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“H ey,” Sean said.

“Hey,” Bryce replied.

“I didn’t read it, if that’s why you’re calling.”

“I wanted to talk to my friend,” Bryce said. “We usually talk every day.”

“Well, things are changing, aren’t they?” Sean asked with a sigh. “It’s fine, Bry. I get it. You two are together.”

“Does that mean that we can’t be friends anymore?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want us to stop being friends. I got used to you being around all the time. I don’t know that I really thought we would get back together after these many years – I’m not delusional – but it’s hard, being the one who was about to buy a ring, watching the one you wanted to buy it for move on with someone else. Thanks for the warning about the blog. It’s been even harder recently, watching it unfold online and seeing all the comments rooting for you guys. It’s not that I’m rooting against you. It’s just hard to see that.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” Bryce replied.

“Is she there with you?”

“She’s in the shower.”

“And you are?”

“At her place,” she replied.

“And you’re a couple now?”

“Yeah,” she said softly.

“But you’re not in the shower with her?”

Bryce smiled and said, “No. I wanted to talk to you.”

“Does she know about us? The whole ex part of our story, I mean?”

“I told her,” Bryce revealed.

“And she’s cool with us being friends and talking like this?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, she’s more secure than me, then.” Sean laughed a self-deprecating laugh.

“She knows you and I broke up a while ago.”

“And you’re there with her and not here with me, so I’m sure that helps, too.”

“Sean, I don’t know what happened,” Bryce confessed, leaning back onto the pillows behind her. “I knew you didn’t like the idea of me and Sophie, and I thought you still had feelings for me, but… I had no idea you were about to propose. I didn’t know you were still struggling with that. I wish I had. I wouldn’t have talked about the women I dated after you with you.”

“We’re friends, Bry. Friends do that.”

“But I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I know that,” Sean said. “I wouldn’t have loved you if you weren’t a good person, Bryce. And I was embarrassed. I got things so wrong with us, and then I kept holding on to it because I thought I couldn’t have been that wrong. I thought maybe you were, and we’d find our way back to one another one day. I think I only realized it when you met Sophie that that wasn’t going to happen, which was why I left. It wasn’t so much that I thought you two would end up together. It was that I saw the look in your eyes, and I’d never seen you look at anyone like that; not even me when we first started dating.” Sean paused. “I don’t know if she’s the one for you or not, but it was obvious then that I clearly wasn’t, and it hurt, hearing you talk about this woman you’d just met like she hung the moon while I’m sitting next to you thinking about how I’d almost gotten down on one knee in front of someone who never looked at me how she looked at some stranger in a bar.”

“Sean, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s my pride, and I’m trying to deal with that and let things go. It’s just hard.”

“Yeah,” Bryce said, not knowing what else to say.

“Look, I want you to be happy, Bry. If that’s Sophie, I want that for you. If it’s someone else, that’s fine, too. I know that it’s not me now, but I’ll be okay. I don’t want to lose my best friend. I just need a little time to adjust to the situation. I know you’ll bring her home to meet us soon, probably, and I want to be there to really meet her and be supportive. I just need to separate myself from things a little, okay?”

“Sure. Yeah.”

“So, I’ll skip the blogs for now, if that’s okay, and I’ll text you .”

“Okay. Whatever you want,” she said.

“I’ve got to run now. I’m doing some work.”

“I’ll talk to you later,” Bryce replied.

Sean hung up first, and Bryce stared at the phone for a moment, hoping that wouldn’t be the last time she’d talk to her. Sophie had opted to shower after their last round in bed, but Sean had texted Bryce back, and she’d wanted to try to talk to her instead of messaging and needed some privacy to do it. The water was still running, though, and Bryce was still naked, so she tossed her phone onto the bed and headed into the bathroom.

“Babe?” she said.

“Yeah?” Sophie replied.

Sophie’s bathroom only had a shower, and the door was glass and very much see-through. She smirked as she watched Sophie’s head go back and water run over it like she was in some kind of shampoo commercial.

“Yeah, I’m coming in,” she said to herself.

Bryce had intended on asking if she could join, but she could no longer ask. She needed to be in that shower with Sophie. She opened the door while Sophie rubbed her face, getting the water out of her eyes, and within seconds, Bryce had her pinned to the side wall.

“Oh,” Sophie said with a smile. “I guess we’re doing this now.”

“If this is shower sex, then yes, we’re definitely doing this .”

“I’m not sure I can take much more, babe. My body is sore,” Sophie said.

