by Haley Cass
Are you kidding? You think I’ve been to a gay bar?
I’ve told you about my embarrassingly limited
experiences with women, remember?
Emma snapped her book closed. “Chapter finished! Coffee please.”
They’d barely gotten out of the building before Emma looked up at her, curiosity written all over her face. Somehow, she managed it without looking nosy. “So, who’s this person you’ve been texting all the time lately?”
Sutton stumbled, feeling her cheeks heat up. “I’m not texting anyone all of the time!”
“Yeah. That’s the reaction of someone not hiding anything.”
She hesitated. But the whole reason she’d told Emma so early on about her sexuality was because she was so laidback about everything and never tried to interfere with anything.
The only other person who knew about her sexuality aside from Regan and Emma was Alex, which was only because she’d eavesdropped on a conversation between herself and Regan last summer. Though she’d gotten closer to her sister in the last couple of years than she’d ever been in the past, Alex was still never particularly interested in her love life.
She took a deep breath. “Well, it all started because Regan created a dating profile for me, on SapphicSpark –”
Emma scoffed, loudly and with obvious scorn. “Of course she did.”
“And she messaged this woman, Charlotte, on my behalf –”
“Of course she did!” Emma shook her head. “That woman never knows when to mind her own business.”
Sutton sighed, though she was well-used to how much derision Emma had for Regan, and how much the feeling was mutual. Both were brash and opinionated, but in their own ways. Emma in her dour wit, Regan in her exuberance, and it apparently was like oil and water mixing.
It could be exhausting.
“Are you going to let me tell you or would you like to keep interrupting?”
Even though Emma made a show of rolling her eyes at her, she gestured for her to continue.
“So, Charlotte is this . . . gorgeous, smart, experienced woman, who really only does hookups. Which,” she pulled a quick face. “You know, isn’t exactly for me. And I told her that. But we got to talking a bit, and now she’s been helping me with trying to figure out what actually might be. What might be what I’m looking for, that is,” she added to clarify, hoping it would get rid of the incredulous look on Emma’s face.
The look remained as she slowly asked, “You’re telling me that there is a gorgeous, smart, experienced woman, who was interested in hooking up with you, and you . . . are talking to her about finding a date with someone else?”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Emma threw her head back and laughed. “You know you’re doing this whole online dating thing wrong, right?”
“Shut up.”
She acquiesced, even though she was still grinning as Sutton led them the rest of the short way to the café. Regan had worked here ever since moving here five years ago, becoming the manager last year.
Emma groaned. “You said we were having coffee. Not having coffee with Regan.”
Regan shot her a look of haughty disdain in return. “You just willingly walked into my workplace; I wouldn’t go to your TA office and not expect to find you there. But, by all means, you’re welcome to leave. I didn’t ask for your presence.”
Sutton let out a long-suffering sigh. “Okay, children, that’s enough. How about we just get our drinks and lemon cakes, and sit down?”
Regan quickly announced to her employees that she would be taking her break, before she deftly got them their drinks – coffee for the two of them, tea for Sutton. She set down a plate of lemon cakes that Sutton was already eyeing before the plate was already out of Regan’s hands.
“I did see that they were gone from the case. Thanks for saving some for me.”
“Of course. The least I could do as your best friend.”
She threw in an exaggerated wink and Sutton knew it was to irritate Emma. Which worked.
“Seriously, though. Beth calling out could not have happened at a worst time. I barely got any sleep last night – there was a horror movie marathon on. And now I have to automatically stay until closing? I love the pay raise with being the manager –”
Sutton grinned, swallowing a bite from her lemon cake. “I know, you have the new shoes to prove it.”
Regan jokingly tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Yeah, well. I just hate that now, this is my lot in life.”
“Sucks to have responsibility, doesn’t it?” Emma drawled, in a way that Sutton knew was supposed to agitate Regan.
Before she could say or do anything to diffuse the situation her phone chimed with a text. A quick glance told her that it was Alex sending another video. Quickly, she put her phone face down on the table, deciding to watch when she got back home.
As she reached for a piece of a lemon cake, Emma leaned in. “Is it the woman?”
“No,” she answered quickly, hoping that her expression was enough for Emma to not mention it again. But it was too late and Regan’s attention had already been caught.
Dark eyes were staring at her with avid interest. “What woman? There’s a woman, and you told Emma of all people, but not me?”
Emma protested mildly, but was more amused than offended. Sutton merely raised an eyebrow at Regan. “I told you there would be consequences to your actions.”
“I need to know these things!”
Before Sutton could even react, because she knew what was coming, Regan swiped up her phone. She took a sip of tea and just waited. . .
Regan’s displeased gasp didn’t disappoint. “You changed your password!”
“What did you expect?”
Regan stared at her as though she’d committed a treasonous crime; utterly betrayed. “I’ve known your password to get into your phone since – since you’ve first ever had a phone!”
“And you abused the privilege,” Sutton plucked her phone out of her friend’s hands, glad to have the upper hand.
