by Amy DeMeritt
With all of the talk of moving in together, getting married, and having children, going full time into photography doesn’t seem like a logical choice right now though. We’ll need a lot of steady income and that’s just not guaranteed with photography. Well, as long as I’m with Hannah, I guess I can be happy with doing photography on the side and staying here. It’s not like I hate my job. I do actually like my job; it’s just not my passion.
My mom’s words hit me hard suddenly. My dad left us because he had to pick being financially responsible over following his passion for music. The difference with them and me is that Hannah would never allow me to sacrifice my passions for responsibility. If she felt like I was being crushed by staying here and not doing my art, she would encourage me to throw this job away and pick up my camera.
This difference is so moving that I feel my face spread into a wide smile and a small happy tear leaks from my right eye. It feels so amazing to finally have someone in my life that is fully onboard with whatever I want and need and isn’t trying to control or stifle me at all. I love that I can completely be myself with Hannah and I don’t have to hide anything or change anything about myself to have her in my life.
When it’s finally time to leave, I’m practically hopping with joy as I pack up my stuff. I rush home and start cooking dinner, so when Hannah gets over, I can have a nice meal on the table for her like she did for me this morning.
I have baked potatoes in the oven, salad chopped and tossed, green beans ready to steam, and I am getting ready to start searing steaks when Hannah knocks and walks in the front door. I come out to the hall to greet her and Hannah skips and jumps into my arms. I tightly wrap my arms around her and spin her around a couple times.
“Something smells good. Are you cooking already?” I smile and pull her towards the kitchen. I explain what we are having and she kisses my lips. “Thanks for cooking. I’m going to run to the bathroom really quick. I haven’t been pee in hours. I forgot to go at home when I was packing my bag. I just wanted to get here as quickly as possible.”
I laugh and watch her scamper off to answer natures call. She’s so cute.
I place the steaks in the heated skillet and put the green beans on to steam. I’m not as good of a cook as Hannah, but thankfully, she seems to like my cooking. If Hannah was cooking this meal, it would be something more like restaurant quality. I still manage to make some good tasting food that’s usually not burnt. One time, I tried to make her fried chicken and the oil got too hot, so it burned the batter while leaving the chicken mostly raw. We ended up going out that night.
Without me asking her, Hannah comes in and gets some plates and silverware ready for us while I’m watching my steaks like a hawk. I don’t want these to burn or get dried out at all. Hannah and I like our steak cooked on the medium-rare side, but not more than medium. It’s a fine line and easy to cross if not watching the meat very carefully.
When we sit down to eat, Hannah leans over and kisses my lips with a loving smile.
“Were you really busy today?”
“It was steady, but not crazy. Felicia did an amazing job with keeping up with everything. How was your day?”
“Pretty typical. We did have a quick meeting in the late afternoon. You’ll actually be receiving a call from Mr. Shiro this week about it. We’re going to start offering a couple different types of massages next month after we’re all trained. He wants to start doing cupping and hot stone massages.”
“Cupping?” She laughs at my look of horror on my face. “Relax, babe, it’s not what you think. It’s a process of taking glass spherical bowls and creating a vacuum on different points to help relieve pressure. It basically sucks your skin up into the bowl. I’m not a fan of the technique because it leaves welts and sometimes bruises on the skin for a couple days. It’s not attractive and I don’t think it offers much relief. But it’s very trendy right now and a lot of younger people are drawn to it because it seems cool.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t sound pleasant at all. I much prefer your hands to relieve the pressure.” Hannah grins and giggles a little bit. “I know you do.”
“Do you always want to do massage therapy?” She shakes her head and chews and swallows her bite before answering. “Well, I’m hoping that one day we’ll have an awesome photography business to run together and we both can ‘retire’ from our current careers. I really like the idea of having a place like that artist gallery we went to in Bridgeport.” I smile and my face blushes. “That would be nice.”
“We should work on your website tonight. I’ll do the dishes if you want to get your laptop setup. ”
“Ok. Come here.” I pull her forward and give her a kiss. She nibbles my bottom lip and grins when she pulls back. “You taste like this yummy dinner you made. I really like whatever you put on the steak.”
“Thanks.”
Hannah takes our plates to the kitchen and I go up to my office to get my personal laptop. My work laptop is in the foyer, but I try not to use that for anything personal, if I can help it because my company can snoop on what I’ve been doing.
I grab my laptop, a notebook, and a memory card that I use to store my final draft photographs. When I come downstairs, I setup in the living room so we can relax on the sofa while we work.
