Chapter 5
Holly balanced the laptop on her thighs, her feet resting on her coffee table. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she updated Gil’s medical records and documented the work she’d done during the week. Her mother would have scolded her if she’d known she was working on a Sunday, but she didn’t like doing her documentation while she was with a patient. The laptop created a barrier between them that she’d rather avoid.
The patient continues to require…
The Skype ringtone coming through her laptop’s speakers interrupted her midsentence.
She rolled her shoulders, grateful for the break, and clicked over to the Skype window. A grin spread across her face, and she hit the green icon to accept the video call.
Her friend’s beaming face filled the laptop screen. “Hey there, Nerdy Nurse.” Meg’s voice boomed through the speakers.
Grinning at the use of her Tumblr nickname, Holly turned the volume down a notch. “Hi, Mordin.”
“I saw you online and thought I’d catch you before you disappear again,” Meg said. “Is this a good time?”
“Yeah, sure.” Holly clicked over to her documentation, saved it, and closed the window. Work could wait. It had been a while since she had caught up with her friends. “How are you doing?”
“Great. Organizing the next ace meet-up keeps me out of trouble.”
Holly chuckled. Sometimes, she envied her friend a little for living in a big city where she could meet other asexual people. As far as Holly knew, she was the only ace in Fair Oaks. “And how’s Jo?”
“She’s right here.”
Jo, Meg’s queerplatonic partner, stuck her face into the webcam’s field of vision and waved. She pressed a quick kiss to Meg’s head before disappearing again.
“Talkative as always,” Meg said with an affectionate smile.
The open affection between them often confused people. Holly remembered assuming the two were a romantic couple when she’d first seen them interact. An easy mistake to make, considering Meg and Jo cuddled, lived together, and shared finances. It had taken Holly a while to understand that this level of commitment between two people was possible without it being a sexual or romantic relationship. Now she hardly thought about it anymore. As far as she was concerned, love was love, no matter what type of love it was.
“What’s new with you?” Meg asked.
Holly shrugged. “Not much.”
“Are you still working overtime? You really should take some time off and come to Chicago so we can finally meet face-to-face. We’ll spoil you rotten, and we could finally kick some butt together in the same room when playing Borderlands. Maybe it’ll help, and I won’t have to save your ass all the time.” Meg hopped up and down on her chair, her face bouncing out of camera range for a second before reappearing. “Hey, you could come to the ace meet-up!”
“I’d love to, but this isn’t a good time. There’s too much going on here right now, so I can’t get away.”
Meg squinted at her. “Does this have anything to do with Jenna Blake being in town?”
Holly sat slack-jawed for a moment. “How do you know that?”
“So she’s really there? In your itty-bitty zero-Starbucks town?”
No use in denying it now. “Yeah. She’s here. How did you know?”
“One of the guys I play with online has a cousin who’s friends with her guitar tech, who apparently heard her manager talk about it.”
Holly’s head was spinning to keep up, but it didn’t matter how Meg had found out. The aluminum edges of her laptop dug into her hands as she clutched it. “You have to keep quiet about it. She’s dealing with a lot right now, and I’m sure she’d rather do it without the paparazzi swarming around her like a flock of vultures.”
Meg mimed zipping her lips. “Not saying a word to anyone.”
“Thanks.”
“Do you think you could get me an autograph?” Meg asked.
“You want an autograph? You? Since when are you a fan?”
“I’m not. Not really.” Meg’s grin flashed across the screen. “But you have to admit she’s hot.”
Holly’s feet nearly slid off the coffee table. She stared at her friend.
“What?” Meg laughed. “Just because I don’t want to jump her bones doesn’t mean I’m blind. She fits all the commonly accepted criteria for hotness.”
Now Holly laughed along with her. “Did you survey your friends and colleagues to put together a list?”
“Kind of,” Meg said. “Back in high school, when I was still trying to fit in and play the pretend-I’m-straight game, I tried to figure out what my friends were talking about when they called someone hot.”
Holly had done the same. It had taken her a while to understand that hot wasn’t quite the same as beautiful for most people. There was a level of sexual attraction involved in finding someone hot that she had never experienced—and likely never would. It had taken some time to come to terms with being different, but now she accepted that being asexual was a part of her, just like being a nurse or a redhead.
“So,” Meg said, “have you met her?”
“Yeah, of course. It’s a small town.” She trusted Meg, but she couldn’t tell her that Leo’s father was her patient.
Meg leaned toward the screen. “Aaaand?”
“No and. She’s just a woman, despite all the fame.” It surprised her how defensive she sounded, and she hoped Meg wouldn’t notice and ask even more questions.
Her friend studied her for a moment before nodding and moving on to another topic. Soon, Meg had her in stitches, recounting the latest incident at the coffee shop where she worked. Before she knew it, the alarm on her laptop went off.
“Oops. Sorry, Meg. I have to go. I’m having dinner with my family, and my mom will have my hide if I’m late.”
