by Lyn Gardner
Their lips met, and Kate’s fears waned. Running her fingers through Brodie’s hair, she stroked the back of her neck as the kiss deepened, and it wasn’t until they heard the squeak of the steel door that they moved apart.
“Oh, shit...sorry.”
Kate laughed, burying her face in Brodie’s chest for a second before turning toward the door. “Is this becoming a habit with you?”
Gina chuckled. “Christ, I certainly hope not.”
“Me too,” Brodie said through a grin. “And where’s your other half?”
“She’s searching for the takeaway menus.”
“Well, I’d best go help her, or she’ll empty all the drawers, and I won’t find anything for weeks,” Brodie said, loosening her hold on Kate. After giving Kate a quick peck on the lips, Brodie headed for the stairs. “See you two down there.”
As the door closed behind Gina, she took in her surroundings. “Wow, this is great.”
“Yes, it is,” Kate said into her glass as she brought it to her lips.
Surrounded by possibly one of the most romantic places Gina had ever seen, Kate’s pensive look worried her. “Hey, you doing okay?” she said, walking over.
“Yeah,” Kate said, forcing a smile. “I just need to get used to a few things.”
***
Kate’s anxieties vanished as soon as she and Gina went back downstairs. Brodie and Devon were in the kitchen joking about the amount of food they were going to order, their laughter reminding Kate that tonight she was among friends who wouldn’t judge or condemn. Before too long, she was joining the others at the table, and as Kate, Gina, and Devon popped open all the red and white containers of Chinese food, Brodie refilled their glasses.
Beer had always been Devon’s drink of choice, but in her rush to get Kate back to her flat and into her bed, Brodie hadn’t stopped to buy any. After turning up her nose at the taste of the bold, dry red the others were having, Devon was about to fetch some water when Brodie returned with a bottle of Riesling. She filled Devon’s glass and pushed it in her direction, and once Devon sipped the crisp, fruity liquid, water was no longer needed.
Their feast began with spicy spare ribs, spring rolls, and wonton soup, and as they sampled, they sniggered at innuendo and cackled at smartarse retorts. Kate was on the receiving end more than once. Whenever Brodie gave her a certain look or dared to send a knowing gaze in her direction, Kate’s cheeks would darken three shades, and Gina and Devon would twitter like little girls or tap their silverware on their glasses, insisting the two women kiss.
Before the last slurp of soup had been swallowed, Devon’s glass was empty, and once she scooped portions of Kung Po chicken, curried beef, and fried king prawns onto her plate, Devon refilled her glass. Having never developed a tolerance for alcohol, Devon had always limited herself to two beers. The Riesling, however, tasting more like watered-down juice than wine, caused Devon to forget her limitations, and halfway through dinner, she poured another splash into her glass…and then another.
Two hours later, with empty containers scattered across the dining room table, Brodie got up, picked up the two wine bottles, and headed into the kitchen. “Who wants dessert?”
Brodie snickered when she heard the loud, collective groan coming from the dining room, and placing the empty bottles on the counter, she pulled another from the rack.
“You may want to put on a pot of coffee, too,” Kate said, dropping some empty cartons into the rubbish bin.
“For Devon?”
“You noticed?”
“Between her tittering and her ‘whoopsie’ whenever she dropped her fork, it was kind of hard not to,” Brodie said, smiling as she handed Kate the bottle and corkscrew. “If you can handle that, I’ll set up the machine.”
“Thanks,” Kate said, watching as Brodie began scooping out beans to put into the grinder. “She doesn’t drink wine that much.”
“Darling,” Brodie said, looking up. “You don’t have to apologize for her. Devon’s just having some fun. No harm done.”
“Okay.”
They worked alongside each other quietly, and by the time the coffee was brewing, and the wine was opened, Gina had already cleared the table and deposited Devon onto the sofa in the game room. Once everything was cleaned up, with drinks in hand, Kate and Gina joined Devon, and Brodie followed shortly after with a tray piled high with biscuits and foil-wrapped chocolates.
As soon as Brodie walked into the room, Devon popped into a sitting position. “Whaz happening?”
