The Rules of Engagement: A Lesbian Romance (Rulebook Book 2)

by Cara Malone

  “Max,” she said warily, “why are we here?”

  There were several reasons why Max brought Mira, but the most important one was a pragmatic reason. “I don’t want to take something this valuable on the bus.”

  “What is it?” Mira asked, shifting from foot to foot as if she was nervous. Max didn’t know what her problem was – Mira wasn’t the one who had just wiped out her savings account.

  Mira didn’t have to wait long for the answer to her question, though. The salesman returned quickly with a small jewelry box and held it out to Max.

  She took it and Mira asked, “Is that what I think it is?”

  Max opened the box and inspected its contents, a one-carat, marquise-cut diamond mounted to a white gold band. It was the largest diamond Max could afford and the most elegant ring in the shop, simple but beautiful just like Ruby. She turned the box to give Mira a look.

  “Oh, Max,” Mira said, her eyes widening and her hand going to her mouth.

  “It’s perfect, isn’t it?” Max asked. The gold was polished to a high shine and the light refracted from a dozen different facets of the stone.

  “It’s a very pretty ring,” Mira said, glancing from Max to the salesman and back again as Max gently closed the box and set it on the counter to take out her wallet. Mira put her hand on Max’s forearm just before she passed a credit card across the counter. “Are you sure about this?”

  “Of course I am,” Max said, handing over the card. From the moment she saw that ring, she knew it belonged on Ruby’s finger.

  The salesman went to a cash register a few feet away and Max turned curiously to Mira. She didn’t look nearly as elated as Max felt, and she couldn’t understand why not.

  “Max,” Mira said in a chastising tone, lowering her voice and leaning in so the salesman wouldn’t overhear their conversation. “Don’t you think it’s a bit soon? You’ve only been together six months.”

  “I knew I wanted to be with Ruby from the moment I saw her and every day that we’re together I only want her more,” Max said. “What difference does it make if I wait an arbitrary amount of time before proposing?”

  “Waiting a little longer is not arbitrary,” Mira said as the salesman came back and handed Max her credit card.

  He picked up the ring box and put it in a bag for her, handing it back across the counter. Max took it and started out of the store while Mira chased after her. Max knew she could be stubborn at times, but she was right about this. The winter break had been difficult on her and Ruby, especially with her distaste for most forms of long-distance communication, and she was determined to make their long summer apart go smoother. A ring on Ruby’s finger would help – it would mean that they were both on the same page, working toward the same goal even if they couldn’t see each other or talk very often.

  Mira kept arguing, though. She said, “You’re only halfway through grad school. How are you going to plan a wedding around a double major?”

  Max shrugged, undeterred. “Maybe we’ll wait until we graduate before we start planning it. In the meantime, Ruby can wear the ring.”

  “But the point of waiting is to make sure you know each other well enough to make an informed decision,” Mira continued to object.

  “I do know her. She’s my soulmate,” Max said. They went outside and Max got into the car, waiting for Mira to walk around to the driver’s side. When she slid behind the wheel, Max asked, “Can we swing by my parents’ house? I don’t want to risk Ruby finding it before I’m ready.”

  “Okay,” Mira said with a sigh. She fired up the engine and as she pulled into the street, she asked, “Is this imminent? Like, is it happening next week or something?”

  “No,” Max said. It was happening in two weeks, courage permitting. She didn’t think she could tell that to Mira, though – not after the negative reaction she had to the ring. So instead, she said, “I want to be ready for when the moment is right. I’m going to meet Ruby’s parents in one week and that will be the best opportunity I have to ask for her father’s permission. I’d like to have the ring in my possession to prove that I’m serious.”

  “You’re not going to propose in Chicago, are you?” Mira asked.

  “Why are you being so negative?” Max asked, starting to get irritated by Mira’s attitude.

  She hadn’t asked for all of this advice – all she really needed was a ride to the jewelry store – and she thought Mira would support this idea. She knew how much Ruby meant to Max, and she’d even become friends with Ruby in the past couple of semesters. Max thought Mira would be excited, and instead she was fighting her at every turn this afternoon.

