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“In, like, how long?”

“A little over three years,” Chloë said, remembering Morgan telling her that her birthday was in April. She also told Amy what she had related to Vanessa just a little while ago.

Amy’s eyes lit up.

“I bet she’s totally imagining the future,” she told Chloë, “and that day when she turns forty while you’ll still be…?”

“Technically, twenty-seven but then I’ll turn twenty-eight that May.

“Oh, I’m twenty-seven now! Anyway, if you think ahead now to that day, do you think you’ll be bothered by her turning forty?”

Chloë bit her lip while she considered, wanting to give the question its due.

No, why would any woman turning forty bother her?

“The number really doesn’t bother me,” Chloë answered. “Forty just means someone has been around a little longer than me, that’s all.”

“Oh my god,” Amy exclaimed, “you two should come on my podcast! I’ve been doing a series on lesfic tropes in the real world and an episode on a real-life age-gap romance would be perfect!”

“Dude, that would be so cool! I’ll ask my girlfr—the woman I’m seeing.” Chloë already guessed what Morgan’s answer would be; after all, Morgan didn’t even want to bother calling herself a lesbian or even bisexual despite the fact that she’s been having sex with a woman for an entire week as of tomorrow.

“Wait!” Amy said, fluttering her hands in front of her face in barely contained excitement. “Is she an ice queen too?”

Chloë had to laugh.

“Not even close,” she replied.

Amy’s face registered her disappointment.

“Damn, that would have killed two tropes with one stone.”

“But,” Chloë went on, “I am the first woman she ever dated.”

Amy’s fluttering hands were back and it looked to Chloë like she was having trouble breathing.

“Oh my god!” Amy squeaked. “Age-gap and older first time lesbian? Oh my god! Pleeeeease come on my show!”

Chloë was laughing.

“Like I said, I’ll ask her,” she promised.

“And if you do happen to come across any lesbian couples where one half is an ice queen, let me know.”

“Will do.”

“Ooh, and if there’s BDSM involved, even better!” Amy added.

Chapter 26

Thank God it’s Friday!

Morgan hated being so cliché in her thoughts but sometimes clichés were the only solution. She really was grateful to whatever deity or deities were responsible for controlling the passage of time because she so needed this weekend.

This week had been grueling professionally. Her new appointment as interim head of the Fine Literature department at Barrington Woods meant that in addition to her teaching duties, she had had to spend a lot of time with the outgoing head, Ethel Meskin, in a kind of transition-of-power routine each day, which always ended up seeming like a Saturday Night Live sketch. Somehow, despite the fact that Barrington Woods has been a strictly work-from-home operation for a year now, Morgan never knew if Ethel was going to get Zoom operating properly on her computer. And when she did, something would invariably go wrong: Ethel would tap a button and the video would cut out. Or Ethel would try to show Morgan a spreadsheet and end up showing her tax return. Or Ethel would suddenly go frozen and silent. The first couple of times that happened, Morgan honestly believed Ethel had died on camera, making Morgan panic and reach for her phone to dial 911. But then, just as suddenly, Ethel would snap back to life and resume what she was saying as if nothing had happened.

And speaking of clichés…Exactly how many cats did that old lady own, Morgan wondered? It was difficult to say because Morgan never saw the same cat make a cameo appearance on the Zoom calls twice.

The only good things about the past work week had been being able to see her parents for dinner last night and, of course, all the time she had spent with Chloë.