Page 13 of Loving Her (Indigo Lounge #5)

13

S asha was not answering her calls.

Okay, Ruby admitted that she couldn’t be too surprised by that. Not after she’d seen so much hurt in Sasha’s eyes that day on the plane. The unanswered texts, too, were only to be expected. Same for the way knocks on Sasha’s apartment door went seemingly unheard.

Ignoring her at the Indigo Lounge, though, that… Ruby hadn’t thought that was possible.

She’d never once felt lonely in the Lounge. From the first day she walked through the door, it had felt like a second home and a found family had dropped right into her lap. But now, tucked away into a booth far in a shadowy back corner of the Lounge, she felt isolated and alone.

Part of that was purposeful. She wasn’t really in a mood to talk to anyone until she’d straightened things out with Sasha, so she was avoiding everyone as much as possible. And the rest of it was that her book was coming due, and she was stuck on how to finish it, so a lot of her time was spent staring blankly at her laptop screen and eating snacks.

So, she was either not leaving her house, or she was slinking and skulking her way into the far dark reaches of the Lounge with her laptop, knowing Esme at least saw her, but was taking the unspoken cue to leave her be. Natalie came by to take her food orders and kept conversation to a blissful minimum both at the Lounge and at home.

Ruby was currently eating smoked salmon and pesto on toast, with a plain Diet Coke on the side. She hadn’t thought about it when she ordered the appetizer, but tasting the pesto took her right back to that afternoon at Villa Primavera, to the moment that Sasha had revealed her tree nut allergy, the reason why the pesto tasted a little different than what Ruby had been used to all her life.

She flushed with shame now to remember it. To remember that she hadn’t known something that was a fairly important detail to know about someone she cared about, who she called her best friend… and there was so much she hadn’t known! Sasha had known so much about her in contrast, had paid attention and remembered things. Her family, where she went to high school, what she liked to drink and eat.

Speaking of eating… Ruby surveyed her meal soberly. It was delicious, of course, because Sasha had made it. Everything Sasha made was exquisite, thoughtfully crafted and composed of high-quality ingredients. She had no complaints about her perfect little meal.

But it wasn’t personal, it wasn’t something off menu made especially and only for her. She hadn’t realized how accustomed she’d gotten to the special little touches, the treats and gifts, the twists on a menu-listed dish that made it uniquely made for Ruby. Nothing was made with her in mind, and she missed that, the knowing that someone was thinking about her, taking care of her.

Had she ever properly thanked Sasha for any of that? Or had she simply taken her entirely for granted? Every little gesture of love—and she was certain now that they had been exactly that—had they gone by without Ruby acknowledging them? A flush of shame heated up her face.

Still. For all of the things she was coming to realize in the time she and Sasha weren’t speaking, she still felt she was right to put the brakes on Sasha’s headlong race towards a committed relationship. She owed Sasha an apology for not thinking and talking things through before dragging her into bed, for sure. But that lack of thought was exactly what got them into this mess, and she just wished Sasha would let her explain it better. She blushed again to think how clumsily she’d handled things that day on the plane. How mean and snappish she’d been, how she hadn’t adequately adjusted in time to keep herself from hurting the kindest, most loving and generous person she’d ever known.

She had been right, but she had not been kind, and her clumsy panic might have lost her the best thing she could have ever had.

A tall glass full of mango-passionfruit milkshake slid onto the table in front of her, and Ruby’s heart leapt into her throat with hope to see it. She jerked her head upwards, an apology already filling her mouth.

But only Natalie’s sorrowful gaze met hers. “Sorry,” her roommate said, sliding into the seat on the other side of the booth. “It’s just from me. I wanted to give you something that might cheer you up.”

“I don’t deserve it.” Ruby shoved the glass back across the table. “Thank you, though.”

“Drink it, Rubes. I don’t like mango, it’ll just go to waste.” Natalie pushed the glass back. “How are you doing?”

“Haven’t written a word in days, my best friend isn’t talking to me, and I am a selfish, self-centered bitch,” Ruby replied, sucking the whipped cream topping off of the milkshake. “So, you know. Great.”

“I don’t think you’re any more selfish than any of the rest of us, but you’ll have to take that up with a therapist. The writing will come back once you stop stressing about Sasha. And that—” she held up a hand to forestall Ruby’s next protest. “That will come, too. Sasha is too nice to be mad at you forever.”

“I really hurt her feelings, Nat. She has every right to hate me.”

