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They then decided it was time for sleep. Becca, for one, was grateful. It had been a long day. What’s more, the past couple of hours for her had been delicious torture. Sitting in bed with Krissy while her friend was wearing that sleepshirt, smelling Krissy’s cherry blossom body lotion mixed with the fragrance of her shampoo, had kept Becca hyper-aware of every little movement Krissy made. And every time Becca had turned to say something to Krissy, she couldn’t keep her eyes from stealing glances downward at how her friend’s nipples were poking against the fabric of the sleepshirt.

They brushed their teeth, took turns peeing and were back in bed shortly. Becca instructed Alexa to turn off the bedroom lights and then she and Krissy snuggled under the blankets. As usual, they did so with a platonic gap between them, although Becca knew that that would be erased at some point during the night.

In the darkness of the room, Krissy spoke.

“I had a great time with you today, Becs.”

Becca, lying on her side, her back to Krissy, smiled.

“I’m glad,” she replied. “Thank you for sharing it with me.”

“Anytime.”

They fell silent again and several minutes passed. Finally, however, Becca needed to say something.

“Krissy?” she whispered, wondering if her companion had already fallen asleep.

“Mm?”

Becca swallowed.

“I’m glad I’m going to be stuck with you in our next lives,” she said.

For a moment, there was no reply from Krissy. But then…

Becca felt the mattress shift and suddenly Krissy was pressed against Becca’s back, her arm curling around Becca’s waist. Becca closed her eyes, a strange sense of relief washing over her. It was the same feeling she always got when she found something important she had misplaced.

Krissy, her breath warm against the back of Becca’s neck, said, “The next life and the one after that, Becs.”

“Good.” Becca took hold of Krissy’s hand.

“Just remember,” Krissy added, “I’m the tall one next time.”

Chapter 12

Can’t tonight. I have plans with an old friend I haven’t seen in a while.

Krissy read the text again, biting her bottom lip.

It was Wednesday afternoon and Krissy was between meetings in her home office. She had just sent a text to Becca asking if Becca would like to go out to dinner this evening and then maybe have ice cream while strolling along the seawall. But, again, Becca was unavailable, even though it was her day off.

Krissy had sent a similar text yesterday—also Becca’s day off—suggesting they order in and start the new season of Grace and Frankie here at her house. But Becca had blown her off then as well, saying she was finally going to take some time for herself after all the silliness of her newfound fame following the office tower fire.

Krissy knew none of this was odd. Considering all of the craziness with all of this Lesbian Wonder Woman stuff, it didn’t surprise her that her best friend would need some down time. What’s more, Becca did have other friends outside of their volleyball crew. Krissy had even met some of them. So, today, the fact that Becca was going out with one of those friends wasn’t particularly unusual. After all, Krissy was sure many of those friends had gotten in touch with Becca recently because of all of the attention Becca had been getting, wanting to meet up with her and talk about that fire.

Nonetheless, Krissy still couldn’t help this feeling of paranoia which was making her spine shiver. Quite frankly, she was upset with herself for it. Had her crush on Becca gotten so bad that now her mind instantly went to where it was now? Namely, that Becca was not being completely honest with her?

This is getting ridiculous, Krissy!

Yet, mentally scolding herself was doing no good. She recognized that she was firmly lost in the abyss of paranoia and jealousy. Something was telling her that this “old friend” Becca was seeing tonight was either made up and was instead a “new friend”, namely that Redheaded Vanessa they had met on the beach the other day. Or, the “old friend” was in fact an old friend with whom Becca might be interested in forming a romance with.

Unfortunately, she had no way of finding out which scenario was true—or if she was just being silly.

In the meantime, she was faced with an entire night tonight of sitting at home, wondering if Becca was out on a date. No amount of Grace and Frankie episodes would distract her from that thought, either.

Well, I have “old friends” too.

Krissy nodded at this thought.