“TELL US EVERYTHING AND DON’T leave anything out,” Vanessa said when I walked into her house for Margarita Monday.
“Well, Amanda stopped by my shop yesterday. It sounds like congratulations are in order, Auntie Vanessa.”
“Oh no!” Vanessa reached for my hand. “Did she go in there and start trouble with you? I’d hate to smack a pregnant lady, but—”
I cut her off with a wave. “Thank you, but it’s not necessary. I think her goal was to rile me up, but she either gave up when she realized it wouldn’t work, or finding out she’s about to be a mom has softened her.” I smiled when I thought about the amount of money she spent on the chair, ottoman, silver tray, and tea set. I definitely came out the winner after that battle.
“I’m glad to hear that Amanda can’t upset you anymore, but that’s not the everything that Vanessa was talking about. We want to know all about the new sexy man in your life.”
“How do you know he’s sexy?” Violet asked her.
“I’m a lesbian, Vi, not blind.” April rolled her eyes. “Just because I’m not attracted to guys doesn’t mean that I don’t recognize a sexy man when presented with one. Elijah is pure sex on a stick.”
I hung up my coat and headed to the kitchen where I knew a margarita pitcher awaited me. I breathed the delicious, spicy aroma of Latin food baking in the oven and fought the urge to lift the lids off the pots on top of the stove to see what she had whipped up for us. Vanessa followed me into the kitchen and poured me a drink.
“Mmmmm,” I said after a long drink. “Peach.”
“It’s your favorite,” Van said. “I figured you could use it after the crazy time you’ve had. Are you really okay?” I’d be rich and could retire if I had a penny for every time someone asked me that the past two weeks.
I helped myself to the chips and salsa Vanessa had laid out for us to munch on before dinner. She waited patiently while I ate a few and washed it down with another drink. “I’m so hungry,” I told her. “The shop was a zoo again today and there was no way that Bonnie could keep up with them on her own, so my lunch consisted of peanut butter crackers and Diet Coke.” I looked at the large clock on the kitchen wall. “That was six hours ago.” Trust me, I was glad the day went by fast so that I didn’t have to worry about what Elijah was doing in Kentucky, but a proper lunchtime would’ve been nice.
“Let me get you something with a little more substance,” Vanessa offered.
“It’s not necessary,” I told her. I didn’t want her to go to any trouble.
“Maegan, you hate feeling buzzed and you’ve never been drunk. Let me grab you some cheese and fruit to help absorb some of the alcohol until the enchiladas, Spanish rice, and refried beans are ready in ten minutes.” She pulled out a block of cheese and fruit from the refrigerator.
Van was right; I loved the taste of a mixed drink but not the side effects. I could already feel my face getting warm and that fuzzy feeling creeping in around the edges of my mind. My inner control freak started to panic, so I reached for a chunk of cheese.
“Delicious,” I said.
Van pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and placed it in front of me. She’d be the last person to admit how much she loved to nurture, but it was ingrained in her DNA. “Smoked gouda; it’s silky and smooth.” She tipped her head to the side and studied me.
April, Candace, and Violet entered the kitchen and poured themselves a margarita.
“What’d we miss?” April asked.
“Wait for us! We want to hear all about the sex too!” Violet exclaimed.
“No sex talk yet,” Vanessa said. “I was just asking if she was really okay.”
“I’m fine, Van. Really. Yeah, parts of the last two weeks have sucked”—all three of them snorted—“but other parts were…” My voice trailed off as I struggled to find the words.
“Orgasmic,” April suggested
“Earth shattering,” Violet added.
“Surreal,” I told them. “I’m not going to give you gals the down-and-dirty details of what’s been going on between Elijah and me.” We weren’t high school kids and Vanessa’s kitchen wasn’t the locker room. What I shared with Elijah was too special to cheapen by bawdy shop talk.
“So you’re admitting that there’s something going on?” Candace pressed.
“Of course, something is going on,” I answered her.
“Something truly special from the looks of it,” Violet said, wrapping her arm around my shoulders.
They were so disappointed that I wasn’t going to give them a byplay of every orgasm Elijah gave me. A smile spread across my face when I realized I had lost count.
“Oh, would you look at that face,” April said. “She’s thinking about the orgasms she refuses to discuss. Lucky bitch.”
