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“I’m engaging mentally by reading the books I’ve wanted to read since college,” Elena began. She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “We both know how I’m nurturing myself physically.”

Cat grinned. “You mean with walks by the lake or through nice neighborhoods?”

Elena threw her head back and laughed. “Oh my God! Yeah, that’s it.”

“What about emotionally? You’ve suffered a great loss, Elena. You can’t neglect grief.”

“I’m not. I have worked through the steps of grief and saw a professional for a time. It helped immensely.” Elena smiled at Cat. “I hope this doesn’t put any pressure on you, but emotionally I’m nurtured by our friendship. That also includes Cory and CeCe and the other people I’ve met at the shopping center.”

“And you have Nicolas,” Cat added.

“I do,” Elena said fondly.

“I’d say you’re figuring this out and doing your best.”

“Thank you.”

“Not to put any pressure on you,” Cat said with a lilt to her voice, “but you know our friendship is important to me. I closed myself off to most of my friends, but somehow you walked into my life and showed me I can trust myself again.”

“I’d say we’re both figuring it out, together.”

Cat nodded as thoughts swirled through her head. So much of what Elena said rang true in her life as well.

“I can see the wheels in your brain turning,” Elena said.

“I’m not chewing on my bottom lip.”

“No, it’s the faraway look in your eyes.”

“I was thinking about everything you said and what resonates is: don’t settle.”

“You shouldn’t either,” Elena said.

“I know. I agree. I hadn’t thought about it, but we shouldn’t settle for anything other than what nurtures us, to use your words,” Cat said.

“Here’s to not settling.” Elena held out her fist.

Cat made a fist and hit hers against Elena’s. “I think this takes us past the ‘easy to talk to because we don’t know each other as well’ theory,” Cat said, making air quotes.

“Perhaps we have wandered into the ‘you’re the only person I can talk about this with’ territory.”

Cat giggled. “Oh, yeah. There’s no one else I’d have these conversations with.”

“Not even your sisters?”

“Especially them!” Cat laughed.

“Perhaps we’ll talk about your orgasms next time,” Elena said.

Cat sat back and smiled as Elena’s words hung in the air of this very nice room with beautiful bookcases.

An hour later Cat was back home in her bed, propped up on pillows. She’d planned to read for a while, but if thoughts had been swirling around in her head while she sat in Elena’s sapphic study, they were now making her dizzy. Yes, the sapphic study—she giggled because that was the name Elena had come up with for her room with the beautiful bookcases.

Did Cat want to talk about the intimate parts of her sex life? She’d never done that. Did she want to tell Elena that she loved kissing? Or that simply holding hands was one of her favorite things? She wasn’t big on public displays of affection, but holding someone’s hand while walking along had always given her a thrill.

Cat knew she could trust Elena with these intimate details inside her heart, but she’d just gotten used to the idea of trusting someone again. Who was she kidding? She wouldn’t trust just anyone, not yet. It was only Elena.

The talk about vibrators suddenly thrust to the front of her mind. Elena was so honest and the delight on her face as she’d talked about her discoveries was adorable. She talked about her love for Dean, but she must have buried her desires along the way.