Juniper drew in a breath that puffed out her cheeks, then blew it out. “Do I look okay?” She asked.
“So beautiful. So powerful.” Rowan tucked a strand of hair behind Juniper’s ear. “I love that you’re wearing these big ass beaded earrings.”
“It’s not too much is it? I wanted to Indigenize this place a little bit.”
“Hell yeah. It’s never too much. Never enough, really.”
Juniper smiled. “One last kiss,” she requested.
When she pulled back she saw the lipstick she’d left on Rowan’s lips. She used her thumb to wipe it off.
“I thought you might be trying to mark your territory for the audience to see.”
Juniper leaned into her ear. “There are other more enjoyable ways to do that, had I known you were interested.”
Rowan groaned. “Very, very interested.”
“Later then.”
Their attention was broken up by the moderator who was set to introduce them. She was a lithe, red-headed woman who looked like she spent as much time hiking mountains as she did working in an office. Cords of colorful braided bracelets donned the wrist of the hand she offered to Juniper first.
“Hi, I’m Sheila Fitzpatrick,” she introduced herself.
“Hi, I’m Juniper. Banks.”
She extended her hand to Rowan.
“Rowan Birdsong. Nice to meet you.”
“I have to admit I’m really excited to introduce you both. This is the presentation I’ve been looking forward to the most. And so has everyone else apparently.”
Sheila waved a hand to gesture toward the audience bustling to take their seats at all of the round tables in the room.
“Oh, thank you. I’ve never done anything like this.” Juniper responded.
Sheila placed a hand on Juniper’s shoulder and squeezed. “Donotworry. You’re going to be amazing. Everyone is so excited to hear from you. We had to switch to a bigger room because we had double the interest we normally see for these breakout sessions.”
Rowan raised her eyebrow at Juniper. “See.”
Juniper narrowed her eyes playfully.
“Well, we’re about to go on. I have your bios here. Is there anything else you’d like me to add when I introduce you both?”
“Um, no, I think that’s good,” Juniper responded, shooting a look asking for reassurance to Rowan, who agreed with a head nod.
“Perfect. Alright, here we go. I’ll go out first and introduce you one by one. When I’m done reading your bio, you’ll come out, and you can sit in one of those chairs in the middle of the stage until you’re ready to give your part of the presentation. The podium is to the right. The slide clicker is sitting on top.”
“Thanks, Sheila,” Rowan smiled and nodded again.
Once Sheila took her first few steps onto the stage, Juniperlooked at Rowan and linked their pinky fingers.
“You got this, Junie.”
“Yeah. I fucking do.”
They laughed together before Rowan kissed her cheek.
“No lipstick this time. Don’t forget to turn your mic on when you get out there.”
