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S ophie had been invited to hang out with Monica, who didn’t use to be the kind of woman who used the phrase hang out . A Louisiana native originally, Sophie had been living in New Orleans for four years now, so she was more than familiar with the city and the French Quarter, but she rarely went out. Part of that was because she wasn’t much for the nightlife. An occasional drink with friends was fine, but going out every night hadn’t ever interested her, even when she’d been in college. She’d left New York and moved here when she was twenty-eight years old. Back then, she’d spent a few months exploring the bars and clubs that were notorious around the US and the world, but she much preferred staying at home, reading a good book or watching a movie while she drank hot chocolate that she often made from scratch with her favorite dark chocolate and mini marshmallows.

She’d only agreed to go out tonight because Monica had mentioned it would be good for her to meet her new friends since she would be sticking around for a while now. Sophie had moved to New Orleans for work, so she hadn’t made a lot of new friends here, and sitting in a cubicle all day, essentially pushing paperwork around, didn’t offer many opportunities for socialization. In hindsight, she knew she’d made a mistake leaving Arnette Assets, which was Monica Arnette’s family- owned corporation, but she hadn’t known it then. The place Sophie worked for now had made a lot of promises that they hadn’t kept. She’d been told she would be a director, but instead, they’d made her a manager. She’d also been told she would have a team of fifty people under her, but she only had three. They’d sold her on the fact that she’d be in the room helping to make decisions, and they’d stuck her in the cubicle for most of the time every day.

Part of the problem was that when she signed the offer, her current company had been on the brink of filing for bankruptcy. Sophie had only found out about it after she’d already packed up her entire life in New York and moved, giving up her very nice job for a quieter life in New Orleans, so when they’d kept her on but gave her the manager role with a huge pay cut from their original offer, she hadn’t had much of a choice but to agree to it. Ever since then, though, she longed for a promotion or to find a job that actually interested her, but whenever she searched and interviewed, nothing panned out. Monica being in town had been perfect timing. Sophie was reaching her end where she was and couldn’t keep this up much longer. She needed a change. She needed a raise and a promotion. She needed to be involved in leadership discussions and decision-making. She needed Arnette Assets. She planned to talk to Monica about it in a few days once she’d had a chance to update her resume and really pitch herself well, but maybe she could bring it up tonight just to see if there was any reaction from Monica about the idea.

When she pulled open the door to the dueling piano bar that seemed just Monica’s speed, Sophie looked around and spotted a booth with five women and just enough room for her to join them. To make a professional yet approachable impression, she had dressed better than she normally would for going to a bar, choosing to wear nice jeans and a collared shirt with a blazer over it, so she pulled down on that blazer, hoping it hadn’t wrinkled on her walk over in the humidity, and made her way to the group.

“Hi,” she said when she approached the booth where Monica Arnette was sitting with her new friends and her new girlfriend, Bridgette.

Monica looked genuinely happy when she glanced up, and Sophie wasn’t sure she had ever seen her old boss and friend look this happy.

“Oh. Sophie, hi,” Monica replied, smiling. “Everyone, this is my friend, Sophie. She used to work with me at Arnette a long time ago, but she lives down here now, so I thought I’d invite her to join us, if that’s all right.”

That was one of the things Sophie had always appreciated about this woman who had turned into her friend over the years. Monica, the owner’s daughter and next in line to take over Arnette Assets one day, had been Sophie’s boss back in the day, but whenever it came up how they met, she always said they worked together.

Sophie smiled back and took a look around the table. Monica was sitting next to her girlfriend, Bridgette, who had her hand on Monica’s thigh, and another woman was sitting on their side of the booth as well. She looked younger than Sophie’s thirty-two, maybe around Bridgette’s age or a little younger. Across from them, there were two more women, one a brunette and the other a blonde, and the two of them looked way too cozy with each other to just be friends.

“Thank God! I don’t have to be the fifth wheel now. Please, sit down,” the one sitting on Monica’s side said.

When Sophie took the only remaining free spot to sit down, Monica introduced her to the group, and she nodded to the women she now knew as Kyle and Melinda next to her. The one who had just said something about being a fifth wheel was named Jill. Sophie waited for Monica to say more or help her start a conversation, but she turned to Bridgette instead.

“Sophie, how long have you lived here?” Melinda asked.

“Oh, about four years this time. I technically grew up around here but moved away for school. You?”

“All my life. Kyle is new, though.” Melinda pointed to her girlfriend. “Just last month.”

“Oh, that’s really new,” Sophie said.

“Yeah. I’ve been here for about two months, though,” Kyle added. “I’m almost done moving. We’ve been working on the house.”

“You moved here for Melinda?”

“No, I moved here for me. But she was a nice bonus.”

“We don’t live together yet. Kyle inherited a house in the Garden District, and she’s been doing some work on it, but she’s also got to move all of her stuff in. I have a very nice apartment, though, that she gets to stay in whenever she wants.”

“Tonight?” Kyle asked.

“Whenever you want, babe,” Melinda replied before she kissed her on the cheek.