“Okay, I’m sure she doesn’t hate you. But yeah, okay, maybe it will take time for her to come around. She will, though, Ruby.” Natalie leaned across the table to grab her hand. “Something like what you two have can’t be broken apart that easily.”

“Well, I don’t know what we have, or what I want us to have, Nat. Which is also part of the problem.” Ruby sighed. “For a romance writer, I am absolute crap at the love game myself.”

“You’ve never been faced with a serious contender before,” Natalie pointed out wryly. “You write fantasies; nobody’s love life is really like that! Of course you’re not an expert at real actual love.”

“Ouch.” The point made sense, but still hurt. “I mean, I thought I was writing the kind of relationship I wanted?”

“Were you?” Natalie sat back, eyes wide. “Scotsmen sexily abducting their barely-legal brides to get married in the night? Lesbians who argue-fuck their way through life? Oh, that one experimental sci-fi-slash-literary one you wrote with the two guys who were soulmates that kept meeting in different lives at the wrong time? These are the relationships you want?”

“Not that!” Ruby waved her hands around, exasperated. “You know not that. The little things I wrote in the relationships, even the ones without happy endings. Quiet moments. Snuggles. Little thoughtful gestures.”

Natalie blinked. “So… from what you told me about the week in New York… that’s what you got?”

“But I didn’t realize I had it! I had it for years. If I didn’t notice I had it, did I really want it?” Ruby shoved her hands up into her hair and clunked her elbows on the booth table. “And you know what else? It has been an entire week of Sasha not speaking to me. We weren’t even officially in a relationship and we’re going through a breakup and I lost my friend. What happens if we fix this, get together, and then actually break up? I’m already sad about losing my friend and I hope it’s temporary. I don’t want to lose my best friend for good!”

“Rubes, that’s a risk in any good relationship. You should be friends with your lover. That’s what makes it a good relationship. My parents were friends, your brother and his wife were friends—think about every solid relationship you’ve seen.”

“Esme and Nora weren’t friends,” Ruby pointed out, rolling her eyes up to look at Natalie. “Deborah and Holly weren’t friends. They just found crazy wild love out of nowhere! And then there’s Goldie and Cam, they definitely were not friends.”

“Ok, ok, I mean, there are different types of love, and you didn’t want the crazy wild type anyway. Stop with the what ifs and maybes, Rubes!” Natalie reached over and tugged Ruby’s hands out of her hair. “You know what you’re great at? Plotting. Overthinking. Maybe what you actually need is to give that a rest for once. Just accept that the universe has handed you what most of us would kill to have. I mean, do you love Sasha?”

“I love her. What I don’t know is if I’m in love with her. I’m…” Ruby swallowed. “I think I’m too afraid to look at it too closely. If I am in love with her, I risk losing my friend. If I’m not in love with her, I hurt her again, and I risk losing my friend. I don’t want to lose my friend, and above anything else, I don’t want to hurt her anymore.”

“So it’s better to definitely not have the love you want rather than take any risks at all?”

Ruby glanced across the Lounge just in time to see Sasha emerging from the kitchen with a plate of food for Esme, who often forgot to eat. She looked sad, and walled off, and Ruby’s heart ached for her.

She had never intended for things to go this way. They were supposed to just have a fun week and get her family off her back. Everything had gone so wrong… and yet, for a few days there, they’d been so perfect. Everything she’d ever wanted. Did she have it in her to pursue getting that back?

And did it even matter if she did? “She won’t let me talk to her anyway.”

Natalie pursed her lips together and looked thoughtful. “You trust me?”

“With my dog and my life,” Ruby affirmed, mystified.

With a short nod, Natalie slid out of the booth seat and grabbed Ruby’s now-empty milkshake glass. “Go home. And give me a few days. Focus on your writing.”

“But…”

“Go, Rubes. Finish your book. Think about how you feel about Sasha. And leave everything else to me.”

What else was there for her to do? Ruby slid her laptop into her messenger bag, left cash on the table for her bill, and snuck out of the Indigo Lounge, wondering exactly what Natalie had up her sleeve.

“I wish you’d talk to me.”

Sasha paused her wiping down of the grill and turned to look at Esme. Her friend and boss was leaning against the kitchen door of the Lounge, arms crossed over her chest. Sympathy gleamed from her warm brown eyes, making Sasha turn away hastily and apply herself even more strenuously to her task. Sweet, warm-hearted Esme had a way of making people spill their guts whether they wanted to or not.

