by C. L. Ryder
She felt like a new person after emerging from the water.
In the kitchen, Bethany stared at the spot where Mom had been in the dream. Sun from the window formed a diamond of light on the kitchen floor, speckled with the dancing shadows of a tree branch. There was a knock at the front door. Bethany looked up, unsure if she was just imagining things, but it came again.
“Jackson,” he said, opening the door.
“Hey. Surprised to see me? I brought coffee.” He grinned and held up a thermos.
“No, I guess I’m not,” she said with a small smile. “Come in.”
“How are you doing?” he asked, pouring them both a cup. “Are you alright? I’m sorry I didn’t come by earlier.”
“It’s okay,” she said, sitting down at the kitchen table. “I’m sorry I left you fend for yourself. That wasn’t okay of me.”
“No, it’s fine. You would’ve done the same for me. Besides, Marcos is back.”
Bethany smiled. “He is. I’m glad he came around.”
“So, are you alright, Bethany?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I’m still in shock, I think. It’s difficult for me to process…”
“Do you hate her?”
She shook her head. “No. No, of course not. You probably wish I did though, huh?”
“No,” he said. “No, Bethany I don’t. I might’ve overreacted. I was so caught up in what she represented that I couldn’t help but hate her.”
“I felt the same. It is hard for me to accept that she’s the same woman who owns The Standard. But I still love him…”
Jackson reached across the table and took Bethany’s hand. “Marcos and I have talked, and… we think that we should work to start closing the shop.”
Bethany blinked. “Huh?”
“You were right. We should start looking for someone to take over the lease and shut the shop the down. There’s a plan that we have for rebirth, but it’ll need your approval first.”
“Rebirth? How?”
“I can’t tell you here. You need to come back to the shop. We’ll be able to explain and show you everything.”
“I don’t understand. If we close, we close. There’s no coming back from that, Jackson. We’ve discussed all of our options.”
“Not all of them. Come on, Bethany. Let me show you.”
They took Jackson’s car, and Bethany could only sit in a daze. She gazed out the window and contemplated the end of her business, and where life would go next. She’d reach out to Jane… if she were even willing to talk to her again. She felt empty. She just couldn’t imagine life without the shop, without that environment, without her friends.
When then pulled past the front of the shop, Bethany did a double take. At first she didn’t recognize that they had even arrived, the scene outside was so drastically different than what she’d grown used to.
There was a crowd gathered outside the front entrance—an actual line. She’d never seen a line outside of the shop, even during its best times.
“What the hell?”
“Come on,” Jackson grinned.
Through the front windows, Bethany saw what she initially thought were big white curtains done up throughout the entire shop. A red carpet made a path out the front door, and a velvet rope was keeping people organized. A girl that Bethany didn’t recognize was handing out small sandwich samples to the people in line.
Bethany pointed. “Who is that?”
Jackson took her hand and pulled her through the crowd into the shop.
Bethany was overwhelmed. The place was bustling with an energy that she’d never seen before. She gaped at the walls, which were adorned from head to toe with drapes of white roses. The people waiting in line snapped photos of the lavish arrangements, some people posing for selfies in front of them, and others taking a moment to take whiffs.
Then Bethany saw who was manning the place. There were four workers whom she’d never seen before, and behind them in the kitchen was Marcos giving out orders and helping them cook sandwiches. From the way the two who were operating the espresso maker worked, Bethany could tell they were experienced barristas. Then she saw who was at the cash register, and it all made sense.
She couldn’t stop it. Any last remnants of anger and resentment quickly vanished as she saw her standing there in her usual dress attire, a bandage stuck over her chin. A wide grin spread over Bethany’s face as that beautiful feeling of warmth rushed throughout her.
“Jane!” Bethany shouted.
Jane looked over from the customer she was helping, and broke out in her own wide grin.
“I’ll take the register,” Jackson called out, hurrying over to take Jane’s place.
Jane came over. “I’ll be out of your hair after today,” she said. “But I wanted to do this one thing for you, at least. If you don’t want to see me, I understand. But I hope you—”
“Shut up,” Bethany said, and then threw her arms around Jane. “I’m so sorry I hit you.”
“I deserved it,” Jane said. She squeezed Bethany against her, and a feeling of blissful relief washed over the both of them.
“No, you didn’t,” Bethany said. “I’m sorry. Do you forgive me?”
“There’s nothing to forgive.”
Bethany slipped her hand around the back of Jane’s neck and pulled her in for a long kiss. A few awws rose up from the crowd around them. It felt like as if everything was melting away and being replaced with the most potent love they’d ever felt—the love of forgiveness.
