Page 2

B ryce couldn’t stop staring. She had to look like a total creeper. Who stared at a woman they had just met when their friends were all talking around them? Total creepers. Yes, that was who did that. And now, she was one of them. Still, she couldn’t help but look into Sophie’s eyes. They were this deep, soulful brown, where Bryce had always thought of her own brown eyes as muddy. Sophie’s caramel skin looked soft and inviting. What? Had she just said that about a woman’s skin? Inviting? What the hell was wrong with her?

“So, you live here?” she asked, even though she knew that already because they’d already talked about it.

“Uh… yeah,” Sophie replied. “I moved back about four years ago for a job.”

“Back?” Bryce asked.

“I lived here before. Well, not exactly here , in a different parish, but close enough from here. I moved away for college. I came back about four years ago.”

“Where did you move?”

“New York. Brooklyn, technically. I got a job in Manhattan out of school. I missed it here, though. I like the quiet life, I guess.”

“New York is noisy, I’ve heard.”

“You’ve never been?”

Bryce shook her head and took a sip of her drink.

“I think I’m going to go back to the hotel,” Sean told her, interrupting not only their conversation but their eye contact when she tried to push between Bryce and Sophie.

“We just got here,” Bryce said.

“Yeah, but I’m still tired. All that partying this week. I’m calling it a night,” Sean replied with a glare that Bryce recognized all too well.

“Not alone,” Bryce told her. “It’s not safe.”

“I’ll go with her,” Megan offered. “I’m tired, too.”

“We just got drinks,” Kelsey noted, looking at both of them. “And you were wide awake, like, five minutes ago when I paid that shot girl to dump that test tube shot of God-only-knows-what down your throat.” She pointed to Sean.

“Yes. And now, I’m tired.” Sean glared over at Kelsey.

“Megs, you’re tired?” Kelsey asked. “What happened to partying all night long and crashing until noon tomorrow?”

“I overestimated my abilities,” Megan said as she looked over at Bryce.

Bryce knew what was going on, but she’d never say anything because Megan had only told her in confidence that she was in love with Kelsey and had been since they’d all become friends five years prior. It wasn’t just that Megan was in love with her. It was also that Kelsey was straight, and about an hour ago, a guy had bought her a drink, and they’d ended up dancing in front of Megan. Not the junior high school kind of dancing, either. He’d had his hands all over her, and she’d grinded against him. Bryce had tried to distract Megan, but she couldn’t exactly fault Kelsey because the woman had no idea that Megan loved her. Even if she did, though, it wasn’t like Kelsey could control the fact that she wasn’t attracted to women.

“Sean, you ready?” Megan asked.

“Let’s go,” Sean said.

Bryce also assumed she knew what that was about. She had dated Sean for close to two years three years ago. They’d both been hanging on to something that wasn’t meant to be because they genuinely cared for one another, but they weren’t all that compatible in bed, and that had led them to stop having regular sex too early on in their relationship. Afraid they’d lose each other, neither had said anything until nearly two years had passed, and people had started to wonder why they hadn’t even moved in together yet. When it had ended, they’d been determined to remain friends, and things had been fine ever since, with the exception of when Bryce went on dates or showed interest in other women. She hadn’t talked to Sean about it because it wasn’t really worth it; none of Bryce’s relationships had gone far enough for it to matter. But when that did happen one day, Sean would have to get on board because they were clearly not meant to be together, and Bryce wanted to be happy. She wanted Sean to be happy, too, and not give her glares like that just because Bryce was talking to an attractive woman, causing her to have to explain herself to said attractive woman should she notice.

“It was nice to meet you,” Sophie said to Sean before she turned to nod at Megan.

“You too,” Megan replied with her patented, easy, soft smile.

“Yeah,” Sean added and walked around the table toward Megan. “Let’s go.”

“I just got you a beer because I realized when I got to the bar that I have no idea what you drink,” Jill said as she placed a bottle onto the table in front of Sophie.

“Thank you. This is fine,” Sophie replied.

“So, Kelsey, where are you all from?” Jill asked.

“Tennessee, technically. But I grew up in Michigan.”

“Tennessee?”

Bryce turned to Sophie, who was looking at her, asking her that question.

“Yeah,” she replied. “I moved there for school and ended up sticking around; kind of like you, I guess.”

Sophie nodded and took a drink of her beer.

“Do you want–” Bryce stopped herself and glanced over at Jill and Kelsey, who were talking now. “I mean, do you want to…”

“Talk?” Sophie asked, helping her along.

“Yeah, talk,” she said. “I think there’s an upstairs here.”

