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S he couldn’t keep doing this, but she couldn’t do anything else, either. Bryce stared at her phone and read the latest email from Sophie.

Bryce,

Yes.

Your Sophie

That was it. Just a simple yes. Yet, it meant so much to Bryce. They had stayed up again, messaging each other over email, which was getting a little ridiculous, communicating like that, but neither of them had said as much to the other. Bryce wanted nothing more than to hear Sophie’s voice, to see her face, and to move past emails, but they’d settled in these past couple of days, and it was working for them. It had been at least until Bryce had finally messaged Sophie around four in the morning, asking her one question.

My Sophie,

Should I come for a visit?

Your Bryce

That had been it. She’d risked it all. She knew that Sophie couldn’t easily get away from work while she could work anywhere, so it made sense for her to be the one to offer. She just wasn’t entirely sure if the offer should’ve come so soon. They probably should’ve at least talked on the phone before she offered to pack her things and hit the road – or, in this case, buy a plane ticket because she wasn’t sure she could avoid getting ten speeding tickets while she tried to make her way to Sophie.

She sighed when she read Sophie’s email. Sophie had said yes. Bryce should visit.

“What are you going to do?” Kelsey asked.

“Go.” She shrugged. “Obviously.”

“When? Like, now?”

“I’m going to ask her,” she replied. “I’ve just been thinking about how nervous I am. What if I’m crazy? What if we both are? What if when we meet, it’s horribly awkward, and the chemistry we had is gone?”

“What if you keep talking to me, and you never get to see her again?”

Bryce stopped in place then. She’d been walking from the living room to her kitchen to deposit her coffee cup into the sink to deal with later, and she stopped. The thought of never seeing Sophie again was one that she was all too familiar with, but now that she’d found her, thinking like that felt even worse somehow.

“I’ll message her right now,” she said as she pulled her phone out of the back pocket of her jeans.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Kelsey asked from her spot on the sofa.

“Yes.” Bryce walked back and started typing her message to Sophie.

“Megs… Is she good?”

“Good?” Bryce asked after hitting send.

She sat down next to Kelsey, who seemed like she was somewhere else entirely.

“Yeah. Like, with this new girl she’s seeing – is it good?”

“I think so. I don’t know. It’s been what, one date? Maybe two; I’m not sure. I’ve been a little preoccupied recently,” she said.

“Yeah,” Kelsey let out, but that was all for a while before she finally added, “We’ve been getting closer.”

“You and Megs?”

“We’ve been hanging out a lot recently. Sean was busy with work and pining over you, complaining about this Sophie thing all the time, so Megs and I just started hanging out alone. And no offense: you were busy, too, pining over Sophie, so it was just easier for the two of us to spend time together making fun of both of you.”

Bryce laughed softly and said, “I guess I’ll let that go.”

“Thanks,” Kelsey replied. “And it’s like now that she’s met someone, she doesn’t want to be alone with me. Getting her to pick me up for dinner the other night was like pulling teeth. She kept saying she’d just meet me here, but my place is on the way to yours from her apartment, so logic prevailed.”

“You think she’s avoiding you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Kelsey shrugged.

“And that bothers you?”

“Yes. I don’t want her to avoid me at all, but I kind of wish…”

“You knew why?”

“No, I know why,” Kelsey shared.

“You do?”

“I’m not an idiot, Bryce. I know Megan likes me.”

Bryce swallowed and said, “Likes you?”

“You and Sean both know it, too,” Kelsey replied, rolling her eyes. “I didn’t do anything to make her feel that way. I’ve also tried to keep my dating life away from her because I don’t want to hurt her. It’s not like there’s been that much to talk about, but when I met a new guy, I talked him down a lot in front of her because the look in her eyes when she found out I was dating someone was awful for me. It was like I’d broken her heart, and I never want to break her heart.”

“You can’t help how she feels about you and that you don’t feel the same way about her.”

“But–” Kelsey stopped. “I don’t know anymore.”

“Know what?”

“She’s just… She’s the best, Bryce. She’s the best of us. She sees good in everything. I’m the logical, level-headed one, bordering on pessimist on most days. Sean’s the gloomy one because she can’t be with you and can’t move on from you. You’re the one who exists in reality a little but leans more toward the possibilities, and Megs is the eternal optimist who we all look to to cheer us up.” Kelsey paused. “But she has no one to cheer her up.”

“Until now, maybe.”

“Yeah.” Kelsey sighed as she looked out the window. “She’s amazing, and I miss her.”

“Have you told her that?”

“No, she’s happy.”

“If you know how she feels about you, you have to be careful telling her that you miss her, Kels. Make sure she still knows that you’re friends and that she should see where this goes with her new person.” Bryce watched as Kelsey turned to her, looking almost miserable. “Unless there’s something I don’t know.”

“I have never been attracted to a woman,” Kelsey said.

“I know.”

“I’ve never thought of one like that.”

“I know,” she repeated.

“But…”

“But?”

“But with Megs, it’s…”

“Different?” Bryce asked.

“How was it for you with Sean? You were friends first, right?”

“Very briefly. You and Megs have been friends for years.”

“Yeah, but you were friends first, and you realized you liked Sean and were gay at the same time.”

“I realized I was gay a little before that. When I met Sean and started hanging out with her, I felt comfortable enough to actually admit it to myself and to her. We started dating right after. To be clear, Kels, I never told Sean I was straight. I never told her anything about my sexuality when we first met. I think she could tell that I was gay already, so it wasn’t something we had to discuss until– Well, until she kissed me for the first time. But we had sex right after that, so there wasn’t much talking.”

“Your point?”

