The Rules of Love: A Lesbian Romance

by Cara Malone

  “Max-”

  “So I told you that I didn’t want that,” she pressed on. “I told you that I just wanted something casual because I was sure you wouldn’t want me any other way. Then when I read those texts from Megan, I let them prove that I was right all along. I got angry and I lashed out, and I’m so sorry. I assure you, all of that was really directed at myself for not being good enough for you.”

  “You are good enough-” Ruby tried to interject, her voice choked with emotion, but Max held up her hand to stop her.

  “Please, let me get through this,” she said. She wasn’t used to talking this much, and if she didn’t get it all out at once, she’d never finish. “Ruby, we don’t know each other yet - not really. We know each other’s bodies, and I think we know each other’s hearts after everything that has happened in the past few weeks, but I would love a chance to really get to know you, and I hope you want to know me better, too.”

  Max turned toward the windows lining the study room and waved her hand. Mira came out of the stacks where she was hiding, along with Lydia and Maureen. They were the only people Max could rally on such short notice, but they liked Ruby – everyone liked Ruby – and they’d been happy to take twenty minutes out of their Monday night to help Max.

  As the three of them came into the room, each of them holding a dozen red roses and a few identical, paper-wrapped packages, Max glanced over at Ruby and saw that her expression was somewhere between awe and mortification. The grand gesture was well underway now, though, so all she could do was hope that it swung toward awe in the end.

  Max picked Ruby’s hand up from the table and said, “I would be honored if you’d grant me a do-over. If I could rewind time, I’d press play at the moment you walked up to Mira and I after the first GLiSS meeting. I would have stopped arguing about that stupid desert island icebreaker and introduced myself to you properly. I would have told you how much of a goddess you are, on the slim chance that you didn’t already know, and I would have asked you out right then and there.

  “Considering the fact that time travel has yet to be perfected, I asked these three to help me make a better second impression,” Max said.

  Mira shot Max an approving look, then she set down her bouquet in front of Ruby, along with three rectangular packages, all identical in size and shape. Lydia came next, adding her flowers and two more packages to the table, and then Maureen, setting down another dozen roses and four more packages. Then the three of them filed back out of the room on Max’s instruction, but she noticed out of the corner of her eye that they didn’t stray far – they were watching the outcome from the edge of the bookshelves.

  “Ruby Satterwhite,” Max said solemnly, “would you go on a date with me?”

  And then she held her breath. It felt like an eternity, during which time her mind raced and her heart thudded in her chest and she prepared herself for the worst.

  Then a broad smile spread over Ruby’s face and she said, “Of course I will. But what is all of this, Max?”

  She was looking self-consciously down at the packages stacked in front of her, and at the roses practically spilling off the table.

  Max shrugged and said as color rose into her cheeks, “A grand gesture.”

  Ruby laughed. “I can see that. The flowers are beautiful, but what’s in all the boxes?”

  “Open them,” Max said, picking up the first one and handing it to Ruby.

  She tore the butcher paper off to reveal a DVD copy of Imagine Me and You. She looked back to Max with a puzzled look.

  “I used the list we made while we were at the public library and bought you a copy of every one of the DVDs on the ‘Greatest Hits in Cinema According to Ruby Satterwhite’ list,” Max said. “I thought if our date goes well and you decide to keep me, we can work our way through them. And if you want to cut me loose, then at least you get copies of your favorite movies out of the whole ordeal.”

  “Oh stop,” Ruby said, looking pleased and embarrassed and flushed all at once.

  She was definitely leaning toward awe and away from mortification, and Max breathed a silent sigh of relief. Ruby pulled Max across the table into a kiss, and in the background Max could hear their audience cheering.

  When they pulled out of the kiss, Ruby was looking at her with those stunning galaxy eyes, and she said, “This is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. And for the record, I think you’re the one giving me a second chance.”

  “Let’s just wipe the slate for simplicity’s sake,” Max said, and Ruby laughed and kissed her again.

  ***

  Max felt more nervous than was probably called for as she walked up to the second floor of Founders Hall. She was wearing a pair of navy slacks that she’d meticulously ironed, plus a pair of brown leather oxfords with a matching belt, and a light blue collared shirt with a bow tie that she sincerely hoped wasn’t overreaching. In her hands she held a single red rose, a nod to the three bouquets that were still in bloom on Ruby’s coffee table, and her hair was blown back into the most perfect pompadour that half-hour of styling – and a consultation from Mira – could create.

  “I look okay, right?” She’d asked anxiously as she looked at herself in the small mirror above the bathroom sink.

  Mira had straightened her tie and said with a grin, “Don’t worry, you look fucking hot.”

  “You don’t think the bow tie is a bit much?” Max asked, still not convinced. She turned back to the mirror.

  “If it is, then let her take it off of you,” Mira said, then added with a wink, “And if you get lucky maybe she’ll use it to drag you over to the bed.”

