by Adan Ramie
Stella tried to force away her smile. “Of course. I understand.” Then the smile popped back on. “I am glad you’re going to try, though, and very thankful.”
“Me too,” Chuck piped in.
Brenda glowered at her, then turned back to Stella. “I’m going to do a round of check-ups this morning, so I will be out of my office for the next couple of hours for the most part. If you two want to use it to get started on your fundraiser, I would be happy to let you.”
“That would be great!” Stella said. She squeezed the folder tighter to her chest. “I have so many ideas that it might take a while to get through them all.” She turned to Chuck. “If we can make some decisions today, I can get started on the preparations and have this thing ready to go by tomorrow morning.” She whirled back around to Brenda. “Would you mind if we held it here?”
Brenda smiled, but Chuck knew it was a pained one. “I don’t see why not, as long as no one interrupts my work or startles the more unsocial animals. You might even be able to start the low-cost adoption festival early.” She brightened, and Chuck relaxed.
“That is a great idea,” Chuck said, and looked at Stella. “Do you think we could blend the two together?”
“I don’t see why not,” she said, then turned to Brenda again. “I really appreciate this.”
Brenda nodded, glanced at the tablet in her hand, then looked back up at Stella. “I hope you two are able to pull this off. If we can get enough of these healthy ones adopted out, it will help offset the costs of Stanley’s care, and you,” she said, turning to Chuck, “won’t owe Kenna quite so big.” She raised her eyebrows, then turned back to Stella. “It was nice seeing you again.”
As she walked away, Stella stared at her back in awe. When the meticulous vet rounded the corner, Stella turned back to Chuck. “Has anyone ever called your sister intense?”
Chuck snickered. “You would not be the first.” She placed a hand on Stella’s shoulder to lead the way to the office. “Come on, let’s get started before she comes back and changes her mind.”
She led Stella down the hall to the last office on the right. She grabbed the knob, twisted, and found it locked. With a chuckle, she reached in her pocket to grab a large set of keys. “My sister is also a bit of a worrywart. She’s always afraid we are going to have a break-in, and the person will take everything we have, leave us broke, and we will end up homeless.”
Stella raised her eyebrows.
Chuck pushed the door open and gestured for Stella to go ahead of her. “Like I said, she’s definitely intense.” She flicked on the light and walked in after Stella.
“She’s very neat,” Stella observed as she walked inside and chose a sleek, ergonomic chair to sit in. “And smart. These chairs must have cost a fortune.”
Chuck shrugged and settled into Brenda’s chair behind the desk. “I’m not the one who handles the money. Brenda and Kenna deal with all that.”
She grimaced. The last thing she wanted to talk about with Stella was her ex-girlfriend and the way she had micromanaged every cent Chuck spent at work and at home until Chuck split and got the new apartment – and gave back her ring.
Stella moved a stapler and hole puncher out of the way and spread out the contents of her file folder. “Let’s begin, shall we?”
Chuck was never more grateful to be looking at paperwork. She leaned over the desk, ignoring the mess she was making of Brenda’s carefully placed pens, markers, and sticky notes. “Wow. You really have thought this over.” She grabbed the page on top of one stack and stared at it with her mouth hanging slack. “You did all of this last night?”
“No,” Stella said with a barely-masked smile. “I have been working on it today, too.”
Chuck replaced the paper and sat back in the chair. She propped her socked feet on the desk and laced her fingers behind her head. “So, without going into too much detail, tell me what you think we should do.”
Stella blushed. “These are just ideas. If you don’t like them...”
Chuck sat up sharply and leaned over so that she could almost smell the detergent Stella used to wash her clothes. “No, that’s not what I mean. Obviously you know more about how to set up and run something like this than I do.” She settled back a bit, aware that she had gotten too close too fast. “I am rarely the brains of any operation.”
Stella reached out a hand and squeezed Chuck’s. “Don’t sell yourself short. I can tell how smart you are by the way you can hold a conversation. I think you have just been surrounded by perfectionists and type A personalities your whole life.”