  Then a thought occurred to her, spurred on by the diet of romantic comedies that Ruby had been feeding her all year. She gave Mira a side-eyed look and asked, “You’re not jealous, are you?”

  She and Mira had been friends since freshman year and Max never thought of her any way other than platonically. Nothing in Mira’s behavior, words, or non-verbal cues had ever indicated that she fostered romantic feelings toward Max, but that sort of thing seemed to happen pretty frequently in movies. She supposed it wouldn’t be out of the question.

  “No,” Mira said bluntly. “I am not jealous, Max, I’m concerned. I think you and Ruby are good together and I hope you have a long and happy relationship. All I’m saying is that you’ve been dating barely six months and there’s no reason to rush into something. Why not wait a little longer to make sure it’s what you both want?”

  “It sounds like you’re expecting us to break up,” Max said, becoming more petulant by the moment. This was supposed to be a happy errand and instead Mira was trying to cast doubt on her decision.

  “Not at all,” Mira objected. “It’s just that this is your first romantic relationship and you probably don’t realize that you’re still in what’s called the honeymoon phase. Everything’s rosy, your heart feels like it’s going to burst every time you look at her, you can’t keep your hands off each other, and you haven’t discovered a single one of her flaws yet. You’re in a bubble that’s only big enough for the two of you, and you can’t see anything else. This is not the time for a proposal. Wait until you can see her flaws. If you still love her then, and she loves you despite your flaws, then propose.”

  “I already know I’m going to love her for the rest of my life, and I don’t care about her flaws,” Max said. “I don’t need to wait.”

  She looked out the window and watched the transition from city to suburbs. She wasn’t interested in Mira’s pessimistic opinion of her relationship, and the truth was Max thought she already waited six months too long for this. She knew from the moment she saw Ruby that there would never be anyone else for her.

  Besides, girls like Ruby were too perfect to be kept waiting. Every time Max saw another woman looking at Ruby, anxiety leapt into her throat and she had no idea how she’d managed to keep Ruby’s affections as long as she had. She didn’t want to wait another minute before making Ruby hers, and at the very least, she didn’t think she could face the next few months without the promise of the rest of their lives together waiting for her at the other end of summer.

  CHAPTER 3

  Mira graduated with honors the following Saturday. The ceremony was held in the Granville State stadium, the field transformed into a sea of folding chairs with a large stage at one end. Ruby and Max sat in the bleachers with Mira’s parents and watched as a long line of undergraduates marched across the stage.

  They stood as the Masters candidates approached, and Max slipped her hand into Ruby’s and squeezed it proudly as Mira’s turn came. She marched across the stage in her long robes, her blue and gold hood and two honor cords hanging around her neck, one for each of her dual degrees, and she was beaming the whole time as the four of them clapped wildly for her.

  After the ceremony, they all went out to eat at Mira and Max’s favorite Mexican restaurant. During the school year it had become tradition for the three of them to go there once a week a
nd just unwind from classes, but now that time was coming to an end. Mira already had a job lined up at the public library in her hometown, and she’d be leaving Granville in the morning. Throughout the meal, Ruby kept stealing glances over at Max to see how she was handling this inevitability, but she seemed stoic and Ruby hoped she wasn’t just avoiding the fact that her best friend was moving away.

  When the meal was over, Mira’s parents gave her a final proud hug and then climbed into the moving van they rented to help her move back home. In the morning she would join them with the last of the small items from her apartment, but for now, she, Ruby, and Max stood on the sidewalk outside of the restaurant, not wanting the night to end so anti-climactically.

  “What now?” Ruby asked. “Are we going to party?”

  “I like the way this girl thinks,” Mira said with a broad smile. “Want to go to The Rainbow Room?”

  “Please no,” Max objected.

  Ruby had only heard tell of The Rainbow Room, Granville’s hottest gay bar, in vague terms as if it were more legend than reality. She knew that Max preferred quiet spaces and small groups, and from what she gathered from Mira this bar was anything but.

