Page 54 of Hot Tea & Bird Calls (Kissing At Work #2)

S kye dragged the pointy end of a comb through hair as rosy as the clouds in her dreams lately.

She sprayed the part she’d branched off, its mist bright within the dark blue walls of the closet-break room.

Two hours before closing time at Luce’s shop, Thalia produced the bone-straight pink wig from her satchel, fastened onto a plastic mannequin head.

“Style this, oh my heavens!” Thalia had begged, dumping a plastic bag of flexirods onto the table where she normally ate her unseasoned meals.

That same voice—minus the whining—sounded from the counter as she rang up a customer’s stack of coasters while Skye played hairdresser.

Thalia sprang news of a gallery opening featuring her paintings, hosted by herself.

Occurring that Sunday—in two days. No planning, no guest list yet, just vibes.

Very Thalia. Between tending to shoppers, Thalia pulled her laptop out from under the counter to mock up digital flyers.

Based on what Skye gathered, Thalia would arrange the canvases in her backyard, along her chain-link fence.

Skye – 3:40 pm

Are you up for an art show this weekend?

Skye dried her hands on her apron when Celene responded minutes later.

Celene – 3:46 pm

Whose art show? Yours?

Skye – 3:47 pm

Lol. One day.

Thalia’s. It came to her in an epiphany yesterday.

Celene – 3:48 pm

Is this my first artsy Yielding date? How should I dress?

Skye – 3:50 pm

I’ll ask her.

I’m putting her wig in curlers for the occasion.

Celene – 3:51 pm

Reasonable.

The term ‘loner’ rarely came with negative connotations for Skye. As she’d loved her alone time, broken off from society in little pockets. So, it sort of surprised her how well Celene integrated into her life.

Seriously, how were two women devoted to their solo time working agreeably? Maybe it was the lack of “Are you okay?” check-ins when the other went comfortably silent. Or the shared interests in quiet hobbies. They didn’t strive to fill in the unspoken moments—they thrived in them.

These last few days consisted of Skye and Celene spending as much summertime together as possible.

Reading in the hammock. Waking up every morning side by side.

Being sounding boards for work-aligned woes.

Expressing their worries in the thick of the night.

Going on hikes, spotting bright yellow Goldfinches bouncing from branch to branch.

Skye even walked Celene through two foraging trails using her pink twine, collecting chanterelles and berries.

And, of course, indulging in each other’s bodies.

Her jaw still pleasantly ached from the last one.

Skye made sure to visit home once a day for business upkeep and to catch up with Luce.

Her grandmother seemed okay enough, though her actions hinted at some frustration about Skye being out.

Which was laughable considering how, until this week, Luce was usually the one bidding her goodbye to run off to a social life.

Nothing and no one could guilt Skye out of this bliss.

Falling in love fit . It actually fit her life.

Past holiday visits from Cosmo’s family meant her being wrangled into doing Zola’s thick hair, and now she appreciated those moments more, nodding down to the wig fully twisted into the curlers without a single howl from the mannequin head.

She sipped from her portable glass tea infuser bottle—one of the presents Celene gave her on Tuesday.

Celene bought a pair and they’d been a nice addition to short walks or lounging on the deck.

“Come give this a look,” Skye called out, rolling her tongue into a mouthful of oolong, fig, and rose petal.

A floral treat to go with her chill mood.

Regardless of a snippy patron or delivery person who almost knocked down a display, Skye shrugged it off.

On Thursday, Zander cautiously asked if she hid whiskey in her tea bottle, and Skye snorted so hard, he definitely took it as a yes.

In a poufy long skirt and an off-the-shoulder top, Thalia took half a minute to circle the mannequin with a critical eye.

However, this was Thalia ; she gave Skye a smile, wide and effusive.

“Sublime. I’ll leave it like that until Sunday afternoon.

Larkin just agreed to barbecue. This is gonna be the best.”

“You’re invited to the cake testing, you know.” Happening tonight for June and Zinnia’s wedding. The event itself would be set up on their gorgeous, sprawling property. And Zinnia wouldn’t budge on splurging on the biggies—the cake, catering, DJ, her dress.

The couple sorted the ring stuff out on their own, but Skye graciously accepted tasting all the fancy cake samples. Larkin and Thalia turned it down, leaving it a double date with Celene coming along.

“Cake, hmm, cake ,” Thalia mused, as if it were a novel concept. “Chocolate, vanilla, coconut. It’s all the same.”

“That’s not remotely true.”

“I’ll close the shop,” she went on as if Skye spoke nonsense. Then, as if it weren’t obvious, she sneaked something into Skye’s back pocket. Thalia patted her butt, giggling. “That’s moonstone. Keep it with you.”

