River
“Whoa! You’re naked!” she said, covering her eyes.
“Sorry, I’m… running late,” Lacey told her, pulling underwear out of her dresser drawer. “I just need a minute.”
“Your hair is wet, Lace,” she said, still covering her eyes.
When River realized how ridiculous she was being, she lowered her hand, opened her eyes, but looked down at the floor. Then, she looked up and saw that Lacey was holding a shirt to her chest, and she looked vulnerable, maybe even a little nervous. It wasn’t just River, then.
“I’ll wait in the living room. I’m early. I thought we could stay in tonight, so if you want to put on comfortable clothes, that’s fine.”
“I made a reservation.”
“You did? Why?” River asked, meeting Lacey’s eyes.
“Because it’s a date, right?”
“Right,” River replied. “Lace, can we please just stay in? I’ll order us something if you’re hungry. I think–”
Lacey stopped moving and said, “That we should talk?”
River nodded solemnly.
“Can you wait out there? I’ll change and pull my hair up or something. I’ll cancel the reservation, too.”
“Yeah, sure,” she replied and turned to go.
River ended up in the living room of Lacey’s apartment, feeling like everything was about to change, and she knew that it was as she sat down on the sofa and rubbed her hands together, trying to figure out how to say it, how to get out what she knew needed to happen.
“We’re breaking up,” Lacey said.
River looked over and saw her standing there, looking sad and tired, wearing her comfy sweats and one of River’s hooded sweatshirts that Lacey had stolen a long time ago.
“Can I keep this?” Lacey asked, tugging on the bottom of the sweater. “It’s okay if you say no, but I’d really like to have something of you after…”
“You want my hoodie? It’s yours, Lace.”
Lacey nodded and walked around the coffee table to sit down next to her, leaving a little space between them.
“It’s okay, River. You don’t have to say anything, really. We both know. We knew this was going to happen. We’ve just been avoiding it, haven’t we?”
“Yes. I don’t want to lose you, Lace.”
“I know. I don’t want to lose you, either.” Lacey sat her phone on the table and turned more to her. “I want us to be friends, River. If not now, someday.”
“I want that, too,” she replied, turning to face Lacey as well. “I think that maybe that’s what we were supposed to be all along.”
“So the hot sex was just part of our friendship?” Lacey joked, smiling a very small smile, but River knew she was doing her best to lighten the mood.
“I think the hot sex was because we had chemistry in the beginning. Then, that settled down, and now, we’re just–”
“Covering ourselves up with towels and shirts because it feels strange that the other person is seeing us naked?”
“Yeah,” River replied. “I don’t know how that happened. We showered together one day, but the next, it felt wrong.”
“I know why.”
“You do? Care to share with the rest of the class, Lace?”