  Max suggested, “Why don’t we just go back to your apartment and hang out?”

  “I spent almost every waking second of the last two years in that apartment studying,” Mira said. “I’m so done with that apartment. Besides, there’s literally just a couch and a change of clothes there – everything else is packed up. Let’s go have some fun.”

  “The Rainbow Room is so loud,” Max said. “And crowded.”

  “Please,” Mira whined, grabbing Max’s hand along with Ruby’s and already beginning to pull them down the sidewalk in the direction of the bar. “We don’t have to stay long. I just want to get a drink and dance to a song or two. It can be your graduation gift to me, Max.”

  Ruby gave Max a sympathetic look, but beneath that expression she was really hoping that Max would consent. She was wearing a nice dress and she’d straightened her hair, and the idea of losing herself on a dance floor like she used to do with her sorority sisters was really appealing.

  “Okay, okay,” Max relented. “Let’s go.”

  Ruby smiled a little bigger than she probably should have, showing just how excited she was to check out this local LGBT hangout, and the three of them headed down the street to the bar. Her exploration of the city up to this point had been limited to a few restaurants she and Max went to – and typically ordered take-out from – the yoga studio, and a couple of pubs that GLiSS hosted social outings in. They were pretty tame, as were her fellow library science students, and there certainly wasn’t a dance floor at any of those bars, so she’d gradually gotten away from the party scene that she used to enjoy at Northwestern.

  Max wasn’t into bars, and Ruby figured she should probably be outgrowing that phase of her life anyway. That was all well and good because she and Max had become so consumed with each other that they barely left their apartment for a semester and a half anyway. Their nightly routine of homework, take-out for dinner, movies, and sex had become comfortable and it had replaced a lot of Ruby’s old desire to go out and party.

  That urge wasn’t completely dead, though, and this adventure would be a special treat for Ruby as well as Mira.

  ***

  On a night when more than five thousand new graduates had something to celebrate, The Rainbow Room was packed. As soon as the three of them got in the door, they were thrust into the middle of the action. The dance floor had swelled beyond its usual boundaries at the back of the room and people were standing two and three deep at the bar, shouting their orders at frenzied bartenders.

  It was raucous and loud just like the clubs Ruby used to go to back home, the energy of a few hundred people pulsing through the room and vibrating in her chest. Max slid her hand into Ruby’s, which was probably wise because crowds like this had a way of tearing people apart.

  “Should we get a drink?” Ruby shouted at Max and Mira, but the pulsing music drowned out her words and she could scarcely hear them herself. Instead, she made a drinking motion with her thumb and pinky, then leaned in close to try and catch their orders.

  “Jack and Coke, please,” Mira shouted, shoving a ten-dollar bill into Ruby’s hand. Ruby tried to pass it back, but the chaos in the room made her worry she’d drop the bill, so she tucked it into the pocket of her dress to return to Mira later. The graduate would not be paying for her own drinks tonight.

  “Babe?” Ruby shouted over the music to Max.

  “Same, minus the Jack,” Max yelled back. She wasn’t a drinker, and as Ruby slid her hand free from Max’s and headed for the bar, she hoped this wouldn’t keep Max from having a little fun tonight.

  Ruby made it to the bar with a little difficulty, and despite the fact that she stood at least a head taller than most of the girls in front of her, she couldn’t manage to flag the bartender down. People were barking their orders and those with the loudest voices won, rewarded with drinks sloshed across the counter at them.

  “Jack and Coke!” Ruby shouted, trying to squeeze her way closer to the bar as people came and went and spots opened up and then closed again in the span of microseconds. “Whiskey sour, please!”

  The bartenders walked past her a few times, made eye contact with her even, but they just kept grabbing beers and sliding them across the bar to people, pouring shots and handing them out. Ruby was no stranger to a crowded bar, but she was almost ready to throw in the towel and return to the girls apologetic and empty-handed when she felt someone squeeze into the space beside her, hand resting momentarily on the small of her back.