She chose her words carefully when she finally replied, keeping things simple. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Oh, bullshit, Sash.” Esme tsked. “You’ve holed yourself up in the kitchen since you came back from New York. Ruby either doesn’t come in at all, which is very unlike her, or she sneaks in here and goes off to hide in a back booth and does not talk to anyone. I ain’t stupid.” She sounded offended. “So please don’t insult my intelligence. Something is wrong, and everyone knows it. And we’d all like to help, but one of you has to tell us what’s up.”

Sasha scrubbed hard at an imaginary grease spot on the grill. Of course, she’d known that eventually people would catch on that things had gone wrong between herself and Ruby. Their friends had actually given them a lot more leeway and time to deal with it than she’d expected; if she’d been the betting sort, she would normally put good money on their nosy gang of affectionate gossipmongers giving her and Ruby a day before they started asking questions. It had been nearly a week. She’d have lost that money, but she was impressed at their restraint.

Still, she wasn’t exactly in a mood to discuss it with anyone. An ache still remained in her chest, a pit in her stomach. The humiliation at having read the situation so, so wrongly was a large and bitter pill to swallow. The hurt at being rejected was a deep wound. Sasha had no idea how she was going to get herself together again.

“Nobody can fix this,” she said at last, amazed she could get the words out past the huge lump in her throat. “It’s late, E. I need to finish up and go home.”

“I’ve gotten complaints about the food this week, you know,” Esme said casually.

Sasha whipped around, mouth dropping open in shock. “You what?!”

“Well, not complaints, per se.” Pushing herself off the doorframe, Esme walked into the kitchen and began to pace the tiled floor. “Overheard remarks, I suppose you could call them. There’s not as much heart in the food. Something’s missing. It’s not quite right.” She glanced at Sasha. “It’s still good, everything is excellent. But people are noticing. So, if you won’t talk to me as a friend, can you talk to me as a boss who’s got some concerns about your work performance?”

Unbelievable. “E, come on.”

“You come on. Spill.” Esme turned on the espresso maker, set up a shot, and pulled a cup off of the shelf. Having just cleaned the thing, Sasha groaned in frustration. With a wink, Esme slowly filled her cup and added milk and sugar. “Talk, Sasha. I’m feeling a bit hungry, you want me to start making a sandwich?”

All Sasha could do was throw her hands in the air. “And you’ll actually do it.”

“I might even be in the mood for a big, sloppy grilled cheese. With tomato slices. And a bowl of soup—what can I make that takes lots of ingredients?” She began to walk towards the walk-in refrigerator.

Sasha dodged in front of her. “Don’t you dare. I reorganized it yesterday.”

“Then you’d better start talking.” Esme slipped around Sasha and laid a hand on the door handle. “Quickly. My wife is going to come pick me up soon and golly, Sash, she might be hungry too. Usually, we go to the Chinese place but I’m in a cooking mood, now…”

Sasha slumped down on a stool in the corner of the kitchen. “Ugh. Fine. Look, E. It’s nothing. I… read too much into a situation that arose, I made some bad judgment calls. Got my feelings hurt. I’ll get over it.”

Esme spun around to lean against the fridge door, her expression speculative. “And the situation is that you and Ruby slept together without you actually telling her about your feelings, right?”

“Aaaaahhh…” Embarrassment made her squirm, hurt made her shoulders droop further. “Good guess.”

“It wasn’t, actually. Natalie and I have been in cahoots, and Ruby, as you know, doesn’t bottle up her emotions until she explodes.” The gentle teasing smile Esme flashed her took the sting out of the chiding accusation. “You’re both absolutely terrible at communicating, though. You’re awful at listening, and she’s surprisingly unobservant for a writer.”

Sasha jerked her head up. “Hey now. That’s rich, coming from you. Weren’t you and Nora hooking up for weeks without talking about any feelings at all? Sleeping with the enemy and all that?”

“Do you think I learned nothing from the experience?” Esme’s voice was dry and wise. “Oh, buttercup! Life’s much better when you start being honest—with yourself, and others. It was a hard lesson to learn, but a good one. Now, can I be honest with you?”

The very idea made Sasha cringe, but she squared up her shoulders and sat up straight. “Shoot.”

“Good.” Esme pulled up a stool and sat, tossing her long gray braid over her shoulder. “You know, I know, the whole wide world knows now that you’ve loved Ruby for a very long time. But Ruby just figured it out last week, am I right?”

“Yes,” Sasha admitted.

“And she did have to figure it out; you didn’t tell her.” Esme cocked her head. “Would you say that might be something she needs time to come to grips with?”

