Page 85

Once Mira took off her blouse, she unzipped her skirt and let it fall to the floor, revealing her practical black underwear. She wasn’t trying to be sexy about undressing, and the everyday-ness was the best thing about it. Isabel had seen Mira do this dozens of times, and it never got old. She would gladly watch Mira do it every day for the rest of their lives.

Down to her bra and panties, Mira climbed on top of Isabel and straddled her hips. Isabel stroked Mira’s inner thighs, reveling in their silky softness. “You have no idea how frustrating it’s been to only touch you with one hand,” she said. “I can’t wait to get both my hands on you.”

Mira laughed. “Who says you get to?” She gently pinned Isabel’s hands at her sides. Isabel let out a noise of frustration. “You will,” Mira said. “Just relax. Lie back and let me take care of you.”

Afterward,teeth brushed, back under the covers, Isabel let Mira roll her onto her side. Mira spooned her, her smaller body soft and radiating heat against Isabel’s back. “You’ve been taking advantage of my broken wrist to make me the little spoon,” Isabel said.

“First of all, you’re hardly little.” Mira squeezed a handful of Isabel’s thigh. “Second of all, it was your fault. Third of all, you wouldn’t keep letting me do it if you didn’t like it.”

“I can see why they put you on the bargaining committee.” Thank god they could joke about it now. It hadn’t been easy relying on Mira for her most basic needs—getting dressed, showering, having her hair braided. At times, it had triggered her worst fears: that she wouldn’t be able to take care of Mira or her parents or Grace anymore, that she was broken. But Mira had listened, and she’d stuck around.

Throughout these months, as the winter thawed to spring, she’d made herself chrysanthemum tea from the dried buds Mira had brought home. As she’d watched the petals unfold, she’d thought of her po po and her mom and her sisters—all the women in her family who’d cared for her, and now Mira among them, too.

“I wanted to ask you something,” Isabel said. “Do you want to move in with me? I mean, to this room. I know you’ve been sleeping in your room because you didn’t want to disturb me. But you can have more space for your things, and we could turn your room into an office. I’ll renovate it however you want.”

“You’re very sweet, but no,” Mira answered immediately. She kissed Isabel on the shoulder. “I like sleeping in my own bed and not getting woken up at five by your alarm. And I like having my own space. You know I love sleeping in your bed and waking up next to you, but I don’t want to do it every night.” Mira nipped gently at her shoulder. “And I want it to be a special treat when you fuck me in your bed.”

Isabel shivered. She wiggled out from Mira’s grasp and lay on her back. Mira got on top of her again, entwining their limbs together like an octopus. “Okay,” Isabel said. She kissed Mira on the top of her head and inhaled the familiar coconut fragrance, and the warm, unmatched scent of her skin. The scent of home. “We can stay roommates.”

“This is what you do with your roommates?”

“If they’re as beautiful and brilliant and sexy as you are, then, yeah, I might.”

“Oh, stop,” Mira said, grinning. She rolled over and turned the light off. “Still working overtime. Take a break. You’ve already seduced me.” A lazy kiss, with the promise of so many more ahead of them. “You know I’m already yours,” Mira said, pressing their foreheads together. Isabel waited for the rest. “And you’re already mine.”

They’d fall asleep and wake up together. They’d keep waking up with each other, whether in the same bed or apart. They’d keep doing their life’s work and coming home to each other, day after day, year after year. And all Isabel had to do was allow herself to be loved—the hardest and easiest thing in the world.

She relaxed against Mira’s warmth, closed her eyes, and let herself rest.