“I know. Mine is, too. But we can’t do this when I’m in Tennessee and you’re here, so I think we should make good use of the time we have and deal with the consequences later, don’t you?”

Sophie didn’t say anything when Bryce used her thigh to spread her legs apart. She didn’t stop her when Bryce knelt down in front of her and spread her legs even farther. She moaned when Bryce took her, gasped when Bryce slipped inside, and she moved her hips when Bryce sucked. She said Bryce’s name when she came. Only when Sophie came all the way down did Bryce stand up slowly and wipe her mouth.

Sophie opened her eyes then, smiled at her, and said, “God, you are good at that.”

“Was I good at the other thing we did earlier?”

“You know you were because I screamed so loud that I think I might get a noise complaint from my neighbor tomorrow.” Sophie wrapped her arms around Bryce’s neck and turned them so that Bryce was under the spray.

“So, you’d be interested in doing that again?”

“Very much so,” Sophie told her, dragging her hands down the front of Bryce’s body. “Probably tonight; making good use of our time together and all that.”

Bryce laughed a little and ran her hands through her now-wet hair.

“I can’t believe you bought that harness.”

“I didn’t own one before,” Sophie said. “And I wasn’t sure if things would go that way or not, but I figured I might as well be prepared.”

“I’m glad you were,” she replied. “Oh,” she let out when Sophie’s hand slid between her legs and began stroking her clit softly.

“You turned me back on, so now it’s your turn,” Sophie said.

◆◆◆

A few hours later, they were walking to a restaurant where they’d planned to meet with Jill, Melinda, and Kyle, so that Bryce could more properly meet Jill and meet Kyle and Melinda for the first time. In a way, it felt like they were doing everything all at once, but Bryce understood why. Had she lived here, they could’ve taken some of these steps more slowly, but because she would be leaving soon, they both wanted to take some of them now. Her girlfriend wanted her to meet her friends, but Bryce wanted to meet them as well. She had this protectiveness over Sophie, so knowing she had people who cared about her, who would be here whenever Bryce couldn’t be, was important to her.

“When you come to visit me, I’ll set something up so you can meet Kelsey and Megan.”

“Yeah? That would be nice,” Sophie said. “Not Sean? The call didn’t go well?”

“I guess it went about as well as it could’ve gone,” she replied. “She said that she would text me and that she knows it’s over with us and wants to still be friends. I think she just needs time now that I have someone. It was probably much easier when I was single and not talking to her about you.”

“Did she read the blog you just posted?”

“No. She thanked me for warning her.”

“I feel bad. Should I feel bad? I feel like I should. She’s important to you, and she’s hurting because of us.”

“Soph, you did nothing to cause Sean’s pain,” she said, squeezing Sophie’s hand. “And I really didn’t, either; at least, not on purpose. I think this is something she has to just let happen in order to move on.”

“And she can, right? She can move on? Because you live much closer to her than you do to me, and–”

Bryce stopped walking then, pulled Sophie back into her, and wrapped her arms around her lower back.

“You have nothing to worry about,” she stated. “You have to know that.”

“I do. But she’s your ex, and you two are friends, and with lesbians, sometimes–”

“Soph, Sean was my very first girlfriend. And not that that means all first relationships end, but I didn’t know what I was looking for, really. We’re not compatible in a relationship. It didn’t take me that long to figure it out, but it did take me far too long to end things, and that means Sean thought things were okay when they weren’t. I have to own that part of hurting her, but I don’t want to be with her.”

Sophie nodded and said, “Sorry. I’m just worried about what happens when you leave.”

“Nothing happens. We’re still together. We’re still us.”

“I know. It’s just hard to think about you being so close to someone you used to sleep with, and I’m all the way down here, wishing I was sleeping with you.”

“Sean and I aren’t compatible,” Bryce reiterated. “You caught that part, right?”

“Yes. You’re better off as friends.”

“Because she and I are not compatible.” Bryce raised her eyebrows. “You and me – we are very compatible. You are with me here, aren’t you?”

“Sex.” Sophie smiled.

“What we did last night and this morning was what I want all the time, Soph.”

“Me too. We’d be doing it right now if my body didn’t need a break and my friends didn’t insist on meeting you.”

“Sean and I are both two tops who fought over… well, you know.” Bryce shrugged. “And she didn’t want to have sex as often as I did, which is fine for her, but it didn’t work for me after a while. Now, she’ll be able to find someone who fits her how I’ve found you.”

“I fit you?” Sophie asked with a smile.

“Well, this morning, you definitely did,” she joked.

“Oh, my God!” Sophie laughed.

