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Vanessa kissed the top of Megan’s head.

“And that sounds amazing,” she said. “In an hour or so. Just give me that much time and I’ll be right as rain.”

Vanessa pulled away from the hug just enough to look at Megan’s face. She could tell that Megan still wanted to convince her to let her stay but that she was also ready to concede.

It was time to seal the deal.

“The best part is,” Vanessa began, “that I’m off tomorrow. We have all day here at the house together.”

Megan beamed at being reminded of this point. In fact, it seemed to energize her. She gave Vanessa a quick peck on the lips.

“Okay, take a shower and relax,” she said, heading to the bedroom door. “I’ll be downstairs with the others. Just come down whenever.” And with that, she left the room.

Vanessa let out a sigh.

Whew!

***

Twenty minutes later, Vanessa finally turned off the shower, her skin still

tingling from how hot the water had been. She had purposely made the water that hot because only then did it feel like she was truly cleansing herself of what a shitty day she had had.

She stood there in the stall for a few minutes, leaning against one of the walls, her eyes closed, letting water drip off her while she took long deep breaths. Not for the first time since starting her own business, she considered taking up yoga. The breathing exercises and focus on centering oneself would come in handy on days like this. For the time being, though, this superhot shower and the long deep breaths was helping her feel normal again.

Once she had dried herself and put on her robe, she padded into the bedroom and stopped.

On the bed was a serving tray and on the tray was a single glass of white wine. Megan must have brought it while Vanessa was in the shower.

So considerate!

Taking a sip of wine, Vanessa decided to put off getting dressed for now. Instead, she crossed the room and stepped out onto the balcony with her wine glass, taking a seat in one of the Adirondack chairs and propping her feet up on the small round table in front of it. The balcony was around the corner of the house from the deck and Vanessa could hear her friends talking and laughing, though she couldn’t make out any of what they were saying. She could also hear some music playing; Alyson Stoner, she guessed.

Drinking her wine, Vanessa once more ruminated on the day at La Vida Mocha. Now that she was at the beach house, showered and clean she found she could be a little more philosophical about things.

What it boiled down to was that days like today are the price of owning a service industry business, Vanessa considered. Whether one sells coffee, books, toys or iPhones, anytime you deal with the public, you’re going to have days when it seems the assholes rule the world. But Vanessa deemed herself lucky in that so far, since opening La Vida Mocha’s doors back in January, she’d only had three, maybe four days like today, thank goodness. And despite how crappy today was, the day’s receipts were amazing. The shop had made a lot of money; enough to make Vanessa optimistic again that things would be alright.

Her phone chirped. A text from William.

You’re spending the weekend at a beach house and I wasn’t invited????

How did you find out?

Duh! I’m friends with Chloë on Facebook! She’s been posting pictures! Address please!

Sorry, no boys allowed. We are planning the lesbian takeover of the world and can’t have men ruining it.

You suck! Is Lover Girl with you?

Of course! In fact, she owes me a foot rub.

After typing that, Vanessa realized she wanted that foot rub now. Actually, she just wanted to feel Megan touching her.

Is foot rub lesbian slang for sick and perverted lesbian acts involving tongues and 12 inch dildos?

Vanessa laughed.

No. Foot rub means foot rub. Back rub means sick and perverted lesbian acts involving tongues and dildos.