“Go,” Meg said. “I don’t want to be responsible for you being disinherited.”
“I’ll call you next week to hear how the meet-up went.” She ended the call, closed Skype, and within two minutes was on her way to her mother’s house.
After Holly had spent most of the week sharing meals at the quiet Blake household, Sunday dinner with her family was an adventure. She watched her mother, brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews reach across the table in a crisscross pattern to pass around the pulled pork, mashed potatoes, green beans, and coleslaw.
Noah, her youngest nephew, was hording the cornbread at his end of the table, and her niece Harper was trying to wrench the breadbasket away from him, nearly toppling over her glass of juice in the process.
The noise level was comparable to a medium-sized airplane during takeoff.
She wondered how Leo might fare in such a chaotic family setting.
“So,” Zack said, ignoring his offsprings’ ruckus, “how’s Leo doing? I haven’t seen her in town. Has she changed a lot since high school?”
Holly stopped her mother from heaping more of the mashed potatoes onto her plate. “Haven’t we all?”
“Not me,” Zack said. “I can still fit into my football uniform from back then.”
Lisa, his wife, leaned over and pinched his belly. “Yeah, but you won’t need the pads in some places anymore.”
The table erupted into laughter.
Zack swatted her hand away but then lifted it to his lips and kissed it. “Come on, admit it. You love my pads.”
Holly, her brother Ethan, and several of the kids made gagging sounds.
“Stop it,” their mother said.
Everyone fell silent. Their mother was the undisputed boss of the family. She could glare even Holly’s adult brothers into silence.
“Seriously, Holly.” Zack paused with the fork halfway to his mouth. “I’ve heard talk around town. I didn’t see Leo at church with her mom this morning, and Peggy said she has a pretty big chip on her shoulder now that she’s famous. Any truth to that?”
Holly pushed her plate away, knowing she wouldn’t get to eat a single bite before she’d satisfied their curiosity. “I thought so at first, but now that I’ve gotten to know her a little…”
“Ooohooo!” Ethan let out a wolf whistle. “So the two of you have gotten closer? Did she charm you with her ‘butterfly kisses’?”
Holly grimaced at his bad pun. She tossed a piece of bread at her smirking brother. He of all people should have known there was nothing going on.
“Kids!” Their mother raised her voice.
It worked, even now that they were grown up. At least physically, Holly mentally added and grinned.
“I never said we were close,” she told her brother. “I’m over at the Blakes’ to work, not to get to know their daughter.”
“You could do both, couldn’t you?” her mother said. “You need to get out more, meet up with friends…”
“I just talked to Meg and Jo before I came here.”
Her mother waved her fork. “I’m talking about real friends.”
“Meg and Jo are my real friends, Mom. Just because we talk online doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
Their mother and the Internet went together like dill pickles and apple pie.
“Yeah, Mom,” Ethan threw in. “Cait and I met online too, and now look at us—very real.”
“Thanks,” Holly mouthed to him and then added, “Jerk.”
They grinned at each other.
“Yeah, but the Internet can’t give you a hug after a bad day, can it?” their mother said. “It can’t cook you dinner, take you out dancing, or marry you and give me more grandkids.” Her eyes twinkled.
Holly groaned. “Mom, please. I don’t want kids. You know that.”
“Yeah, but what about a relationship?” her mother asked. “Don’t you want to find a nice…” She hesitated, then continued, “…woman and settle down?”
Holly gave her a grateful smile. It had taken her mother a while, but she had finally come around and accepted her orientation—at least the part she knew about. “It’s not that easy, Mom.”
“If you’re staying alone because you’re worried about what people will say…”
Zack put the bowl of green beans down with a thump. “To hell with people!”
Harper gasped. Four little faces turned to stare at him.
“What?” Zack said. “It’s true. People shouldn’t get a say in how you live your life. If anyone’s got a problem with you, they can—”
“Thanks, Zack,” Holly said before he could get himself into even more trouble with their mother. A warm feeling filled her from head to toe. “But that’s not it. I just… I don’t want to date right now, okay?”
“Don’t worry, Mom,” Ethan stage-whispered. “She won’t be lonely. We’ll get her a cat or twenty for her next birthday.”
Their mother sent him a glare that made him shut up.
“Who said I’m lonely? I’m perfectly happy on my own. And it’s not like I’m turning into a hermit. Meg invited me to come visit her in Chicago, and Zack talked me into meeting with the old gang at Johnny’s on Saturday.”
Her mother cocked her head. “Oh? Will Leontyne be there? She’s a lesbian too, you know?”
The sip of water Holly had just taken nearly went down the wrong pipe. Her ears started to burn. “Jesus, Mom. Don’t start. I’m not going to date Leo.”
“Just saying.” Her mother looked around. “So, who wants dessert? I made bread pudding.”
At the chorus of “me” that echoed around the table, Holly sank against the back of her chair, glad that the obligatory topic of her relationship status was closed for now.