve helped cress, talked to her more, if they had shown genuine empathy and understanding towards cressida i genuinely think she wouldnt have done what she did but they just didn’t care and this is what made eloise such an awful friend, they made the friendship seem so meaningless the way el talked about it but you cannot convince me of this, they truly cared for each other, even got emotional when they know the other person is mad or sad with them, this doesn’t happen unless you’re genuine friends and really deeply care about one another, but when cress had to chose herself, el did a full 180 and didn’t even have ONE conversation with cress

i think that’s what bothers me the most, the sheer lack of creloise scenes which would have resolved the issue but instead the writers decided that el could only have one (1) female friend, what a tired and old school way of writing

penelope, colin and eloise were supposed to be the heros of the season, the beautiful love story, the team that protects their family and uses their lady whistledown power for good, but to me they were the villains purely for how they treated cressida

[critter-of-habit]

Did Jessica say anything about Creloise at the meet and greet??? Does she know how extraordinarily gay those two came across this season?!?

Nothing extra at the meet and greet that wasn't already covered during the panels (well, at least, nothing I'll repeat here, wasn't sure it was info that should be shared, ya know?).

But yes she is well aware of how much chemistry they had! I recorded the audio of her answer at the con panel which I think I'm good to share seeing as it was an open panel - I missed recording the question and the very start of the answer but it was specifically about Creloise:

" - So yeah, I would have liked to have seen that. I mean, it was never a conversation, actually, we just ended up, um, that sort of came from it *laughs*. But I do remember the show runner - *gets distracted from the noise of the Fallout panel next door for a bit, then continues* um, they did say that they sort of had to cut some of the ends of the scenes because we just looked like we had too much chemistry, and were like *laughs* But, yeah, that would have been cool."

[iddybyddybee]

I won't say I wasn't disappointed with how Creloise's story ended in Season 3 initially, but after finishing the season and thinking for a bit, I'm a little more neutral on the topic. Why? May I play devil's advocate for a moment and list two things that I got post-Season 3 for future queer representation.

Cressida's spiral in Part 2 reminded me of another Sapphic character's journey: Catra from She-ra. Catra was the main baddie for a long while, but in Season 4, there was a shift in her that made her push EVERYONE away, especially the people who were kind to her. She felt betrayed by the one person she felt the closest to, the one she loved. Catra sank so low and gave into her worst tendencies not only to make other people suffer, but also so that no one would see her suffer. That is what Cressida did, as well. In her final confrontation with Eloise, she wanted their friendship to continue and write as LW (a poor plan in hindsight since Eloise knew full well that she wasn't LW), and when Eloise refused, she immediately fell back on her bullying ways. That was enough for Eloise to end things, leaving Cressida's last good human connection gone and becoming entirely alone. She felt betrayed by someone she cared deeply about, and lashed out because of it. While it's over for now, I'm not quite giving up my hope on Creloise. Like Catra, she can be redeemed. Cressida really did show that Eloise influenced her in a positive way, despite the direction she took being not the greatest one, and Eloise even admitted that she genuinely liked being friends with Cressida during their start. Cressida may not appear next season, but maybe the one after that. Maybe she'll take the time in Wales to mature, come back and try to patch things up with Eloise.

As for not getting a canon WLW ship with a Bridgerton, we just got confirmation of not one, but TWO Bridgerton siblings being somewhere on the queer spectrum. All we wanted was at least one sibling to be queer, and now we have two. That's huge and also realistic! Like, in a family of 8, how can one of them NOT be queer? Even with me and my siblings, we have a collection of straight, ace, bi, and gay (we basically won the queer lottery). So there is still a chance for Eloise to be queer in some manner. Maybe she can be asexual, but find romantic feelings for someone? Maybe a woman? Perhaps... Cressida~? They already flipped the gender of Francesca's love interest, who's to say they can't completely change Eloise's love interest, too?

We're not going to get Season 4 for, like, two more years, so there's a lot of time to stew with what transpired. But I would like to remain optimistic. That's all we can do, for now.

[lucimiir]

Creloise shippers: how do you envision that happening if it were to be canon in the show?

I think bridgerton is the ideal place for wlw love stories without too much time spent on historical accuracy, but I’m curious about how people would want it to play out!