If Thalia weren’t her great-grandmother reincarnated, she’d definitely been a squirrel.

Skye retrieved it to whistle at the stone’s pearlescent appearance. “What’s it for?”

“Intuition. Helps you make sound choices.” Thalia lowered to the conspiratorial tone she donned whenever it came to minerals. “It strengthens emotional connections and bonds. Love bonds.”

Suddenly hot, Skye yanked at her collar. “Got it.”

“I sneaked some in your bag, too. For extra potency.”

“Can’t wait to spot them. Oh—” In a flash, she scurried out of the room, dug into the aforementioned bag, and came back to hand Thalia a paper sack. “Wild mulberries, attached to nothing baked.”

The way Thalia’s eyes rounded, she knew what would follow. “Did you forage them with Celene? Am I eating true love berries?”

God, Yielding really could’ve used some Thalias when Skye was younger. She confirmed the questions with a bashful smile, as the connotations attached to a double date for wedding stuff began to sink in.

With a final furrowing of fingers through the mannequin’s twists, Skye left. She had a girlfriend to pick up.

Quinn and Ramona got married.

Twenty minutes before Celene boarded Skye’s SUV for their cake-tasting date, she’d been rustling up fallen branches from her yard, stepping her heels warily through the soft earth after rainfall. She and Nadine had been FaceTiming about the usual: family. Namely, Byron and Maxine, Nadine’s mother.

Mid-vent, Nadine swept a hand over her mouth in a very unlike-her gasp. “Oh, shit. Celene.”

Celene listened to Nadine read a social post about Quinn and Ramona eloping, sharing the photo of the two of them brandishing sparkly rings, smiles blinding and unbridled as they’d been at Elise’s wedding.

Other photos featured them posing with Tara and her husband, along with whom she could guess was Ramona’s sister and the sister’s girlfriend.

“How are you taking this news?” Nadine betrayed a precariousness in her voice, faint at the beginning and end. “I’m here.”

“I know.” Celene pondered for a moment. She glanced at the pile of sticks she’d created as though they’d tell her how she felt.

Honestly—she knew how she felt, but questioned if it was enough.

“Who was I engaged to?” Celene asked, a branch snapping under her foot. “Like, honestly. When we were together, I knew I’d have the lion’s share of wedding planning because marriage didn’t excite her. Quinn would smile politely through it, maybe name some generic ideas, but I just assumed...”

Nadine had been working at home today. She fell onto her couch with a sigh, raking her hair off her face. “Everyone’s their own person, but let’s keep it a stack. We all change depending on who we’re into. Your Quinn and Ramona’s Quinn are?—”

“Diametrically opposed?”

“Yes.”

“My dad—” Back to family again. It needed to be said, though.

“Started dating Donovan’s mother two months after the divorce was finalized with my mom.

I don’t think he cheated, yet he moved on so quickly.

It grossed me out.” Nadine simply unscrewed her drink, and Celene wanted to hug her for not reacting strongly at all.

“Then, the second marriage dissolved, and Byron bounced from girlfriend to girlfriend. He’d take a long break, date more women, rinse and repeat. ”

“Then, he gets a literal beauty queen.”

“Right.” Celene swung a thin branch, its swooshing noise satisfying to the ear. “I’d capped the age gap I’d be into at ten years. Meaning my dad and I would’ve been wading through overlapping dating pools.”

Nadine winced with her tongue out. “Tiny, insignificant overlap. If you’d been dating after you and Quinn broke up.”

“My sixty-one-year-old, twice-divorced father found chance after chance for love. And I think Shanice is the one.”

“She’d better be endgame. They have a baby.”

“I still question people who change that drastically. My father’s commitment, Quinn’s eagerness to marry...” Celene’s arm rose to hail the neighbor couple—the garden gnome fanatics who, interestingly, were about her age. “Have I changed? Or had I gone stagnant?”

“It’s easy to catch others’ changes more than our own, but it’s gradual,” Nadine said, staring at her faux engagement ring as she addressed Celene.

“You were growing away from Quinn, you went on your self-discovery travels, and now you’re improving an old childhood house in Pennsylvania.

You’re dating a woman from a prominent artist’s family.

” A smile crept through. “That doesn’t sound change-y to you? ”

Celene pursed her lips, breaking it with her own smile. “Thank you. It’s hard to see the forest for the trees, so to speak,” she added, swinging the stick again.

“You now wave at neighbors without a sarcastic comment.” Her narrow eyes squinted deeper. “Celene, dear, you’ve changed .”