“We’re just having some coffee and dessert,” Brodie said, sitting down.
“Iz that wine?” Devon said, pointing to the bottle next to Kate.
“Yes, and it’s red,” Kate said, handing her sister a cup of coffee. “So, drink this instead.”
Devon stuck out her lower lip. “I don’t want that.”
“Too bad, drink it anyway.”
“You’re not my mother,” Devon said, wiggling her finger in the air. “Oh…thaz right. I don’t have one of those anymore. Whoopsie.”
In unison, Kate, Gina, and Brodie pressed their lips together to stifle their amusement, and when Devon stood up and swayed, all three women braced for impact.
“Honey,” Gina said, patting the cushions on the sofa. “You really should sit down.”
“Not interested,” Devon said, waving her off. “But you know what? How ‘bout we shoot some pool? Come on, Brod. Let’s do it!”
Brodie looked at Gina and Kate for guidance, and when both shrugged in reply, she said, “Looks like we’re shooting some pool.”
“Yes!” Devon said with a fist pump before making a somewhat wobbly beeline to the rack of cues on the wall.
“What do you want to play, ladies?” Brodie said, directing her question to Kate and Gina.
“You and Devon decide,” Kate said, picking up her wine. “It doesn’t matter to us.”
Brodie glanced at Devon, watching as she struggled to remove one of the cues. “Devon, it’s your choice then. What do you want to play?”
The rack Brodie had mounted on the wall was designed like a thousand others. There was a narrow shelf on the bottom where the cue would rest and toward the top another equally narrow shelf with holes drilled every few inches. To remove a stick, one only had to lift it, pull it out to clear the bottom shelf, and lower it to free the tip from the hole at the top, but for Devon, it had become a Chinese puzzle box. She had no idea all eyes were on her, and she had no idea all three women were struggling not to laugh.
Devon lifted a cue and then rested it again on the shelf, staring at it for a few seconds before lifting it again. She repeated the same steps three more times before she finally solved the mystery. Letting out a squeal of delight, she whipped around with the not-so-firmly-gripped prize in her hand, and a second later, the lacquered stick slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor with a clatter. “Whoopsie,” she said, giggling as she snatched it up. “Now, what were you saying?”
Brodie’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “I was asking you what you’d like to play. Gina and Kate said for you to pick.”
“Oh cool,” Devon said, snagging a piece of chalk from the table. “Well, let’s see. There’s eight-ball, nine-ball…um…cutthroat, and we cannot forget strip, now can we, Brodie?”
The heads of the two women sitting on the sofa popped up like moles in a carnival game, and after giving each other a quick glance, they spoke as one, “Strip?”
Brodie winced, and if Devon were paying attention, she would have seen that Brodie had sent her a look to kill. But absorbed in merrily chalking the end of her cue stick, Devon had no idea her loose, albeit drunken lips had just lit someone’s fuse.
Kate jumped up and headed for Brodie, the weight of her stare forcing Brodie to look her in the eye. “Care to explain strip pool?” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
Brodie tried to put on a sweet smile, one to appease and calm, but it slipped off her face when she saw the veins in Kate’s
temples straining against her skin. “It’s really nothing, darling,” Brodie said quietly. “Just something we did once.”
“Oh, come on, Brod,” Devon said with an exaggerated eye roll. “We played it lots of times.”
Kate tightened her jaw, and tilting her head to the side, she stared at Brodie. “So…who won?”
“What?” Brodie said.
“I said…who won?”
“We both did,” Devon chirped. “Brodie’s really good, but the more clothes I lost, the worse she played.”
Gina instantly jumped up and trotting over, she snatched the cue stick from Devon’s hand and laid it on the table. “I think I need to get you home,” she said, grabbing Devon’s arm. “Come on.”
“What? What did I say?” Devon said, pulling her arm away. “I can’t help it if she gets all distracted by tits.”
Kate’s entire body went rigid, and after staring at Brodie for a very long moment, she turned toward Gina. “Did you drive?”
“What?” Gina said.
