It made sense, then, for Annalise to lay low among the geriatric set at Rumors. Once Cory settled in with her latest girl, Kit’s friend could return to the Den triumphant with her new squeeze.Ob-la-di, ob-la-dah. Hell, maybe this Barb person she mentioned this morning wouldn’t last but a few nights, and Annalise would come with somebody “two girls from now.”
“Hey, you seen Annalise around?” Cory asked, and the words sent Kit’s heart to the ceiling. She took a deep breath and shook her head. It wasn’t a lie, for she had missed her by minutes at the coffee shop earlier.
“If you do, tell her we’re good. I can guess why she’s not here tonight.” With that, Cory saluted her with the bottle and ambled back to her date.
“Sure thing,” Kit muttered. She couldn’t even hear herself over the music. A part of her wanted to call Cory back and get some details, find out when the couple split. She was tempted to hand her a business card for the store with an invite to reach out if/when this thing with Denise busted.
As often as Kit came to the Den to socialize, sometimes she felt so out of the loop when pairings connected and fractured. Nobody looked her way, eitherSo much for the lesbian sisterhood, and all that jazz.
Turning back to the bar, she brought out her phone and shot Annalise another text.Think I’m heading home, take a rain check. Not feeling good.She powered down the phone to avoid Annalise’s wrath, then reached in her front pants pocket for her credit card wallet. She sensed a body sliding up beside her, and took a moment to savor the warmth.
This was new.
“Were the angry pigs winning?” rang a sharp, high voice in her ear, and Kit turned to that same pert nose and smile and bright eyes behind charming geek-girl glasses.
Oh, shit.She couldn’t decide whether to feel joyful or scared. Had a fleeting fantasy the chance to become real?
The sight of Sidney Campbell nearly caused Kit to forget she’d blown her chance to shimmy through that short window of opportunity with Cory. Sidney’s new outfit definitely soothed the burn. The petite dark-haired woman now wore a tight black T-shirt with a distressed image of a Rubik’s Cube, black leggings, and a skirt patterned with many multi-colored squares, not unlike the popular Eighties puzzle toy.
“Nice outfit,” Kit said, and twirled her finger downward to guide Sidney to move away. “I have to see the shoes.”
Sidney laughed and offered the full model strut. She whirled around and sashayed along the bar a few steps, wiggling her slim hips, then returned with an exaggerateden pointeof one high-top sneaker, which was actually designed to look like a red Uno playing card.
“How come they don’t match?” Couldn’t be too difficult to find checkerboard-patterned shoes.
“The shoes that go with this outfit are worn out. I haven’t had time to make another pair.”
“Really? You don’t buy these?” Kit asked. Baking, sewing…this girl was a one-woman craft bazaar.
Sidney smiled. “What can I say? I’m good with a glue gun and a pastry bag, so long as I don’t get them mixed up.”
“Cool. Uh, what brings you here?” Did Sidney know this was a lesbian bar? The décor of The Woolf’s Den didn’t outright advertise it. No rainbow bunting or pink triangle beer coasters. Yeah, framed lithographs of semi-nude women in tasteful poses hung on the walls, but Kit saw those at other places.
“I heard this was the best place in town to meet women. We’re technically not in Dareville, though, are we?”
“Yeah. We were thinking of calling this place West Vagina.”
Sidney snorted up a sip of her drink. “You have to warn me when you make a joke like that.” She waved over the bartender for some napkins.
Sidney attracted many appreciative stares from other patrons, leaving Kit to think of the right words to get her to a more secluded place to chat.
Luckily for her, Sidney shared her idea. “This music is so damn loud, how do you stand it?” she called out. “Wanna sit out on the patio?”
Kit nodded, and a minute later they found two Adirondack chairs on the concrete, screened-in patio that abutted the alleyway behind the club. Kit had heard, when the buildingonce housed an Italian restaurant, this area served as a smoking lounge for the wait staff. Nobody lit up here now due to new laws, but the folks at the Den tried their best to make the patio look pretty. Fake palms trees wrapped with white twinkle lights adorned each corner, and standing space heaters kept the area comfortable. Though no door separated them from the club interior, Kit noticed that the distance did mute the music’s volume to a low, steady boom.
“What were you drinking? Refill’s on me,” Sidney offered, and flagged down a server making the round to others lounging on the patio.
“You don’t have to do that, I’m good.”
Sidney smirked at Kit’s reluctance. “Please. I’m a working woman now. I can afford it,” she said with a wink. Kit couldn’t argue with that.
“I usually get the Key Lime Pie martini. It’s their signature drink.”
“Ooh, that sounds good. Two, please,” Sidney told the waitress, and Kit watched the silent exchange between them that followed. Well, she counted the seconds the waitress lingered, shuffling backward with her eye on Sidney, before finally retreating to the bar to place their orders. Pretty petite girl nerd proved tonight’s favorite flavor, and Sid no doubt tempted many an appetite. Kit placed a hand on her growling stomach.
Sidney crossed her legs and turned in her seat, squeezing her arms close to her body as though to preserve warmth. “How does a key lime drink become the specialty of the house in a Virginia bar? It’s not my first guess.”
“Yeah, you’d probably think it was some kind of bourbon drink. The couple who own the Den are from South Florida. They used to run a gay bar down there. I guess they got tired of the competition, so they came up here to carve out their own audience.”
