Page 5

W hen Sophie woke up that morning, she’d sent a quick email to her boss, calling in sick. She’d mentioned a headache but left out the part about there also being a heartache. It was silly; she understood that. Still, she kept replaying the whole night over and over again, starting at the piano bar, where she’d hoped to tell Monica that she was interested in returning to Arnette should there be an opportunity for her there. She’d planned to tell Monica about having no issue starting over and working her way back up, but she hadn’t gotten the chance.

Her replays moved from one bar to the other, and her mind continued to vacillate between wishing she’d not gone with Jill and being so grateful that she had. If she hadn’t gone, she wouldn’t be lying in her bed thinking about the fact that she’d had the best night of her life with someone and would never see them again. She’d be sitting at her desk right now, working and thinking about how to approach Monica for a new job. She wouldn’t be wondering if she had just met the woman of her dreams or if it was supposed to be one amazing night, and that would be all.

She wouldn’t be up and walking around her apartment thinking about how she’d compare every future woman to this stranger who hadn’t returned to the bar after all the noise and the fighting had died down. Sophie knew that for a fact because she had been there. She had gone back. She’d stood there looking like a complete idiot and lost puppy for a long time, checking the time on her phone every few minutes, telling herself just one more minute, and if Bryce didn’t show up, she would go, but she’d stayed until she couldn’t stand any longer. Bryce hadn’t come back. That meant something, didn’t it?

“No, it doesn’t,” Jill said as they talked.

“Yes, it does,” she insisted as she picked up her coffee cup.

“Sophie, from what you told me, it was a pretty huge fight, and there were cops involved. Maybe she has a warrant out or something.”

“What? You think she’s, like, a murderer?” she asked.

Jill laughed and replied, “No, like a speeding ticket she never paid. Jesus, you’re dramatic, aren’t you?”

“Not usually. You met me at a weird time,” she said as she turned to look around the busy café. “Why are we here?”

“You said you called in sick, and I had time between tours, so I thought we could just ingest a ton of sugar and see if that helped.”

“I don’t think sugar is going to help me here,” Sophie replied. “But, thanks,” she added.

“So, sick, huh?”

Sophie looked up and saw Melinda standing there. She hadn’t invited her. She hardly knew the woman beyond the fact that she was a friend of Bridgette’s, Monica’s new girlfriend, that she had her own girlfriend named Kyle, and that she practically ran NOLA Guides.

“I told Mel what happened when I was at work. I hope that’s okay. I thought you could use another friend, maybe,” Jill explained.

“You met a girl last night,” Melinda said as she sat down in the metal chair next to the two of them. “I called Ky. She’s on her way for more moral support.”

Was this what it meant to have friends? Sophie hadn’t ever had a strong group of female friends before. Sure, she’d had a few friends in college and some work friends, but even growing up, her life had been more about family and obligations with that family than about friendships. She’d just met these women last night, and they were taking time out of their days to console her over losing Bryce, a woman she’d only just met, too, in a crowd of drunkards.

“Oh, I didn’t expect you to drop your lives,” she said.

“It’s my lunch break. And Ky said she needed a break, too,” Melinda replied. “So, I got some details from Jill this morning, but fill me in.”

“Should we just wait for Kyle to get here so that she doesn’t have to say it, like, a hundred times?” Jill suggested.

“Oh, good point,” Melinda agreed. “I’m going to get in line and order. Ky should be here by the time I get back. Then, you can start at the beginning.”

Sophie went to say something in response but didn’t know what. She’d sort of been told what to do by Melinda and Jill, but it made sense, and she didn’t think she had the energy to tell the story over and over again anyway. Melinda joined the long line, but Sophie watched her as she looked at the order window and moved closer to it, saying something to the woman behind it. Then, suddenly, Melinda was walking inside and around the long line.

“Did she just–”

“Cut the line?” Jill asked, laughing a little. “Yeah, it’s a perk of being a tour guide: you meet a lot of people. Mel’s been doing this for a long time, too, so she knows them all. She can skirt most lines, pretty much, any day.”

“That’s pretty cool. I guess it’s a good thing to have tour guide friends, then, huh?”

“Totally,” Jill said before she took a sip of her coffee. “You should join our food tour one day. There’s typically at least one no-show who pays ahead online, so there’s a little extra ready for us at the restaurants. Mel and I have a theory that whenever that happens, someone got too wasted the night before, and they decide to stay in bed and lose out on the money they paid for the tour already.”

Sophie nodded and thought about it but didn’t see herself essentially taking someone’s food on a tour that she didn’t pay for. By the time Melinda was back at the table with way too many items for one tray to hold, Kyle had arrived. She pulled a chair from an empty table and sat down next to her girlfriend, giving her a quick kiss on the lips. Sophie looked away then, feeling bad about it but needing to do it all the same. Watching others kiss was too hard for her to take today. She’d kissed someone less than twelve hours ago, and it had been the best kiss of her life.

