Page 24 of The B Side

Darcy dragged a hand through her hair, baffled and concerned. So much so that she realized she’d started tugging her left sneaker onto her right foot. “I’ll be there soon. Leaving Blythe’s now.”

“What’s going on?” Blythe demanded as soon as she hung up, having followed her to the door.

Emerson was close on her heels, peering around Blythe to stare at her quizzically. “Are you going to the bowling alley?”

“If I’m putting the pieces together correctly… is Juliet at Stardust?” Blythe asked, incredulously.

“Yeah, I guess so. Unless Sandra is playing the world’s weirdest joke on me.”

But first and foremost, Sandra wouldn’t find that funny, and it really had been Juliet’s live voice in the background, once Darcy had taken a second to really focus.

“Can I borrow your keys?”

Darcy had no problem locating Juliet in the crowd. Mostly because she was at the center of it. She was no longer singing, but sitting at the bar.

Jimmy, a guy she’d known since kindergarten, locked eyes with her as she approached. He waved, shaking his head wildly, like he simply couldn’t believe what was happening. Darcy knew the feeling. “Darcy, you – Juliet is so – wow.”

“I know, Jimmy. Get out of my way,” she firmly ordered, reaching out and nudging at his elbow to direct him to take a step to the right.

He quickly held up his hands and stepped to the side.

It didn’t really help the legitimate swarm of people that were still in between her and Juliet, though.

Darcy lifted her index finger and thumb, pressed them against her lips, and let out an ear-splitting whistle that she’d used to cut through the chaos many times over the years. It worked like a charm every time, jarring everyone right down to the eardrum, causing a collective groan.

Satisfied by the way most of the people around her turned to look at the source of the whistle, she arched them all a look.

“If you don’t clear a path for me like I’m Moses and you’re the Red Sea in the next five seconds, I swear I am going to drag you back until you fall on your drunk asses, and you all know that I’m good for it.”

Thankfully, it worked. Good to know that she hadn’t lost her touch. Everyone parted, allowing her a path right down the center to Juliet.

She was so… incongruous. Dressed in the designer black dress she’d obviously worn to the charity lunch with Robbie earlier today, paired with her strappy heels and jewelry that was so expensive she could have bought the entire bowling alley twice over, it really was Juliet. Perched on the red vinyl stool, one leg crossed over the other.

As always, Juliet looked like a wet dream, so, yeah. She understood why everyone was gathered around her like she was a tiger at the zoo.

Even so, Darcy had plenty of glares to give out as she elbowed her way closer, until Juliet’s knees were pressed against her thighs, like Darcy could block her from the curious stares. She needed to give Juliet a once-over herself.

Sandra’s assessment that Juliet had “had a few drinks” was absolutely correct. Darcy could tell even before Juliet said anything to her, simply from the way her girlfriend smiled. Juliet’s tipsy/drunk smile was very open, especially more than it typically would be in public.

And, frankly, even though they’d been together for years now, Darcy had only seen Juliet have more than one or two drinks on rare occasions.

“Darcy! My love.”

Oh boy.

She heard some whistles come from behind them, and the tips of her ears burned in awareness, but she ignored it. She ignored everything except for Juliet. “What’s going on?”

“I decided to come here and hang out at my baby’s roots!” Juliet proclaimed.

“Ah… okay…” What? “How about you come and hang out with me?”

“Darcy.” Juliet reached up, bracing both of her hands on Darcy’s shoulders. Seemingly to keep herself level, she held Darcy’s stare. “I would love to go anywhere with you.”

There was something unreasonably cute about drunk Juliet, she decided, as she helped her slide off of the stool. She wrapped her arm around Juliet’s waist and realized – this was the first real public moment they’d shared together, other than their onstage coming out kiss.

This moment at Stardust, as the people Darcy had known for most of her life watched.

It made her feel a little emotional. More than she’d ever have expected. To be surrounded by these people she’d never told her whole truth to, but people she’d known forever. And they saw her. They were watching as her arm was around Juliet’s waist, holding her closely, comfortably. In a manner that she knew spoke volumes about how familiar they were with touching one another.