“Hey, babe, do you want any tea?” I look back toward the kitchen, where Hannah is standing drying her hands off on a towel. “Tea sounds good. I’m all done in here. Do you need help in there?” She shakes her head and turns. “Nope, all done.”
Just as Hannah is sitting down next to me with two steaming cups of hot tea, my phone rings. I groan and get up to grab it off the charger on the entertainment center. I recognize the number as my mom’s office, and my chest tightens.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
I turn and look at her with the still ringing phone cradled in my shaking hands. I feel weak and my heart starts racing. I answer the call on the last ring.
“Hello?”
“Brooke?”
“Yes.”
“This is your mom’s secretary. Please do not hang up.”
The woman’s normally even lifeless tone is panicked sounding. My heartrate quickens and I feel like the air has been sucked out of my chest.
“I know you and your mother had a falling out and it was no doubt her doing. I know how your mother can be. But there is something you need to know. I tried calling you a month ago, but she caught me and threatened to fire me if I did. A little over a month ago, I went into her office to get a file I needed and she had some papers sitting on top of the file. I didn’t mean to snoop, but a few words caught my eyes and I couldn’t help but read the papers.”
She pauses for a long time.
“Why are you telling me this? What does it concern me if you read my mother’s personal business?”
Hannah looks up quickly from her tea and stands up. She walks over to me and takes my hand. With her calm hand in mine I can feel for the first time how badly I’m shaking.
“Brooke, there is no easy way to say this. Your mother has terminal stage four lymphoma. She was given only a few months left to live.”
My heart falls out of my chest and my knees crumble beneath me. I’m only partially aware of Hannah’s arms around me. I feel a sharp pain in my chest, my lungs feel like they have forgotten how to work, and my eyes are nearly blind with the wave of tears pouring from them.
“Brooke, your mom collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. I’m sorry.”
The line goes dead and I drop my phone.
To be continued…
Coming Soon…
The Brooke and Hannah Series
Book 2 – Upon a Snow Fall
With their hearts set on marriage and children in the near future, Brooke and Hannah will have to first deal with the fallout from learning Brooke’s mother has terminal cancer. As if opening Pandora’s box, Brooke will deal with one painful blow after another, and discover a hidden secret from her past. Major opportuni
ties and career changes will affect both of them while they pursue starting a photography business together. An invitation out of town will gain them a couple new friends and promising futures of love and support. While riding out the many ups and downs, will Brooke and Hannah finally learn whether or not Hannah’s friend is a murderer?
The Dancing Wolf Series
Book 5 – Building the Nursery
By being able to stay true to herself and her values, no matter the number of temptations and calamities that seem to befall her, Kayla quickly rises to iconic status, further opening career paths in the entertainment industry.
While trying to enjoy the riches of their labors and planning to start having children, Kayla and her wives have to balance a hectic schedule and complicated relationships.
Suspicions of disloyalty will mount, tensions will flare, and very shocking truths will be learned.
Connect with the author:
Amy is a lesbian romance author.
Connect with Amy on Twitter @Amy_DeMeritt and Facebook @AuthorAmyDeMeritt and find out about book updates at www.AmyDeMeritt.com .
Other works by Amy DeMeritt
Keeper of My Heart
Four years ago, Riley was only an intern at the zoo she is a keeper at now. She fell in love with her mentor, and after a three-year relationship, her heart was left broken. She vowed never to allow love into her heart again and she coped in ways that would only send her spiraling down the self-loathing whirlpool. A year later, the tables have turned. Riley is now the mentor and has to take on an intern. With one smile from a sweet innocent face, Riley’s resolve to never love again starts to crumble. While learning how to love again, and forgive herself for her indiscretions, Riley has to find closure with her past so she can move on and finally be happy.
The Perfect Right Hook
When she was a kid, Jordan’s parents enrolled her in boxing to learn how to defend herself against the bullies that picked on her because of her petite size. As a working adult, Jordan’s no longer facing bullies in the schoolyard, but still hangs onto boxing out of habit. When an enemy from her past shows up in a terrifying way, and is the only person that knows why she can’t remember the day before, Jordan has to do some deep soul searching to remember on her own, or face her enemy in the ring to be given the answers. Trying to learn the truth about her missing time, sends Jordan on a journey of self-discovery, learning she is more than just a boxer and a girl that works in IT. With the help of the beautiful and fascinating Alex, Jordan learns the many beauties and wonders in life she has been missing out on and starts to uncover clues to her missing day in her own memory. When she finally learns the truth about what happened to her, will she be able to survive it, or will it destroy her and the beautiful bond that forms between her and Alex ?