“Type A’s, huh?”
Stella removed her hand, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and looked down at her notes. “You know: overworked, frazzled, competitive perfectionists.” She grinned. “People like me. And Brenda. And probably your other co-owner. What was her name, Kenna?”
Chuck nodded. “Brenda gets it from our father. He was in the Air Force, and acted like he was on active duty until the day he died.” She smiled as she thought about the old man before he died. “Never a hair out of place, shoes shined, pants pressed. He still got up every morning, did a round of calisthenics, lifted weights, then took a two-minute shower before the sun came up.”
“Sounds like my dad,” Stella said, her paperwork temporarily forgotten. “He wasn’t military, but he has always been very particular. Everything has its place, including me.”
“In the kitchen?” Chuck asked.
Stella rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I wished that’s how he felt, but he’s an equal-opportunity kind of guy. I never had a brother, but even if I had, he would have had us both lined up every morning milking goats and tending the garden.”
“A farmer?” Chuck imagined Stella younger, her hair longer and in braids neatly pinned to her head, squatted down with her knees in the dirt in front of a row of ripe vegetables. A smile came to her face. “I always wished I had grown up on a farm. I’m suited for it.” She indicated her dirty jeans.
Stella smiled. “Yes, I was a farm girl until Pops got sick and couldn’t do it anymore. He sold the farm about ten years ago and moved into a little house near mine.” She flipped through the papers in her lap, then stacked them. “But enough about that. Let’s get to work planning this fundraiser-slash-adoption fair.”
Chuck rolled her chair around the desk and beside Stella’s as Stella organized the papers in an order Chuck might never understand. There was something precise about the way Stella moved that left her feeling dopey-eyed. Or maybe it was the easy way she smiled, or the way even indoor lighting caught her eyes in just the right way to brighten them - as if they were full of liquefied amber.
She tried to pay attention while Stella talked her through the plan she had made, but she couldn’t stop herself from wondering what made this former farm girl tick. She hoped it wasn’t control, like Kenna, or even a business relationship wouldn’t work out between them. But something about Stella’s fun, self-deprecating personality made Chuck hope otherwise.
“Well, what do you think?” Stella asked after a moment of silence.
Chuck grinned and reached out a hand to help Stella from her chair. “I think it’s time we get to work. We don’t have long to pull this thing off.”
If all went according to plan, the fundraiser would end with the shelter in the black, Stanley recovering from surgery, and a beautiful new friendship developing between the two women. Chuck pushed aside the thoughts that came unbidden to her mind of Stella’s thighs in snug denim, her lips as they opened on a wine glass to take a sip, and the way her earthy skin would look against the bleached white sheets in Chuck’s bed. Strictly business.
CHAPTER 5
Stella stayed and watched while Chuck worked, occasionally lending a helping hand when a puppy’s joy got out of hand or a bird got out of its cage. As Chuck made her way through her daily rounds, the two planned for the impromptu adoption drive that they had decided would happen the next day. Chuck was skeptical that they wo
uld have enough time to advertise, but Stella assured her that she had a way. Chuck begrudgingly accepted, and hoped she wasn’t letting her libido lead her head.
When Brenda ducked her head into the reptile room at six o’clock, Chuck was just letting the last snake slither off her gloved hand into a terrarium while Stella waited with a grimace beside the door.
“Are you two going to stay here all night?” Brenda asked.
Stella jumped. Chuck and Brenda both broke into laughter. Chuck replaced the lid of the terrarium, checked again that all the tanks were closed, then peeled off her gloves and dropped them into the sink to be washed.
“No way,” Stella said, the color high in her cheeks, as she stepped past Brenda into the hallway. “There are way too many creepy things in here for me to want to stay overnight.”
“Aww, you don’t like Hiss?” Chuck asked, jerking her head to indicate the snake she had only recently held in her arms.
