“This would be so much better if everyone was queer,” Stevie had said, reading yet another of Beatrice’s diatribes at Benedick. “Take out the toxic masculinity, add a little good old-fashioned gay yearning, and—”
Adri had slapped her hand onto Stevie’s leg. They looked at each other, both of their eyes wide, and that was it. Adri kissed her—reallykissed her, for the first time—and they spent the weekend huddled together, nitpicking every line, blocking out every scene, and noting facial expressions to turn the play into something funny and familiar, yet entirely new.
A few years later, the Empress was born.
“Always a crowd-pleaser,” Stevie said now.
“Exactly,” Adri said softly, squeezing Stevie’s fingers. “And we’re going all out—a sit-down dinner on closing night after the final performance, a silent auction, you name it. Except... I need butts in the seats for this to work. I need people to buy tickets to even be able to put it on.”
Stevie pulled her hands free. She couldn’t think straight while being touched. Never could.
“And?” she said, going back to a particularly stubborn knot in the wires.
“And,” Adri said, “I need you to play Benedick.”
Stevie closed her eyes. She fucking loved Benedick. He was an asshole, sure, but playing him as a queer person, opposite a queer Beatrice... well, there was no doubt that would be quite a show.
“You’ll bring in our supporters,” Adri said. “The communityloves you and, fine, go ahead and deny it, but Stevie Scott is a name in this town.”
Stevie scoffed. If she was a name in Portland’s theater world, she wouldn’t be sitting in a coffee shop with a potentially degrading swear word in the name, untangling rainbow twinkle lights for a cranky practicing witch from Liverpool.
“You are,” Adri said firmly. “You’re an amazing actor, you’ve done dozens of shows all over this town, ninety percent of them to rave reviews. With you on the bill, we could pull the crowd we need.”
Stevie didn’t look at her. Couldn’t. She knew if she did, she’d cave and say yes, and hell, who was she kidding? She was going to say yes anyway.Nowas never a very easy word for Stevie when it came to Adri, when it came to anyone, really. She could handle the little stuff—do you want a soda, have you seen this movie, do you like onions on your pizza—but the big stuff, the stuff that caused disappointed expressions and down-turned mouths... yeah, she sucked at that part. Her anxiety would flare, and she’d spend the next week convinced her friends hated her, she’d die alone and miserable, and wasn’t worth a damn to anyone. Then, when said friend or family member eventually got ahold of her to tell her that, no, of course they didn’t hate her, why in the world would she think that, her anxiety would crest once again, convincing her that she was terrible at understanding people and could never trust her own brain to make heads or tails of any social situation.
Easier to simply say yes.
So that’s exactly what she did.
“Oh my god, thank you,” Adri said as soon as the “Okay” was out of Stevie’s mouth. She leaped out of her chair, nearly knocking over her mug, and launched across the table to gather Stevie into a hug.
And Stevie found herself sort of... melting into the embrace. Adri still smelled the same—the rainwater lotion she used,cinnamon from her toothpaste—and the smoothness of her cheek against Stevie’s was almost too much. Stevie very nearlynuzzledher, for god’s sake, and it wasn’t because she was still in love with her ex.
She simply hadn’t been touched in so long. Ren wasn’t much of a hugger. Their comfort usually came in the form a slap on the back, along with an admonition to suck it up. And while Stevie had told Adri and Vanessa she was one hundred percent fine with their blessed union—shewas, goddammit—she hadn’t really touched either of them since they started dating. She hadn’t touchedanyone, and now, with Adri’s cinnamony breath in her ear, her skin sort of... woke up.
She turned her head, just a little, ready to give in to the urge to press closer. She just needed—
“Hey, hi, wow, what’s going on here?”
At the sound of Ren’s voice, Adri pulled back, laughing awkwardly even as she held on to Stevie’s hand. Stevie blinked the café back into focus, winced as Ren glared down at her.
“Stevie here has agreed to be my Benedick,” Adri said, totally oblivious to Ren’s dagger eyes.
“Has she now?” Ren said, their voice dripping with sarcasm.
The glaring continued.
Adri, however, remained clueless. She gathered her things together, tossing the copy ofMuch Adointo Stevie’s space. “I need to get going.” She stood and slung her bag over her shoulder. “Stevie, auditions for the other roles start next week. Let’s get together soon and talk about some logistics?”
“Yeah,” Stevie said, still slightly dazed. “Okay.”
“I’ll text you,” Adri said, then headed for the door. As soon she stepped outside, she nodded and said something to someone off to the left. Suddenly, Vanessa appeared, launching herself into Adri’s arms. The two kissed, linked arms, and disappeared down the street, Adri gesticulating wildly in that way she did when she was excited.
Guess Vanessa didn’t need to get back to campus all that soon after all.
“Holy shit, didyoujust get played,” Ren said, falling into Adri’s now-empty chair, lifting their drink to their mouth.
Stevie turned back to look at her friend. “You heard all that, did you?”
