Ramona turned and her eyes found April’s, a smile spreading over her freckled face. “There she is!” She jogged toward April and scooped her into a hug, lifting her off the ground a little. April’s arms felt dead at her sides.
“What are you doing here?” April asked when Ramona put her down. Dylan walked over to join them, and she and April hugged too.
“We both have a break for the rest of the summer, can you believe it?” Ramona said.
April smiled without her teeth, because no, she couldn’t believe it. She didn’t know anything about either of their work lives lately, only that Dylan was filming that Marlene Dietrich biopic, and Ramona was…she didn’t even know, honestly. Designing costumes as a costume designer.
“That’s great,” April said.
“We thought we’d get some R & R at Cloverwild,” Dylan said. “Of course, we have our house in town, but we wanted to get the full treatment.”
“You’re staying here?” April asked.
Ramona grinned and held up a key card. “Just for the weekend. Lucky cabin thirteen!”
April grinned too. God, she’d missed Ramona so much.
“Are you surprised?” Ramona asked. “I wanted to surprise you.”
“Totally surprised,” April said, pulling Ramona into a hug again. She breathed in her best friend of almost twenty-five years and felt herself relax.
“Can you come to our cabin with us?” Ramona asked, pulling back to look at her.
“I have a one o’clock class,” she said. “But I can—”
“Oh, can I sit in on it?” Ramona said quickly. “I’m dying to see you in action. You don’t mind, do you, babe?”
Dylan waved a hand, then grabbed both suitcases by their handles. “I’m so butch, I’ll take care of both of these.”
“So butch, you needed a sleeping seat on our flight,” Ramona said.
Dylan shrugged. “So I’m a tired butch.”
Ramona laughed. “Speaking of nonbutch queers—”
“I am offended,” Dylan said, but she kissed Ramona on the cheek, then sauntered off, pulling the eyes of everyone in the lobby as she went.
“I can’t wait to meet Daphne,” Ramona said, not missing a beat. “How’s everything going with you two?”
April opened her mouth but closed it again. She had no idea how to answer that question. It had been over a week since Ramona and April had spoken on the phone, and Ramona had advised April to give Daphne the benefit of the doubt.
Which April most definitely had not done and then realized she most definitely should have.
April hated when she was wrong.
But what she hated even more was this feeling of embarrassment around Ramona about being wrong, about her entire life right now. They didn’t get embarrassed around each other. Never had. They’d seen each other through the most humiliating moments in life, including the time April had peed her pants a little from laughing so hard the first time Ramona pulled out Llama Face on the way back from a field trip to Bristol Farm. April had been terrified of the llamas—they looked fucking freaky, plain and simple—and Ramona had impersonated a llama by hooking her fingers under her lips and pulling them out as far as they’d go, sticking out her tongue, and making the funniest sound April had ever heard.
There was also the time Ramona had her wisdom teeth taken out when they were seventeen and was so doped up on painkillers she pretty much recited a romantic ode to Gillian Anderson. Which, yes, everyone of every gender was in love with Gillian Anderson, but Ramona spun a truly epic tale of marriage and kids and a big farmhouse in Scotland where they raised baby goats and made their own soap, and April had recorded every moment of it on her phone.
She still had the recording, in fact.
So this strange shyness April felt right now was weird. It was weird and uncomfortable, and April had no idea how to make it go away.
“Uh,” April said brilliantly. “It’s going okay.”
“Is she still with Elena?” Ramona asked, lowering her voice and stepping closer to April. “Does she know who you are? How’s teaching with her?”
April’s head spun. She sent a hand through her hair as she tried to think which question to answer first.
