Two Hard

by Amy Brent

  “Oh...” She looked at me, wearing a concerned frown. “Oh, Brianna. You meant...oh my.”

  I let go of her hand, sighing in disappointment. “If you don't want me to meet your kids, I guess I understand.”

  “No, I do.” She wrung her hands together, her face twisted in a grimace. “It's just so complicated. I'm not even sure my youngest knows what a lesbian is. And I mean...hell, even if I were dating a man, it would be hard to tell them. They still want me to get back together with their father.”

  “And you don't want to tell them that's not happening. Or that you're like a grandfather clock.

  She frowned at me in confusion.

  “That you swing both ways,” I said, making a swinging pendulum motion with my hands.

  She laughed and shook her head. “I want to tell them. I do. I really do. I just need to figure out how.”

  I nodded and decided that I shouldn't press the issue. Not yet.

  “Maybe you could come to the parade with us...as a friend?” She gave me a hopeful smile. “I mean, just to let them get to know you. And then once things get settled and they're used to you, I can explain to them that you're more than just a friend.”

  I smiled and took her hand back in mine. “That works,” I said. “I can live with that.”

  I finally met Julia's children the morning of the Labor Day parade. She had two sons, Josh, who was thirteen, and Tommy, who was ten. She introduced me to them as “a friend from work,” and they accepted that without question.

  We went to the parade together. Josh stayed hanging back away from the crowd, busy texting on his phone. Tommy stayed near me, holding my hand on one side, his mother's on the other. We watched the floats and the dancers go by, and Tommy raced to beat the other kids to the handfuls of candy the marchers tossed out. I snagged a couple of Tootsie Rolls before he could steal them all and I chewed on them while we sat on the curb and enjoyed the show.

  During a lull in the parade, Tommy looked up at me and said, “You're really pretty.”

  I blushed and looked up at Julia. “Well, thank you,” I said.

  “Do you have a boyfriend?”

  Julia gave me a slightly panicked look. But I decided that I could handle this with grace and charm. Ten-year-olds tended to take just about anything in stride. They were too young to have developed the stubborn views of the world that came by the time they were teenagers.

  “I don't have a boyfriend,” I told him. “I don't like boys.”

  “Why not?” he asked. “We don't have cooties.”

  I laughed and ruffled his hair. “Because I like girls, that's why.”

  “Oh,” he said. “I think I like girls too.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah.” He kept his attention focused on trying to unwrap a Starburst. “Especially Maggie Delaney. She's really pretty.”

  “Well, then you should ask her to be your girlfriend.”

  Tommy looked up at me, puzzling something out. Then he asked, “If you like girls, does that mean you have a girlfriend?”

  I looked up at Julia again. Her expression was a mixture of concern and hopefulness. I arched an eyebrow at her. She shrugged. So I decided to keep being honest with Tommy.

  “Well, can I tell you a secret?” I asked him.

  “Yeah.”

  I leaned over and whispered in his ear, “I really like your mom. She's really pretty.”

  He looked up at her and smiled. “Yeah, she is. I've got the prettiest mom.”

  He studied her for a moment and asked, “Mom, do you like Brianna? She likes you.”

  She laughed and patted his head. “Yes, dear. I like her very much.”

  “Oh. good.”

  Julia and I both laughed. I winked at her. I hadn't thought it was going to be that easy.

  After the parade was over, we all walked to a little family-owned ice cream parlor down the street. We all got ice cream cones and we walked back to Julia's house, taking our time and enjoying the wonderful weather. Tommy and Josh had long strides and quickly pulled ahead of Julia and me. When we lagged far enough behind, I took Julia's hand. She tensed a bit at the touch, then relaxed into it.

  “Your kids seem to like me,” I said. “Well, Tommy does. Josh doesn't seem to care much one way or the other.”

  “Seems that way,” she said. “I hope they can really accept it. It's not an easy conversation to have with kids so young.”

  “I think they'll do fine,” I said. “And hey, since meeting your family went so well, do you want to meet mine?”

  “Oh, God.” She laughed, throwing her head back. “The dreaded 'meet the parents' stage of a relationship. Do you think your mother will approve of me?”

  I squeezed her hand and smiled at her. “She can't be any harder to convince than your kids were.”

  We walked hand in hand, looking ahead to the future. I'd never had a serious girlfriend before. I'd never had anyone I wanted to bring home to meet my mother. And I'd certainly never dated anyone who was a mother herself. But none of that seemed to matter. We were happy, we were comfortable together, and we were making it work.

  I still missed my dad. There was a gaping hole inside of me that no one else could ever fill. But with time passing and the loss becoming a little more distant with each passing day, I was learning to cope with it. And with Julia in my life, I had someone who I knew would support me all along the way.

  I knew I couldn't replace her husband. Not for a variety of reasons. And I didn't know if her kids would ever come to think of me as a second mom, or if they'd call me Aunt Brianna, or if I'd always just be “mom's younger girlfriend.” But I knew we could get along, and that Julia would work hard to make sure that there was a place for me in her life.

  That was about all I could have asked for from any woman, and it was wonderful to know that I'd found it.