“Do you like what I did with the place?” Jane grinned.
“I don’t understand how you got all these people to come,” Bethany said.
“I honestly hadn’t expected it. I had the flowers brought in for you, and people just started to come to look at them, and I ran with it. I brought in a few of my staff, and with Jackson and Marcos’s help, we turned it into a bit of an event. Crowd brings a crowd.”
“This is incredible.”
Jane touched her forehead to Bethany’s. “I love you, Bethany LeFlorette. I want this to be our new beginning.”
“I love you too, Jane Pumpkin,” Bethany said, grinning. She kissed her, and felt the tears coming back to her eyes—but this time, they were tears of joy.
They stood there quietly for a moment, just enjoying each other’s presence. The crowd had turned eyes on them. People had started taking photos on their cell phones of the sweet scene.
“I’ve got a business proposition for you,” Jane whispered softly into Bethany’s ear. “Would you like to hear about it?”
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One
Lines of code, functions, algorithms and sample programming scenarios danced across the projector screen, and Coleen Talton listened to the professor drone from her seat at the back of the classroom. It was the last class before the final exam, and they were doing review. Of course, this being Introduction to Programming and Problem Solving, Coleen didn’t exactly need to review; she’d learned most of it on her own back in high school, during the time she’d spent tinkering around on her computer. Which had been most of it.
Coleen had never been much of the outgoing type. Even though she was much prettier than she realized—model tall, with gorgeously straight dirty-blonde hair—she was geeky, shy and self-conscious, preferring to spend time either alone or with her one best friend, Yuri. During the time spent alone, Coleen enjoyed playing the piano that was in the band room, or listening to classical piano music. She’d practiced piano since she was in elementary school—all classical, since her parents hadn’t raised her with anythi
ng else, and practicing was a good way for her to unwind especially when the stresses of young adulthood got to her. Like thinking about if she’d ever work up the courage to try and date someone.
Because she was shy, Coleen had a hard time imagining herself being able to find a girlfriend. Considering she and most lesbian girls (at least those that she was attracted to) didn’t exactly wear their preferences on their sleeve, Coleen thought that the chances of being approached by someone were slim. No, if she wanted to date, she’d have to step out of her comfort zone and be the one to make the first move. She’d told herself that since starting university, she would make an effort to get out of her shell—but it wasn’t easy.
Yuri was now her roommate, even though the guy didn’t go to university. He was one of those people whose intelligence actually managed to hinder him rather than help him; the kind of guy who always had an easy time in school. That, mixed with an already unambitious attitude, wealthy parents, and an obsession with video games practically insured he wouldn’t be going to university, or doing much with his life. Coleen had done her best to encourage her friend’s more productive hobbies—like their shared interest in 3-D modeling, animation, and making special effects videos on their computers—but she knew she’d never be able to carry Yuri with her. Despite this, their differences never got in the way of their friendship, and Yuri had always been someone Coleen could rely on.
Coleen sat back in her chair and twirled her pen between her fingers. She glanced around the room, curious to see how engaged the rest of the rest of the class was in the final review. Most were furiously scribbling notes, with a few here and there who, like herself, probably already knew the material front to back. She looked to her left, and had to do everything she could to keep herself from snorting out a laugh at what she saw. A girl, probably around her age, maybe a bit older, with jet black hair pulled up into tight bun, was bobbing her head in sleep so hard that it looked like she was at a rock concert. Coleen couldn’t remember her name, but she was pretty sure that she was one of the people in the class who ought to be taking notes. She watched, amused, as the girl’s eyes would occasionally flutter half open before shutting again.
Poor thing, Coleen thought. She’s going to be in trouble tomorrow.
The sleeper held a pen loosely in her hand, its nib hanging over her notebook, and every time she jerked her head, the pen would swing wildly across the page as if she was doing some kind of freeform drawing. Coleen threw her hand over her mouth to choke back another snort of laughter. The pen then tumbled out of her hand and clattered on the floor, shocking her awake. She looked around, blinking sleepily, and then plucked it back up from the ground. She squinted up at the projector screen, glanced over at the clock and clearly mouthed, “oh fuck,” before frantically turning the page in her notebook and scribbling notes like a madwoman.
Coleen smiled. The girl was pretty cute, even though she looked like the type who probably wouldn’t ever give Coleen a second glance, both as a peer and as a potential romantic choice. It was just one of those things that she’d learned to live with as someone who kept to herself.
“This year, I’m going to do my best to put myself out there,” she’d told Yuri at the start of her first year in college. “It’s time for a new beginning.” But freshman year had slipped by, and now she was already done with Spring sophomore semester, and it felt like she was no closer to putting herself out there than she had been when she’d finished high school.