Stella stuck out her tongue. “No, I don’t like Hiss or any of his slimy, creepy friends.”
“Snakes are not slimy,” Brenda told her.
Chuck grinned. “Nope. They’re cuddly. They only want to hug you, Stella.” She walked up behind her, wrapped her arms around Stella’s shoulders, and squeezed softly but firmly.
Stella made a face and pushed Chuck’s arms away, then made a show of her full-body shiver. “Yeah, hugs forever. No, thanks. I don’t want anything near me that can strangle and eat me.”
Chuck shrugged, turned off the light, and locked the door behind her. “None of the snakes are hungry. I just fed them all yesterday.”
Brenda looked from Chuck to Stella and back. “Speaking of hungry, what are you two doing for dinner? I realize now I have nothing prepared or even planned. The influx of cats since the storm has kept me so busy, I can barely think an hour ahead.”
“Let me take you both out,” Stella said, tucking her file binder tighter under one arm. “There is this really great little Indian place I’ve been dying for since the first time I tried it, but no one I know is brave enough to go with me.”
“I love Indian food,” Brenda said, then turned to Chuck. “But Chucky doesn’t have a very adventurous palate.”
Chuck narrowed her eyes in a glare at her sister. “I’m willing to try it.” She turned to Stella with a smile. “Is casual okay?” she asked, indicating her jeans and t-shirt.
“Casual, yes,” Stella said, then gave Chuck’s feet a pointed glance. “But, like most restaurants, I’m sure they observe a ‘No shirt, no shoes, no service’ policy.”
Chuck blushed as she realized she had again left her shoes after cleaning out the bird room. “I have more shoes in the storage room.” She excused herself to go hunt for them, leaving Stella and Brenda alone in the hallway.
The storage room held every sort of minutiae the shelter could need, and more. Chuck walked directly to the shelf on which three extra pairs of shoes were stored and selected the sneakers. She had them off the shelf and her foot cocked up to put one on before she changed her mind, put them back, and grabbed a pair of boots instead. She dropped to the floor and hitched up her sock.
“Don’t tell me you’re getting dressed up for that woman with the file folders.”
Kenna’s voice raked across Chuck’s brain, and she couldn’t help but shudder. How she had ever considered the arch, nasal sound attractive, she didn’t know. She turned her head to glance at the doorway, then back at her boots. She pulled one on with a grunt. “Brenda and I are going to eat with her at a restaurant.”
“Just business, then, or does she want to see if she can get a couple of sisters in bed?” Kenna asked.
Chuck could see the devious smirk on her face without looking. She had gotten used to the look in the years they had been together, learned to hate it, then to ignore it, then to hate it again. She pulled on the second boot, laced them both up quickly, then stood and brushed the sawdust off her jeans. “Get a life, Kenna.”
Kenna’s smile dropped off. She pursed her lips tightly and stood straighter. “That woman is trouble. She wants something from you, and as usual, you are too blinded by lust to see it.”
Chuck ignored her, pushed past her into the doorway, and flicked off the light. She turned to close and lock the door.
“I’m serious,” Kenna said, a whine in her voice.
Chuck turned to look Kenna in the eyes, and Kenna flinched back. “I don’t care what you have to say about this. And why are you still here, anyway?”
Kenna dropped a hand to her hip, and Chuck swore in her mind. She had asked the wrong question, and a lecture was coming.
“I am here late trying to figure out how to make ends meet while you spend all the shelter’s funds on animals that would be better served with quick and painless euthanasia.”
Chuck’s fists balled involuntarily at her sides. She opened her mouth to respond, then bit back the harsh words before they could leave her lips. Suddenly very tired, she deflated. “That’s part of the reason we are going to dinner. The three of us are going to discuss our plans for the fundraiser to pay for Stanley’s surgery, and the adoption fair that will be going on at the same time. This will end up being helpful to Saving Gracie’s, and hopefully if it works out, we can call on her in the future to help us plan events like this.”
