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DO NOT GET BANGS Larison sent when I asked her if I should make an appointment.

Deep down I knew she was right, but my skin was itchy for change.

I thought again about last night when I’d almost sort of flirted with the bartender. I really did need someone to help me figure out my new sapphic identity.

Reid wouldn’t have had any issues flirting with the bartender, I bet. She’d have all the right lines and the right looks and would know everything to say and do. I hadn’t seen her in action in many years, but even when she’d been younger, she’d had game. It was probably even better now.

What if…what if she shared her knowledge with me? Let me try things out with her? Kind of like dating practice. So I wouldn’t go out and fall on my face and make a total fool of myself. She’d already witnessed my most embarrassing moment. Anything else wouldn’t be as bad.

She didn’t even like me, so there was no chance of developing feelings.

There was nothing in it for her, though. Why on earth would she help me? She had no incentive, but it couldn’t hurt to ask, right? She might be my only shot to figure this out before I made a complete fool of myself.

Reid was off from the bar on Sundays, but I knew she slept late, so I waited until the afternoon to knock on her door. Since the cupcakes hadn’t worked out last time, this time I brought peaches from the farmers’ market. I couldn’t show up at her door with nothing. That would be rude.

Reid opened the door with slightly narrowed eyes and glanced down at the bowl of peaches I held out to her.

“No cupcakes?” she asked, raising one dark eyebrow. She didn’t look pissed, and she hadn’t shut the door in my face, so this was already going better than the last time I’d knocked on her door.

“Those didn’t go over so well last time, so I decided to change it up,” I told her. “They’re fresh from the farmers’ market.”

She licked her bottom lip as I tried not to stare.

“Is there a reason you’re knocking on my door and bringing me peaches?” she asked.

Now or never.

“I’m a lesbian,” I said, which wasn’t in the script I’d practiced before I’d walked over. I’d planned to open up more slowly, but that wasn’t what I ended up saying. As usual. Things never went the way I planned them.

“Okay?” she asked. “What does that have to do with peaches?”

“Can I come in? There’s something I want to ask you.” And I was tired of holding the peach bowl in my sweaty hands.

“I guess?” Reid said with a shrug, moving aside to let me into her apartment.

I set the peaches down on her counter and wiped my hands on my sweatpants.

“Okay, so,” I said, taking a shaky breath. “I’m a lesbian.”

Reid nodded slowly. “Yeah, you said that already.”

“Right. Well, I had to say that first. I came out a few months ago and it’s all been kind of hard. I feel like there’s all these things that I’m missing. I don’t know how to flirt or date or anything. And I don’t know how to learn, really. I feel like this isn’t something you can just read articles about. I need to practice.” Even if reading books worked for someone else, it wouldn’t work for me because the second I got into a real situation, my anxiety would kick in and I’d forget.

I needed to learn by doing. By screwing up and getting the nerves out before I went ahead and tried for real. I needed to train.

“Uh huhhhh,” Reid said, crossing her arms and I could see the wheels turning in her head.

“You’re confident. And I know you work at Sapph, so you see all kinds of people and probably have witnessed tons of dates and flirting and you’ve seen it all. Basically, you’re an expert. And I want you to teach me. I want to learn how to date women. From you.”

For a second she was silent. And then she started to laugh. Her eyes crinkled up as she let out a rich, warm sound that made my heart thump a little bit harder in my chest.

Reid had a gorgeous laugh.

“Oh, fuck,” she said, wiping her eyes as she let out a few more chuckles. “You want to be my…sapphic padawan?”

I snorted at the Star Wars reference. I wouldn’t have pegged her as a nerd, but I’d seen her bookshelf. I also remembered what movies she’d taken my sister to. She might appear to be too cool for sci-fi, but she wasn’t.

“Essentially, yes. Teach me the ways of the sapphic force.” Two could play this nerd game.