“My bedroom and three less people.”
Candace pointed to herself, Vanessa, and me while counting, “One, two, three.”
“You guessed it.”
“Well, talking about a book after witnessing that seems kind of tame now,” I said.
“Let’s get caught up on each other’s lives while we wait for dinner to arrive,” Vanessa suggested. “Then we can talk about the book.”
Everyone agreed except Violet and April who probably had forgotten we were still there.
“Maybe we should just go,” I said, looping my arm through Van’s and tugging her toward the door while giving Candace a look that silently implored her to follow my lead. She rolled her eyes at me but started walking toward the door too.
“Don’t go,” Violet said softly. “Not yet, anyway.” She smiled sweetly at April. “How long before the food arrives?”
“Twenty minutes.”
“Fine, we’ll do a round of speed sharing where we each get four minutes to talk about what’s going on in our lives. We eat pizza then have a thirty-minute discussion about the book.”
“Then we get the fuck out so you can…” Vanessa let her words trail off.
“Do whatever we want,” Vi finished for her.
“We might be down to three minutes each now,” I said.
April, Violet, and I took the couch while Vanessa and Candace sat in the club chairs on either end that were turned to face one another over the coffee table.
“I’ll go first,” Violet said, tucking her feet under her and cuddling into April’s side. There was nothing new about the position because the two of them were always touching. It had been that way since we were little kids. “I finally worked up the courage to tell my parents I have romantic feels for April.”
“Whoa!” we all said while Violet grinned, nestling closer to April.
“We haven’t even had our first kiss yet,” April said. “What if you—”
“I’m aware that things will feel physically different with you than a man, but more importantly, it will feel different emotionally. I will feel things with you no man has ever given me because I’ve lived a lie for so fucking long. Everything I feel with you will be better; you’ve had my heart since we were ten years old. I’m tired of lying to myself. I’m tired of pretending my desire to touch you is platonic. I’m done running.” April ran her hands through Violet’s hair the entire time she gave her impassioned speech. “It’s always been you, A.”
“What did your parents say?” Vanessa asked softly.
I saw April tense like she was bracing herself for bad news. She should’ve known Vi wouldn’t have started this conversation in front of us if her parents had been upset, but I suspected her emotions were all over the place and they greatly diminished her ability to rationalize.
Violet giggled and said, “Mom said it was past time I realized I loved you for more than friendship, and Dad said he’d be honored to welcome someone as kind, smart, and beautiful as you into our family.”
“Wow,” April said.
The rest of us said, “Aww.”
“What about you guys?” Violet asked, diverting the attention away from them.
“Not much on my end,” Vanessa said, holding my stare for a few seconds. For whatever reason, she still hadn’t shared her wild, passionate weekend with the ladies. “Tattoos and reading books about fellas who love other fellas. Chaz Hamilton can write some seriously good books.”
“No book talk yet,” Violet said. “What about you, A?” Vi said, lifting her head off April’s shoulder once more to look at her. “What’s been going on with you besides all your traveling for business?”
“Like I can remember anything at this point,” April said, sounding dazed. “Besides missing you, I worked out a bunch, traveled for work ten out of the last fourteen days, and I managed to eat and sleep some when I wasn’t doing those things.”
“Are the Hollingsworth Corporation takeovers going according to plan, Miss Chief Financial Officer?” Candace asked.
“You know I’m not allowed to discuss work.”
“Can you discuss if that sexy beast of a CEO is single or taken?”