“She did say that,” Sasha replied slowly. Remembering that day still made her stomach churn, but she had to be fair.

“But you, my big-hearted, all-in friend, you jumped right into couplehood with both feet, am I right? You were half-in already with the fool-the-family charade, so hooking up must have seemed like a green light to you.”

“Well, of course it did!” The words burst out of her, propelled by the unfairness of it all. “We almost hooked up one night, but I hit the brakes, E. I said we needed to talk about it first but we didn’t because…” Her mouth was dry as she remembered. “Because I couldn’t tell her that if we did, it meant something for me. But when we did actually get together, I asked her if she was sure! And she said that she’d brought me back to her house and wasn’t that clear?”

Esme leaned forward and patted her cheek. “But you didn’t actually talk about it.”

“It didn’t feel like we needed to at that point, everything was going so well. We were both happy. I thought we were on the same page after all.” She ran a hand through her hair, frustrated. “E, I swear, we were in sync. We were happy. Why wouldn’t she want to keep it going once we got back here?”

“Well, maybe she does! But I’m still not hearing where you talked about it, honey.” Grabbing Sasha’s hands, Esme took a deep breath before she went on. “Look, you two were cuddled up in a cozy nest amongst her family, getting swept up in the romance of a wedding—it wasn’t real life. Frankly, as much of a pie-eyed incurable romantic as Ruby is, I’m amazed she had the fortitude to snap out of it and tell you she needed time to think about things.”

Sasha looked down at her feet. “I guess. It still hurts.”

“I can see that whatever she said, it did hurt you. And I’m sure she feels terrible about it, because Ruby’s not a bad person, and she does care a great deal about you.” Esme squeezed her hands. “I know you, Sasha. I know you feel rejected and hurt and sad, but could you give Ruby a chance to apologize? And maybe you two could actually talk. You’d be surprised at what good, clear communication can do.”

Pulling her hands away, Sasha stood up. “I mean. Maybe. I need another day or two. I have to think about it.”

“Well, all right.” Esme also got to her feet. She glanced at the kitchen doorway. “Nat? You got that? She needs a couple of days.”

“I got it.” The dark-haired barista appeared in the doorway with a friendly smile. “You ready to go pick up some Chinese and I’ll take you home?”

“Wait.” Sasha glanced between the two of them. “I thought it was just us here. I thought Nora was coming to get you.”

“I fibbed.” Esme beamed. “And I told you Natalie and I are in cahoots. You take your two days, Sasha. But just know after that, I’m sending in the big guns.”

“What are the big guns?” Sasha called after them as they sauntered out of the kitchen arm in arm. “E? Hey! What are the big guns?”

“You’ll see,” Esme’s voice floated back into the kitchen.

Declan’s horse thundered through the meadow towards Nicola. Without a second thought, she threw her arm into the air and stumbled to her feet. With a grim look on his face, the fingers of his right hand tangled in the reins, Declan leaned down and wrapped his left arm around her, hauling her off the ground and into his saddle. She had to sit sidesaddle before him and turned to wrap her arms around his waist. Her face, she buried in his chest, breathedin deep to take in the scent of musky sweat, dusty linen, and leather.

They seemed to ride forever and couldn’t talk. Nicola heard only wind rushing, hooves galloping, and Declan’s harsh breathing. She longed to ask him where they were going, how long until they were home, how had he found her?

But when the steed finally came to a stop, dust clouds billowing around his legs, Nicola looked up at Declan and all thoughts fled her mind. She wanted only to remain safe in his arms, trusting that he would always protect her from danger.

He put a finger under her chin and lifted it higher so that he could meet her frightened gaze with his sober one. “We’re safe for now, lass.”

“But?”

He sighed heavily. “But we cannae go home to Inverary. More of that Low Country despot king’s men will come for you. Your father is too important to his cause, he’ll do anything to keep the man happy. I cannae keep you safe in Scotland.” His eyes darkened. “And ‘tis my duty to keep my lady safe.”

“Only duty?” she blurted out without thinking.

Declan blinked. “Nay, Nicola. ‘Tis also out of love. Surely by now you believe me when I say it?”

After all the trouble she’d caused, she couldn’t quite bring herself to believe she deserved it.

Ruby slapped her laptop screen down. Behind her, Natalie jumped away at the vehemence of the gesture. “Dang, Rubes. Don’t get so hostile on your laptop. Remember the bill last time when you cracked the thing holding the screen in place?”