[madsenlover]

under a star - filled sky☆ | creloise.

pairing: cressida cowper x eloise bridgerton.

cressida dreams about kissing eloise, and now she wants to make it happen.

warnings: headcanons? (basically both cressida and eloise ONLY GIRL kissers = lesbians.)

a/n: holis!!, sorry if there's any mistakes and the use of translator is too obvious, english is not my native language. hope you enjoy :))

to this day, cressida has no idea how she let herself be overcome by her intrusive thoughts. but there she was, in front of the bridgertons' house, looking for a way to sneak into the backyard and bribe a maid so she could be alone with eloise.

the more she thought about it, the less she could believe it. in the last few months, her friendship with eloise had become more than intense, and she was surprised, in a good way, at how trusting they were at this point.

at first, something inside her told her that it wouldn't last. perhaps because she knew that the bridgerton girl's approach to her was only due to a mysterious estrangement with penelope featherington, or maybe because she was certain that when her parents found out how close they were, they would try to force her to cut ties with el.

the slightest thought of not being able to continue seeing eloise, on walks or at a ball, tormented her. especially after having dreamed about her. she needed to tell el, to find "a solution" to those thoughts before her parents, especially her mother, realized that she was acting strange and forced the truth out of her with a fearful interrogation.

"cressida?", she heard a cold whisper coming from inside the house. "have you gone mad?, it's the middle of the night."

eloise was dressed in her nightclothes, in her left hand lay her priceless cigarette, which she took the opportunity to smoke outside the house, so that no one in her family would be attracted by the smell.

"pardon me, el.", she said evidently nervous. "i paid your maid to leave us alone, i hope you won't be upset."

"i don't think that was necessary, she would have left us alone if I simply asked her to." she said, as she watched her maid re-enter the house. "but I guess you can still afford to lose some money," eloise took a puff on her cigarette and laughed at the look on cressida's face.

cressida smiled, but remained silent. she was still trying to gather her thoughts so that she could express herself to her.

her now serious look alarmed eloise a little. she usually only saw her preoccupied on evenings when no suitor offered to dance with her. it was unusual for the blonde to have that kind of expression on her face, she thought.

"did something happen to you?", she asked. "you look…paler than usual. it's concerning."

oh, she noticed. cressida was quick to respond:

"indeed, something happened", she began to play vaguely with her hands, avoiding direct contact with eloise's eyes.

she had once heard, she couldn't remember from whom, that looking into eloise bridgerton's eyes was a trap; it would only take a few minutes for her to discover whatever it was you were trying to hide.

after another puff on her cigarette, eloise looked steadily for her friend's gaze. would she tell her what had happened or was she just there to babble?

as soon as cressida's shy eyes met hers, something in eloise softened.

"cressida, you…can tell me anything." she said in a whisper, leaning closer to her. "trust me, I will not judge you…, even when you have come to my house in the scandalous hours of the night."

that made lady cowper giggle. cressida knew she could trust eloise, that the woman in front of her would not judge what she had to say, but the thing was…. serious? unusual? scandalous, indeed.

"eloise…" she took a deep breath, "some time ago, while we were having tea in my garden, you confessed to me that you consider yourself an open-minded woman."

she nodded, finishing her cigarette and stepping on the remains of it.

"as an open-minded woman…", she continued. "have you ever occupied your deepest thoughts with a friend?", with every word, cressida's voice trembled a little more.

eloise blinked several times, confused. "occupy my thoughts with a friend, you mean …. think of a particular friend very often?, write them a letter? well, of course."

"have you never dreamt of a friend?", after analysing what she had just asked, cressida looked at her with wild eyes. had that question really come out of her mouth?.

eloise looked petrified. "i need you to be more specific", she asked.

she wasn't stupid, she had an idea what kind of dreams the girl in front of her was referring to, but for some strange reason she needed to hear her suspicions confirmed.

cressida snorted nervously, she felt there was no need to be more explicit, but anxiety was killing her inside.

"please, tell me again that you're an open-minded woman" she pleaded with her eyes closed, placing her hands on her friend's shoulders.

she could feel eloise's tense body trembling; maybe it was the nerves of the situation or maybe it was a cold night and she hadn't noticed.

"cressida, I…" something in cressida's troubled but angelic face calmed her, and she thought how she had not realised before how beautiful lady cowper was. she shook her head, she had never had difficulty or shame in admitting when a woman was beautiful, but perhaps the moment called for another intervention.

"i am a very open-minded woman", she confirmed.

cressida released her grip slightly, but did not take her hands off eloise's arms. she opened her eyes and sighed.

"I dreamt about you last night," she finally confessed. "i have heard other young ladies say that we should have this kind of dream about any suitor who catches our eye or even any man we find interesting, as inappropriate and scandalous as that may sound."

silence. "say something."

eloise, still petrified, stared directly into cressida's eyes. "I…I don't consider myself a very interesting person, but I'm glad to know that I've caught your attention… "

"eloise!", cressida shouted.

she took her hand and quickly led cressida to the back of the courtyard. eloise couldn't let anyone hear them.

"all right, I apologise.", she laughed a bit. "but do not shout."

"el, this is serious. i'm very ashamed, i'm not in the mood for jokes."

