Page 18 of Unintended You

“Of course,” she said. “Yeah.” Her face fell and she looked like a child whose birthday party had been canceled.

Well now I felt like a bitch, but there was nothing I could do about that.

“I’ll, um, see you later,” I said, making my hasty exit. I didn’t even hear her response.

Chapter Ten

Vail

Well.That didn’t go very well. She’d kind of checked out after the whole lesbian thing. I’d asked her if she’d had a problem, and she’d said no, but I guess she did. Odd, considering she’d essentially agreed to be my date to the wedding and people were going to assume we were together.

My plan was starting to fall apart. I’d been so focused on seeing my mother’s face when I walked in with a woman on my arm that I hadn’t thought enough about said woman.

Something had gone wrong and I didn’t know what.

I feel weird about how we left things today. Are you sure you’re okay?

I waited to send the message until I was home and had a more rational head on my shoulders.

Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry. I just had a moment, I guess.

What did that mean?

Can you get more specific at all? Was it something I said?

Was it the lesbian thing? Did she think that I was into her? I mean, I was, but she didn’t need to know that. It wasn’t her problem.

Not exactly.

“What does that mean?!” I said so loud that I scared the kitties awake. “I’m sorry babies.” They’d been napping on the couch with me and I was a monster.

Struck by an impulse, I went ahead and called her. I needed to hear her voice to figure this out.

For a moment, I thought she wasn’t going to answer, but then she did.

“Hello?” she sounded confused, even though she knew it was me calling her.

“Yeah, hi, I just needed some clarification. Can you just…be honest with me?” There was that pathetic voice again.

Lea let out a long breath.

“I didn’t know. About the lesbian thing. And it surprised me, that’s all.”

That still wasn’t enough. “In a bad way?”

Please don’t let it be in a bad way.

“No, of course not!” Relief flooded through me. “I just didn’t know and…well, I am too. A lesbian. I don’t know why that’s such a big deal. It’s not, really. I mean, it shouldn’t be.” She rambled a little bit and understanding dawned.

“Oh,” I said. “That makes sense.”

She let out a little laugh. “Does it? I don’t feel like I’m not making sense at all.”

The kitties climbed into my lap and pawed at my shirt. I used the hand not holding my phone to try and pet both of them at once, which required some coordination.

“I understand you,” I said, and I was met with silence on the other end of the call.

“Can I ask you a question?”