Burying her hands in her hair, Ruby could only let out an incoherent, guttural… noise, in response. Something between a groan and a shriek and a growl. It felt like it came up from the deepest pits of her stomach to rip its way through her throat.

Moving carefully, Natalie approached the desk again and lifted the laptop lid. Before Ruby knew what she was up to, Natalie had her hand in hers and was pressing her finger to the keypad to unlock it. “Hey!”

“I just wanted to see what you were writing that pissed you off so bad… ah.” Natalie clucked her tongue. “Got some home truths emerging and hitting a little too close to the heart?”

“Something like that,” Ruby mumbled.

Nat backed up from the desk, grabbing the back of Ruby’s desk chair and swiveling it around to face the end of the bed, where she plopped her bottom down next to Winston. She pulled the chair close and took Ruby’s face in her hands, forcing her to look her in the eyes. “Ruby, you deserve love. You didn’t do as much wrong as you think you did. It is valid to need time to think about what you want. Do I need to get one of those airplane guys to write all this in the sky for you?”

“No! Yes. I don’t know. Does it matter?” Ruby sat back and threw her hands in the air, annoyed. “Sasha still won’t talk to me.”

“She’s going to talk to you tonight,” Natalie announced, leaning back on her hands and grinning smugly.

Ruby could only look at her like she was crazy. “Huh?”

“You said you trusted me, right?” Natalie was ruffling Winston’s ears but kept her merry eyes and smug little grin on Ruby. “With your life and your little dog, too.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to know what’s going on.”

Nat shrugged. “Not much. Esme gave Sash two days to decide if she was going to talk to you again. Well, not so much if as when, but I don’t think Sasha knows it’s as mandatory as that.”

“Is she coming here ?” Ruby grabbed frantically at her hair, two days past needing a wash. She cringed at her grubby and very ratty yoga pants and vintage Paula Cole t-shirt. “When?”

“I’m taking you to her, relax.” Natalie grabbed her hands and patted her down. “After the Lounge closes. You’ll have time to clean up, but that’s not the important thing.”

Ruby sniffed in the general direction of her armpits and grimaced. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, dummy! The important thing is, do you know how you feel? What you want to say?”

“I want to tell her I’m sorry. That I miss her. That I do love her, and being without her has been awful.” Ruby pulled a long, deep breath in through her nose and let it back out again. “This week… I realized I felt differently about her than about any of the rest of you. I didn’t understand that was love.” She looked down at her hands. “I still have a lot to figure out, but I don’t want to do any of it without her.”

“And that is partnership, baby.” Standing up, Natalie pulled Ruby to her feet and propelled her towards the bedroom door with a hard shove. “Now! Go wash off your depressed writer stink. Winston and I are going to order pizza and when you get clean, we’ll work up a game plan.”

The Lounge had been closed for an hour, and Sasha was almost done mopping the kitchen floor. It was a task normally left to the rest of the kitchen staff, but for the last week and a half, she’d preferred to do all the scut work herself as much as possible. It helped to tire her out so she could sleep at night.

It also kept her out of Esme’s sight. It was the end of the second day she’d been given to decide if she could forgive Ruby. Esme hadn’t come near her all day and Sasha was hoping she’d forgotten, because she still felt tender and afraid. She felt able by now to at least face Ruby, but what could she say? It was terrifying to think that anything she said could be greeted with the snappish, standoffish attitude of rejection that still made her stomach twist.

But she did miss Ruby. For all the hurt and bewilderment at the end of the New York trip, she missed what they’d had before, and what they’d developed along the way. They just had to get on the same page, somehow. Sasha wondered if she would ever be brave enough for that.

As she dipped the mop into her bucket and twisted the handle to wring it out, she heard music start to play out on the dance floor of the Lounge. Cocking her head, she paused to listen in wonder.

Because it was her favorite song.

Jane Siberry’s voice intertwined sweetly with k.d. lang’s overhead while Sasha walked out of the kitchen and into the Lounge. The dance floor, instead of being dark as it should be after close, was gently illuminated by the warm twinkling lights running around the second-floor mezzanine.

And as the gentle, swelling piano of Calling All Angels continued to fill the room, she saw Ruby standing in the middle of the parquet dance floor. Barefoot, in a long black spaghetti strap dress, her red hair tumbled down her shoulders and her blue eyes apprehensively hopeful behind her glasses. Her mouth was curved in a slight, tentative smile.

