Page 13

S ophie was sitting in yet another unnecessary meeting. It was her third of the day and during lunch, which meant she was starving. They hadn’t brought lunch in for them because that would mean they actually cared enough about their employees to make sure they ate. On top of that, the meeting was going long. It was supposed to only be an hour, but it was bordering on two at this point, and the manager making a presentation, her boss, was only on his twentieth slide, which she could see was out of thirty.

Sophie silently prayed that the last ten slides were some appendices that they could all review on their own time and that he wasn’t also about to go through them, but then, he clicked, and they were on slide twenty-one, and there was no sign of said appendix. She was used to this. They had at least two to three meetings like this a week, and normally, they didn’t bother her because she could sit back, relax, and daydream. She didn’t actually need to pay attention, so she could picture herself at another company, working in a job she actually loved. Some meetings, for the first few years at least, she’d pictured herself having sex with a nameless and faceless woman. That helped get her through. The woman would be everything Sophie wanted and needed in bed. They would wake up together after, and she’d make them coffee. They’d arrange another date, and during these two-hour meetings, she could sometimes see that daydream through all the way to their wedding day or even to them with twins in cribs. Yes, there were twins, and they were identical. Sometimes, they were boys, and other times, they were girls. During the particularly boring meetings, she’d even give them names, and she’d picture taking care of them with her wife. Sometimes, the twins were cute and quiet, and she and her wife were perfect parents. Other times, the babies wouldn’t stop crying, and they had to change diapers and were exhausted. Even in Sophie’s dreams, there was still an element of realism.

As the presenter moved on to slide twenty-two, which was a solid slide of text that no one could read because it was in fourteen-point font, Sophie knew that the reason today’s meeting was driving her absolutely crazy was that she’d been messaging with Bryce all night and all day so far. It was email after email, which was strange, but neither of them had asked for a phone number yet in order to text or call, and as much as Sophie wanted to hear Bryce’s voice or see her on FaceTime, this felt right for now. They hadn’t had enough time to get to know one another before, and email gave them both a little space. She wasn’t sure why it felt that way, but texting could be intrusive, and it was far too easy to reply constantly. Email involved more, and she could take her time to respond if they were discussing something that she needed to think about. She wondered if Bryce felt the same way since she hadn’t asked for Sophie’s number, either.

Over an hour ago, she’d felt her phone, which she had left on vibrate instead of on silent like she normally did during meetings, shake in her pocket. It had been a short shake. Well, it had been three short shakes, which she’d set to mean that she’d gotten an email notification when she’d first gotten the phone. A half hour ago, she had felt those three short shakes again, and while that could have been spam, she suspected it was Bryce sending her a follow-up email.

It was cute, Sophie thought as they moved on to slide twenty-three, which was a picture of a pie chart that she knew her boss had no idea how to read because he was trying to explain that the green section represented new clients when it was actually the yellow one. Tuning him out, she went back to thinking about Bryce’s emails. Because Sophie had sent her two in the beginning, they’d somehow ended up with multiple email threads that they had silently agreed to keep going for some reason. Sophie smiled because she liked that. She liked that Bryce had felt compelled to respond to the first email Sophie had sent her, too, so that it wouldn’t feel left out or alone.

“Sophie, did you have a question?”

“What?”

“You made a sound. Did you have a question?”

Her boss was staring at her expectantly.

“Oh, no,” she said. “Sorry.”

She’d made a sound? What sound had she made? She’d been thinking about their first kiss. Had she moaned? Gasped? The rest of the room wasn’t looking at her, so that was, thankfully, unlikely. She returned her attention to slide twenty-four and prayed for him to wrap things up soon. When he finally and blissfully reached slide thirty, which was just a giant question mark, Sophie looked around the room.

“Any questions?” her boss asked.

Sophie closed her eyes and prayed for no questions. The presentation was very clear, considering he had read exactly what was on the slides, and her boss had corrected the whole green versus yellow fiasco with the pie chart. No one should have any questions.

“I was wondering if you could go back to slide thirteen,” someone said.

Sophie was going to murder someone in this room by the end of the day. She would never meet Bryce in person again because she would be in jail for homicide. Maybe Bryce would come visit her or something. She glared at the guy who hadn’t thought to ask questions about slide thirteen when they were on slide thirteen.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” she stated as she stood.

“But we’re doing the Q&A,” her boss said.

“I don’t have any questions or answers,” she replied and pushed her chair under the table.

She really did have to go to the bathroom because they had been trapped in that room for over two hours now, and she’d finished her coffee just before the meeting. She hadn’t gone then because she’d been too busy responding to Bryce’s email to even notice that the meeting was about to start, and she’d been regretting that decision for well over an hour now. She made her way to the bathroom, which was a single-stall situation, locked the door, let out a giant breath, and pulled out her phone.

Sophie,

I think Kelsey might have a thing for Megan. Either that, or she’s just being really clingy to her right now. Megan met someone recently, and they’re dating. Kels seems to be spending more and more time with Megs, too. I mean, it’s not like they didn’t spend time together before, but Megs told Sean and me about them apparently falling asleep on sofas and in Kelsey’s bed one time after watching movies. As far as I know, they’ve never done that in the past, but Megs told me the other day that they’ve been doing that for about six months now. I’m crazy to think that Kelsey would be considering her feelings, right? She’s always dated guys and said that she’s straight. I want to respect that because that’s important, but I’ve seen her lately with Megan, and they feel very much like a couple.

Bryce

Sophie smiled as she pulled up the second email.

Sophie,

This meeting must be the longest meeting in the history of meetings. Maybe even longer than meetings where leaders of nations decide if their country goes to war. Either that, or you’ve completely forgotten about me. I’m going to assume the former.