  “Stop,” Max said, blushing. Then she picked up the rose and with one final deep breath, went to pick Ruby up for their very first date.

  She answered the door in a pair of four-inch black ankle boots that accentuated the curves of her legs in black stockings. She was wearing a short black dress with a tight skirt trimmed in gold, and a cream blazer on top. Ruby looked absolutely stunning, with her hair straightened into long, dark ringlets and her plump lips painted red to match the rose that Max held in her hand.

  “Wow,” she said, temporarily losing the filter between her brain and her mouth. “Bombshell.”

  Ruby chuckled and looked down at her feet, then looked up at Max through her long eyelashes in a way that made her feel like something deep in her core was melting in the most delightful way. “You clean up pretty nice yourself.”

  “Nah,” Max said, trying to keep from reddening her cheeks again. “Oh, this is for you.”

  She extended the rose to Ruby, and suddenly it felt so insufficient. Why in the hell had she decided that a single bud was better than a full bouquet?

  “It’s just kind of a token,” she hurried to add. “You know, because of the bouquets the other day-”

  “Oh, I get it,” Ruby said, bringing the flower to her nose. “It’s perfect. Let me just go put it in the vase with the others.”

  “Okay,” Max said, standing in the doorway while Ruby disappeared into her apartment. Max rubbed her palms over her thighs anxiously, hoping that they weren’t getting clammy. Even though she’d already been with Ruby multiple times, the prospect of going on a date with her felt somehow more intimate than anything they’d done so far, and she couldn’t shake the fear that Ruby might not actually like her.

  Before she could go too far down the rabbit hole of anxiety, though, Ruby reappeared with a small purse slung over her shoulder and asked, “Where are we going?”

  “There’s a great Mexican restaurant that Mira and I love,” Max said. “I figured you probably haven’t been there yet since it’s on the other side of town, and I wanted to take you somewhere new.”

  “That sounds great,” Ruby said as she shut her door, and as they headed down the hall, she threaded her arm through Max’s in a move that was so effortless, Max was sure she could never have pulled it off in a million years. She was thankful that Ruby had, though, and she was feeling even bet
ter when Ruby glanced sideways at her and said, “I like the bow tie. It’s a good look for you.”

  ***

  Max had borrowed Mira’s car for the evening, a large Buick that drove more like a pair of La-Z-Boys on wheels than a car, and they floated through the streets of Granville toward the restaurant. Max navigated expertly through the city traffic, and Ruby felt lost almost the entire way there. She’d been able to pick out the street where the public library was, but otherwise she hadn’t had much chance to explore Granville beyond the shops on the perimeter of the university.

  “You’ve lived here your whole life?” She asked.

  “Yeah,” Max said. “I grew up in a suburb about ten minutes outside of the city.”

  “Your parents still live around here?”

  “Mm hmm, in the same house I lived in all my life,” Max answered. They were weaving through the densest part of the city now, where the roads felt narrow because tall buildings scraped the sky on either side of the car.

  “How come you live on campus instead of commuting?” Ruby asked, and Max laughed at this question. Ruby realized that for all of the drama they’d had in the past few weeks, she really didn’t know all that much about Max, but she was excited to find out more.

  “That was actually my parents’ decision,” she said. “They thought if I lived on campus I’d be more immersed in the college culture and it would be easier to make friends and socialize. It only took four years to prove them right.”

  Ruby laughed, putting her hand on Max’s thigh across the center console. She watched the color creep into Max’s face, and inched her hand just a little bit higher.

  The restaurant was dark, and the booth where they were seated felt secluded and romantic. A tea light candle burned on the table between them and Ruby slipped the toe of her boot up over Max’s calf beneath the table as she picked up her menu.

  “What’s good here?” she asked casually as she observed Max trying not to squirm beneath her touch. She shouldn’t tease her so much, or move so fast, but it was hard to fight the carnal urges that bubbled up in her whenever she was close to Max since she’d already given in to them so many times before.

  “Umm,” Max said, slipping one finger beneath the collar of her shirt to loosen her bow tie, “I always get the chile rellenos, but I’m not a terribly adventurous eater. I know Mira prefers the fajitas.”

  “They both sound good,” Ruby said, taking her foot away from Max as the waiter approached and promising herself that she would behave, at least until the dessert course.

  ***

  Max had no first-hand anecdotal evidence to base her conclusion on, but by the time dinner was over, she decided that the date was going well. She’d been able to keep up the pace of conversation the entire time, thanks to some small talk coaching from Mira, and Ruby had gushed over the flavor of her food.

  She’d chosen something that Max never tasted before, an enchilada dish loaded with cheese and sour cream, and then allowed Max to take a few bites from her plate. It was pretty good, but not better than Max’s chile rellenos.