Monica and Bridgette rejoined the conversation then, and they all engaged in some small talk. Jill seemed to be only half-interested in whatever they were talking about, and Sophie wondered if Monica had set her up. If she’d done so, she was really bad at it because Jill was all the way on the other side of the booth, and they could hardly talk to each other over the sounds of the pianos and the others in the bar. Jill was cute, to be sure. But while she had that blonde, blue-eyed, all-American girl look about her, Sophie hadn’t ever really gone for that. Then again, Sophie was assuming Jill was gay or at least into women since she hung out with four lesbians, but she could be wrong.

She was enjoying the night, but after a while, she was beginning to regret not having found a chance to talk to Monica about maybe returning to Arnette. When Monica and Jill got up to go to the bathroom, she considered going with them in an attempt to get Monica alone for a moment, but they were gone before she could get up herself, and the moment had passed. This, of course, left her at a table with three women she didn’t really know all that well.

“So, do you have any embarrassing stories about my girlfriend? I’d love to hear one,” Bridgette said.

Sophie only really had one , so she leaned over the table and began telling it to a very interested Bridgette. When she was about to get to the funny part, though, she stopped mid-sentence because Monica was back now, and she was standing behind their booth, glaring at her.

“Was what?” Bridgette asked her when she didn’t finish her sentence.

“Uh… Nothing. She was just the best boss in the entire world and did nothing worth making fun of ever.” Sophie gave Monica a fake smile.

Monica sat down next to Bridgette and said, “Hi, babe.”

“No!” Bridgette laughed. “Soph was just about to finish telling me an embarrassing story about you.”

“I gathered,” Monica said as she continued to glare at Sophie playfully. “Did you want to continue?”

“Yes, but not with you sitting here. I’ll call Bridgette later and tell her the rest.”

She figured she could joke with Monica. They’d always managed a good friendship outside of the office. She didn’t work for the woman anymore – Monica had invited her for a night out with her friends – but this gave Sophie a chance, she thought, to transition to the topic of work.

“I was–” she started.

“You two exchanged numbers?” Monica got out before Sophie could finish her own sentence.

She was too slow, so Monica hadn’t even heard her, and now, they’d already moved on. In fact, the whole night had been like this. No one had intentionally interrupted everyone else, but this group of women seemed to be able to go from one topic to another with ease and no segues while Sophie, the newest one at the table, was trying to keep up.

“We’re starting a group text,” Melinda said.

“Just to make fun of me?” Monica asked with a playful expression.

Sophie had always liked her as a person, but she never would have described the Monica Arnette she knew in New York as playful. She liked this side to her friend and wondered if New Orleans had worked its wonders on her somehow in her brief time here, or maybe it was Bridgette, her new girlfriend, who seemed to always be making heart eyes at Monica.

“No, babe. So that we can all talk easily. You’re in there. You didn’t check your messages, did you?”

“While I was peeing? No, I didn’t,” Monica replied.

Sophie had missed what she felt like was her shot for the night, but she could ask Monica if she wanted to grab lunch this week and bring it up then. It would probably be better to do it one-on-one, without pianos playing right behind them, anyway.

Later, as they were talking about one of Kyle’s apparent two houses in the city, Sophie watched as Monica began to blush, and Bridgette appeared to be moving her hand somewhere she probably shouldn’t be moving it to in public. Sophie looked away and chuckled under her breath, but she could predict what was about to come next.

“I think I’m ready to go,” Bridgette said. “Mon?”

“Yes. I mean, whenever is fine with me.”

“Have a good rest of the night,” Melinda teased as she chuckled at their obviousness.

“Oh, I will ,” Bridgette said.

Sophie had to laugh, too, because clearly, these two were very much in love and couldn’t wait to get their hands on each other. Monica glanced at her as if she were making sure it was okay that she would be leaving her with her friends, so she smiled to show her that it was. When Monica walked out with her girlfriend, Sophie looked around the table, wondering what they’d all start talking about now that she’d have to try to keep up with.

“Well, I think we’re going to call it a night, too,” Kyle spoke. “I have a long article to translate tomorrow, and Mel is opening.”

Sophie had learned over the course of the night that Kyle was a French translator and that Jill and Melinda both worked as local tour guides. Melinda was going to take over the NOLA Guides office one day, maybe pretty soon, and Jill loved what she did, walking people around the city and showing them the things they might miss otherwise. Sophie wondered for a minute if they were hiring because that had to be more fun than what she did all day.

“So, I think they all just conspired to set us up,” Jill said once Kyle and Melinda had said their goodbyes and left the booth.

“Oh. Really?”

“Yup. I think it was probably Monica’s idea, but Bridgette went along with it because she’s deep in lust and probably love, too, but it’s the lust driving tonight, at least. Kyle and Mel would’ve stayed longer, but they saw an opportunity to leave us here alone to get to know each other. I know Mel. This is just her style.”

“So, you’re…”

“Gay? Definitely. You?”