  ********THE END********

  LESBIAN – MY FIRST TIME

  MY FIRST TIME

  CHAPTER ONE

  Ginny Andrews parked her Range Rover in the parking lot in Philadelphia that was shared by several buildings, including the advertising company that she worked for. It was hustle and bustle around her as she leaned her head against her steering wheel, taking slow breaths.

  Another quiet morning at her house with her husband of ten years leaving without a goodbye while she got ready upstairs. They had been having some troubles in the last couple of years but now it felt like both of them had given up. Ginny leaned back and ran her fingers through her heavy bobbed brown hair in a rush, checking to see that her make-up was still present and accounted for. She didn’t even know why she cried anymore at times because she wasn’t just sad. It was just so complicated.

  Today’s drive had been mild and the big brown eyes that Phil had fallen in love with just after college stared back at her. Ginny looked good for being thirty-five with a nine-year-old daughter, but she also worked hard to do so. It wasn’t vanity as much as it was to keep up with her active girl and all of the things that she did with her. Phil worked as an architect and those projects could run for hours so she worked her schedule around Riley. At some point that had been okay with her, since her job at Brook’s Advertising was everything that she’d ever wanted after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University.

  She’d married the perfect guy, had a great job and a happy daughter. Wasn’t that supposed to be enough for her?

  Ginny slipped out of her brand new car, locking it before she slipped her keys into her purse and sliding that over her body. She joined the mass of people that were all going to their jobs, sipping the coffee that she’d brought from home to get her through the morning. Ginny walked carefully through the glass doors of her building, not wanting to add breaking her legs because of her new heels to her list today.

  Riley had gotten up late for school, making everybody rush apart from Phil. He’d quietly gone to work without a word to anyone so Ginny had been the parent that was getting lunch together as well as herself, trying
not to scream at her tired daughter. She got her dropped off and headed to work, finally enjoying some peace and sunshine before Winter hit. She gave the outside a last long glance before going to the elevator to her office, catching a glimpse of one of the newer girls that worked for her company. She was a redhead with loose curls that were typically held back with something and had the prettiest green eyes that looked like grass. She was always smiling and it reminded Ginny of a past version of herself, making her long for that life again.

  Ginny knew deep down that it wasn’t just the old life that she longed for. Apart from a few drunken kisses in college before she tied herself to Phil, she’d never really examined her attraction to women before. It was just something that would never go anywhere since she’d chosen this life. This girl was probably fresh out of school and full of hope and promise, as well as being beautiful. There was just something about the way that she carried herself, laughing with another girl from the company as Ginny turned forward to trudge ahead.

  On the elevator, she took another look at the young woman that was in the front of the car. While Ginny was more business as far as her choice of clothes, the redhead wore loose dresses and quirky flats. She didn’t wear a lot of make-up but what she did use was bright and fun. She was perfect for this place and Ginny remembered that she worked alongside Brandon Daniels, who was one of the best in the company. She must have done well at school to get right into that spot, something that Ginny had done six years ago before becoming a supervisor.

  Maya James…that was her name. She’d only been with the company for a handful of months.

  Ginny smiled to herself as she let her eyes wander down the trim form of Maya as another burst of her laughter filled the car. It was such a calming sound and Ginny memorized it in her head as she tucked her rising interest away under the facade of her bright red power suit and black heels. She was a supervisor anyway and it simply couldn’t happen based on that and so many other realities.

  They both exited on the third floor, which was to be expected, though Ginny headed to the right and Maya to the left. Ginny got herself a fresh cup of coffee from the machine in the break room before settling down to log onto her computer and check email. It was her habit in the morning before she looked over the progress of the campaigns that she was heading, as well as making the rounds if she felt it was needed. Ginny was a fair boss but she let her teams know that she was interested and involved, if need be.

  The email about a new campaign caught her eye and Ginny read further about the newest dating site that they’d been hired to represent. “Like the world needs another one,” she murmured to herself as she read the premise. It was similar to the one that suggested that you just have lunch, just going for more of a nighttime vibe with the idea of just meeting for a drink. Wasn’t that something that people did regularly in a bar? She checked out the teams that were suggested, wishing that she headed Brandon just today as he was listed with Maya. He was one of the top ad designers at Brook’s and had many successful campaigns under his proverbial collar.

  Brandon was also known to be popular with the women at the advertising firm, and the rumors were quite rampant about him. Ginny wondered if he was sleeping with Maya or at the very least, trying to. If that were the case, it would get around. The supervisors tried to keep it from getting too crazy or worse yet, harmful; though gossip was a regular part of the work place. She threw in her vote for Brandon and Maya to head it, since he seemed to have an edge with those kinds of things.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Maya woke up to both her alarm and the sound of arguing, rolling over in her king sized bed with a groan. Her bed and her things were in the basement of her sister’s small house with privacy and peace in mind, but when her five-year-old niece got angry, she tended to get very loud.

  Maya had moved in when Brie’s ex had moved to New York, leaving her sister and his daughter behind to pursue stand-up comedy. Her and Brie were very close and she knew that it would be hard for her to raise Gillian by herself. David was basically a selfish narcissistic asshole who didn’t seem to think of his daughter, finding no issues in moving out of the state. Granted, Gillian was an accident but that didn’t give him the right to leave Brie alone to raise her.

