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The confession caught like a splinter in her throat.

“She’s like sunlight and I didn’t know I was living in darkness my entire life until she walked in. She’s like a piece of me that I didn’t know I was missing. But now, she’s here and I love her so much and it’s terrifying.” She swallowed thickly, heart achingly full as her mother listened to her spill her guts in their foyer like it was ordinary. “She’s the one I want.”

Her mother’s voice was soft as snow. “So tell her.”

Irritation flared. Nothing was ever that simple.

“How?” Charlotte demanded. “She just got accepted to her residency and I don’t want to stop her from going. I want what’s best for her. She deserves to be happy, to chase her dreams, not be stuck here with me and all my baggage.”

Mouth dry, eyes wide and pleading with her to understand. Her mother’s gaze shone with understanding. But the determination in them told Charlotte everything was about to change.

Any remaining frustration vanished in the face of her mother’s steady calm.

“My foolish, brave, intelligent, stunning, compassionate daughter.”

She took Charlotte’s hands in her own again, holding on tight. For a moment, Charlotte feared she wasn’t ready to hear whatever was coming.

“Ali wants someone to choose her,” she said, voice steady, every word weighted with intent. “She longs for someone to see her for everything she is and pick her anyway. She wants a family, even if it’s hard for her to let people close enough. She’s trying.”

Charlotte’s voice faltered. “But… her art?”

Diana’s lips curved, a knowing glint in her eye.

“I think being surrounded by a good support system would do wonders for her. And I think Boston is a good place to put down some roots.”

Her mother tightened her grip, thumbs running across her knuckles. She took a slow breath and Charlotte matched her, preparing herself for whatever revelation was coming.

“Cricket, don’t you see?” Diana’s voice sparkled with unshakable certainty that left no room for doubt. “What Ali wants, more than anything, is for someone to ask her to stay.”

The drive home passed in a blur of thoughts she couldn’t quite catch or quiet.

Her house greeted her with familiar creaks and heavy silence. It had never felt so empty.

When she bought this house, she hoped she’d find someone to settle down with and together they would fill it with children, maybe a dog or two, or a few cats. The house was so run down from the numerous families who dwelled in it before her, and the years it sat empty and neglected. She wanted to fill it with life again.

She spotted Ali’s dark blue hoodie draped over the arm of one of the matching chairs by the window. She could still see Ali tossing it there mid-story, eyes bright as she artfully retold one story or another.

Charlotte picked it up and brought it to her face, inhaling Ali’s familiar scent.

It smelled like home.

Her empty bedroom was painted the same blue-gray it had been for years. She once told Ali her favorite color was umber. At the time, it was little more than a flirtatious jest. Brown, an under-appreciated color. But it wasn’t just brown… It was the auburn, copper, and gold that made up her hair. The peach of her blush. That viridian green color she loved to wear. Dusty rose. The sunny yellow Charlotte felt when Ali brandished her brightest smile.

Ali came into her life like a bolt of lightning shot straight from the heavens. Bringing an explosion of colors. And each was her favorite in one way or another. Ali sparked something pure and brought everything to life, painting her world in all the bright colors she never noticed before.

Her world used to be exactly that, blue and gray toned… cold and lifeless… no longer calming.

And the silence which she once craved was deafening…

39

ALI

Bending herself in half at the waist, Ali’s hands splayed over the tops of her bare feet, breath coming slow and heavy. Bone-deep weariness ached in every joint and stiff muscle after a masterful display of strength and stubborn determination.

She finished the last painting that would be added to her show. Acrylic paint dried on the largest canvas she ever painted. But the moment frozen in time deserved the scale. It was the finale, after all. The culmination of everything she tried to say with this series.

Everyone was familiar with love and lust through the male gaze. But her show looked through a sapphic lens.