“So, tell us everything. We’re here,” Melinda said, giving her a sympathetic smile.

“I’m not sure what there is to tell, really. I guess I had a great night with someone, but we got interrupted, and now, I’ll never see her again.”

“No, that’s not how you told me,” Jill pointed out. “You made it sound like you met the love of your life.”

“Whoa. Really?” Kyle asked. “This was after we left the bar?”

“It was a different bar,” Sophie replied.

“Can I tell it?” Jill asked. “I feel like I should tell it.”

“Sure. Go for it,” she said, needing a break from explaining it, anyway.

“Okay. So, you two left early to go have sex with each other.”

“Hey!” Melinda laughed.

“Was I wrong?” Jill asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“No,” Melinda replied.

Sophie watched as Kyle wrapped an arm around Melinda and blushed. It was sweet, but Sophie hadn’t expected to have to tell the story to a new couple this morning, and she wished she had someone all her own to share some PDA with.

“Anyway, I wanted another drink, and we went across the street. I spotted a table, but by the time we got there, this group of girls also got there at the same time. Well, women, not girls. Then, like, instantly, Sophie is staring longingly at the woman.”

“Longingly? Really?” Sophie asked.

“Yes. You didn’t see it. I did. It was longingly . Don’t worry, though: she was staring longingly at you, too. And it really was in an instant. Like, boom! They locked eyes, and I was left standing there, wondering what was happening.” Jill took a breath. “There were three other women with Bryce. Oh, and Bryce was hot, too. I should’ve led with that. She’s like this perfect androgynous kind of butch, but really…”

“Soft,” Sophie practically whispered.

“Yeah, that.” Jill pointed at her.

“It was obvious what was happening there, so I tried to talk to the friend, when the other two friends left, to give Sophie a chance for some alone time with Bryce. Kelsey was hot, too, but I wasn’t interested. Totally selfless of me.”

Sophie laughed and said, “Yeah, right. She’s straight, and you were into her before you found out.”

“Still selfless to take the straight friend I had no chance of sleeping with while you went upstairs to slow dance with Bryce.”

“You danced with her? And wait… Upstairs? The bar across the street? People don’t really dance up there,” Melinda noted.

“ They did. That’s what she told me, anyway. And, apparently, it was one of those slow, sexy dances where hands were everywhere, and lips were also involved.”

“Lips, huh?” Melinda asked.

“On my neck,” Sophie said. “But it was a peck, really.”

“A sexy peck?” Kyle asked.

“Yes,” she replied with closed eyes, picturing it again. “Like a slow, lingering kiss there.” Sophie touched the spot, missing Bryce’s lips.

“Nice,” Kyle said.

“So, there was the sexy dancing, with the equally sexy peck of lips on skin, and then, they were talking again and almost kissing for real, but I interrupted accidentally.” Jill made an apologetic face. “Still sorry about that, by the way.”

“It’s okay. I loved our actual first kiss,” Sophie said.

“You did kiss her?” Melinda asked. “Not just a peck?”

“ Much more than a peck,” she replied.

“Yeah? Describe it,” Melinda said.

“I don’t know that I can do it justice,” she said as she leaned back in the uncomfortable metal chair. “It is, by far, the best kiss of my life, but it’s more than that. It’s like… I don’t know… She tasted like…”

“Alcohol?” Jill guessed.

“A little. But not like that. I meant she just tasted like we were supposed to be kissing.”

“Not sure I get that one,” Kyle said.

“We just matched. Like we were meant to kiss one another.”

“Damn. I want that,” Jill said.

“I had it, and I lost it,” she replied. “I asked her to come home with me.”

“I get the impression that you don’t do that very often. Is that a fair impression?” Melinda asked.

“Yes, it would be a fair impression. I never do that. I’m not a one-night-stand kind of person. And I wasn’t planning on it last night, but the way it felt to kiss her, and how she touched me… I just blurted it out, and I didn’t regret it after at all. I would’ve slept with her; I know that for certain. But it was also like I just wanted to keep talking. I didn’t want to say goodnight or goodbye, and she’s here on vacation, so for all I know, she’s already gone.”

“Maybe that’s why you couldn’t find her. Maybe after the whole thing, she had to get back to her hotel to pack and catch a flight,” Kyle suggested.

“Jill, did you find out from the friend how long they’d be here?” Melinda asked.

Sophie hadn’t even thought about that. Why hadn’t she asked Jill about what she’d learned from Kelsey after spending at least an hour with her? Maybe Jill had gotten the info about their hotel or the rest of their trip or even a phone number or another way to contact Bryce.

“Did you?” she asked now, swallowing hard at the idea.