  They talked about the classes they were taking, discounting Information Theory of course because they were both enrolled in that one. (“Professor McDermott is such a monotonous speaker,” Ruby had remarked, to which Max could neither agree nor disagree – she’d spent the majority of her time in that class thinking about Ruby.) Max told Ruby about her sociology degree, and how making a formal study of human behavior helped her make sense of the world around her. Then Ruby told Max about her experience of being the only openly lesbian kid in her stuffy private school, and how the books she read with gay characters helped her figure out what was going on in her heart.

  “That’s why I think I want to work with kids when I graduate,” Ruby said. “I’d love to do some kind of outreach between the school system and the public library to help kids get access to a more diverse range of books.”

  “That’s really noble of you,” Max said, then added with a laugh, “I would love a job in an office somewhere in the bowels of the library where I don’t have to collaborate with anyone. It gets exhausting trying to figure people out all the time.”

  “I guess it’s true what they say,” Ruby said with a laugh. “Opposites attract.”

  “Yes, that is something that they say,” Max said. “But who is they, anyway?”

  Ruby laughed again, and then she asked seriously, “Am I exhausting?”

  “Honestly?” Max asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “You were at the beginning,” Max said. “And sometimes you still are. But the more I get to know someone, the better I am at reading them - figuring out their facial expressions and their figures of speech. I can read Mira about ninety percent of the time, and my parents about eighty-five. You’re probably sitting at sixty percent right now.”

  “So I won’t always be exhausting?” Ruby asked, hopeful.

  “Most of the time, I find you quite invigorating,” Max said, and she nudged Ruby’s foot beneath the table in a mirror of the gesture Ruby had extended to Max when they sat down. “And in any case, you’re well worth the trouble.”

  Ruby smiled at Max, and in the warm light from the tea candle flickering between them, she was absolutely stunning. She asked, “Do you want to get out of here?”

  “You want me to take you home?” Max asked.

  “You could say that,” Ruby said. “But you’d better be coming back with me. We have a lot of movies to work through.”

  “Okay,” Max said, getting out of the booth and holding out her hand to Ruby. She took it, standing up, and Max pulled her into an embrace. They shared their first kiss as a couple, and it was like nothing Max had ever felt before.

  THE END

  Want to know what’s next for Ruby and Max?

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  A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Thanks for reading The Rules of Love – I hope you enjoyed it!

  If you did, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads – they make a big difference in the success of a new book, and reviews also help more readers find new LGBT authors like me.

  Thanks again for reading, and I hope to hear from you soon!

  With love,

  Cara

  BOOKS BY CARA MALONE

  Sleepwalking

  Awakened

  Love in the Stacks

  The Rules of Love

  Falling Gracefully

  SNEAK PEEK: Falling Gracefully

  Melody is a failed ballerina who’s come back to her hometown to lick her wounds and try to put her life back together. Jessie didn’t figure out her sexuality until after she got pregnant in high school, and now there doesn’t seem like much point in coming out. When Jessie enrolls her daughter in the dance studio where Melody works, life changes for both of them.

  Read the first chapter of Falling Gracefully (coming in June 2017):

  ***

  Jessie Cartwright hadn’t been on time to a single thing in the last five years, and judging by the scene that greeted her at Mary Beth’s Dance Academy, her daughter wasn’t off to a much better start.

  Ellie had been begging to take ballet lessons for over a year, and Jessie was excited to finally be able to sign her up, even if it did mean trying to find a balance between the extra shifts she’d need to take at the grocery store to cover the lessons and little things like, oh, driving over the speed limit in order to get Ellie there on time after Jessie’s shift ended.

  They made it, though, and Jessie got to the reception desk just as the crowd finally started to thin out. The studio door opened, a handful of pre-teens in jazz shoes exiting while a dozen of Ellie’s new classmates and their mothers filed into the room. Class was starting any minute, and Jessie was starting to feel the panic of running out of time. She still needed to sign Ellie in, and pay for the lesson, an
d even though she’d wrangled her wiggly, uncooperative limbs into tights and a leotard at home, she couldn’t figure out why Ellie’s ballet shoes kept falling off.

  “Hurry, baby,” she cooed as she pulled Ellie along. That might as well have been the anthem to their lives, rushing the poor kid from place to place while Jessie tried to keep her voice calm and make it seem like she had everything under control when in reality she never knew what the hell she was doing.

  She’d just gotten good at making things up as she went along – that was the gift of teen motherhood, she supposed, the cockiness of adolescence mixing with the heady responsibility of keeping a human being alive at a time when all you really wanted to do was go to the mall and get an ice cream.

  Jessie found the reception desk empty and she was about to throw her hands up in exasperation – she probably hadn’t taken a full breath since she dashed out of the grocery store to go collect Ellie from her mother’s house twenty minutes ago. Thankfully, though, a girl standing in front of the counter heard her frustration and stepped in to help.

  “I guess you just sign your name and write down that you’re here for beginner ballet,” she said as she passed Jessie the clipboard and a pen from the desk.