I laughed. “Die? Really?”
“Hon, I’ve seen the way she looks at you in normal clothes. This might actually kill her!”
“Well I don’t want to do that. I don’t know. Don’t you think it’s too much?”
“Sweetie, it’s perfect. You look hot as fuck! She’s going to love it. Now let me do your hair and get your ass going!”
“My hair? I was just going to put it up?—”
“In a high pony. I know, babe. Let’s try something a little different tonight, yeah?”
I groaned. I’d been trying a lot of different things lately. They’d all been working out so far, so what was one more thing?
“Fine. Have at it.”
An hour later after Blair gave me some loose curls and touched up my makeup for me, I was walking into Queer Quarters and being greeted by my favorite bartender.
“Holy, shit, you look hot as hell, Cara! Meeting someone here, I assume?”
I took a seat at the bar and smiled. “Hey, Rylee. I am, actually. I’m meeting Vera.”
“Oh, right, your girlfriend. I saw you two at the wedding getting very cozy. I may have snapped a few candids of you, I’ll send them to you. What can I get you to drink, hon?”
I paused for a minute. Was that what we were? Girlfriends? I mean, we hadn’t really talked about it but I knew I wasn’t interested in anyone else.
“I’d like that. And a vodka soda please.”
“You got it. So how are things at work going?”
“They’re good. Busy, as always, but that’s what I love. I just signed on my first dark romance author, so that’s exciting. How about you? How’s Greyson and Lana?”
Lana was her wife, and Greyson was their almost ten year old son. She smiled and handed me my drink. “They are good. They are home playing video games, most likely.”
We talked a little more and I avoided the marriage questions until I went to find a table. Vera would be there soon, and as much as I loved Rylee, she loved to pry just as much as Drea.
I hated to admit I was a little nervous. I knew how she felt about me, clearly, but I don’t know, in the back of my mind, I was still scared. Everything was so new. She’d known her feelings for me from day one, and while it took me a little longer to realize my feelings, I couldn’t lie and say that they hadn’t been there too. If they hadn’t been, we never would’ve slept together.
Vera had initiated practically everything from our first meeting, to every sexual encounter. I wanted to show her that her feelings weren’t one sided. I wanted to show her that Iwanted her and I was serious about wanting to be with her. I did that when I initiated our first kiss at her grandmother’s house, and I was doing that now, with?—
“Hi. Is this seat taken?”
I was shaken from my thoughts of Vera by an unfamiliar voice. I looked up to see a woman smiling at me. She had auburn hair and hazel eyes and looked to be a few inches shorter than me.
I smiled back at her. “Uh, yes it is. I’m waiting for someone, I’m afraid. She should be here any minute.”
She nodded. “Well, I’m not surprised. A beautiful woman like you wouldn’t be all alone. I’d be more than happy to keep you company until she gets here.”
She took the seat across from me and didn’t take her eyes off me. She was being polite but there was just something about her. It was obvious she was flirting with me, but it seemed like she was proficient in that department. Like this wasn’t her first time.
In another life, maybe it would’ve worked. She was more on the femme side and seemed to carry herself with confidence. I just wasn’t interested, and that took me by surprise. She was most definitely my type—my old type.
She wasn’t six feet. She didn’t have dark hair or strong arms. She didn’t give me butterflies whenever she looked at me. She didn’t have me questioning everything in my life. She wasn’t the one I wanted to go home with and never leave. She wasn’t Vera.
“That’s sweet, but?—”
“What’s sweet?”
I jumped when I heard a voice behind me.Thatvoice. She placed her hand on my shoulder and I froze. I’d know that touch anywhere. The way it sent heat coursing through my body and made me lose my breath. Vera.