What’s your favorite color? I realized we’ve done favorite movies, books, TV shows, and foods, but not favorite color. Mine is gray. Is that weird? My mom always said it was weird that gray was my favorite color. When I was in high school, I had a ton of gray clothes. One day, she went through my closet, counted the ratio of gray to other colors, and said it was something like eight to one. We went shopping the next day, and I became the proud owner of red shirts, blue shirts, and a few yellow ones. She even got me a navy-blue skirt. You should know that I hate skirts. I hate wearing them, I mean. I have no problem with other women wearing them, if you are, for example, a woman who likes wearing skirts. I’m honestly not sure how I ever thought I was straight. Even then, I was giving signals. If I look back at the posters on my wall, I remember putting up an obligatory poster of some teen heartthrob because the other girls all had the same poster, but I didn’t really stare at it and think that I wanted to date him or do things with him. I don’t remember thinking about that with women, either, but when I had boyfriends, it always felt off. I probably should’ve figured it out then, but it took a long time. I’m glad I did, though, because I’m good now. I love who I am and that part of me. I kept it from my parents, which I shouldn’t have done, but I didn’t know how to tell them. I have two older, perfect sisters who both married and started having kids by the time they were twenty-five. My mom just kept waiting for me to tell her I was seeing someone, but I never introduced Sean to them as my girlfriend. It helped that we never lived together, so we didn’t have to pretend to be roommates. After Sean and I broke up, there wasn’t much of a point in telling them. I wasn’t seeing anyone, and my oldest sister was going through a divorce, so the focus was on her and the kids. I had no plans of telling them until I’d found someone I saw a future with. Then, you happened, and I realized that I wanted to tell them this story. I wanted them to know that I’d met someone who made my heart race and that I’d been so excited that night because you seemed to be someone I needed to know, to be with, to tell them about. I know that sounds crazy because it was a few hours, but those few hours made me realize that I needed to tell them who I was, so I did, and they were fine with it. I told them about you, and my mom said that she thought it was sweet that I wanted to find you. I haven’t told them that I’ve found you yet, but I will. Having them know this part of me is so nice. I never thought I’d feel relief like this, but I do, and now that I’ve found you, it’s like everything is falling into place.

Bryce

She had to reread that one because it was significantly longer than the emails they’d been sending so far. It was also more powerful and told her more about Bryce than just learning about her favorite movie. She went to respond, but there was a knock at the door, and she looked up at it.

“Anyone in there?” someone asked.

“Uh… Yeah. One second,” she replied and tucked her phone into her pocket because she really did need to pee now.

Sophie hated that there was only one bathroom in the place. It made things way more awkward than they needed to be. Once she washed her hands and opened the door, she rushed past the woman waiting without saying a word and got back to her desk. There, she opened her email app on her computer this time and began typing.

Bryce,

Kelsey might be into Megan? Interesting. That’s a development I wasn’t expecting. Do you really think she might be looking for something more than friendship? If Megan has just started dating someone, it could be that Kelsey sees her spending more time with someone else and is jealous, but not in a more-than-friends kind of way. I know when Monica started dating Bridgette, I got a little jealous. We’d only just reconnected as friends, and I already don’t have too many of those these days, but she became a lot less available when she and Bridgette got together. It doesn’t mean that I want to date Monica. So, maybe it’s just that. I don’t know. You’d know way better than me, obviously.

Sophie

She hit send and went to reply to the second email.

Bryce,

It indeed was close to the longest meeting in history, but we’ve, unfortunately, had longer. This time, there were pie charts and text that was far too small for anyone to read from the back of the room, so it was exciting, to say the least. Have I mentioned that I hate my job? I do. I hate it. Monica helped me get an interview with Arnette Assets. I should have asked her a year ago, but well, you were a distraction for a long time there. Anyway, it’s all scheduled, and I’m nervous because this is a big chance for me. I haven’t been able to find anything else, and now, I have a real shot to do something I liked before, and I wouldn’t have to leave New Orleans.

About my favorite color: it’s green. Like that dark-green of evergreen trees. Is it just called evergreen, then? Probably not evergreen-green, right? I don’t know, but that’s my favorite.

I think it’s amazing that you told your parents, Bryce. Coming out is a big deal, and it’s different for everyone. Realizing you are gay can take time, and telling the people you love can be the scariest thing you ever have to do. I’m so glad that meeting me somehow got you to do that and that they know you better because of it. They sound like good people if they’ve accepted you and support you. My parents do, too. They’ve never had a problem with it, which is a big deal sometimes in the South. My mom came from a strict Catholic family, where being gay was a sin, but she met my dad, who is all sorts of Southern Baptist, and they fell in love. It wasn’t accepted by my mother’s family at first, but she didn’t give him up. They got married, and then I was born, but they still didn’t accept it. It wasn’t until later that her mom finally came back into her life and began supporting their marriage and me as a result. I didn’t even meet my grandmother and grandfather until I was four years old. Then, they started spoiling me. They still tell me that I’m too light-skinned sometimes because they’re both from Mexico, and with my father’s pasty-pale complexion, I ended up looking lighter than they’d wanted of their grandchildren. We laugh about it now and make fun of my dad when he tries to pronounce Spanish words. It’s funny. It’s family. I love them, so I’m happy that you’re able to be your full self with your family now, too.

Sophie

By the time Sophie sent that message, she’d received a reply from the first one. This was how it had been ever since their first exchange last night. It was slightly exhausting and disorganized but also a lot of fun.

Sophie,

At some point during our emails, you stopped responding with ‘Your Sophie’ and just left it at ‘Sophie.’ Should I be concerned about that?

Your Bryce

That was the first time she’d used that sign-off in an email.

“ Your Bryce,” she said to herself. “God, I hope so.”