Kenna’s face softened. “Just don’t screw around and fall in love with her like you do every pretty girl who says she likes animals. Okay?”
Chuck gave Kenna one final glance before turning away and walking down the hall toward the lobby where Brenda and Stella would be waiting. A feeling of shame spread over her as Kenna’s words settled on her shoulders. Was having feelings for a woman really so bad? Or was it that Kenna was right? Chuck had to admit that she had always fallen quickly for women with similar interests; it had been the same all her life. Was Stella just another one of her crushes?
Chuck closed the door behind her and found Brenda and Stella near the front door waiting for her. They both turned to smile at her and her heart thumped loudly. She had to remind herself that this was a business dinner, not a social one, and that Stella was little more than a means to an end.
“You took long enough,” Brenda admonished, but she had a smile on her face.
Chuck cleared her throat. “Just talking to Kenna about our current financial pickle.”
Brenda made a face. “Is she bothering you? I can talk to her again if you want me to; just say the word. There is no reason you two should not be able to work together like professionals. We started Saving Gracie’s for a reason, and it was not so that she could keep tabs on you.”
“It’s no big deal,” Chuck said, not wanting to dwell on her current or past relationship with Kenna. She put the biggest smile she could muster onto her face. “So, Stella. Tell me about this Indian place.”
Stella groaned with pleasure. “Oh, you’re going to love it. Do you like spicy?”
Chuck’s grin this time was real. “It’s only my favorite food group.”
“Both of our favorites,” Brenda added.
“Make that three of us,” Stella announced. “This is going to be fun.”
CHAPTER 6
The restaurant lived up to Stella’s description: it really was a tiny place, but it was authentic, and the smells coming from inside called to Chuck like olfactory sirens. The staff were friendly, and a young woman chatted quietly with them as she showed them to a table near the back, as Stella instructed.
They sat and the woman took their drink orders. Only a moment later, she was back, and Chuck decided not to try to pick something from the menu based on description. Stella and Brenda ordered quickly, so Chuck closed her eyes, pointed at the menu, then ordered something she had never heard of.
As they waited for their food and sipped their drinks, Chuck felt her eyes wandering from the beautiful décor to the beautiful woman who had brought them here. Stella grinned at Brenda as she showed her the planner app on her phone. One finger swiped over the screen. W
ith her eyes, Chuck traced her way up the delicate hands to Stella’s supple arms. They weren’t masculine, like Chuck’s, but they looked strong and capable. Chuck licked her lips, then took a sip of water to cover it up, and cleared her throat.
Brenda leaned back away from Stella as Stella put her phone away.
“Sorry, Chucky. Were we ignoring you?” Brenda asked.
Chuck gave her a dirty look and put down her glass. “I got something caught in my throat.” She rubbed her moist hands over her denim-clad thighs to dry them, then brought them up and laid them on the table. “But since I have your attention, I was wondering if we could talk about the fundraiser.”
“And adoption drive,” Stella added. “I’d love to talk about that, but first, I have to ask,” she said, and turned to Brenda. “Chucky?”
Brenda snorted into her glass and Stella had to pat her on the back until she caught her breath. Chuck sat without moving, wishing her sister could stop treating her like a baby for just one day, and scowled at the table. Brenda waved Stella away as she composed herself.
“Should I tell it, or do you want to?” Brenda asked Chuck.
Chuck took another drink of her water and glared at her sister over the rim of her glass. “It’s a dumb story. When we were really young, my parents left Brenda and I one night in the care of our much older cousins while they went to some military function.”
She stopped as the server walked up with their food. All three moved out of the way as their plates were deposited in front of them, and they all thanked the server as she smiled and walked away. The powerful scent of curry, coconut, and cloves assaulted her nostrils, and immediately her mouth started watering.
Chuck forked up a mouthful of spicy coconut curry, and chewed for a moment before she dropped her fork and reached for her glass. Stella laughed as Chuck drained half of it, and Brenda rolled her eyes knowingly.