Page 112

She just wanted to blurt it all out. Not only that she was in love with Amy but that, no, it does not “weird her out” that they were about to look at engagement rings just for fun. In fact, Sally wanted to tell her, they might as well try on rings because…

“I have coffee and Champagne?”

This came from another woman with exotic features—Sally guessed eastern European, maybe; a former Soviet bloc country, perhaps—who emerged from a back room carrying a silver tray bearing a mug of coffee and a flute of Champagne.

“Hi, I’m Ekat

erina. I don’t know how you take your coffee,” she said in accented English, “but we do have cream and sugar I can bring out as well.”

“Black is fine,” Amy insisted.

“Cream and sugar impede the delivery of caffeine to her veins,” Sally quipped.

“Ignore her,” Amy said.

Ekaterina laughed.

“My wife told me that you were being teased about being a coffee addict and so I brought you these as well” she said, tapping a small packet on the tray. “From my own stash.”

“Oh my god, Amy!” Sally said, eyeing the packet and laughing. “Those are perfect!”

Even Amy had to laugh.

It was a small packet of dark-chocolate-covered coffee beans. Amy thanked Ekaterina, picked up the candy and stuck her tongue out at Sally.

“Just for being a smart-ass, I’m not sharing these with you,” she said, tearing open the small plastic bag and popping a bean into her mouth.

“You look very familiar,” Ekaterina said, after eyeing Sally for a few moments. “Have you been in here before?”

“This is Jillian Ashley, top lesbian author,” Amy hurriedly supplied and then gave Sally a snarky look. “Perhaps you’ve seen her interview on a podcast some caffeine-addicted woman did.”

Sally couldn’t help but laugh at Amy’s particular form of revenge. However, she also resolved that tonight, in bed, she was going to tease Amy to within an inch of her life before letting her come.

Ekaterina’s eyes bulged.

“Oh my god, you’re right!” she exclaimed. “I love your books!” She then turned to Amy. “And you’re the one who interviewed her! I love your show!”

Adilah returned then.

“Honey,” Ekaterina said, turning to her, “this is that writer I’m always reading, Jillian Ashley!”

“My real name is Sally, though,” Sally added.

Adilah smiled.

“Well!” she began. “I don’t read as much as my wife but let me thank you nonetheless. Whenever Ekaterina reads one of your books…let’s just say I end up getting entertained as well.”

All four women laughed. A few moments later, Adilah arranged a collection of engagement rings on a small table, along with a handful of bracelets which both Sally and Amy also wanted to see.

Again, going for nonchalance, Sally picked up a bracelet and tried it on, turning her wrist this way and that in order to make the piece of jewelry catch the light from various angles, but her eyes kept wandering to the array of engagement rings Adilah had brought out. In addition to the handful from the window display, there were several others Adilah had produced from one of the glass display cases in the store.

She felt Amy slip her arm around her waist and snuggle up next to her.

“So, which one do you think I would like?” Amy asked.

“Hmm?”

“The rings,” Amy said. “Which one?”