  “What are you drinking?” asked a girl with smooth ebony skin and big, natural hair. Ruby grinned as she realized that the girl wasn’t merely taking pity on her utterly pathetic attempt at getting the bartender’s attention – she was flirting.

  Ruby thought about setting the girl straight, but she wasn’t having much luck on her own so she might as well take the help that was offered.

  “I’m with them,” she shouted over the music, pointing to Max and Mira where they had found a space along the wall. Max looked hopelessly uncomfortable and Ruby felt a pang of guilt for dragging her out here. She hoped that in the grand scheme of things, Max would look back on this night and feel grateful that she had a new memory with Mira just before she left Granville, rather than just another night in the dorms. Ruby turned her attention back to the girl and shouted over the noise, “I don’t think the bartender can hear me. Can you order us a couple of drinks? I’ll pay.”

  “Sure, sweetheart,” the girl said, flashing her a pearly white smile with a look that lingered on the fine line between seduction and inebriation. This clearly wasn’t her first trip to the bar tonight.

  Ruby gave her their drink orders and the girl hopped up and leaned way over the bar, forcing the bartender’s attention and getting what she wanted in a matter of seconds. It was a youthful, bold move and Ruby was kicking herself for not thinking of it as the girl handed the whiskey sour to her.

  Ruby put some cash down on the bar, paying for the girl’s beer as well, and then, because she couldn’t be so rude as to just take her drinks and shove off, she shouted to the girl, “Do you want to join us? The one with the short blonde hair is my girlfriend, but the librarian type with her hair in a bun is single.”

  The girl didn’t even bother looking in the direction Ruby pointed. It was clear who she was after, and she just took one last disappointed look at Ruby, smiled, and then disappeared into the crowd in the opposite direction. Ruby scooped up all three of the drinks, balancing them between her fingers and wondering if she had a snowball’s chance of getting across the dance floor without spilling them. Then she picked her way back over to Max and Mira as carefully as she could.

  “Sorry for the wait,” she shouted as she handed them their drinks. “It’s so loud in here I couldn’t get the bartender’s attention.”

  “Who was that?�
�� Max asked, taking her Coke.

  “Oh, at the bar?” Ruby asked, taking a sip of her own drink and pursing her lips a little at the sour mix. The drink was a little weak – nothing like she was used to drinking at Northwestern – but the flavor brought her back to sorority parties where it had become her go-to party beverage. “Just some girl. She had better drink-ordering tactics than me so she helped me out.”

  “She was hitting on you,” Max said.

  “Nah,” Ruby said, blushing a little.

  “Yes, she was,” Max insisted.

  “Maybe a little,” Ruby answered with a shrug. “That’s what a lot of people are here for.”

  They stood at the periphery of the dance floor for a few minutes, each of them sipping their drinks as Ruby and Mira attempted to maintain a conversation over the loud music and Max gave up in frustration. She was never one for meaningless chatter, and when the environment threw up additional barriers to the conversation, she didn’t find it worth the trouble. She’d finished her Coke by the time Ruby shouted, “Mira, did we come here to dance or what?”

  “Yeah, let’s do it,” Mira said, raising her half-empty glass in the air to keep it out of harm’s way as she led them into the chaos of the dance floor.

  “I know you don’t like crowds,” Ruby said to Max, leaning in close so she could be heard over the music. “Just one dance to make Mira happy, okay? Then we’ll come back over here where it’s less crowded, I’ll finish my drink and we can go. I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” Max shouted back, and Ruby could tell that she was trying her damnedest to look grudging about their presence here. Ruby was in too good a mood, though, and she just kissed Max and dragged her onto the dance floor to find Mira.

  The three of them joined a throng of at least a hundred undulating bodies, sweaty and energetic, jumping and grinding and grooving to the music. Ruby put her arm around Max’s shoulder, trying not to spill her drink as people bumped into her on all sides, and then she gave up thinking about anything at all. The music was coursing through her body and she could feel the frenetic energy of all the people moving around her.