The professor looked at his watch. “And that’s class. Remember, this will be a written exam, do not buy a Scantron! And don’t forget that we meet an hour earlier than normal tomorrow. Okay? Alright. I’ll be in my office if any questions need to be addressed…”
The lecture hall filled with the sound of bustling papers and zipping of packs as everyone hurried to get out, and Coleen was the first one to the door. She strode out of classroom and into the hallway of the Computer Science building, eager to finally go home and unwind for the day before maybe doing a bit of studying for tomorrow’s final exam.
Despite it being her sophomore year at Cal-State Long Beach, Coleen still found herself surprised and a bit overwhelmed at the variety and freedom of college life. Being able to come and go from class when you pleased, the wide age range of the students, the size of the school, the fact that there was a restaurant with an actual bar on campus… and so many other things continued to impress her. Sometimes she would buy lunch from the on-campus café and just sit and watch all the different people constantly coming and going. Even though she was shy, Coleen liked being around people and felt like people-watching was helping her take a step into the bigger, real world.
She and Yuri shared a small one-bedroom apartment within walking distance of campus. Yuri had the bedroom because he paid the majority of the rent (or at least his parents did), and Coleen had sectioned off part of the living room as her space. With a dresser and desk set up as a partition, it was quite comfortable for her, and she liked the cheap rent. Plus, living with her best friend wasn’t so shabby, either. She’d dorming her first year, but her roommate had been terrible, always coming back to the room wasted drunk and passing out on Coleen’s bed. After the one time she’d puked and pissed herself on Coleen’s sheets, she decided that sharing a bedroom with a stranger wasn’t for her.
It was a gorgeous May afternoon, and being near the coast brought the summer temperatures down to an acceptable level. Coleen walked down the street away from campus. She’d decided to wear a sundress instead of her usual jeans and t-shirt, and the breeze felt good on her legs. The sun shone down and warmed her shoulders, and she could just smell the light scent of the ocean blowing in from the south, mixed with the tang of gasoline fumes drifting over from the 1 freeway. She pondered her social predicaments as she walked, wondering what she could do to become more outgoing. She’d joined her school’s gym during her very first semester, which had been a huge step for her considering how much she’d disliked gym class in high school, and over the past year and a half she’d actually managed to get quite fit. Coleen had expected that things would immediately change for her at that point—that she’d suddenly gain a ton of confidence and social ambition—but it didn’t really happen. Sure, she did feel more confident and energetic, but it wasn’t the panacea for her social anxieties that she had hoped for.
Maybe I should join a sorority, she thought, and then laughed out loud. “Now that would be something,” she mumbled to herself as she turned off the main street and down onto the residential road that her apartment complex sat on. Outside of one of the houses next door, an old woman struggled to get two brimming bags of groceries out of the trunk of her car. Coleen saw this as she walked down the street towards, and quickly hurried over to help her.
“Need help?” she asked, smiling down at the old woman that was almost half her height.
“Oh, well that’d be nice, thank you, young lady.”
Coleen reached into the trunk and lifted the bags up under each arm. She impressed herself with her own strength—she’d always been such a weakling in high school and definitely wouldn’t have been able to perform such a daring act of heroism before she’d started working out.
“Usually my husband would help me with my groceries,” she said, shuffling along beside her. “He passed, though. Two years back, God rest him.” They reached the front door, and she fished out her keys from her oversized purse, fumbled with them with her bony fingers and then stuffed the key into the lock.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Coleen said. “I’m glad that I was here to help—”
She opened the door, and a yapping black miniature schnauzer greeted them. Coleen saw the dog and shouted in surprise, a jolt of panic surging through her, and the grocery bags were suddenly flying out of her arms. It was as if everything ground to slow motion—the dog barked and jumped up at her, the old lady flung her hands up in the air and screamed, and the groceries emerged from the top of the bags like they were floating i
n zero gravity.
“Oh my God!” She quickly dropped down to gather the scattered oranges and cans of green beans that were rolling away. “I’m so sorry!”
“Oh, it’s all right. Did Coal frighten you? I should’ve said something about the dog. That was my fault.”
Coleen shook her head and reached for a fallen package of spaghetti. “It’s okay.” Coal, who was sniffing at some of the fruit, barked at her hand and made her jerk back in surprise. “Ah!”
The old lady laughed and ushered the little schnauzer inside and returned to help Coleen pick up the reset of the fallen groceries. “You ‘fraid of dogs, or something?”
She smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, a little bit. Here you go, I think that’s everything.” She was red with embarrassment and just wanted to get out of there. “Sorry again,” she said, and hurried away.