“What? It’s true.” Bryce cupped Sophie’s cheek. “We fit each other, Soph.”

“We do,” Sophie said as Bryce’s phone rang.

“I swear, I normally get, like, one call a week. What is going on?” She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Not a number I recognize.”

“Maybe another magazine or something?”

“Mind if I check?”

“No. Go for it. Let’s just keep walking, though, so that we’re not late.”

“Hello,” Bryce said as Sophie took her hand, and they walked down the sidewalk.

“Hello, is this Bryce Wilburn?”

“This is she.”

“My name is Eloise Axford. I’m a movie producer.”

“A what?” Bryce asked.

“I work for an independent movie studio that focuses on LGBTQ+ stories,” Eloise said. “I was hoping to talk to you about the rights to your story.”

Bryce stopped walking and asked, “What rights?”

Sophie stopped, too, and turned to her in confusion.

“I caught the article in Women Loving Women . I have a friend who works there. Then, I found your blog, and I read your recent posts earlier today. Anyway, we’ve discussed it here as a team, and we’d like to buy the rights to your story and make a movie out of it.”

“You want to make a movie?”

“Yes, that’s what we do,” Eloise replied. “We’d need Sophie’s rights, too, and we’d change names and everything, but we’d love to make a movie about the two of you.”

“We just got together.”

“I know. And we could’ve just made the movie without even talking to you – blogger meets girl, blogger loses girl, blogger blogs about girl, blogger gets girl back – but we like doing things the right way here, and, well, we don’t want to get sued, so that’s part of it, too.” Eloise laughed a little. “We know things are new now, but the movie would likely just span the meet, the longing, the messaging, the meeting again, and probably end right where you are now.”

“You really want to make a movie about us?”

Sophie’s eyes went wide.

“Yes, we do. Normally, we’d buy the rights and shelve it until we’re ready to film, assuming that happens – buying rights doesn’t actually guarantee anything will get made – but we’re thinking about filming later this year because we just lost a project we were going to film in the winter. Long story that I’m sure you don’t care about. If we film in December-January, we could have it out by next Christmas, which is what we’re going for. The sooner the better, to capitalize and all that. We’ll go for the widest distribution we can get, but it could go streaming or TV movie.”

“They want to make a movie about us?” Sophie whispered.

“Apparently,” Bryce said.

“Sorry?” Eloise asked.

“Oh, sorry. Sophie is with me. We’re going to dinner.”

“Oh, great. Can you ask her?”

“For her rights?”

“Yes,” Eloise replied. “I have boilerplate contracts I’ll send over, and you can have your lawyer review them, obviously. I usually call first before I send the email to let you know it’s on the way because of spam filters and everything, but I’d like to maybe talk over the phone with both of you later, or we could do something virtually since I’m in LA and you’re in New Orleans.”

“You want to–” Bryce shook her head. “And you have contracts ready?”

“Yes,” Eloise replied with a laugh. “How about this? It sounds like I’ve caught you at a bad time. Why don’t I email you the contracts we typically use for this kind of thing? You two can review them when you get a minute and let me know if you want to set up a time for us to chat. We’re really serious about this, so let me know soon, okay?”

“Um… Okay,” Bryce said, shaking her head at Sophie, who clearly wanted to know what they were talking about.

“We love your writing style, Bryce. I read some of your non-Sophie blogs. You have a way of making people feel like they’re right there with you at that restaurant. Your delivery stories are great, too. We can easily see that as being part of the script when you’re apart from Sophie in the story. It’s relatable.”

“Thanks,” she replied.

“So, you enjoy your dinner, and I’ll get this email sent out. We’ll talk later?”

“Yeah, okay,” Bryce said and hung up.

“That was a prank call, right?” Sophie asked. “Someone’s messing with us.”

“I don’t think so. She sounded legit. She sounded like one of those Hollywood types you see in the movies, at least. And she’s going to send an email with a contract.”

“A contract?”

“For the rights to our story.”

“Our story that has just begun?”

“I guess not really,” Bryce said. “For a movie, it would be ending right about now, with the big kiss after we found each other.”

“Good thing we’re not in a movie because we never would’ve had sex,” Sophie noted.

Bryce laughed and said, “This is crazy. I just wrote a blog.”

“And I just walked across the street from one bar to another, but because I did that, we met.”

Bryce kissed her and said, “Let’s just have dinner with your friends. We can talk about this later. Maybe it is a prank, after all.”

“Do not tell Jill about this. We’ll never hear the end of it.”

Bryce laughed as they started walking again.