“A woman can’t wait around forever,” Martha said, before biting into her grilled cheese panini. She’d been drawn to comfort foods more frequently of late.

“I know, but Micky reminds me every single time I see her,” Sheryl said, “that Amber is worth waiting for.”

“She might be the most thrilling, exciting, beautiful woman I’ve ever met, but as long as she’s not here, there’s not a lot I can do, is there? I barely know her, so Micky can say that Amber is worth waiting for all she wants. If I can’t verify this myself, then what difference does it make to me?”

Sheryl cocked her head. “None, I guess. But have you bumped into any other gorgeous, intelligent, honey-voiced yoga teachers lately?”

Martha rolled her eyes and shook her head. “No, that’s what’s so frustrating. I don’t really know how to go about meeting interesting women. I mean, should I go on the internet? I could ask Stella, but we’ve only very recently gotten back to how we were before I came out. The whole thing is just so... exasperating.” Martha dropped her sandwich on her plate. She knew she was being overly dramatic. She’d been fine with Amber being gone for a month, finding herself—or even more of herself—on a yoga retreat in India. Waiting around for a month was not an issue, but now Amber had extended her stay in India for another month, Martha’s romantic future didn’t look all that rosy.

“What’s another month?” Sheryl asked, not indulging Martha’s dramatic streak.

“That really depends on how you look at it. Thirty-one days can be very long.”

“Maybe if you have nothing on, but you, if anything, have too much going on, Martha.”

“This is exactly why I shouldn’t have leisurely lunches with lesbian colleagues.” Martha reached for her wine glass. “Too much time to process.”

“You were a whole lot less dramatic before you came out.”

“It must be rubbing off on me then.”

Sheryl shot her a look Martha couldn’t quite decipher. “What?” she asked.

Sheryl cleared her throat. “You actually sound more frustrated than dramatic.”

“Oh, Christ.” Martha let her head fall against her fingertips. “I’m comfortable talking about a lot of things with you, Sheryl, but that’s perhaps a bit too intimate a topic.”

“Fair enough.” Sheryl plastered on her widest smile—the one that drove some of her students crazy. “Just promise me one thing, Martha.”

“What’s that?”

“Give Amber a chance when she gets back. I know it’s a nuisance to have to wait, and you barely know her, etcetera. I see her quite often and we’ve gotten closer since Micky started working at the Pink Bean. And well... there’s that other thing I know about her.” A mischievous twinkle appeared in Sheryl’s eye.

“What?” Martha wondered whether Micky had revealed something else to Sheryl. Or Amber had said something to Sheryl that she hadn’t yet shared with Martha.

“I’m actually not sure I’m at liberty to say.” Sheryl sat there smiling.

“Oh, please. When you say A, you have to say B. Those are the rules.” There was no doubt in Martha’s mind that Sheryl would divulge the secret she was keeping—if it was even a secret.

“I have it on good authority that all that yoga makes for a spectacular body and a, well, er, rather excellent bed partner.”

“What are you talking about?” Martha’s eyes grew wide.

“Remember Caitlin James?”

“Of course.” Martha had met her that day they’d all gone to an open AA meeting with Sheryl.

“She was in Sydney for the Pink Bean opening a few years ago. Amber was partaking heavily of the champagne and Caitlin noticed and, well, grabbed her chance.” Sheryl arched up her eyebrows. “If you catch my drift.”

“They slept together?” Martha had trouble picturing it. Then again, if she really tried, and got past the semi-queasy feeling it gave her in the stomach, she could see it.

“A one-night stand,” Sheryl confirmed.

“I have to say I’m quite surprised. For someone who is reluctant to date me because she met me at a dinner party that was kind of—but not really—a date with her best friend. She doesn’t strike me as a one-night stand sort of woman.”

“I truly don’t think she is. I think the champagne might have gotten the better of her. Plus the elation of a lesbian-owned coffee shop opening in between her flat and her place of work.”

“What did Caitlin say?” Martha was suddenly very curious. But Sheryl was the one who had brought the whole thing up, so Martha figured she was well within her rights to ask.

“It happened more than two years ago. Forgive me if the details are a bit vague.” Sheryl pursed her lips together, giving the impression she was racking her brain. “I do remember that Amber wasn’t too pleased about Caitlin being, perhaps deliberately, vague about living so far away. They didn’t part very amicably.” Sheryl looked as though she suddenly remembered something else. “I’m only telling you this because since Caitlin has now moved back to Sydney, you’ll be seeing her and you would have found out anyway.”

“Do you think Caitlin is still interested in Amber?” Faced with unexpected competition, Martha cursed Amber’s extension of her stay in India even more.

Sheryl shook her head. “As I said, it happened two years ago. And even if Caitlin were still or newly interested, Amber is not the kind of person to make the same mistake twice—or to forgive misinformation easily.”

“Maybe that’s what she’s doing in India. Forgiving everyone who has ever wronged her. She’ll come back reborn and ready to embrace all the people who have disappointed her in the past.”

Sheryl chuckled. “We’ll just have to wait and see.” She drank some water. “I have a class in fifteen minutes.”

“Me too.”

They paid the bill and walked back to campus in silence. Martha could only guess what Sheryl was thinking, but most of her thoughts were occupied with imagining Amber and Caitlin James together—and trying to ignore how it made her feel deep down inside.