"ashamed?", she knew it was unusual to dream that kind of thing about a woman, but was it so wrong to have dreamt about her precisely?, weren't they friends?.

"i'm already considered an spinster, imagine what could happen to me if people find out that I have these…thoughts."

eloise knew what it was like to be in the public eye, and "fame" had not exactly treated her well. she understood, at least a little, her friend's concern.

she let out a breath of air looking at a specific spot, her mother's little flower garden, she had so many memories there. she looked down and confessed:

"you know, i've dreamt about a female friend before too.", cressida stared at her. "i know how weird it feels, and even though I've never told anyone, i've never been ashamed of it."

"how did you manage to stop it from happening again?", eloise finally looked at her, cressida no longer cared if eloise discovered her ton of secrets, she couldn't, she didn't want to, look away from her beautiful eyes.

"I didn't.", her pale face was decorated with a melancholy smile. "I mean, I haven't had one of those dreams in a while," she clarified. "but it wasn't just one, and they all ended the same way…"

"a kiss." they both said at the same time.

eloise noticed cressida slightly shivering so she took her hand to lead her into the kitchen to the fireplace to warm her up. but she refused to move, she insisted but cressida was stronger.

from the look on her friend's face, eloise knew that lady cowper had an idea and that she would not move from that backyard without making that idea a reality.

"please don't think I've gone mad," she took both of eloise's hands, which made her back tingle, "but I think I understand how we can find out if this thing that's happened to us is something to worry about."

"cressida, i don't think…"

"kiss me." she asked, or perhaps begged. eloise's lips were trembling, she wanted to say something but her friend's request had left her colder than the cold air that night. "just think about it, these dreams torment us because we fear wanting something like that in real life, when we know that these situations are merely our imagination."

eloise was in a state of deep doubt, but she was sure of one thing: the reality that her context offered her - marriage, lots of children and just hosting balls - was not what she wanted for her life.

she remembered her older sister daphne, who indeed spent much of her time doing that and was so happy, she wanted to achieve the same happiness but doing what she was truly passionate about. and to the disgrace of her mother, siblings and above all, society, men were not worthy of her passion.

"if you kiss me," cressida continued, "i will have the real experience and these thoughts will simply disappear."

"cressida these feelings do not 'simply disappear', believe me I've tried".

"just because you have failed doesn't mean I will", there was the cressida that eloise had known for years, her tone disrupting all peace.

she wanted to shut her up, she wanted to show her that those feelings that tormented her so much were not easy to retract.

in fact, eloise wanted cressida not to limit those feelings or what they invited her to do. she thought it would convince her to stop fighting and acknowledge her feelings. maybe she would feel less alone knowing that another woman was going through the same thing she was.

"you're supposed to be my friend, I need you to help..."

"all right, i'll kiss you", she said in a raised voice, higher than she would've allowed herself if she had a maid nearby. "just keep still".

"do you know how to do this?, cressida's gaze betrayed her curiosity, and her impatience to experience the act for the first time in her life.

"I guess all those dreams will come to something", she giggled.

and just like that, under a star-filled sky, eloise bridgerton kissed cressida cowper.

it didn't last more than five seconds, but those were enough for both of them to feel sparks coming out of their chests.

they looked at each other as their lips stopped touching, undecided; they didn't know what to say, or if they should say anything at all.

cressida felt exquisite, the thought of having to push aside those cravings for kissing women kept wandering through her mind, but honestly she couldn't care less at that moment.

shocked, eloise said: "do you mind if I do it again?".

that was the confirmation cressida needed, so this time, it was her who initiated the kiss, at first a little desperate for contact.

a shiver ran down her spine as eloise gently placed her hand behind her neck to intensify the kiss.

kissing her felt so good, it felt right.

cressida had no experience in the art of kissing, nor had she dreamed enough to learn from the resource that eloise was using perfectly.

but she wanted to show her that she was not so naïve when it came to kissing, which was true; her mother instructed her very well when it came to kissing her husband.

so she placed her hands on eloise's cheeks, a gesture she had never seen up close but had heard of at home.

"hands on cheeks are an act of affection, of protection..."

surprised by the contact, eloise broke the kiss for a moment; she stepped back and placed one of her hands on cressida's waist.

"is everything all right?", eloise nodded for reassurance.

"I could get used to this", she said as she played with a strand of blonde hair that fell over her shoulder.

cressida shivered again, god! next time she should bring a better coat.

"it will be an honour to bribe your maid again", she responded with a proud smile.

"you're so lucky to be rich", eloise giggled and kissed her again.

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two weeks in the making, this is (hopefully) my first creloise one shot!!. i'm so nervous bc of the language ajdjfs hope it's not that bad 🙏🏼.