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“I love you,” Carmen said while covering Lola’s hands with hers and squeezing. While gazing straight into her. Without a single breath of hesitation. “And I’ve been waiting to tell you I love you,” she confessed, “but I think you already knew.”
Carmen kissed her like an act of complete surrender, and Lola kissed her back like a promise. An unbreakable vow.
“You’re it for me, Lola,” Carmen whispered against her lips. “However we got here... it was the right place to land.”
Lola slid her arm down Carmen’s body and kissed her again. “Is that what you’re going to tell our pack of rescue dogs?” She climbed over Carmen, straddling her lap. “That we confessed our love in the backseat of your car?”
Eyes gleaming with mischief, Carmen smirked. “It is the first place we kissed,” she said, warm hands slipping under Lola’s shirt. “And the first place we had sex. Seems kind of fitting, doesn’t it? Poetic.”
Lola held Carmen’s face. “Extremely romantic. I definitely don’t feel like an extra in aGreaseremake.”
“You’re not an extra in anybody’s movie,” Carmen said with unexpected conviction. “You’re the fucking star.”
Kissing Carmen like this, Lola was lighter than she’d ever been. No more armor. No more hiding. Carmen had excavated something soft from her core, something she hadn’t known existed. With Carmen, she was safe — soft belly exposed, heart unlocked, eyes unguarded. Joy swelled in Lola’s chest, threatening to burst through her ribcage and float away. She was drunk on happiness.
Carmen knew her. All of her. The messed up bits and shattered pieces. Carmen had sifted through the rubble and found something worth saving at her core. Something worth loving. Their souls had grafted together through force and fire. Lola was altered. Transformed into someone new.
“I love you,” Lola repeated, the tiniest fear flickering to life. Worry that she’d ever have to stop saying it.
“I love you,” Carmen whispered before laying across the backseat and pulling Lola on top of her. “I love you,” she moaned when she tangled her fingers in Lola’s hair. “I love you,” she sighed against her lips before capturing Lola in a devastating kiss.
EPILOGUE
Three YearsLater
After a six-hour flight,Lola was ready to get off the plane. She spun the simple engagement ring on her finger, a new soothing ritual. She should have landed in Miami first thing that morning. Should have had plenty of time to meet Carmen for the final walk-through for their new home and change for Bamford’s stupid holiday party.
Instead, a late December storm in the mid-west somehow wreaked complete havoc on the entire country and she’d have to go straight from the airport to the party. What snow in Michigan had anything to do with her flight from LA to Miami, Lola still didn’t understand.
There had been no way to avoid going to LA. After years of pre-production hell, Kiki’s queer dating show was ready to launch. It was set to premier during the black hole week between Christmas and New Year’s and expected to be a huge hit for millions of bingers stuck visiting their families.
Lola had flown out to LA for the final promotional push. Between late night talk shows, radio hits, and a Times Square billboard reveal, it had been a nonstop week. But Kiki took it all in stride, ever the consummate pro and making Lola incessantly proud. With that work done, she was desperate to get home already.
Taking deep breaths, she focused on the facts. The plane had started its descent. She’d be touching down at MIA in half an hour. She was almost where she wanted to be.
Lola smiled. She’d missed the walk-through, but everything had gone well, she reminded herself. Sliding open her phone, she watched the video Carmen sent.
The video opened on a sprawling property, endless green fields and lush trees stretching as far as the eye could see. In the distance sat a charming farmhouse, white paint peeling and a weather damaged wrap-around porch that spoke of simpler times.
The camera zoomed in on the house as Carmen’s voice described the cosmetic fixes needed — a new coat of paint, hurricane impact windows to replace the inadequately thin panes, hardwood floors inside that needed to be repaired and refinished. But the bones were strong, and the character shined through.
Next, the video followed Carmen as she jumped into a golf cart to cross vast acres of open land surrounded by fruit trees that desperately needed trimming. Lola pressed her earbud closer, eager to hear Carmen’s melodic voice explaining plans for dog runs, a cat sanctuary, and a barn for farm animals in need.
She replayed the video, listening to that part again and again. Lola could practically see it coming to life in her mind’s eye. Imagined all the good they would do. All the love they’d finally get to pour into the rescue they’d been planning for years.
Lola put the phone down and started twirling her ring again. They’d decided that they wouldn’t get married until they could do it there. They were each other’s sanctuary. It was only right that they swore their vows at the one they’d built from the ground up.
Countering her impatience with the good news, Lola reminded herself that they had the rest of their lives together. That the house had passed inspection despite its rough exterior, and they’d close on it tomorrow morning.
They’d both negotiated to work from home two days a week to cut down on the grueling commute from far-flung Homestead to downtown. And they’d hire help as soon as they opened the rescue doors.
Carmen’s mother had convinced them not to sell Carmen’s house immediately. It took a bit for Lola to realize that Ana wasn’t doubting their dream. She was being pragmatic. Making sure they had a plan to fall back on. Looking out for them. Both of them.
Ana had turned out to be the guiding force Lola hadn’t found in Natalia and that was entirely absent from her own mother, who had chosen to turn down Lola’s offers of family therapy because Lola refused to sort out her mortgage troubles.
It had been a hard day accepting that her own mother’s love would never come for free. That it would never come at all. But Ana had been there. As fierce as Carmen and always willing to listen to her. Carmen lamented that her mother wasn’t warm and fuzzy, but Lola didn’t need that. She appreciated the realness that could never be faked.
Luggage in hand, Lola stepped out into the warm Miami night and waited for Carmen to pick her up. She didn’t have to wait long.