She’d almost forgotten Emma was there, until she cleared her throat, and Sutton looked up to see her looking between the two of them. “Why is it such a big deal if Sutton wants to talk to this Charlotte chick? Even if she is doing it all wrong.”
Sutton flushed, groaning as she didn’t even have to look at Regan to know that the moment of realization was dawning on her. Even before she heard her gasp dramatically. “Charlotte? Stunning Charlotte?”
Regan was giving her a wide-eyed look when Sutton finally looked back at her. A wide-eyed look that she recognized the pride in – both pride in Sutton and in herself – before a smug smirk took over. “So my plan worked! You’re chatting up Charlotte!”
Emma barked out a laugh, disregarding her typical distaste for Regan in order to correct, “No, Charlotte was only interested in a hookup. Sutton’s chatting up Charlotte in order to learn from all of her lesbian expertise.”
A disgruntled protest worked its way out of Sutton’s throat. “Okay, that is how it . . . well, is. But it’s not – it’s not weird.”
Not really.
Still, she’d expected Regan to be somewhat proud of her – once she would inevitably get over her betrayal at being kept in the dark. Instead, she was on the receiving end of a look of disbelief.
“You . . .” Regan trailed off, staring at her in something akin to wonder, before she pointed her finger at Sutton in accusation. “I gave you the world, Sutton Spencer! And this is what you’re doing with it?”
“What the hell do you mean, you gave me the world? You put me in an awkward situation and I made the best of it!”
“Made the best of it?” Regan parroted. “Making the best of it would have been to have sex with this gorgeous woman who apparently told you that she wanted to fuck you! You were supposed to sleep with stunning Charlotte, not have her become your . . . your lesbian guru!”
“She’s not my lesbian guru.”
That just sounded stupid. They were . . . friends. Sort of.
Regan rolled her eyes. “Yeah, clearly not a very good one, considering you haven’t gone on a date yet.”
“You’re way too invested in my love life.”
Much to her surprise, it was Emma who jumped in. “I hate to agree with Regan, you really know that I do. But, like, you had a perfect window of opportunity to bang this apparently hot woman, and instead you made her your buddy?”
Regan pounded her fist on the table. “She hates to agree with Regan, but she is anyway! That’s how you know Regan’s right.”
“All right, I’m going to take it back if you’re going to start talking in third person.”
Sutton pressed her fingers into her eyes to stave off the headache that was starting to form. “All right, that’s enough! No more talk about my love life or else I’m going to bring both of your love lives into discussion, and I don’t think that’s something we want to discuss between the three of us.”
***
It wasn’t until late that night that Sutton heard from Charlotte again.
She was undeniably pleasantly surprised to see that Charlotte was messaging her at all this late. Though she did stay up fairly late the second time they’d spoken, that certainly wasn’t the norm that they’d established in the past couple of weeks.
Charlotte – 11:22PM
You don’t have to have slept with a woman
in order to gain entrance to a gay club, darling.
Sutton – 11:24PM
Oh, really? Wow! Thank you very much for the info.
But do I strike you as the type of person who has gone
out to a gay club in the hopes of finding . . . anything?
Charlotte – 11:25PM
You certainly have a point with that. Forget I ever
asked.
Charlotte – 11:28PM
Also, I apologize for not answering for so long.
I know that you’re typically going to sleep by now,
but I had meetings all afternoon and just got home
from an evening with my brother.
A tired smile claimed her lips; it was always nice to know that Charlotte paid attention to the smaller details. It seemed like Charlotte rarely missed a detail or forgot anything.
Sutton – 11:30PM
It’s okay; I’m watching Casablanca for the
hundredth time and I need to see the ending.
Charlotte – 11:32PM
Do you need an intervention?
Sutton – 11:33PM
From this? I’m offended you even asked.
As she sent the message, she went to rest her head back down, before Charlotte’s message belatedly registered to her.
She reread, feeling re-energized. A brother! Charlotte had never texted about any family before. She was so private, about everything. There was no way her careful phrasing was incidental.
She had no idea what she did for a living, only that she pulled long hours wherever it was that she worked, seemed to have many meetings, and would often bring her work home with her.
Despite being curious, Sutton didn’t ask. It went without speaking that Charlotte clearly wanted these boundaries.
Sutton – 11:35PM
How was your night out with your brother?
That was casual enough, right?
Charlotte – 11:40PM
It was good. We went out for drinks; we had a few
things to discuss.
Sutton – 11:43PM
I’ve never actually gone out for drinks with my
brothers, but none of them live around here so
it’s not as if it could be a common thing between
us, anyway.
Sutton – 11:44PM
I have three of them. Brothers, that is. Two older,
one younger.
She forced herself to drop the phone in her lap to refrain from sending any more word vomit. Even as she hoped that by offering information, Charlotte would feel more comfortable sharing her own.
Charlotte – 11:48PM
Three brothers and a sister. Quite a large family
you have. So you understand brothers, then.