“Don’t you think I would have said something to you by now had I found anything out that might help you?” Jill asked. “I learned basically nothing from her. We talked about Bourbon Street and the best bars. She mentioned something about not really wanting to come to New Orleans because she wanted to go somewhere else, but I don’t even think she told me where she wanted to go instead. It was mostly just us small-talking our way through an awkward night. Then, some guy asked her to dance, and he and his friend joined the table after. They flirted the rest of the time while I pretended not to pay attention, but she didn’t say anything that would help.” Jill shrugged. “I’m sorry. Had I known you’d fall into lust at first sight, I would’ve grilled her for information.”

“I wish it were just lust… Lust I could’ve dealt with. I’d be telling myself right now that it was just a hot kiss and that it wasn’t meant to be. This is more than lust; we talked, too. It wasn’t like I wanted her to shut up and just take me home. I wanted her to keep talking, to only stop talking to kiss me, and then keep talking again. And, yeah, sex as well, but this feels like my world tilted on its axis last night, and I don’t know how to right it.”

“I know that feeling,” Kyle said. “I had no intentions of coming to New Orleans and meeting Mel. I was here to find out about my family’s history. But I met her, and I just knew.”

Melinda smiled over at her girlfriend and said, “I love you, too, babe.”

“I know it sounds ridiculous and that it wasn’t really love at first sight. I’ve never believed in that as a concept, I guess. I think you start with having interest and desire at first sight, and as you get to know the person more, the love forms. Then, you can look back at that first meeting and think, ‘Yeah, that’s what that was: it was love at first sight.’ But it’s not really love in the very beginning, until you apply the context and examine it later, when you’re in love with this person.”

“That sounds nice,” Jill replied. “A little scientific or logical and less rom-com – running through an airport to get to the other person before they board a plane and you never see them again – but nice.”

“It does sound nice, yeah,” Kyle agreed.

“I’m kind of a nerdy, numbers person, so the science and logic behind feelings make sense to me more than the part about just meeting someone and knowing right away that they’re supposed to be yours just because you feel a certain way.”

“That sounds less nice,” Jill joked.

“It’s putting the brain in the same equation as the heart. I get it,” Melinda offered.

As Melinda, Kyle, and Jill continued to talk about things she didn’t care much about today, Sophie turned to look out at Jackson Square and the crowd of people crossing the street and walking into and out of Café Du Monde. That’s when she thought she saw something. Well, she thought she saw some one .

“Bryce?” she said mostly to herself.

“Huh?” Kyle asked.

“Bryce,” she repeated and stood abruptly, nearly knocking over the table made of heavy metal as her knees hit it.

Without further explanation, she left her new friends at the table and headed in the direction of the crowd outside, but given how packed the café itself was, that actually made two crowds that she had to somehow make her way through in order to get to Bryce. She wasn’t entirely sure if this was , in fact, Bryce, but she thought she recognized the hair she’d had her hands running through just last night. Sophie tried to run but couldn’t because there were too many damn tourists trying to get the café’s famous beignets, take pictures of them eating them, and post them on Instagram or TikTok. If only they knew she was trying to find the possible love of her life and that their need to get to beignets wasn’t as important as that, she might have known for sure if she’d seen Bryce.

When she finally made it out onto the street, she got one more glimpse of the back of that head as it disappeared into a car. She couldn’t run because there were still way too many people out there, but she jogged and bobbed through families and groups of tourists, probably looking like a crazy person, until she realized that she’d never catch the car as it turned left up ahead. Sophie stopped then and tried to catch her breath.

“Fuck,” she said to herself. “Shit. Fuck.”

“Excuse me. Will you please watch your mouth around my children?” a woman scolded her as she attempted to cover the ears of her young son.

“This is New Orleans. You want family-friendly? Go to Disney World,” Sophie replied angrily as she turned and headed back to the café where her friends waited.

“Sophie? You okay? You’re sweating.”

“I haven’t run like that since high school gym class,” she said as she sat back down. “And I think I just introduced an eight-year-old to some bad words.”

“It wasn’t Bryce?” Melinda asked.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “Whoever it was got into a car, and I tried to catch it, but cars are faster than humans who only ran track for one year as a freshman in high school because their parents wanted them to try a sport.”

“Sorry,” Jill offered.

“Yeah, me too,” she said. “I guess it really is over, huh?”

“Maybe,” Kyle spoke. “I’m sorry, Sophie.”

Sophie just nodded in response, and after the café, she walked home instead of ordering an Uber because she needed the fresh air. Admittedly, part of her thought process to take a walk was that if Bryce was still in the city, maybe she’d be walking around, looking for her, too. That probably wasn’t the case, but it made her feel better, at least.

Around dinner, Sophie walked by the bar where they’d met, but it was already crowded, and she knew she’d never find Bryce inside, even if the woman was there. She somehow had this feeling that if Bryce returned to the bar, she’d stay outside and wait for Sophie to show, if she really wanted to see her again. After that, Sophie finally gave up and went home, where she sat on her sofa and tried to push past the intense pain that she felt at losing someone she hardly even knew.