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Somewhere, her agent was quite happy with Rhea for her initiative. It had taken most of the pandemic for the professional writer to get back to writing on the fly. Now here she was, waiting for her wife of fourteen years to show up to their anniversary dinner.
It was their wedding anniversary, right? Or was it the anniversary of their first date on the Santa Monica Pier?Christ, I can’t remember.The dates were about one week apart, and one happened only about a year before the other. It all blurred together.
Then again, it felt like only yesterday.
When she finally got a text from Paige that she was off the freeway, Rhea flagged down the waiter and requested a pina colada for Paige, as well as a Diet Coke. “A refill of my drink too, please.” She handed him her empty soda glass. “Thanks.”
He was already around the corner when she realized she forgot to tell him that she had a Coke Zero,nota Diet Coke. Oh, well.
When Paige finally arrived, it was perfectly timed with the cocktail set before her seat.
“Wow.” Rhea kept what prompted that to herself.That bod. Hot damn.Paige wasregalin her skintight dusty rose leggings and the white sports bra that both suppressed her breastsandhinted at her generous cleavage. Yet it was the black overshirt, probably pulled out of her trunk, that tied it all together. Paige pulled a handkerchief out of her crossbody bag and dabbed at her forehead. Lifting her arm like that, Rhea noticed a glob of deodorant that had probably been hastily smeared on the moment Paige hurled herself from the restaurant valet, like an action star ejecting herself from a helicopter about to explode. “You made it.”
Paige fussed with her high ponytail before picking up the one-page menu that featured that night’s specials. The waiter placed a Diet Coke before her. Paige did not thank him. “Barely,” she instead grumbled. “Ugh. I’m sorry.”
“Like I said, no worries.” Rhea almost said that again in Spanish, but the very Hispanic waiter was nearby, and she didn’t want her accent to embarrass them all.Your Mexican mom dies when you’re thirteen, and you forget how to roll your Rs within a year.At least Paige didn’t make fun of her wife’s complete failures at Spanish.
She sipped her refilled drink. It was Diet Coke. Rhea didn’t have it in her to get it fixed, even though she liked Diet Coke about as much as she liked plain water.At least one is free.
Paige inhaled half of her soda before moving on to her pina colada. It was quite the sight, wasn’t it? The Instagram-ready gym trainer going to town on a pina colada, ofallthings, was exactly what Rhea loved about her wife. This was, after all, the woman who could do her hair and makeup just right to look like Ariana Grande.Meanwhile, I look like Selena Gomez on the best day of my life.That happened exactly once, and it was a “celebrity couples” Halloween party where Rhea and Paige lived in an alternate universe where the two former Disney stars had gone down a very different path. Rhea believed that the wig did most of the work for her… and shaving her facial hair that showed up with increasing vigor as she paraded through her thirties.
“At least you made it.” Rhea slid her hand across the table. Paige only noticed it after she glanced away from the menu. “The drive here from home wasn’t too bad for me.”
“Didn’t you take an Uber?”
“Yeah, why?”
Paige shrugged. “They know all the tricks for weaving through traffic. Saw more than one cutting me off on The 10.”
Rhea lifted her wife’s hand and gently kissed her knuckles. It did not have its intended effect on the woman attempting to relax.
They ordered their crunchy seafood flautas and arroz con pollo with American honey mustard garnish. Rhea asked for extra cilantro while her wife made a disgusted face. It tasted like soap to her, which was why Rhea went for it when eating out. At home, she had to carefully keep the cilantro away from the kitchen counters.
“Do you at least get to relax this weekend?” Rhea already knew the answer.
“Ha! No. I’m booked through Tuesday. That’s my first day off for the past eight days.”
“Your poor YouTube channel.”
“Please. Like I was getting more views after everyone decided to become a gym influencer during the pandemic.”
“It got you through the tough parts, that’s for sure.”
“Yeah, well, the PPP loan carried the rest of the burden.”
Rheareallywanted to make a joke about Paige being the only business owner in all of Los Angeles County to use the government loan for its intended purpose but didn’t. “We all move forward now that we’re traveling and making out in public again.”
“Who’s making out in public?”
“Not us…”
Paige immediately disregarded that. “You’re working this weekend too, right?”
“Oh, yeah. My deadline is Monday. I’ve got to push through the last three chapters. I figure if I do one a day, I’ll make it.”
Paige shook her head. “I don’t know how you can approach writing a novel like that. Simply sit down and ‘pound it out’ like it’s homework. I could never.”
“To be fair, hon, I could never bench press double my body weight.”
