“For twenty-seven years, yes,” Frances said. “We have two kids. They’re both in college now. Anyway, I always wondered, you know, if something was wrong with me. I did all the right things. I prayed and went to church as I was taught. I got married to a good man. We had two kids, a boy and a girl. We had the house, the dogs over the years, and I stayed at home for about ten years with the kids before I went to work, but something was off.”
“How so?” Larissa asked.
“Well, hewasa good man, but over time, he changed, and there were demands. I don’t do well with demands.” She chuckled. “I never particularly enjoyed sex, and he was the only man I’d ever been with, so I didn’t know if it was just us or if something was wrong with me because I didn’t like it, but he seemed to be fine with it. Anyway, one night, Etta had my favorite author in for a book signing.”
“We don’t really have those anymore,” Etta added.
“But you did that night, and I was here to get my book signed. It was a small event, so I noticed Etta running around, trying to make everything go well, and I really looked at her forthe first time after all the times I’d been in. She’d been there to ring me out for a book, and when I looked up, there she was.”
“How did that feel?” Harlow asked.
“Everything hit me all at once. It’s a bit hard to explain properly. The room got weirdly dark, and I thought they’d messed with the lights, but it wasn’t dark aroundher. I had a hardback book in my hands, and it was slipping out of them. I looked down and realized that my hands had gotten sweaty in seconds. I looked back up at her, and she was gone. She’d run off to the office, I think, but I knew then that I was supposed to know her, and not just as the woman who owned the bookstore.”
“But you were still married?” Larissa asked.
“I was. And she was, too.” Frances turned to Etta, silently asking her to continue.
“I’d only been legally married for about three years. My partner and I had waited for a while, even though we’d been together for over fifteen years.”
“Partner?”
“Yes. I’m a lesbian, and I’ve been out for a long time. I was with my previous wife for nearly twenty years in total, but we were already having problems when I met Frances that night.”
“So, that night is when you consider that you officially met?” Harlow asked and placed her hand on Larissa’s thigh under the table.
“Itis, yes.” Etta smiled. “She came up to me and introduced herself officially after she got her book signed, and we kept talking until I needed to get back to work. Something told me not to lose sight of her, though, so I just kept glancing around the shop, trying to find her. She’d be at one shelf or another one, looking at books.”
“I didn’t want to leave. I was hoping to catch her after everyone else did.”
“And she did,” Etta shared. “We stayed here for hours, just talking and getting to know each other, and for the first time in years, I wanted to go on a date with someone who wasn’t my wife. At the time, the problems we’d had seemed superficial, but after meeting Frances and knowing that I was interested in more, I started to really think about what was going on in my current relationship. When I spoke with my wife, she felt the same way, so we decided to separate. I then moved out, and we went through all the paperwork to make it legal. One day after that, Frances came back into the store, and she wasn’t wearing her ring. Neither was I.”
“This was months later, and I had left my husband by then.”
“Did you keep talking that whole time?”
“We were respectful of our spouses at the time, so we only talked whenever I came into the store, but that got to be more and more frequently. We kept it at small talk, though, with just a promise of more for the most part, until I walked in that day. I asked her out, she said yes, and we’ve been together ever since,” Frances revealed. “I never knew it could be that good. Marrying young and having kids is fine for some people, and I love my children more than life, but I didn’t realize that I loved women then. When I finally figured it out, I just found her, and it’s been exactly what I’ve always been missing and never knew.”
“And I have nothing bad to say about my ex-wife, but being with Frances is very different in the best way.”
“How so?” Larissa asked.
“Put it this way: I could never go on a six-month cruise with my ex-wife and make it out alive.” Etta laughed.
“Couldyoutwo go on a six-month cruise and make it out alive?” Frances asked. “The rooms are pretty small, even if you pay for the deluxe package.”
“Well, we’ve only been dating for a few days, really, but we’ve been friends forever,” Larissa said. “We’ve also livedtogether off and on over the years, so, yeah, I think we’d survive intact. Harlow is neat, but not a neat freak, if you know what I mean, and I’m not a messy person, so I think the room arguments would be kept to a minimum. She might get frustrated if she wanted to get off the boat and I just wanted to read a journal or something, though.”
“You’d really read some boring academic journal on a cruise, Lou?” Harlow asked her.
“If we’re just on the boat that day, maybe.”
“Then, I wouldn’t be getting off the boat.”
“You might still want to go to the casino or on the water slide or something. They have those on cruise ships now.”
“If I’m going on a water slide, you’re between my legs, and I’m holding you. We’re going down that thing together.”
“Yeah, I think they’d be just fine,” Etta said to Frances.
