“I like the franchise superhero movies. I love a good cozy mystery. I like medical dramas likeThe PittandGrey’s Anatomy.” Chris paused, then mumbled, “I likedHeated Rivalry.”
I blinked in surprise. “You like gay hockey shows?”
“No, just this one.”
“Okay, have you seen that new vampire bodyguard show? The one based on thoseSapphic Securitylesbian romance books?” I asked. “It’s supposed to be pretty funny. And hot.”
“No, I haven’t seen that yet.”
“I heard that Lila has a cameo on the show.”
Lila was a super famous rock star who lived here in Seattle when she wasn’t on tour. She’d made headlines a few years ago when she fell in love with her personal assistant. The last I heard the two of them were happily married. I didn’t know either of them personally, but I knew that they were in the same friend group as some of my boss Gina’s friends. Seattle was a small city, after all, and the lesbian population was pretty tight.
“Sapphic Securitysounds great,” Chris said, already flipping through the streaming menu to look for the program.
I popped up to grab my purse, pulling out my current knitting project.
“You’re going to knit while we watch the show?” she asked.
“Yeah I, uh, I don’t know if you know this, but I have ADHD. I’ve learned that my brain can focus better if I keep my hands occupied or otherwise move my body.”
I wasn’t sure why I felt weird about telling Chris that I was neurodivergent. It wasn’t that unusual, and I certainly couldn’t help how my brain was wired. But I hadn’t really talked about it with anyone other than my closest friends.
“I guess that explains why you were always so twitchy back when we were in school,” she said, her voice kind. “I remember that you were always jiggling or messing with your pen in class. Although you still do that sometimes.”
“I take meds and I’ve done some occupational therapy to help me manage symptoms,” I said. “But honestly, just having a fidget spinner or a knitting project goes a long way for helping me focus.”
Chris started the first episode of the show, and to my surprise, she slid closer to me on the couch, putting her arm around my shoulders.
“Is this okay?” she asked, her eyes fixed on the screen. “Can you still do your knitting?”
“Yeah, I didn’t peg you for a snuggler though,” I said as I relaxed against her. “I’m not sad about it though.”
We watched two episodes of the show, stopping in between to grab water and use the restroom before cozying up on the couch again. It was a fun show about lesbian vampires who found their human mates while working as their bodyguards. Their foul-mouthed wolf shifter boss Lois was the best part of the show though, she was hilarious.
“Do you want to stay over tonight?” Chris asked as the credits rolled on the second episode. “I promise that my mother doesn’t have a key to my apartment.”
“Does anyone else?” I asked.
“My two best friends, Marlee and April, do but they’d never intrude on my privacy,” she said.
“In that case, let’s head to bed.”
***
“How’s it going with your new squeeze?” Robbie asked as we walked up the street to the bar where we were meeting the rest of the team for an after-work happy hour.
I scheduled these once a quarter to give the team a chance to connect outside of work. They were always voluntary after hours events, and of course no drinking was required. My team was pretty tight, and generally most of them attended.
Robbie knew I was seeing someone, but she didn’t know who it was. I’d kept that information private.
“It’s going okay,” I said. “We’ve been spending a lot of time together, mostly on the weekends.”
“How long has it been?”
“Uh, about six weeks maybe?”
It had been six weeks since we’d first hooked up, five weeks since we’d agreed to be friends with benefits. Except that friends with benefits looked exactly like dating, even though neither of us had admitted it.