“You’ve told us all repeatedly and for years that you’re straight. You’ve only dated guys. And while Megan has been trying to move on because she thinks it won’t ever be possible to have you how she wants to have you, you’re now maybe starting to see her differently.”

“Yeah,” Kelsey said as she looked down at her hands in her lap.

“I’m saying you should be careful.”

“I know,” Kelsey said. “Actually, I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing. What am I saying? I’ve been friends with lesbians forever, but I’ve never even kissed a girl. Not even in college, when everyone was doing it.”

“What kind of college did you go to?” Bryce laughed.

“Bryce, come on,” Kelsey said, clearly annoyed with the joke.

“Do you want to kiss Megs?” Bryce asked seriously.

“I think so,” Kelsey said with the softest smile Bryce had ever seen. “She’s so soft, Bry. I held her one night when she slept over. I didn’t even do it on purpose. When I woke up, my arm was around her, and my hand was under her shirt on her stomach. Megs made this cute little sound and rested back against me, and I thought about how soft she was and how good she smelled.”

“Guys aren’t soft or smell good?” Bryce joked.

“You’ve slept with them. Are they?”

Bryce laughed and said, “It’s been a very long time. I’ve tried to push all those times out of my memory.”

“It’s dangerous for me, to have feelings for her.”

“No, it’s dangerous if you’re not careful; if you don’t think about Megs and just go to her house and blurt them out without thinking about the fact that she’s at least dating someone.”

“I’m not going to tell her,” Kelsey replied. “I don’t even think that I have anything to tell her.”

“Sounds like you have some more thinking to do.”

“Yes. And right now, I’m thinking that she’s avoiding me, and I hate it, but I don’t know what to do about it because I know why she’s doing it,” Kelsey grunted.

“Sorry, Kels. I’m not sure I have good advice here.”

“It’s fine. Let’s focus on your thing. Believe it or not, that might be easier to handle now that you’ve found her. Has Sophie replied yet?” Kelsey leaned over Bryce, who opened the app on her phone.

“Yeah,” she replied. “She said yesterday.”

“That’s it?”

“No.” Bryce laughed. “I asked her when I could visit, and she said yesterday but then added whenever I can get away.”

“You can get away whenever. You blog for a living,” Kelsey said.

“Want to help me buy a plane ticket?”

“Oh, I can be helpful, actually.” Kelsey pulled out her own phone. “I have a free ticket for anywhere from when my flight got overbooked and I got booted to the next day. You can take it. I’m not going to use it, and it expires soon.”

“Really?”

“Yes. And because I’m a platinum member, I even have a few upgrades, so if you’re interested, I could try to fly you there in style. Consider it my contribution to your love story.”

“We don’t know if it’s love yet,” Bryce said. “But that would be amazing. Thanks, Kels.”

“Yeah.”

Kelsey focused on opening the airline app while Bryce stared at her. It sounded like her friend might be struggling with something she wasn’t prepared to address yet, and Bryce could understand that. She’d had the same struggle years ago that led her to dating Sean and meeting her three best friends in the world. She and Sean hadn’t spoken since dinner, but Bryce knew the woman, so she understood that she needed some space. Bryce would give that to her. She didn’t want to hurt Sean in the same way Kelsey didn’t want to hurt Megan, but she also had to see this Sophie thing through. She had to know if she and Sophie were supposed to be more than one night in a bar. She’d do that without filling Sean in, hoping to lessen the blow. She’d already gotten a ton of comments about how people were waiting for an update to her story on her blog, but Sean read it, so she’d give it some time; at least while she and Sophie were still trying to determine what they were to one another or what they could be.

She messaged Sophie back and told her she was looking up flights now. Kelsey booked her one, which sadly wasn’t for yesterday, but it was the only flight they could find that had a seat to New Orleans available this time of year.

Kelsey left not long after, but even though Bryce wasn’t leaving today or tomorrow, she rushed to her bedroom, pulled out her suitcase, and started packing. At first, she just threw clothes into the bag. Then, she looked quizzically at what she had tossed in and shook her head. She pulled everything out and repacked it with better options. She did that three more times before she finally felt like she had good options for day and night, cold and hot, fancy and casual, and went back out to the living room, where she picked up her phone and found a reply from Sophie.

My Bryce,

When you have it booked, send me all the information. I want to try to pick you up if I can. I might have to work. I don’t know. But if I can, I’ll be there. I’ll be the woman in the blazer with a sign that has your name on it and some flowers. Do you like flowers? Should I do the flowers thing? Maybe the sign is enough? You tell me.

Your Sophie

Bryce laughed and messaged back.

My Sophie,

You can skip the flowers. I’m allergic to most of them anyway, and I don’t want to sneeze when I first see you. I’ll email you my confirmation info, so you’ll have all the details. It’s during the day, so I don’t know if you can get away from work or not, but I’ll take you in that sexy blazer and the sign with my name on it any day.

Your Bryce

Minutes later, she had another response.

My Bryce,

I just got the confirmation. You had to book a flight for the one time I cannot get away from the office? I can’t even call in sick. We have this lame daylong company meeting thing that we are all required to be at. Someone called in sick last year, and a month later, he got demoted. The rumor mill said it was because he skipped this stupid meeting. I’m so close to getting out of this place, but I can’t be sure of the job with Arnette yet, so I have to go. God, I hate my job right now. Do you hate me?

Your Sophie

Bryce would miss being picked up at the airport, but she supposed it was better that way. She would have time to pull herself together at the hotel she’d booked; maybe even take a shower and dress up before they met in person for the first time in over a year. Yes, she wanted that.

My Sophie,

I understand. And don’t worry about it. Honestly, I’m going to be so nervous; it’s probably better that I check into my hotel and try to compose myself before I get to finally see those eyes again.

Your Bryce