When Grace called out her name, Alix felt all of the tension uncoil inside herself, all the fear she’d carried dissolving into the quiet between them.
They lay tangled together an hour later, the ceiling fan spinning lazy circles above them. Icarus jumped onto the bed like an anvil, curling himself against Grace’s hip with a contented sigh. Sheila appeared on the windowsill, pretending she wasn’t watching.
“Someday they’re gonna like me even better than you,” Alix murmured, eyes half-closed. “I’m gonna be the cool stepmom.”
“Don’t push your luck,” Grace said, stroking her hair.
Alix smiled. “Too late.”
Dinner was Thai takeout eaten cross-legged in bed, sauce packets scattered across the comforter, chopsticks abandoned in favor of fingers. Grace accidentally dripped peanut sauce on her thigh, and Alix offered to “help with that,” which resulted inanother round of breathless laughter and near-toppling takeout containers.
When they finally settled, full and warm, Grace turned serious. “So,” she said. “What now? What does this look like?”
Alix considered the question, tracing patterns on Grace’s arm. “I think it looks like… mornings. Coffee and kisses and traffic that makes us late. You yelling at your phone while I’m late to see clients because one of the cats puked in my shoe. I want dumb, normal days with you.”
Grace’s eyes warmed. “You really moved here.”
“I did,” Alix said quietly. “I mean, I still have to go back and get most of my stuff, but a shocking amount fit in Phyllis’s suitcase. Oh, and get this…” She relayed the story of Phyllis and the Christmas song and her rent money.
Grace laughed, eyes bright. “She’s, like, your guardian angel.”
“Oh God, don’t ever let her hear you say something so nice about her.” Alix laughed.
As their laughter quieted, Grace glanced around the room. “You can stay here, you know.”
“I see what you’re saying.” Alix hesitated, heart hammering. “I don’t want to pressure you. I’ll find my own place so we can still have space while we figure the rest out together when the time is right. We can spend as much time together as possible, but I’m not here to derail your entire life. I know it’s fast, but I just… I don’t want the long distance. I only want us.”
Grace reached up, brushing a tear from her cheek she hadn’t realized had fallen. “You’re all I want, too.”
Alix exhaled, trembling with relief. “Good. Because I’m terrible at pretending otherwise.”
Grace grinned and kissed her again, slow and certain, the kind of kiss that felt like the beginning of a lifetime.
When they broke apart, Alix whispered, “This feels like forever.”
Grace laced their fingers together beneath the blanket. “That’s because it is.”
Icarus purred loudly enough to rattle the bed frame. Sheila flicked her tail and turned toward the window, unimpressed by the sentiment.
Alix laughed into Grace’s shoulder. “These cats are dramatic.”
Grace smiled against her hair. “They get it from their mother.”
Outside, the water stretched out before them and the city hummed below — a low, constant rhythm of traffic and ocean wind, of people living their ordinary, extraordinary lives, of endless horizons just a glance away. They talked until they fell asleep, wrapped in one another. Grace’s breathing evened out beside her, the cats had settled, and the air held that sacred stillness that only came when the world finally stopped asking for more.
Alix let her eyes drift shut, her hand resting over Grace’s heart. Love wasn’t the blaze she’d always feared. It was the hush that followed, the safe dark after the storm.
Epilogue
GRACE
The first weekof December smelled like sunscreen and cinnamon.
If she closed her eyes, Grace could hear the sound of boxes sliding across tile, laughter from the back patio, and Icarus’s low yowl of protest as Alix tried to coax him out of his carrier. Sheila, true to form, had disappeared the second the movers arrived and was now sulking under the guest bed in their new home, likely composing her memoir about her hard-knock life.
They’d done it. They’d bought a house. Together.
They’d chosen a sprawling, sun-warmed ranch with a turquoise pool and palm trees in the backyard. The house sat just a few blocks from Wilton Drive, walking distance to a dozen restaurants, two drag brunch spots, and a hardware store that somehow doubled as a queer community hub. Most importantly, walking distance from the salon that Alix had just signed a lease for. Her own shop.
