He lit up every room hewalked into, even rooms full of stranger. People looked at him—not because hewas wearing makeup and nail polish, but because he was like a living, breathingray of sunshine.
I still couldn’t figure outwhat kind of person would want to hurt him. Could an ex-boyfriend hate him thismuch?
“I come to volunteer,sometimes for sewing classes, sometimes for events and whatever. I guess it’slike… paying forward the nice things the queer community here did for me when Ifirst moved.”
Ashley hadn’t told meexactly what was going on here, and I hadn’t quite asked. It’d seemed like morepressure to put him under than he needed.
“So, uh, stupid question,but…”
“Where are we going?” Ashleyfilled in for me, squeezing past a woman pushing a pram.
I did the same, and caught aglimpse of a guy about my size in dark sunglasses and a baseball cap, handsshoved deep into his pockets.
The hairs on the back of myneck prickled.
I didn’t have anyreasonyet to think hewas dangerous, but my gut was warning me.
Did I tell Ashley?
I didn’t want to alarmhim if it was nothing, but…
This felt like the kind ofthing I should haveknownif I was any kind of bodyguard.
“We’re heading to Miss Rosa’sSchool for Wayward Girls,” Ashley said. “Which is a tiny grassroots community organizationfor trans women. Rosa teaches life skills and stuff.”
“Oh.”
That shouldn’t have been asurprise, should it? There had to be…
“I can practicallyhearthe cogs turningin your head,”Ashley said. “There’s a lot of crossover between trans women and drag queens.”
The guy was still behind us,even as we turned the corner.
Could this be it? Ashley’s stalkerfinally about to make a move?
Part of me thought Ashleywould havenoticedsomeone this conspicuous, but I had training he didn’t. And he didn’twantthis to be true,so he probably wasn’t looking for it.
Besides, San Francisco wasnothing if not weird.
Ashley hadn’t slowed downyet. I’d give it another half a block.
“Yeah, I was just thinkingthat,” I said belatedly. “So umm. Are you…?”
I had no idea how to askthis. Ashley seemed happy to be a man, but therewasthe drag thing, andnow he was involved with Miss Rosa…
There were a lot of things Ididn’tknow. There werealwaysa lot of things I didn’t know, but I wasespecially in the dark about this.
“You know, I’ve asked myselfthat question,” Ashley said. “But no. I think it’s always good to ask. I thinkthe way we understand gender is probably bullshit, and maybe there’s a betterway of thinking about it, but… I’m happy as I am. Ultimately. I’m glad Ithought about it, though.”
“So you come here because…?”
“Partly to give back, mostlybecause I like the company,” Ashley said. “I run makeup classes sometimes. Rosaherself taught me how to sewandwhere to look for heels in bigger sizes.Crossover, remember? I only play pretend, but it’s nice to learn things froma professional.”
That made more sense than I’d expected itto.
Ashley, as it turned out,wasn’tthe pretty airhead I was willing to bet a lot of people mistook him for.
Hell,I’dalmost mistakenhim for that. I could see now how wrong I was. Underneath all that glitter wassomeone who both thought and cared deeply about other people.