  Maya had moved in just after graduation, thinking it might be smart to save up some money since she’d landed a job at Brook’s Advertising right away. It was decent pay but an apartment of her own would cost her a fortune and she really loved her psychotic little blonde niece.

  Put on a happy face.

  Maya got out of bed and yanked on her robe as she headed towards the stairs, calling out Gillian’s name in a sing song voice as she opened the door. “What’s the deal, Gill?”

  “She wants pancakes but we’re out. I suggested toast.” Brie said, her blue eyes weary and curly hair a mess as she glanced from the kitchen. “Why would that be a good idea?”

  “Yo, Gill.” Maya smiled and went into the living room to find the girl sulking on the couch. She looked so much like Brie but her attitude was definitely that of her father. “You have to eat before school. It helps you learn and you know that Mom has to get to work. I’ll pick you up after work and we’ll get something for dinner. How’s that sound?”

  “I want pancakes.” Her voice was set and her eyes a solid blue as they stared her down.

  “We’ll have to get some. Look, kiddo. Cut your mom a break and let’s go have some honey toast, okay? I’ll throw in half a cup of that breakfast drink that you like.” Maya suggested softly, watching Gillian raise her hand to give her a high five. It was her way of saying yes to her aunt and Maya took a deep breath. This war was over. “Head on into the kitchen. I’ll meet you there.” She walked into the hallway to use the bathroom before meeting her sister in the hall. “Get ready for work. I’ll fix her breakfast and take the second shift.” Brie gave her a hug before heading down the hall to the shower and Maya smiled at her as she watched her walk away.

  They made a great team. Maya had always been around for Gillian more than her dad and she walked into the kitchen, making a big production of getting everything ready. Coffee was made before the toast so that she could think straight but the little girl was soon munching happily before running to her room to get ready. Maya looked around the quiet kitchen, taking in the peace before she had to get ready for work herself. She heard voices and walked into the living room with her cup to see both of them ready to go. Maya hugged and kissed Gillian and Brie goodbye, promising her sister that she had the afternoon handled.

  Maya was lucky that her job was flexible with her hours since they knew that she was helping out at home. She always made up her time on the days that she didn’t get Gillian and she did her job really well. She was surprised when they teamed her with Brandon, who was a pro at what he did and had just lost his partner to another company.

  She showered quickly, pulling on a purple shift with her ballet flats, throwing on a little make up to make her look less ghostly. Her hair was going to be crazy curly no matter what she did without a lot of work, so Maya just added some product and let it dry on its own as she grabbed a tie and slipped it over her small wrist. She grabbed a black cardigan and headed out the door to her old beat up Civic, starting it after she’d settled her bag on the passenger seat. It took a while some mornings and she backed out of the small driveway as it sputtered, pushing on the gas to get Bridget to move. She loved this damn car and never wanted to get rid of it, since it had seen her through most of high school and all of college, along with a few other memorable moments.

  Parking in the lot, Maya glanced over to see the woman on her floor slip out of a brand new SUV as she got her own purse over her body. She always looked so good, dressed very professionally and flawless in Maya’s eyes. She was clearly a bit older based on her appearance but still looked amazing and probably just a few years older than Maya’s twenty-four years.

  “Just stop dreaming. She’s a boss and way out of your league.” Maya told herself
softly as she got out of the car. Different worlds. She met up with a couple other people from her floor, talking about their weekends as they gathered on the elevator. Maya saw the woman from the garage in the back, her brown eyes meeting green ones for just a moment before Maya forced herself to look away. She tugged her hair back into a low ponytail and laughed and joked with her friends as they took the short ride to their floor. Maya turned left to go to her little office that she shared with Brandon, knowing that she was the only one as all of the voices went right. Of course, there was coffee that way.

  Coffee.

  Maya put her purse into her small desk, since most of the office was set up for designing and planning. She turned on her computer to let it warm up, glancing at the door as Brandon walked in. If she was anyone else, she’d find him attractive. Dark hair and tall with some really stunning topaz eyes, Brandon got a lot of attention here at work. “Maya. Coffee before we start?”

  “Sure thing. Your weekend good?” Maya asked him, waiting for him to turn on his own computer.

  “I just hung out a lot. There’s some new bars in the city that are pretty great.” Brandon told her, Maya forcing herself to nod. She didn’t know too much about all of that, since she was with Gillian and Brie a lot.

  “I’ll bet.” She told him, turning into the break room and heading towards the row of coffee makers.

  “What did you do?” Brandon asked her with interest as she rolled her eyes.

  “Mostly hung out with my sister and my niece. It was relaxing.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Maya was getting her second cup of coffee in the break room, needing a moment away from the argument that she had going with Brandon. They weren’t seeing eye to eye on their ideas for a condom campaign and she pushed the button with a small laugh as she realized their different viewpoints on them. “Good morning,” said a voice from the door, making Maya blush as she looked over at the door to see parking garage woman looking curiously at her. She looked around the rest of the room with a shrewd gaze, assuring Maya that she had heard her laughing. To herself. In an empty room.