Page 14

“I cannot believe I just watched you consume an entire Po-Boy, and now, you’re eating a beignet,” Linden said.

With no tables available at Café Du Monde, they had settled for the short cement wall that was behind the café and led up to the staircase that then led to the photo spot, as Linden thought of it. Tourists took the stairs and got the perfect view of St. Louis Cathedral, the statue of Andrew Jackson, and if they turned around, the water behind them and the boats that passed by.

“Well, it’s been an interesting few days, and I hardly ever cheat, so I might as well make the most of it.” Asher stuffed the rest of her beignet into her mouth, leaving powdered sugar all around her lips.

Linden laughed, watching it happen, and said, “You’ve got a little sugar right…” She faded as she reached forward and wiped at the powder just at the corner of Asher’s lips.

“I’m sure I have it all over me,” Asher replied, looking down and then away completely. “Thanks,” she added slowly.

“You’re just not practiced because you’re always eating healthy food.” Linden pulled another beignet from the brown paper bag she’d been given. “Like this.” She leaned over the open bag, took a bite of the fritter, and then turned to Asher, giving her a smile. “See? Nothing on my face or in my lap.”

“I have it in my lap?” Asher asked, looking down. “This is a two-hundred-dollar skirt.” She stretched out her legs.

“It’s too dark to tell.” Linden laughed. “You’ll probably discover powdered sugar in all sorts of exciting places later.” She took another bite, finished the beignet, and folded the top of the paper bag down. “The rest are for later.”

“But they’re so good when they’re warm,” Asher said as she lowered her legs.

“We can heat them back up if you want.”

“No. The powdered sugar will congeal.” Asher shook her head and made a cute face.

“We could always make some ourselves. I can buy the mix right now, if you want.”

“What about me eating healthy all the time makes you think I have a jug of oil at home and a giant thing of powdered sugar?” Asher asked.

“We can buy those things, too. They sell unhealthy food in the grocery store, you know? You’re just always in, like, only three aisles, buying the stuff no one else likes, Asher. I swear, they only stock those aisles for you.”

Asher rolled her eyes a bit before she smiled over at her and asked, “Want to walk for a bit?”

“Do you?”

“I think so. Once around the Square to check out the art, and then, my place for a movie?”

“Sure,” Linden replied and stood up, feeling giddy and excited for some reason.

It was strange. When she had gotten Asher’s texts while she was with the woman she knew she would never see again, all she’d been able to think about was her best friend sitting alone at a table. The woman touching Linden had turned her on, but not in the way she wanted anymore. When she had practically fled, her clit had been hard, swollen, and annoyingly ready to come, but that whole thing was already a distant memory. She was excited in a totally different way now. She was excited to walk around the Square with Asher, which they had done probably a thousand times, if not more, since becoming friends due to the proximity of the place to their apartments and the fact that they both liked to support the local artists whenever they could by buying pieces for family members who didn’t live close at least once or twice a year.

“So, do you still think you want to delete the app?” Linden asked once they crossed the street.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” Asher replied. “I know it’s been exactly one date, but I wasn’t planning on doing all of this so quickly.”

“Why did you?” she asked, realizing she really did want to know.

“I don’t know. I felt like now was the time, I suppose. Gavin texted me this morning, by the way.”

“He did?”

“He said it was just checking in.”

“Did you reply?”

“No,” Asher said, shaking her head. “I don’t want to be mean to him, but I did tell him that it was over. We weren’t together long enough for him to have anything at my place or me to have anything at his, and I don’t think I want to try to be friends. At least, not now, anyway. So, there’s no reason for us to talk anymore.”

Linden nodded and asked, “Do you think you’d want to date a woman before another guy? Like, if you met a guy you were interested in today, would you go out with him, or would you want to date a woman first?”

“I don’t think it works like that for me,” Asher replied, turning to look at her. “I’d like to date a woman, yes. This thing I realized about myself, I want to explore it. But at the same time, if I met this amazing guy right now who made me feel that thing I’m looking for, I’d go out with him.”

Linden nodded again, taking it in.