When Sasha didn’t—couldn’t—move further from the kitchen door, the smile faltered, and Ruby bit her bottom lip. There was a vulnerability in the small, nervous gesture, a window that reminded Sasha that Ruby, too, could be hurt as badly as Sasha herself could be. That Ruby, too, yearned for love and romance, and that they shared the same awe and fear of possibly getting it.

Understanding broke through her paralyzing fear of rejection, and Sasha rushed forward, heedless of the fact that she looked and smelled like she’d just spent all day in a hot, busy kitchen. She scooped Ruby up in a hug, relishing the relieved giggles that began to burble from Ruby’s lips as she squeezed Sasha back.

They stood in that tight embrace, swaying slightly while the music floated around them. Ruby smelled like flowers, she was a warm, trembling bundle in Sasha’s arms, and everything felt right with the world again, like she’d just slipped the last three pieces of a puzzle into place.

“Oh, this feels right ,” Ruby breathed, nuzzling Sasha’s neck. “How did I miss it before?” She pulled back and cupped Sasha’s face in her hands. “Sash, I’m sorry. So, so sorry I made such a mess of things. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I hate that I did.”

“Ruby…” She didn’t know what to say.

“No, wait.” Stepping back, Ruby let her hands trail down from Sasha’s face, along her arms, until their hands met and she intertwined their fingers. “I should have talked to you. We were friends—I owed you a talk, not just dragging you into bed.”

“Do you regret…” Sasha began to whisper, unsure she wanted the answer.

“No! No, please, Sash, let me talk, I’m terrible at it, but just let me get to the point.” Ruby took a deep breath. “The second I started to suspect that maybe there were feelings there, I should have asked you. But it was just so good the night of the party, and then there was that one day on your motorcycle…”

That got her attention. “What about that day on my motorcycle?”

Ruby blushed a pretty rosy pink. “Another time. Just… I wanted to be with you. Fully. So, I went for it, and I enjoyed it, and I wanted more of it. I knew the whole time we should have a talk, though. I was pretty sure we weren’t on the same page. But we were in such a nice bubble…”

“It was a nice bubble.” Sasha smiled at the warm, sexy, cuddly memories.

“I was wrong. I handled it wrong, and I shouldn’t have blown up at you. Sash, I’m so sorry I hurt you.” She touched Sasha’s face with gentle fingers. “I don’t ever want to hurt you again. You are my best friend in the whole world, and I love you.”

Being called a best friend took some of the wind out of Sasha’s gradually reinflating emotional sails. “Best friend.”

“No, no no no no no.” Ruby grabbed her hands again. “We need to get you therapy, I’m worried about the things you focus on. You are my best friend. But if I’ve learned anything this week besides that hurting you is the worst feeling in the world, it’s that I do love you as my best friend… and more. I would like us to see what being more is like, the whole nine.” She held up one hand. “Slowly. I want dates, Sash. I’m not going to just jump in and U-Haul us into a full-on relationship, you and me and my little dog too. Court me.”

“I feel like I’ve been courting you for years already,” Sasha pointed out. “You just didn’t know.”

“And now I do. I don’t want to miss another moment of the experience.” She tilted her head and smiled, the sweet, warm smile that had made Sasha fall for her in the first place. “I’m a romantic, Sash. I want the romance that I write so much about. And I want to give you that romance, too.” She stepped back. “That’s why I had Nat and Esme help me set this up. This big movie moment.”

Sasha grinned. “I love this big movie moment. But how did you know to start it all off with Calling All Angels ? How did you know that’s my favorite song?”

Ruby’s eyes went wide. “What? I didn’t. It’s one of mine. I was listening to it while I was getting ready and I thought, this sounds like a perfect song for us. For this moment. So, I put it at the top of the playlist.”

Sasha couldn’t help it. She threw her head back and laughed. “Of course. Of course that’s our song, and we didn’t know it. Perfect.”

“Perfect and we didn’t know it,” Ruby said. “That’s just like us.”

And under the gentle lights of the Indigo Lounge, Sasha gathered Ruby into her arms, knowing they were on the same page at long, long last. She put all the love she’d been carrying in her heart for years into a sweet, slow, melting kiss that curled her toes and made Ruby hum happy little noises into her mouth. Their lips danced as their bodies joined closer. Every connection of their bodies felt like fireworks. Ruby had no idea how she missed this for so long, but all that mattered now was the road ahead of them.

Jane Siberry shifted into Julien Baker, melted into Dar Williams, slowly slid into Girl in Red, one exactly perfect moment after another, and Sasha and Ruby held each other as they laughed, kissed, and danced together into the night.