“Goddammit, Gina. Did you take the Tube, or did you bring your bloody car? The question’s not that difficult,” Kate said, her face growing redder by the second.
“Kate…please don’t…” Brodie’s words died in her throat when Kate spun around, the blue of her eyes darkening with fury.
“Don’t what, Brodie?” Kate said, invading the woman’s personal space. “Don’t get bothered because you played strip pool with my sister? Or how about the fact you think nothing of sunbathing in the nude on the roof of this bloody building?”
“She does,” Gina blurted.
“Yeah, baby,” Devon said with a fist pump. “All the time.”
“Shut the fuck up, Cassidy,” Brodie said, glaring at Devon.
“Don’t tell her to shut up,” Gina said.
“Enough!” Kate screamed as she stormed toward the door. Gathering as many packages as she could carry, she whipped around. “Gina, will you and Devon please grab the rest, and I’ll meet you at the car.”
Brodie jogged to the door. “Kate, please…I can explain.”
“Don’t bother,” Kate said through clenched teeth. “I can’t do this. I’m not like this. I don’t sunbathe in the nude. I don’t play strip billiards, and I don’t treat sex like it’s…like it’s…like it’s part of my fucking workout plan!”
“Kate—”
“That woman over there is my sister. Don’t you get that?”
“Yes, I do,” Brodie said in a tone calm and reassuring. “And if you’ll just give me a chance—”
“Sod you, Brodie,” Kate said, yanking the door open. “Better yet…fuck off!”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kate paced on the sidewalk near Gina’s car, white-knuckling the bags in her hands until she saw Gina exit Brodie’s building. “It’s about bloody time!” she yelled.
Gina moseyed down the walk and pressing the button on the remote in her hand, her car chirped in response. She opened the back door and snatching the bags from Kate, she tossed them inside. Quickly slamming the door, Gina set the alarm.
“What in the hell are you doing?” Kate barked. “And where the hell is Devon?”
“She’s having a cup of coffee and trying to sober up,” Gina said, pocketing her keys.
“What? I told you I wanted to go home!”
Gina poked her tongue against her cheek. “Since when do you tell me what to do, and I seriously think you need to calm down.”
“Calm down?” Kate said, flinching back her head. “She played strip pool with my sister!”
“So what?” Gina said, holding up her hands. “Over the years, you and I have seen each other without clothes dozens of times.”
“That’s not the same thing, and you know it. We didn’t ogle each other.”
Gina lowered her chin, and the tiniest of grins appeared on her face.
Kate’s mouth dropped open. “Oh, fucking great,” she said, throwing her hands up in the air. “My best friend checked me out. That’s just fucking great.”
“Relax, Kate. It was only once or twice,” Gina said as whimsy danced in her eyes. “I am a lesbian, after all.”
“I really don’t need to hear this,” Kate said, trying to open the car door. “Will you please unlock the bloody car and take me home?”
“I would if I thought you were being rational.”
“I am rational!”
“No, you aren’t,” Gina said, raising her voice just a bit. “You’re angry, and you’re jealous, and you have absolutely no reason to be either.”
“How can you say that? How can you possibly say that?”
Gina crossed her arms and grinned. “Because Brodie didn’t know Devon, or should I say Cassidy was your sister at the time…now did she?”
If Kate had been a hot air balloon, she would have plummeted to earth, every ounce of her anger dissolving in the crisp night air. “Shit.”
Gina smiled. “Light bulb flickering, is it?”
Kate leaned against Gina’s car and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I must have looked like a bloody idiot.”
“I’m thinking more like a really, really jealous girlfriend,” Gina said, going over to rest against the car next to Kate. “You know, I don’t remember ever seeing you jealous before. It’s rather a nice change of pace.”
“Seeing me act like a stupid cow pleases you, does it?”
“No,” Gina said softly. “Seeing my best friend in the whole wide world finally head-over-heels in love pleases me. I was beginning to think it was never going to happen.”
Kate snorted. “You and me both.”