“I spent quite a bit of time with Marley Kasey this weekend,” I said to April, deciding that a change in narrative was in order.
“Oh, really,” Vanessa said. “She’s so lovely. Don’t you think she’s lovely, April?”
“Just because she’s the only other gay woman in town doesn’t mean that we’re destined to be together,” April said.
“How often do you tell yourself that?” I asked her.
“Every day that I look in the mirror,” April admitted before she knocked back the rest of her drink in one gulp. She sounded miserable and I hated that for her. “Whoa!” She blinked a few times and set her glass back down with an indelicate thunk. She reached over and snagged a chunk of cheese off my plate.
“Hey! That’s my cheese.”
“Sorry,” she said around a mouthful of smooth, smoky goodness. “God, I feel much better now. All tingly inside.” I slid my plate over to share my cheese with April. I didn’t want her to get too tingly, too fast.
“Why does Maegan get fancy cheese and fruit when the rest of us only get chips and salsa?” Violet asked. “The chips aren’t even warm.”
“This isn’t a restaurant,” Vanessa said. “I don’t warm up my tortilla chips.”
“Well, it’s the least you can do if you’re going to withhold the good cheese. I always knew that Maegan was your favorite,” Candace told Van.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Vanessa said, her lips quirked up into a wry smile. She began slicing off more cheese for April, Candace, and Violet. “Who said that I liked any of you?”
“You love us,” April said, sounding tipsier by the minute.
“I do,” Vanessa agreed.
“Oh!” Candace exclaimed. “I bet Maegan is the first of us to get married.” Cut her off, bartender.
“Huh?” How’d we go from Vanessa loving us to me getting married? That was a big leap.
“Oh! I’ll take that bet,” Van said. “Twenty bucks says Maegan gets married first.”
“That’s not much of a bet,” April hemmed.
“Fifty then!” Vanessa said.
“Not the dollar amount, silly,” Candace told our host. “The point of a bet is to settle a disagreement between two or more people. No one here is disputing that Maegan is now most likely to get married first.”
“Oh! You have a good point,” Violet said. “We need to do a pool like they do when they guess the weight and inches of a newborn baby or predict the outcome of football games. Yeah, that’s it!”
“Where’s a notepad, Van?” Candace asked. Vanessa reached inside a kitchen drawer and pulled out a notebook and pen.
“We need to write it down. Everyone commits to twenty dollars and the one closest to Mae’s actual wedding date gets all the money. One of us is going to win one hundred dollars!” April exclaimed.
“Where do you get that?” I asked. Hell, I hadn’t consumed so much alcohol that I couldn’t figure her winnings were skewed.
“There are five of us,” April said.
“You think I’m entering?” I asked, trying to hold back my laugh.
Candace snorted.
“Eighty then,” Violet said, nodding her head. “I can buy a lot of books for that money.”
“Try sixty,” Candace corrected, shaking her head. “You’ll get your twenty dollars back and an additional twenty from three other people. I wouldn’t count your own cash as earnings.”
“Must you be in CPA mode all the time, Candy Apple?” Violet asked.
“Really,” April agreed. “So I was off a few bucks.”
I raised my brow at Candace, but she just shook her head. “Okay, who wants what date?” she asked once she opened the notebook and poised her pen over a blank page.
“May twenty-fifth,” April announced.
“This year?” I asked. “That’s only a few months away!”
“Hot and heavy, Princess,” April said smugly. “He’ll snap you up before you have a chance to get away.”
“No freaking way,” I told her. I didn’t yet know what hang-ups Elijah had, but I was sure they existed.
“Ignore her, Van. Write it down. I want May twenty-fifth.”
“That’s a Thursday,” Violet said, looking at the calendar on her phone. “I’ll take May Twenty-Seventh.”
“You’re both nuts,” I murmured, but they were too busy squaring off to hear me.
“That’s not fair!” April said. “This isn’t the Price is Right. You don’t just get to bid two days over mine to knock me out of the running.”
“You’re the idiot who chose a Thursday,” Violet said.
“I’m not an idiot! You’re a cheater,” April countered.
“What are you talking about?” Violet stood taller and looked really pissed.
