“Can we go?”
Sarah looked up from her phone.
“Sure. What happened?”
“Nothing. I’m ready for the next place, that’s all.”
“Lizzie.”
Sarah’s jaw tightened but she nodded and they walked back down the rickety stairs. Outside, Lizzie took a deep breath. The night air helped.
“Those girls who came out of the bathroom right before you, I recognize them from the hotel,” Sarah said. “They said something.”
“They’re just assholes.”
“What did they say?”
Lizzie looked at her. “All kinds of stupid stuff. Cynthia more so than Emma. Emma’s kinda alright when you get her alone. But Cynthia hates me because she got into trouble at school because of me.” She gave Sarah a condensed version of what had happened and Sarah let out a breath of air.
“Well,” Sarah said. “She seems like a piece of work.”
“She is.”
Sarah looped her arm under Lizzie’s as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “Let’s go somewhere fun. Loud. Where we don’t have to think.”
She led them to a bar with rainbow flags and a neon sign. Inside, music pounded and a drag queen in silver was on stage.
“Alright my loves!” the queen called out. “Who’s ready for trivia?”
Sarah grabbed Lizzie’s hand and pulled her toward a table. The touch sent sparks up Lizzie’s arm.
“Last stop,” Sarah said. “And we’re going to win.”
The drag queen, Celeste DeVille, started the first round. Literature.
“What was Ernest Hemingway’s first major novel?”
“The Sun Also Rises,” Lizzie said immediately.
“Showed off,” Sarah teased.
They breezed through literature. Then came music from the 60s, 70s, and 80s.
“Who sang ‘Don’t Stop Believin’?”
“Journey,” Sarah said without hesitation.
“How do you know all this?”
“When your husband is decades older than you, you pick things up.”
They went back and forth, their answers complementing each other perfectly. By the final round they were tied with another team. A husband-and-wife pair who were dressed in matching shirts, pants, and even hats.
“Tiebreaker!” Celeste announced. “What year were the Stonewall Riots?”
“1969,” Lizzie and Sarah said at the same time.
“Bingo!” Celeste called. “Well, no, that’s another game but Yay! The winners are our lovely two ladies in the corner. And the prize is a gift card to Abuela’s.” She wandered over and handed Sarah the gift card.