***
Devon sat slumped on a bar stool, nursing a cup of coffee. She occasionally looked up as Brodie tidied the flat, but it wasn’t until Brodie came back into the kitchen when Devon found the courage to speak. “I’m sorry,” she said, raising her eyes. “I royally fucked things up, didn’t I?”
Brodie grabbed the coffee pot and refilled Devon’s cup. “No, you didn’t fuck anything up, Devon. No worries.”
“So…so you’re not mad at me?” Devon said before taking another sip of her coffee.
Having been given the time to replay the events in her head, Brodie’s anger had disappeared almost as quickly as Kate had run from the condo. Throughout Kate’s tirade, Brodie found herself wanting to apologize and beg for forgiveness, yet once she was alone with her thoughts, and her drunken friend, Brodie realized that doing either would have been a lie. She neither needed nor wanted forgiveness for something as innocent as playing a bit of strip pool. Apologizing for that would have been the same as apologizing for being who she was, and that was something Brodie simply would not do.
Brodie placed the coffee carafe aside. “At first, I wanted to bloody strangle you,” she said through a faint smile. “But then I came to my senses and realized you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“What do you mean? If I hadn’t opened my gob about the billiard games, Kate wouldn’t have stormed out of here.”
“Oh, your timing sucked. I’ll give you that, but all you did was tell the truth. And as for Kate leaving, I think she’ll come to her senses once she calms down.”
“I hope you’re right,” Devon said, staring down at her coffee cup.
“Me, too,” Brodie said, pushing a strand of hair away from Devon’s face.
The door to the flat opened, and Brodie looked up while Devon, not ready to face her sister or Gina, remained focused on her coffee.
Gina walked in, followed a second later by Kate, and pausing, Gina glanced back and forth between Kate and Brodie. Kate seemed unable to raise her eyes, while Brodie appeared to be staring Kate down, and Gina quickly came to the conclusion that standing in the middle of a firing range wasn’t the smartest thing to do. In no time at all, Gina was across the room and hooking her arm through Devon’s. “Come on, Minnesota Fats. It’s time to get you home.”
Gina guided Devon to the door, and as they were about to leave, she looked over her shoulder
. “Brodie, thanks for everything. It was a blast.”
Brodie nodded her acknowledgment, saying not a word as she focused on Kate. She had breathed a small breath of relief when Kate returned to the flat, but that was then, and this was now. When the door closed, Brodie walked from the kitchen, and leaning against the bar top, she decided the next move belonged to Kate.
Kate focused on the floor while she chewed on her bottom lip. Three times she had tried to look at Brodie, and every time, the intensity of the woman’s stare forced her to look away. Taking a deep breath, Kate raised her eyes. “I overreacted.”
“Yes, you did,” Brodie said, her tone as calm as a supine lake.
“I have a bit of a temper at times.”
“I’ve noticed.”
Kate stared at the floor again. “And I was jealous.”
Brodie crossed her arms. “I told you there was never anything between Devon and me.”
“I forgot,” Kate whispered.
“Perhaps you should write it down.”
Kate raised her eyes, and when she saw Brodie smiling back at her, the corners of Kate’s mouth lifted just a smidge. “You’re not angry with me?”
“The weekend is almost over, Kate, and I don’t want to spend it arguing, do you? Besides, I kind of liked the jealousy bit. It means you care.”
“I do,” Kate said in a breath.
“So…what now?”
Kate thought for a moment and then looked toward the game room. “Oh, I don’t know. Feel like shooting some pool?”
***
More than willing to play a few games of pool with Kate, a little over an hour later, Brodie was having a hard time keeping her mind on the game.
Being the dedicated student during her days at college, Kate had always chosen her holidays carefully. Long breaks were spent at home with her mother, and short ones were spent on campus poring over her lessons. But when her studies were done, or she was too tired to think any longer, Kate would travel to a nearby pub where she’d order a pint and shoot some pool. Having learned the game in her youth, she honed her skills at the pub, and before long, she was returning to her dorm room with a small roll of money in her pocket. Petite and feminine, there wasn’t a man in the pub that believed the wee lass could win a game. With bravado fueled by drink, they’d offer Kate a wager, and most, if not all, she promptly won.