“There is,” Sophie confirmed. “It’s usually not as busy as the downstairs because most people are too drunk to notice the stairs.”

Bryce chuckled and asked, “Do you want to go up there?”

“Yes,” Sophie replied with a nod.

“Hey, Kels?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re going upstairs. You okay here?” Bryce asked.

“Yeah,” her friend replied.

“Jill?” Sophie checked, too.

“I’m good. You go,” Jill replied.

Bryce picked up her drink and motioned for Sophie to go first. As they started walking, she couldn’t help herself and placed her hand on the small of Sophie’s back, guiding her, despite the fact that of the two of them, Sophie was the one who actually knew where she was going, while Bryce had only seen a balcony from outside, so she’d just assumed that there was an upstairs. Sophie didn’t push her hand away, but as they started making their way through the now-dense crowd, Bryce had to pull it away herself because there wasn’t enough room for them to walk side by side. When she then glanced down, to her surprise, she found Sophie’s hand extended behind her, as if Sophie had done this with her a thousand times before. Bryce took the hand and let Sophie guide her through the thick crowd, up a skinny staircase that was sticky with spilled alcohol, and around a corner until they were on the second floor.

Having arrived there, Bryce expected Sophie to drop her hand, but she didn’t. Instead, she just pulled Bryce along around another corner. The entire upstairs was a wide-open space with very few tables and chairs in one section. Where Sophie had pulled them, though, there were two comfortable chairs and a sofa. The chairs were occupied, but the small sofa was miraculously empty.

“Here?” Sophie asked.

“You know all the secret spots, huh?” Bryce joked as they walked side by side now, still with joined hands.

The crowd wasn’t as big up here. If Bryce had to guess, she’d say there were probably only thirty or so people upstairs and over a hundred in the den of iniquity downstairs. It would probably get busier as the night went on, but Bryce guessed that Sophie was right: most tourists likely didn’t even notice the staircase hidden in the corner, or if they did, they probably assumed the stairs were for employees only. When they got to the sofa, Sophie let go of her hand, and Bryce was surprised to feel that she missed the brief connection.

“In case you’re wondering, it should be relatively clean. This is at least the tenth different sofa I’ve seen here since I moved back. Not that I come out a lot. I don’t, really. I only came out tonight to meet my friend who’d invited me. But when you go out to one bar in the Quarter, you always end up in at least one more that night, and, well, I come upstairs in these places when I can because they’re quieter and not as crowded, so I’ve noticed the sofa. I think they replace it a lot. The bars open early here, and not everyone comes to get totally wasted, so they have nicer seating for the early crowd. I’m talking way too much about this couch, aren’t I?” Sophie laughed at herself, and it was so damn cute.

“I like it.” Bryce shrugged. “And we can keep talking about the couch, if you want, but I’d honestly rather talk more about you.” She motioned for Sophie to sit.

When Sophie did, Bryce sat down next to her, leaving a small space between them. She took a drink and waited for the woman to say something.

“I’m pretty boring,” Sophie told her before she took a drink of her beer.

“Oh, I doubt that,” she said.

“No, really.” Sophie laughed lightly. “I push papers for a living.”

“Is there good money in that?” Bryce joked.

Sophie continued laughing and said, “Not really, no.”

“Bummer. I was looking for a sugar mama tonight.”

Sophie laughed louder at her joke, which made Bryce’s heart feel like it might just burst open inside her chest. She’d never felt that before by making a woman laugh; that feeling that didn’t really have words in the English language to describe it, but her heart fluttered, and her brain told her to make Sophie laugh again and again because the result made her happy. Bryce hadn’t made many women laugh like this , though, so maybe that was why she hadn’t felt this before. She had also never described her heart as feeling like it might burst open inside her chest, so that was new, too.

“Well, that’s definitely not me. I more move around digital files than push actual paperwork, but I’m middle management, and it’s boring, and I hate it.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Bryce said.

“Me too. I actually only came out with my friend tonight because she works for the company I used to work for. She’s about to take it over – or, at least, I thought she was – and I was going to see if she could get me a job. I used to work there, so I thought it would be a win-win for both of us. I’d start over, if that was all that was available, but I found out that she might be leaving the company tonight, so I don’t know if that’s even possible now.”

“You should still ask her,” Bryce suggested. “Maybe she can help, even if she’s leaving.”

“I’m sure she can; it’s her family’s company. I’d just feel bad about asking her when it sounds like she’s going through a lot of transitions.”