“I want the person, Linden. I want someone who gets me, someone who makes me feel like I can express all parts of myself in every way, someone who makes me feel like they wake up thinking about me and can’t wait to talk to me. Is that silly? Am I too old for that kind of romance?”

“What? No,” she replied. “I think that sounds pretty great.”

“Gavin thought about sports first thing. He woke up and went into the bathroom before even saying good morning or kissing me. He would disappear in there for a long time, checking scores on his phone and, well, taking his morning you-know-what. Then, he’d shower and come out, still on his phone, answering texts and emails. I realize the world is on our phones now, and it’s easy to get caught up in it, but look around us.” Asher looked around the Square. “There’s all of this out here while he and I spent more time watching TV than doing anything else. That includes sex. Every game, he had to watch. He had his fantasy football, fantasy baseball, fantasy basketball. It never ended, and I was only with him for a few months. That’s not even an entire sports season. He was always talking about the plans for various drafts, players who were injured during off-seasons, and it was exhausting. I want someone who wakes up, rolls over, and just smiles at me because they can’t not . I want them to kiss me first thing because they can’t wait to do that. It’s not much, but if I can get that, I think I’d be happy.”

“Ash, you deserve a lot more than that. Gavin is just an idiot. I like sports, too, but you don’t see me on my phone all the time or watching games constantly. I don’t understand how he could do that when you’re sitting right there next to him. I mean, look at you.” Linden motioned to Asher with an open palm.

Asher shook her head, but she was smiling, and Linden loved her smile in all its variations. This smile, for example, was her compliment smile. Asher was terrible at taking compliments, so when she got one, she gave a tight, modest smile. When she was really happy, though, her smile was wide and lit up her entire face.

“Hey, I’m going to run in and grab the mix,” Asher said, pointing at a shop at the Square. “They sell it here, I think. Want to stop and get oil and sugar at the store after this? We can try to make them in my kitchen, if you want.”

“Nah,” she said. “Maybe another time. Get the mix for now. Hey, will you get me a praline in there?”

“Does that come with the dentist who will have to drill the cavities out of your teeth?”

Linden laughed and watched as Asher disappeared inside the crowded shop.

“Hello there, dear.”

Linden turned around to see a woman standing a few feet away, looking at her.

“Me?” she asked.

“Yes,” the woman said.

“Can I help you with something?”

“No. I just wanted to tell you to keep doing what you are doing.”

“Sorry?”

A group of likely frat boys walked between them. Linden let them all pass before she took a few steps closer to the woman.

“Being there for your friend; you should keep doing that.”

“Were you listening to us or something?” Linden asked.

“No,” the woman replied, shaking her head.

“Okay… Why? How?”

The woman motioned to a small table with two folding chairs behind her.

“Oh,” Linden said, understanding now. “You’re a fortune teller. Got it. I’m not interested.”

“I’m not offering you anything,” the woman told her with an open smile.

“You say something about me and my friend to get my attention. It’s generic enough that it applies to everyone, but I think you’re really a psychic, so I sit down and pay twenty bucks for you to tell me that I’m about to meet the man of my dreams, we’ll get married in less than two years, I’ll have boy and girl twins within five, and we’ll buy that house I’ve always wanted, too. You’ll add something about my career in there, but just enough for me to want to come back to you next week and drop another twenty. Does that sound about right?”

The woman’s smile didn’t falter as she said, “Just embrace it.”

“Embrace your scam?”

“I’m not asking you for money. I wouldn’t take it even if you offered. Be there for your friend and embrace what you are feeling right now.”

“See? Generic,” Linden replied. “I’ve got to go. Have a good night, I guess.”

“Linden?”

Linden’s eyes widened, and she said, “How did you–” She shook her head. “Ash must have said my name, and you overheard. I actually almost fell for it for a minute.”

“I didn’t hear your name from your friend Asher. You are still skeptical, but that’s okay. You’re from New Orleans. You know that a lot of this is for the tourists, and people here are trying to make a quick buck. I’m not one of them, though. You won’t believe that just yet, and that’s okay, but what I’m saying is the truth. Things will work out if you support her and embrace it.”

“Hey,” Asher said from behind Linden. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” Linden replied without looking at her.

