“I love it,” they say and inch closer to me.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me, you filthy dirtbag,” I tease and then slide my hand up their body and let it rest on their cheek. They close the distance between us and kiss me so softly I start to question if they lied about not liking morning breath but then they tip their head back, nudge my mouth open and slide their tongue inside. We kiss deeply like that until I feel Loncey harden against my thigh. When they move their body so their cock isn’t pressed up against me, I reach out and stop them.
“It’s okay,” I say against their lips. “I mean, I don’t want to do anything but kiss right now, but it doesn’t bother me. I kind of,” I pause, “I kind of like it.”
Loncey’s lips stretch into a smile. “You do, do you?”
I shrug. “Yeah. Is that… weird?”
“Not at all. It feels good to be desired,” Loncey says and they go back to kissing me but I don’t move my mouth with theirs and I roll onto my back.
They pull back again. “What is it, Maeve?”
“I’m sorry that you don’t… that you don’t get that from me. That I don’t make you feel good in that way.”
Loncey rolls on top of me and places their elbows either side of my head.
“Do you want to be with me? Did you jump at the chance of me being here when I suggested it a week ago? Are you going to introduce me to your parents and brother today? Are you going to spend the next five days showing me around this city you pretend not to like and yet I think you secretly love the shit out of?”
“Yes, yes, yes and yes,” I say with a slow smile.
“That’s enough, Maeve. No, it’s more than enough and it feels pretty good to me,” they say and then they lower their mouth to mine and this time, I do kiss them back.
*****
“You’ve gone quiet,” I say as I lace my fingers with Loncey’s. We’re in a taxi speeding along the M50 heading out of Dublin and towards Jenna and Marty’s house, where they’re hosting us for lunch as well as my parents.
Loncey turns away from the window and gives me a strained smile. “I’m kinda… nervous. It’s been a long time since I met a girlfriend’s parents and even then, well, it didn’t go so well.”
“You didn’t charm their pants off? I don’t believe it.”
“I didn’t get a chance.”
“Did you put a shirt on, Loncey? You know not everyone takes as well to pectoral muscles as the average Gen Z TikTok user.”
“I was fully dressed. And way too Black. And queer. And this was before I even came out as non-binary.”
“What happened?”
“We were supposed to go for dinner, at this Chinese place her dad apparently loved. And I went even though I don’t really like Chinese food, you know. But anyway, I saw them arrive but I didn’t tell Geneva. I watched them walk in and I watched them look at us, notice me, and then I watched them turn around and leave. She got a text a few minutes later saying that her mom was sick and they weren’t going to make it. I never met them again after that. Eight years we were together and there was always some lame-ass excuse.”
“Well, that’s some bullshit right there,” I tell them with a squeeze of their hand.
“Yeah, it was some bullshit,” they mimic my accent which makes me smile in a way I’ve long stopped fighting.
“You know my parents aren’t going to be like that. I can’t promise you they’ll get your pronouns right first time. And my dad will probably put his foot in it one way or another, but they will try. And they will love you, Loncey, I promise.”
“They don’t have to love me.” They look down at our joined hands. “I’ll just take them not hating me.”
“They definitely won’t hate you,” I say and I yank our hands so they look up at me. “Unless…” I drag out the S until Loncey is looking at me wide-eyed and pleading me to finish my sentence.
“Unless?”
“Unless you start spouting all that astrology shite.”
The fear in their face breaks into a warm smile full of their straight white teeth and delicious pinky-brown lips and I feel nothing but joy and gratitude when they lift my hands to their face and kiss my fingers.
*****
