Page 36 of Touch the Sky

I still read the implication, and I can’t help laughing at her failed attempt at subtlety.

“Yeah,” I answer, “so for me, it’s been areallylong time since I had a girlfriend.”

Jacinthe nods and hides whatever her reaction might be by taking a large sip of beer. A couple seconds tick by in silence, the din of the bar rushing in to fill the quiet between us.

Jacinthe does that shifting thing with her jaw again, which I’m starting to realize is her ‘thinking face.’

It’s cute.

No. No, it’s not cute.

I give myself a mental shake.

I’m here to accomplish a goal, and the fact that Jacinthe has no place for dating in her life actually makes that goal much easier. It’s a lot simpler to write off my attraction to her when it’s clear romance is as far off the table for her as it is for me.

Jacinthe is still struggling to spit out whatever it is she wants to say.

“Did you…” she tries before lapsing into silence for another couple seconds. “I mean, um, was, uh…”

She clears her throat, and I recognize the usual signs enough to know where this is headed.

“You want to know about Shel’s dad, right?”

Jacinthe’s face goes pale.

“You don’t have to tell me anything,” she says in a rush. “I mean, I’d never—like, that’s totally your business.”

I chuckle even as I feel a warm rush of appreciation. Most people are a lot less respectful with their curiosity.

“It’s okay. I get that all this”—I gesture at the Butches R’ Us ensemble I have on tonight—“and being a single mom tends to make people curious.”

Jacinthe shakes her head.

“It’s your business,” she says, her tone firm enough to make me believe she’d drop the subject forever if that’s what I wanted.

For some reason, that just makes me want to tell her everything.

“It’s notthatinteresting,” I explain. “I was still figuring out my sexuality when I started university. I’d messed around with a few girls in high school, but then I met Baron, and we just?—”

I pause when Jacinthe makes a choking noise.

“I’m sorry,” she says, her eyes bulging, “but…Baron?”

She looks so aghast I end up snorting.

“Yeah.”

“Like, that means like alord, right?” she asks. “You really had a thing with a dude namedBaron?”

Something about her wrinkled nose and the thinly veiled disdain in her voice makes the story of the most difficult thing I’ve ever been through seem like a hilarious anecdote in a way it never has before.

I really did get accidentally pregnant at twenty-one with a dude named Baron.

I burst out laughing.

“Well,Ididn’t name him that,” I shoot back. “His parents were really pretentious, okay?”

Jacinthe shakes her head. “Câlice. They must have been.”