“Did you want to get a tarot reading or something?” Asher asked when she arrived at Linden’s side. “We haven’t done that in years.”

“No, I’m okay,” Linden said, turning toward her now. “Let’s go.”

After the encounter with the psychic, she didn’t speak much, and they made their way in relative silence around the Square before they took their street toward Asher’s apartment. Just a few turns and several blocks later, they were at Asher’s door. Linden held the bag from the shop for Asher while she unlocked it, and then they were inside. She watched Asher place her keys, bag, shoes, and phone all in their usual spots and smiled at how type A her friend was.

“Coffee? Booze?” Asher offered.

“Whatever you’re having,” she replied as she kicked off her own shoes and tried to place them next to one another right by Asher’s.

Linden stared at them then, feeling odd. She had placed her shoes next to Asher’s hundreds of times. Normally, she’d just kick them off and let them fall wherever, but this time, she actually placed them so that their shoes were in a neat little row at the front door, as if that was where her shoes belonged somehow.

“I’m making coffee, but I’m having decaf. Same blend,” Asher shared.

“Of course, it’s the same expensive blend,” she teased as she sat on the sofa and picked up the remote control from the table. “Movie?”

“Yeah, just find whatever. Hey, are you staying?” Asher asked from the kitchen.

“Did you clean the guest room yet?”

“God, no. I might get to it this weekend.”

“Want to do it now?”

“What about my day today makes you think that I want to straighten up my guest room with all my childhood belongings in it?”

“Understood. This weekend, it is.”

“Just stay. Your toothbrush and clothes are still upstairs anyway,” Asher replied.

“Yeah, okay,” she said.

When Linden usually stayed, it was because they’d been hanging out and drinking or because it had gotten late, but neither of them was drunk now, and it was still pretty early. She checked the antique clock on Asher’s wall, and it was just after ten. She could hear Asher moving around in the kitchen and decided that Asher had asked her to stay because after they watched a two-hour movie, it would be after midnight, so it would be late.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Linden said softly, wondering why she had felt the need to voice it at all.

“What?” Asher asked from the kitchen.

“Nothing. I’m putting on something we’ve watched a hundred times.”

“Sounds good.”

◆◆◆

When Linden opened her eyes the following morning, she rolled over and stared at a sleeping woman beside her. Asher’s auburn hair was around her face. Her eyes and nose were scrunched up as if she was deep in thought somewhere in dreamland. Linden smiled at her, and she would’ve stared longer, but Asher stirred a bit and rolled onto her other side, so Linden decided to let her sleep until the alarm. She slipped quietly out of bed and took care of what she needed in the bathroom before she went downstairs to make them coffee.

When she heard Asher moving around above her head, she checked the time. Asher had probably woken with her alarm and was now getting ready for work, so Linden sat on the sofa with her coffee, knowing they’d drive to her place so that she could change when Asher was ready. Something about this felt so normal but also a little different, and she didn’t know why.

While she waited, Linden decided to check her phone, and she had several notifications from the app. She opened her messages and discovered that one was from the woman she had walked out on last night, which she hadn’t expected. Apparently, the woman had changed her mind, and if Linden was up for it, she’d be willing to let Linden fuck her tonight. She hadn’t been like this in their initial messages. She’d been upfront about wanting sex, which was fine, but Linden wasn’t up for anything with her now that she’d met the woman.

The next message was from a woman she hadn’t talked to yet. She was cute, but Linden didn’t feel like replying right now. After making her way through the other messages and requests, Linden went to the main tab of the app, planning to take a look at her profile and maybe make some changes, when she came across a picture that caught her attention. The sexy woman’s name was Logan Luna, which sounded made up, and she was too butch for her, but Linden clicked on the image anyway because maybe she’d be more Asher’s type.

“Looking for a little fun. No drama,” she read the profile out loud to herself.

Well, Asher wasn’t looking for a little fun, but there was something in Linden that told her to click away from the profile that had nothing to do with the fact that this woman wanted fun and nothing serious.

“Hey, I smell coffee,” Asher said with a wide smile as she walked down the stairs.