“There’s a garden café in Oakleigh that’s good,” Kim says. “Good vegetarian options and plenty of choice for the carnivores.”
They take both cars. With school holidays over, they need to return to their separate homes.
They find a table where a grapevine filters the autumn sunlight, and order. It’s not until the food comes and they’ve both taken the first bite, that Danika puts down her cutlery. “There’s something about all of this that we’re still not talking about. Not in any practical sense.”
Kim sets down her fork. “Where we go from here in our relationship? Is that what you’re wondering?”
Danika nods. “It is, yes. We have a solution of sorts for the money issue. We’ve admitted we both love each other. What do we do now? Do I need to rent a U-Haul?”
“You have a fine understanding of lesbian clichés,” Kim says. “But it’s not that simple, is it?”
“Yes and no.” Danika picks a cherry tomato out of her salad and eats it. “It’s simple in that we start openly dating. We tell the girls—I think they’ll be delighted. And we take things slow.”
“What’s the complicated?”
“Time.” Danika sighs. “I need to get the house on the market, find somewhere smaller to live. And of course, still work, parent, and attend endless Saturday soccer games.”
“The clamour for them to be on the same team will only get louder.” Kim tilts her head. “Do you want to stay around Belgrave or will you look at other suburbs?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’d like a house with a yard, not an apartment. It would be easier for schools, friends, and so on to stay near Belgrave. But it would be easier forusif Cami and I moved closer to St Kilda. And of course, having promised Cami a dog for her birthday, there’s that, too.”
Kim leans across the table. “But we mustn’t forget the most important thing of all: love. I don’t want to lose you in the mishmash of a busy life. Time for us, Danika. Let’s enjoy falling in love. Let’s see how much further we can take this. Do you want that too?”
Danika stares into Kim’s eyes, darker now with the weight of her words. “Oh yes. Time for us. Time tobuildan us. Time for adult sleepovers, too.”
“I wish we could start that tonight.”
“I can’t. Cami’s with my mum, and I need to collect her. And I have to tell my parents what happened. I promised to ring—and I haven’t.”
“And I can’t stay over tonight, either.” Kim picks up her sandwich, takes a bite. “Let’s enjoy the nows. This now. You, me, a quiet café. The way the sunlight filters through the vine and picks out chestnut highlights in your hair. How elegant that shirt makes you look. I want to trace your collarbones.”
“Only my collarbones?” Danika arches an eyebrow.
“Maybe. Although your breasts are very tempting.”
“Not here you’re not. Our server is on his way to see if we want anything else.”
“Breasts are not on their menu?”
“They will be.” Danika stares, unfocussed, for a moment, out at the garden, the small tables set in nooks among the greenery. “It’s still all a bit unreal, isn’t it? That we’ve grown to love each other. That we can see a life together. Us and our girls—one family.”
“Our situation was never going to be easy, even at the start. It’s amazing we’ve even found a friendship, let alone anything more.”
“What were you expecting,” Danika asks, “when you knocked on my door a year ago? What did you hope to gain?”
“I honestly didn’t know. Answers, maybe. See the woman Chris loved so much that he wouldn’t leave her. Closure certainly. And, too, even though I didn’t know you, I felt you deserved the truth.”
“That’s a difficult one,” Danika says. “You upended my life. At the time, I wished you’d never come, and I would happily have remained in ignorance. Now though… I’m so glad you did.”
“Even if we’d never become friends, lovers, people who love each other, would you have wanted to know?”
Danika thinks. Would she? If she hadn’t learned the truth, she’d have gone on with Cami, eventually rebuilt her life. Chris would have remained the loving husband who’d died too young. The truth can hurt, of course it can, and she knows that better than many people. “Yes, I think I would. My life was built on a lie. Now it’s built on openness and honesty. That is the best way forward.”
Kim finishes her sandwich, wipes her fingers on her napkin and takes Danika’s hand. “Bella and Cami will ask questions. Maybe not for a few years, but eventually, they’ll want to know more about themselves, about us, about Chris. Bella’s asked little so far.”
“Cami neither. But I intend to be honest, answering anything she asks. No more cover-ups. There’s been enough of them. I hope both girls have the support they need when that time comes.”
“We’ll make sure of it.”
