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“I would marry your mother just for the sake of becoming your stepfather and then having the power to ground you whenever I wanted.”

“Oh my god, shut up!” Sally retorted, laughing. “Anyway, have you gotten more requests for interviews?”

“Are you kidding?” Max asked, getting up to make Amy another one of those amazing white cocktails. Amy snuggled back against Sally on the sofa while she waited. “The floodgates have opened, my dear!” From behind his bar, while he concocted Amy’s drink, he explained that thanks to Sally being on Lesbeing—the Podcast, every lesbian with a webcam and just a handful of Twitter followers had been emailing “Jillian,” asking for the privilege of her presence on their podcasts, panel discussions, you name it.

“You, young lady,” he said to Sally, reapproaching with Amy’s drink, Amy eagerly reaching out for it and taking it from him, “are in high demand. Well, I’m in high demand but your face and that wonderfully awkward-somewhat-geeky manner you have is also in high demand.”

Still snuggled against her, Amy giggled after taking a long sip from her drink.

“Awkward-somewhat-geeky!” she exclaimed with another giggle. “That’s totally you!”

Sally was certain Amy was getting drunk. Over Amy’s

head, she mouthed No more drinks for her! to Max. He acknowledged with a bemused expression and a slight nod.

“Anyway,” Max went on, taking his seat in his Saarinen-designed easy chair that Sally knew he was so fond of, crossing one leg over the other, “I’ll be sure to turn them all down when I get around to it.”

“Wait! No!” This came from Amy, who sat up now. “You can’t.”

Max cocked an eyebrow.

“And why not?

Sally was wondering the same thing, surprised at Amy’s comment. Even though Amy had agreed to keep the truth about Jillian Ashley’s real identity under wraps, Sally figured that was as far as Amy was willing to go to perpetuate the deception.

Amy turned to face Sally.

“I’m not saying you have to keep this up forever and ever, but you do need to keep it up for a little while at least. It meant so much to a lot of women seeing you on my podcast—actually seeing you!”

Amy then turned back to Max.

“Max, I don’t think you fully understand what you’ve done.”

“Meaning?” he prodded.

“Meaning that for you, the Jillian Ashley books are simply a way to express your creativity and earn some money doing it. Which is fine. But do you ever spend any time online in lesfic chat groups on Facebook or on Goodreads?”

Max shrugged.

“Here and there,” he said. “Now and again.”

Suddenly, Sally knew where Amy was going with this because she spent time on lesfic chat groups on Facebook, Goodreads and other sites—a lot more than here and there or now and again. She thought back to that email message Amy had shown her earlier this morning.

She sat forward now, taking Amy’s hand, conveying to her that she was united with her on this.

“I don’t know how you did it,” Amy went on, “but you’ve created a series of lesfic books which have become super important to the community. I know because they’re super important to me! But forget about me. Since Tuesday, when we did the interview, I have been getting bombarded with messages from women who are so happy because they felt like they had finally gotten to meet Jillian! Like they had finally gotten to meet an old friend! You can’t just put Jillian back into hiding now!”

Max sighed.

“Look ladies,” he began, “it makes no difference to me, okay? But I suppose it’s up to her.” And he pointed at Sally.

Sally was now the center of attention in the room, with both Amy and Max looking at her. It made her natural shyness kick in and she suddenly felt like she did back in her schooldays whenever she had to stand in front of the class to deliver an oral book report.

“You’re so fucking cute when you blush,” Amy said, with her thousand-watt smile. A simple statement but it went a long towards helping Sally’s nerves dissipate.

“I already agreed I’d help you by pretending to be Jillian for a while,” she told Max. “Besides…since everybody in my life already thinks I’m her, it will be good practice.”

Chapter 21