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“They’re going to put together a union. You should realize that.”

He laughed. “It will never happen. There’s too much red tape to get through to unionize. They can try what they want, but I’m telling you that they will need a lot of backing, and I just don’t see it happening.”

Was he always this ruthless? Stassi wanted to believe that the business world had just found a way to corrupt him. But she would have to fight if her father wasn’t there to help her out. It wouldn’t be easy, but they would make the difference that they all longed for.

Sage

Sage yawned as she turned into her building's parking lot. She leaned back in her seat and stared ahead. She could actually stay there and sleep a few hours, but then she was liable to wake up and forget why she was there. She had spent the previous few hours working with Lena on the Union paperwork, and now all she wanted to do was crash. It’d been a long day.

She walked up the stairs to her apartment and spotted Stassi. She was pacing in front of her apartment door and stopped just as Sage reached the top of the stairs.

“Stassi?”

“I know it’s late,” Stassi began. “I’ve been out here for a couple of hours now. I considered leaving. In fact, I would have in about ten minutes if you hadn’t showed up. I know it’s late.”

Sage glanced at her watch. “It’s after midnight, but…”

“If you want me to go, I will,” Stassi stepped in, closing the gap. “I just really need to talk to you. Things have been so tense between us. I can’t even tell you the last time we slept with each other.

“Eight days,” Sage commented.

Stassi nodded. “Seemed longer.”

Sage agreed with that statement. “Do you want to come in?” Sage asked. “Or, we could take a walk. Whatever you want.”

“A moonlight stroll would be nice,” Stassi softly replied. Sage unlocked her door and tossed her purse inside, then closed it and reached for Stassi’s hand. It was true, and it’d been too long since they had slept with one another.

“I know this path,” Sage replied as they turned the corner and the clutter of buildings faded away. “So, you were pacing outside my door for a couple of hours?” Sage asked, intrigued. “Must be something pretty important you want to discuss.”

“I guess it’s a culmination of things,” Stassi admitted. “I’ve been thinking a lot, and what we have could be so special.”

“Could be?” Sage asked.

Stassi laughed, softly. “Well, it is special, but you and I have different stories that led us to this point. There’s a lot that divides us. Our age is only one of those things.”

“Age is merely a number,” Sage added.

“Which is true. But when you take those things into consideration, you could always say, this,” she gestured between them, “isn’t that big of a deal. Or isn’t that much of a problem. Everything I come back to is something trivial, you know?”

“I think I understand. It’s whether we want to make it a big deal. So maybe we should discuss everything that could divide us and give it a scale. Then decide if it’s something major or something minor?” Sage paused and looked up at the moon. Stassi nodded. “I’ll start. On a scale of one to ten, where would you put our age.”

“Three?”

Sage laughed. “I was going with a one, but okay, a three I can work with. You go.”

“On a scale of one to ten, where would you put my modeling career?” Stassi arched an eyebrow. Under the moonlight, she looked so beautiful. Sage had nearly forgotten how beautiful she was. Her hair glistened in the moonlight. Her eyes sparkled in the dark.

“I appreciate that you’re beautiful enough to be a model. What’s even better, I can see that you have a great heart. You’re not the selfish and conceited person that I originally assumed models were.”

“That’s promising.” When Stassi smiled, her eyes got brighter.

“I’d give it a two. I can work with it.” Sage reached up and brushed a strand of hair away from Stassi’s eyes. “You’re beautiful. You should be a model.” She moved in and kissed her softly, as the moment called for it. When she parted, she tilted her head. “On a scale of one to ten, how much do you think our friend circles should affect our relationship.”

“One.” There wasn’t any hesitation, and Sage nodded, glad to hear that they both agreed on that. “I believe that Ariel and Lena both just have our best interests in their mind and don’t mean any ill-will towards either of us.”

“I agree.” Sage grinned. The talk was going better than she could have asked for. “On a scale of one to ten, how much heat do you think we have together?”

“Fifteen, at least,” Stassi smirked.