She Became My Water
Piper is a barista at a popular coffee shop, where a new weekly patron has captivated her. Even more so than the anonymous blogger, the “Controversial Lesbian”, who she’s been following and has been in love with for the past three years.
With the lure of a shy closed lip smile, Piper is drawn to the beautiful woman, determined to get to know her.
When the anonymous blogger decides to strip her digital mask, revealing her true identity, the surprise unveiling is shocking and life changing. Piper learns that even a lesbian can learn a few things about gender identity and sexuality.
Love Triumphs Pain
As if the stress of trying to decide what to major in when she starts college next year isn’t enough, Jess is surprised and embarrassed to suddenly find herself unable to stop thinking about kissing and being with her flirty science lab partner, Jaime – another girl!
After a brief bout of depression from trying to understand her feelings, and with the help of her lifelong best friend Hayley, Jess accepts she is gay and stops judging herself. Accepting who she is makes her feel hopeful and more confident. Her new-found awareness of “self” allows Jess to humor the idea that she might actually be able to have what she wants – Jaime.
The journey to discovering who they are is full of pain, but also deep passion. The ending may not be what they imagined, but in the end, they both discover their true selves and learn true love can heal all pains .
The Dancing Wolf Series
Building the Family
A dangerously seductive and addictive lesbian romance with a fresh twist. Can one wild weekend really be more than just a fun time? Can it lead to a loving and lasting relationship? When Kayla starts college in love with one girl she’s never been able to have a relationship with, and nursing her broken heart after being dumped by her girlfriend, she lands in the lap of a beautiful girl – a girl who could either fill the void in her heart, or open her heart for a life she only briefly dreamt of as a possibility. Some say it’s only possible to be in love with one person at a time, but Kayla learns the “one love” rule doesn’t apply to her.
Building the Home
In this second installment of The Dancing Wolf, Kayla and her girls get a heavy dose of the trials of the real world, homophobia, and love.
Transitioning from a monogamous relationship to a family of four is only the beginning for Kayla and her girls. In order to abandon their college dorms to move in together, the foursome must now face the world and their families.
Can Madison’s homophobic parents accept their relationship?
Will Kayla’s hidden love for Awenasa cause her family to crumble?
Creating a home together may destroy them, or open up the doors of immeasurable beauty and joy.
Building the Life
Going home for the summer family gathering, to see and collect her wife after a year apart, will mark the start of a real family life for Kayla and her girls .
Even with as much love and support she has from her family, Kayla’s life is never short in supply of complications, tensions, and sometimes, disasters.
After deciding to follow her love of dance and join her sister’s dance squad, Kayla finds herself in the spotlight with new doors opening for a career in dance. But to walk through those doors, Kayla will have to befriend an enemy, and put her personal comforts aside.
Deciding to jump into the entertainment industry will either be a golden ticket to a wonderful life for her family, or will push the girls too far.
Kayla and her girls are about to embark on a great journey, but their love and trust will truly be put to the test.
Note: A prominent character from Love Triumphs Pain, by Amy DeMeritt, will join the cast of characters in this installment of The Dancing Wolf series.
Building the Empire
After being handpicked by an opportunistic dance tycoon for a TV ballroom dance competition, Kayla and her dance partner, Jaime, will have to quickly learn how to cope with the fast-paced entertainment business.
Entering the world of fame and fortune will put Kayla at odds with the image she wants to have, and the image the world wants to give her. Being a celebrity dancer will push Kayla into questionable circumstances, further complicating delicate friendships and testing Kayla’s girls trust in her more than ever.
Her schedule for the year is tight, and mostly dictated by her big dance career, however, some major surprises, both good and bad, will find their way into her schedule .
The Brooke and Hannah Series
Upon a Wishing Flower
On the outside, Brooke Dunning is a staunch professional, and very successful in her career as an advertising agent. Mixing business with pleasure is not something she’d ever allow. But when she’s assigned a client outside of her territory, Brooke meets a gorgeous and charming woman who immediately threatens her ability to maintain her composure.
The encounter presents Brooke with the possibility of true and lasting love, but allowing a romantic relationship with a client could cost Brooke her job.
A single morning of taking pictures for her new client will change everything. Brooke will learn about an unpunished crime that will f
orce her to relive her painful past as a crime scene photographer .