Sutton – 11:50PM
More than most, I would say. I miss them, more
than I thought I would when I left home.
It was a perfect opening for Charlotte to ask her more. Ask her the obvious questions – about where “home” was, for example.
She didn’t.
Charlotte – 12:01AM
I can imagine. I have a brother that I’m not as
close with, but the one I saw tonight doubles as
one of my best friends.
Charlotte – 12:01AM
I have to get to sleep, though. I have early meetings
in the morning. And, if I’m not mistaken, this is
slightly past your bedtime on a weekday ;)
Sutton – 12:03AM
You’re not mistaken, actually. I’ve been yawning
for over an hour. Goodnight and good luck with
your meetings.
“Whatever meetings they are,” she murmured.
Charlotte – 12:05AM
Goodnight, darling, and thank you.
Chapter 4
Charlotte didn’t particularly believe in luck; she believed in creating her own opportunities, and typically she was damn good at taking advantage of whatever situation she found herself in.
She wasn’t naïve. She was well aware that the family she’d been born into and the life she’d been given played a large role in who she was and what she had. The Thompson family had deep political, societal, and business connections back home in Virginia, and had for handfuls of generations.
On the rare occasion that something didn’t go according to her anticipated plan, Charlotte typically took it in stride. Employed a back-up plan that she’d usually thought of concurrently with the original plan. She’d long ago learned that it was a requirement of a successful politician to plan for several roadblocks as well as being able to improvise.
She was skilled at thinking ahead, at creating doors for herself where there had previously been walls.
However, she couldn’t deny that despite her belief that karma wasn’t real, that good fortune didn’t fall upon people for mere luck, she couldn’t deny that there were times when everything in the universe simply seemed to align.
Today was one of those days, and she could not be more thankful.
Her heels clicked on the floor as she glided across the office, a satisfied smirk on her face as she tapped the folder in her hand against her palm. Without a knock, she entered Dean’s office and swiftly shut the door behind her, striding up to the desk when he lifted his head from where he’d been focusing on the paperwork in front of him.
She placed the file on his desk, then tapped her fingertips on it decisively. “Jack Spencer is here.”
The words came out in a conspiratorial whisper, tone undeniably excited.
Dean sat back in his chair. “Jack Spencer?”
“The one and only,” Charlotte smirked as she leaned her hip against his desk. “He’s having a meeting with my grandmother right now, and I presume he’ll be staying for the charity fundraiser tomorrow evening.”
In fact, she knew he would be staying for the fundraiser. Once she’d spoken to her grandmother the previous night and learned that he would be in New York – one of his very few work visits – she had made some inquiries about his plans and the duration of his trip.
She could see the dawning start in on her boss’s face only seconds before he shot her an amused glance. “Ah. So you’re planning to win over the illustrious Senator during the fundraiser?”
She scoffed. “Not just at the fundraiser tomorrow.” She reached out to tap a finger against the file she’d brought in with her. “This is the follow-up on my meetings with the Mary from Children’s Services, as well as the reviews you needed from me by the end of the da
y.”
He nodded slowly. “Ah, so you’ve finished all of the work you were planning to do in the office this afternoon, because you don’t plan on only sucking up to Spencer tomorrow night, but today, too.”
She shot him a wink. “I love when you catch on quickly. A jump-start on winning someone over never hurt.”
“Certainly not when you’re dealing with Jack Spencer.”
She let her mouth fall open in mock-offense. “Do you doubt my ability to charm?”
The look he gave her wasn’t enough to make her drop her smirk, as she’d already steeled herself against potential worry. Charlotte knew that winning Jack Spencer over would be an uphill battle, especially in such a short amount of time. But she also knew that she had do it – or, at the very least, do as well as she could.
There were very few families in the nation who were as respected as the Spencer’s. With even older societal and political ties than her own family, it would be pressing to think of a time when there was not a Spencer in some sort of public office in Massachusetts. With a continuously impressive approval rating, Jack Spencer seemed to be keeping up his family tradition.
Which meant that his approval of her running for the seat in the House would be quite a positive endorsement for her campaign. His support would be great in any election, but even more so for this particular seat. It was well-known that Jack Spencer and the deceased John Kelvin were very close, so whomever Spencer would endorse to take over John Kelvin’s now-empty seat could make a difference to the election.
It was also well known that gaining Jack Spencer’s respect was not a job easily accomplished, especially not in a short amount of time.
Plus Charlotte felt she was already at a disadvantage. It was yet to be made public who would be running for the seat as her opposition, not to mention the fact that she’d only ever met the Senator once before. Which had been over ten years ago, just after her grandmother had been elected as President for the first time. He’d only met her – briefly – as the granddaughter of a politician. Never as herself.
However, she took it in stride.
It was why she’d stayed up for hours later than she normally did to finish the work she’d needed to do today in the office. So she could be free to conveniently be close to her grandmother’s office a few blocks away when her meeting with Spencer would be over. Free to just-so-happen to invite him for lunch.