Vanessa, Candace, and I exchanged looks of confusion. What the hell was going on here and where was the source of hostility coming from? They’d been back and forth since the moment I walked through the door.
“You used a calendar,” April replied accusingly. “That’s cheating.”
“Where was it stated that we couldn’t take a minute to look at a calendar before we gave a date?” Violet asked calmly. “Oh, that’s right. There were no rules, but you acted impetuously like you always do. Or maybe it was just ‘the alcohol talking.’ Does that sound familiar to you, April?” I would’ve known Violet was repeating words she heard by the tone of her voice alone, but her use of finger quotations added an impressive dramatic flair. Milo would’ve been proud.
April slapped her hands on the kitchen island. “I thought we got past this, Vi.”
“Apparently I didn’t.” Violet closed her eyes and shook her head slightly to get herself under control. When she reopened them, she was once again the calm woman I was used to seeing. “Um, I think I’m going to head on home.”
“No,” Vanessa, Candace, and I said at once.
April started to follow Violet into the living room, but she was stopped by a scalding look. “Why are you following me, April?”
April swallowed hard, looking uncertain how to answer our friend. “You’re my ride home, Vi.”
I could tell that was the wrong answer by the way Violet’s skin paled and her mouth popped open. “Call Marley Kasey to come get you.” Violet turned and left without saying another word, only pausing to grab her coat. As if we didn’t already know she was pissed, she slammed the door hard enough to rattle the frame.
“Oh my God. I’ve been such a fool.” April covered her face and dropped in the seat next to me. I wrapped my arm around her while Vanessa and Candace circled the island to stand on the other side. We huddled together in an awkward group hug. April cried into her hands while Vanessa tried to communicate telepathically with me and Candace whispered soothing words in April’s ear. Telepathy didn’t work so well, so we resorted to body language.
Vanessa’s widened eyes said, Oh my God! What do we do?
I tilted my head slightly and grimaced to say, I don’t have a fucking clue.
“I’ve loved Violet for as long as I can remember,” April finally said. “I never realized she had feelings for me too.”
“What happened and when?” I asked softly.
“After her last breakup with that guy named Doug, Violet came over for dinner. She got a little tipsy and told me that she’s been attracted to me for a long time. I wanted to believe her, but I was too afraid to trust my heart to her. She had only dated men, only expressed desire for men. I didn’t want to be an experiment to her. I knew it would ruin our friendship if that happened, so I told her it was the wine and heartache talking.”
“Oh, honey,” Candace said. “When was this?”
“Six months ago,” April said. “She kind of laughed it off and said I was right. Things were awkward between us for a few days, but we fell back into our old groove. I really thought it was a meaningless, drunken pass.”
The timer on the oven chimed, interrupting us. Wow! All of that happened in ten minutes. Amazing how quickly a person’s life could change. Vanessa pulled away to remove dinner from the oven. I just kept rubbing circles in the center of April’s back.
“I’m sorry, April. I think it was my fault for bringing Marley up. I had no idea that Violet had feelings for you either. I never would have brought it up.”
“It’s not your fault, honey.”
“I feel bad though.”
“You know what?” Vanessa asked. We looked up and found her standing there with her oven-mitted hands on her hips. “We’re going after her. You two are too drunk to drive. Let’s pack this up and I’ll drive us over to her house. You girls can talk things out. We can’t let this continue.”
“She doesn’t—”
“No arguing,” Candace said bossily. “Besides, I didn’t get to pick a date for Maegan and Elijah’s wedding.”
“Me either,” Van chimed in.
I groaned. “I was hoping we would forget about that.”
“Fat chance,” April said, rising to her feet. “I want a do-over now that I know I can look at a calendar.” She looked me up and down. “Maegan isn’t a summer bride anyway. She favors fall weather and colors.”
“Dammit, I was going to pick fall,” Vanessa said, zipping the casserole into a carrier. She looked at me. “Don’t just stand there looking all in love and cute. Grab a damn storage container and start filling it with rice and beans. Damn, do I have to do all the matchmaking around here?”
“Don’t hold your breath,” April mumbled.
“Shut up!” Van, Candace, and I all said at the same time then burst into giggles.
God, it felt good to be with my girls and forget about murder and mayhem for just a little while.