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Rhea still wasn’t used to how bluntly the therapist spoke, but Paige was unfazed. “Yes.”
A sudden emergency call took Dr. Seville away from the session for a minute. As soon as she stepped out of the room, phone to her head, Rhea leaned in toward Paige and said, “Do we have to tell her all the details? We barely know her.”
“We’re paying good money to help her address what’s on our minds, right? She has to know what’s going on.”
“Okay, but like, you didn’t have to detail that we watched that show first.”
“Why not?”
Rhea was so caught off guard that she shrugged in indifference.
“Are you embarrassed by it?”
“By what?”
“The very kinky show we watched and got turned on by.”
It was mostly you who got turned on by it…The only saving grace was that their friends had no idea what had happened in the back rooms. Well, maybe they knew since Jocie wasperceptive,but they never said a thing on the way home.I love my wife, but hot damn.The more Rhea thought about it, the more she wondered if she could hit up the club even once a month to get some with her wife. It sounded exhausting.
When Dr. Seville returned, she was keen on talking about Tier One of her chart. The rest of the session was spent talking about what was most feasible for the busy couple attempting to seduce one another all over again.
Paige’s nose was buried in Dr. Seville’s literature on the ride home. Rhea simply stared ahead at the road, hoping a clear mind would later open it to new possibilities.
Shehoped.
Part 2
Rekindling the Flame
Chapter 11
Paigewasn’tusedtomaking it all the way out to Hollywood. When a woman worked in WeHo, she didn’tneedto go to Hollywood.
Unless it was for Pride. Something she still associated withWestHollywood – but if there was one thing she was used to now with her age, it was that things changed. Constantly.
Hilariously enough, Rhea complained about it more than anyone else.
“This crowd is unmanageable.” They stood near the entrance of the festival, Rhea’s hand clasped on Paige’s as they faced down the rainbow-clad surge of people making their way into the festival. “Your phone is charged, right?”
Paige sighed. “Yes.”
“Good. Because I might die in here, and I need you to know that if I don’t respond to your text, it’s because I’m dead.”
“Good Lord. Since when are you a baby about crowds?”
“Baby?” A large man in bondagewear bumped into Rhea, but she was so transfixed on Paige that she said nothing about it. “More like I already feel my soul sucked out of my body because…” She did a double take on the pair of women coming up to them. “Oh, hey guys.”
Paige had never been so happy to see Roxy and Jeanette, the friends they had agreed to tackle Pride together with. After everyone made the expected comments about the weather and the crowd, they proceeded to the entrance, where Paige was grateful to have procured tickets in advance. Because the people continued to push against them until they were well into the festival grounds, surrounded by entertainment, food, and vendors who hocked their wares until their throats were sore.
We weren’t even going to come this year.They hadn’t been to any kind of Pride festival since 2017. Even if the pandemic hadn’t happened, they would still have skipped those years out of… what was it? Could Paige even say?Disenchantment. Isn’t that what it is?Between the corporatization of something that had once been dear to Paige and simply feeling too old for what she often saw, Pride had lost all appeal.
But Rhea and Paige had agreed – along with their therapist – to get out as a couple more. That included events that celebrated their shared sexuality. With Pride right around the corner from that decision, the rest was obvious.
I guess it’s not so bad.Paige would have rather done something else, but nothing on her list of short-term ideas had anything to do with her specificsexuality.Oh, WeHo and the surrounding area was a haven for “they gays,” but Pride was a different beast. It wasn’t simply being around people like her. It was shoving it in other people’s faces.
That appealed to her right now. Maybe not so much for Rhea, who kept close to Roxy when Paige inevitably pulled away to investigate the marketing materials of a “queer-owned gym” in West Hollywood.I’ve gotta know if they’re competition, okay?Luckily for Paige, the gym was for locals more than “Hollywood.” Her clientele was secured… for now.
She wasn’t surprised when she lost the others. With her phone fully charged, Paige wasn’t worried about being left behind. Besides, it washercar in the parking garage. Rhea didn’t have a key, so she wasn’t going anywhere without Paige.Oh, who am I kidding? I’ll have to huntherdown later.When Rhea got like this, she was liable to hunker down somewhere and wait for the tide to turn. She wasn’t necessarily afraid of large crowds, but she could get overwhelmed when a hundred people seemingly spoke to her at once. This was a woman who told her literary agent,“I’ll do the signing, but I want an orderly line of people. Not some big group coming at me like a horde of famished zombies.”