“Yeah. Monica and I kind of bonded over that when we worked together: two lesbian women, taking the corporate world by storm.”

“How did that go for you two?”

“I think the storm subsided for me when I left Arnette.”

“Did you and Monica ever…”

“No! God, no! She was my boss. Well, more like my boss’ boss. There were more managerial layers than that between us, I think. She’s the owner’s daughter. We just had a thing in common and then found that we liked hanging out while we walked from one meeting to another. Nothing like that ever between us.”

“She’s gorgeous. Bridgette is lucky.” Jill shrugged.

“She is. Monica’s great.” Sophie smiled. “And you’re not really interested in a setup, are you?”

“Not really,” Jill replied. “I want to fall in love. I want to meet someone, and it’s not you. You seem great. I’m just in a weird mood tonight.”

“Why is that?”

“Because Mel is probably my closest friend. We work together at NOLA Guides, and we weren’t super close until maybe recently, but it was nice to have her invite me to things like this. Then, she met Kyle, and all of a sudden, she–”

“Was busy a lot or bringing her girlfriend everywhere?” Sophie guessed.

“Yes. And I want a girlfriend to bring everywhere, too. I had Bridgette – or, I thought I did – but then–”

“You and Bridgette?” she asked.

“No, not like that. I meant as a friend. She was single. I was single. We went out a couple of times to try to become un single, or at least meet women to see what happens, but then she met Monica, and now, they’re talking about Monica leaving her company and moving here.”

“Monica’s leaving Arnette?”

Sophie found herself much more interested in this conversation now. She leaned over the table, pushing her empty drink glass aside to make room for her arms and her hands, which she clasped together in front of her.

“I guess. I don’t think it’s happening tomorrow or anything, but she wants to leave. That’s what Bridge said, anyway.”

Sophie swallowed, not expecting that at all. Monica was supposed to be the next CEO; she had been groomed for it. But she’d also be very good at it, from what Sophie could remember about them working together. She’d expected that Monica’s father would’ve retired a couple of years ago, but he’d hung on this long. Sophie didn’t know who would take over once Monica was gone if this was true. Maybe it was just a girlfriend’s wishful thinking because if Monica left Arnette, she could move here to be with Bridgette. She didn’t know, but she’d ask Monica when they talked next.

“Hey, do you want to get out of here? There’s a bar I like better than this place that’s across the street. A little more my scene,” Jill said. “I’ll buy you a drink if you let me complain more about my friends and how they’re ditching me to fall in love.”

Sophie laughed and said, “Sure. Why not?”

After they paid their bill, they had to practically push through the Quarter crowd. It was that time of year in New Orleans: tourists were beginning to multiply like rabbits and congregate in the streets, enjoying the fact that they could drink anywhere and everywhere and at all hours of the day. Once they were through the sea of people, they were inside the bar and looking around for a table. Jill spotted one and pulled Sophie along.

“Oh, we–” A woman started to say when she bumped into Sophie just as they reached the table. “Hi.”

“Hi,” Sophie replied as she took in the dark-brown eyes and short black hair of the woman standing in front of her now. “Sorry. What?”

“I just…”

“We were going to sit here,” another woman spoke, pointing down toward the tall, round table Sophie and Jill had been able to take.

“Oh. We can share, can’t we?” Jill offered to the other woman.

“Yeah, uh… no problem,” the first woman replied. “Bryce,” she added as she held out her hand to Sophie.

“Sophie,” she said and shook it.

Bryce was wearing a black short-sleeved button-down shirt and some gray slacks that had her looking like an elegant soft butch, and Sophie internally swooned. She only hoped that she didn’t swoon externally , too, because she loved the type, always had, and Bryce definitely fit the bill.

“You are?” Jill asked the other woman.

“Kelsey.”

“Jill,” Jill introduced herself.

“And this is Megan,” Bryce added when a third woman approached, carrying four drinks. “Where is Sean?”

“Bathroom,” Megan replied as she placed the drinks on the table. “Hi.”

“Hi. I’m Jill. That’s Sophie. Are you locals or tourists?”

Well, Jill was certainly direct, given the few things Sophie had heard her say tonight, but she guessed that worked well for her, too, because she wouldn’t mind knowing the answer to that question, and she hadn’t thought to ask it herself.

“Tourists,” Megan replied.

“You?” Bryce asked as she looked only at Sophie.

“Oh. I live here. So does Jill.”

“Yeah? Cool,” Bryce said. “Do you live… together ?”

“No, Jill and I met tonight,” she said and then promptly shook her head. “Not like that. Not like we’re here together or that we’re–”

“We’re friends,” Jill interjected. “She means that we’re friends but is using a lot of words to say it, for some reason.”

“We’re all friends, too,” Kelsey shared. “Well, Sean and Bryce dated before, but they’re friends now.”

“Cool,” Jill replied. “So, I’ll grab us drinks and be right back, okay?”

“Okay,” Sophie said, not caring at all what kind of drink Jill brought her because she couldn’t stop staring at the dimple on Bryce’s right cheek.