Bryce took a sip of her drink and took in Sophie’s sleek, sophisticated look. God, she was sexy in a blazer and tight jeans. How was it possible that it had taken Bryce until she was twenty-five years old to realize that she was gay? She’d only been with guys before that, and it hadn’t ever been exciting or good most of the time, but she hadn’t woken up to the fact that she liked women until right before she’d met Sean. They had fallen right into their relationship, and Bryce knew that was one of the reasons she’d stayed in it for so long. Sean had been her first woman, and Bryce had thought that was how it was supposed to be for the longest time. Now, she was staring back into Sophie’s eyes again, and she knew she’d never stared into Sean’s like this before.

“You’re beautiful,” she stated without thinking.

Yes, she had said it out loud. Yes, it had been unintentional. And yes, she was mortified now, so she needed to take a drink to cover the blush on her face.

“Thank you,” Sophie replied with a sweet smile. “So are you.” She reached out her hand, and Bryce couldn’t believe it when Sophie’s actual hand ran through her short black hair that often just fell down around her ears because Bryce hated using product to slick it back a little. “Sexy.”

“Sexy?” Bryce asked in a higher-pitched voice than she had planned on using.

“Yes,” Sophie replied with a soft laugh. “I like this.” She ran her hand through Bryce’s hair again.

“So do I. You can keep doing that for the rest of the night, if you want.” Bryce closed her eyes and leaned into the touch.

Sophie did it again, but her hand slid to Bryce’s neck this time, resting there for a second. Bryce opened her eyes, and they looked at one another for a long moment before Sophie dropped her hand back into her own lap. Bryce shifted a bit until her arm was over the back of the sofa, hoping that because they’d clearly been flirting and had even moved on to obvious touching, the conversation could go more in that direction.

“So, what do you do?” Sophie asked after she cleared her throat.

Not exactly the direction Bryce had been hoping for, but she didn’t mind talking to Sophie about anything, it seemed.

“I’m a food blogger.”

“A blogger?” Sophie took a drink.

“Yeah. I got a job out of college as a fact-checker for an online magazine and met someone who had a side hustle as a blogger. She taught me a lot about it, and then, she quit her day job at the magazine because she was able to support herself.”

“With blogging? There’s money in that ?”

Bryce laughed and said, “There can be. But my guess is you know that, and you were teasing me.”

“Yes,” Sophie said. “And you do it full-time now?”

“I do. It started on the side, but it took off, so now, I do it full-time, which is awesome. I have a pretty big local following, but there are a lot of people interested in it nationally, too. It’s mostly just me writing about the great food I eat. I have some recipes out there that I like to cook, but that part of the blog is pretty new. People like my takes on restaurants. I sometimes just pack up my car and drive for as long as I can stand and stop off at the first restaurant I see, which could be a dive, a barbeque joint attached to a gas station, or the fanciest place in town. Then, I go home, and I write about it. I make enough to get by, but I’m not at the A-list level of food bloggers or anything.”

“So, no sugar mama for me, either?”

Bryce laughed and said, “No, but my goal would be to get that kind of visibility on the blog and have a comfortable life. I don’t care if I get rich or anything; just comfortable is fine with me.”

“Me too,” Sophie said softly.

The music coming from the speakers got louder, and there was a deep bass beat from the song permeating their near-quiet space. It was slow enough that it felt sexy somehow. Like, if Bryce were to ask Sophie to dance right now, they’d be pressed up close together, and she’d be able to touch her everywhere. She wanted to ask her. She wanted to take Sophie back downstairs and walk her out onto the dance floor, taking full advantage of the song playing at that moment, getting her lips on Sophie’s neck to whisper something only Sophie could hear into her ear while she stood behind her, holding her and swaying to the beat with her. Bryce wanted to take this woman back to her hotel and slide on top of her, pressing their naked bodies together while she kissed Sophie everywhere.

There were two problems with that, of course. If they went downstairs to dance, they would lose this out-of-the-way comfortable sofa, and if she tried to take Sophie back to her hotel, she’d encounter Sean and Megan, who would be in their room because the four of them had decided to save money and get one room, sharing the two beds between them. They’d come to New Orleans to have fun, but none of them had planned on hooking up with anyone, and if they did, there was always the other person’s hotel room or apartment.

“I want to dance with you,” Bryce shared, deciding to be honest. “But I don’t want to lose this seat.”

“I’m not really a good dancer,” Sophie replied. “Especially to a song like this.”

“It’s just holding on to the other person and moving to the music,” Bryce said. “I’d lead.”

Sophie seemed to swallow before she replied, “Maybe another time. I don’t want to lose this seat, either.” She looked away for a second and then added, “And I’m worried that if you see me dance, you’d leave me on the dance floor for someone else.”

Bryce smiled when Sophie reconnected their eyes and said, “I don’t think that would happen.”