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“Yeah,” Krissy replied. “But she still hasn’t introduced us to her!”

“Well, isn’t Vanessa also friends with Jillian Ashley?” she asked.

Krissy’s eyes went super wide.

“Oh my god, I forgot all about that!” she whispered, excitedly.

“What’s the name of that stupid game about connections?” Becca asked, and then bit her bottom lip trying to remember. “Oh yeah…six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. Between Ainsley and Vanessa, we’re only two degrees of separation away from Jillian Ashley.”

Krissy’s eyes went even wider, which Becca didn’t think was possible.

“Even better…” she began. “Kevin Bacon stars in the Netflix series about Jillian’s books! That means…Let’s see…Us to Vanessa—”

“Or Ainsley,” Becca pointed out.

Krissy rolled her eyes.

“Who never introduced us to Jillian!” she snapped. “So…Us to Vanessa; Vanessa to Jillian; Jillian to Kevin Bacon. We’re only three degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon!”

“Damn,” Becca muttered. “Why couldn’t Kristen Stewart star in that series?”

“Oh my god, can you imagine??

?? Krissy said.

“I would totally throuple with you and Kristen Stewart,” Becca said.

“Without a doubt,” Krissy concurred.

“Maybe Kevin Bacon knows her.”

“We’ll ask him when we meet him,” Krissy said. She then downed the rest of her latte.

“We have to go shopping,” she said.

“For what?” Becca asked.

Krissy shrugged.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But being admitted to the Carlsbad Royal Lesbian Court deserves some kind of reward. A new handbag, new shoes…something.”

Becca had to admit: her girlfriend was not only stunning, but smart.

***

That evening, Becca and Krissy were on Krissy’s sofa and Becca was giving Krissy a foot rub while they watched Underwater, having gotten the urge to see Kristen Stewart after mentioning her earlier at La Vida Mocha.

Becca was feeling unbelievably content. Today had been a spectacular day of just chilling in town with Krissy, and even though that was something they had done countless times, the experience had been made brand-new by the change in their status. Even going to Hello Betty in Oceanside for lunch had felt different, the same way going to Roosevelt Pizza the other day had felt different.

It was exciting, Becca considered now as her fingers worked between Krissy’s toes, how going forward, even the countless simple and most mundane things which fill an average day would feel new and fresh because she had this special woman in her life—no longer as just a friend, but as her girlfriend.

“By the way,” Krissy said, “did you ever talk to the chief or whatever about the promotion?”

Becca nodded.

The night of the awards ceremony, after she had been given her gleaming Medal of Valor, Chief Comstock pulled her aside and asked her if she had given any more thought to becoming his deputy once O’Reilly resigned. Becca had told him that she would indeed accept the promotion but that she also wanted to discuss the nature of the deputy chief’s role with him. Krissy’s ideas about how she could transform that position from being strictly an administrative job into something that would still keep her fighting fires were really good, but Becca first needed to run them by Chief Comstock.

She explained all this now to Krissy and then finished with, “I’m meeting with the chief tomorrow at his office to talk it all over.”