Water Under Bridges

by Harper Bliss

  “Last night was great,” she said. “I want to do it again as soon as possible.”

  “Then I shall cook for you as instructed.”

  Lou shook her head. “No cooking will be required for what I have in mind.”

  “Well, well, well.” Jo stood with her hands on her hips exactly the way Mia had predicted she would. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

  “I’m sorry.” Mia painted the most innocent look on her face, though she felt far from innocent. “Is the boss around?”

  “She went back upstairs after she came down to ask me if you’d turned up yet. Apparently, you didn’t come home last night.” Jo tilted her head and held up two fingers. “That’s two strikes.”

  “Was Kristin pissed off about that?” Mia didn’t realize she needed to have taken the time in between kissing Lou and being dragged upstairs to let Kristin know she wouldn’t be staying at hers after all.

  “If I were you, I’d prepare to get an earful later, my friend.”

  “You’re pulling my leg. You are my evil barista twin. Kristin can be a bit uptight, but she wouldn’t get upset about that.”

  Jo shrugged. “Only time will tell.”

  A few customers came in and they were busy for half an hour with no time to chat. Mia kept staring out of the window for any sign of Lou, who had promised to drop in before her first class of the day. Mia’s heart skipped a beat when she saw Lou’s familiar profile enter her field of vision, then make her way to the door, open it, and step into the Pink Bean.

  “Good grief,” Josephine said.

  “What?” Mia glanced at Jo and noticed her shaking her head slowly.

  “Must have been some date. You just looked as if Angelina Jolie herself just walked in that door.”

  “Someone much better than Angelina Jolie, wouldn’t you say?” Mia shot Jo a wink and the way she grinned back at her made it very clear to Mia that she’d been joking about Kristin’s reaction earlier. This was the Pink Bean, after all. The Darlinghurst coffee shop where, according to Sheryl, many a lesbian had encountered true love.

  “Hi Jo,” Lou said, then gave Mia the most delicious stare.

  “Christ, I think I need to go call Caitlin,” Jo said. “Too much love in the air for me not to.”

  Mia flinched at Jo’s mention of the word love. Lou hadn’t moved a millimeter. She just stood there sporting a smile Mia still had to get used to having aimed at her.

  Epilogue

  Lou couldn’t keep her eyes off Mia, who was strutting around the shop as though she owned it, as though she had invented the concept of the bookshop and was the first person on the planet to ever extract coffee from a handful of beans.

  This was Mia at her best, even though it was only one side of her, or one side where many of her good qualities converged into the display she put on today: warm, welcoming, confident. A smile so easy, so bordering on sultry it made Lou weak at the knees—because she knew what it looked like when it crossed over all the way to sultry. She had been on the receiving end of Mia’s sultry smiles for three months now, and she didn’t think she could ever do without them.

  “I sure hope we did the right thing,” Jane, who was standing next to her, said. “Not so much merging with a coffee shop and with people who clearly know what they’re doing, but bringing such a young thing into our lives. Look at her, Lou. Your girlfriend is a live wire. And all that coffee won’t help.” Jane snickered. Lou had been standing next to her for a while and she’d made a game of keeping tabs on how many glasses of champagne Jane had consumed during that time. Jane didn’t get out much, but when she did, and on special occasions like these, she went all out.

  Then Lou lingered on the words your girlfriend. Mia was her girlfriend now. There really was no other way to describe her.

  “I’m not sure I need that kind of excitement in my life,” Jane continued. “I prefer a quiet life.”

  Lou smiled at her. “Don’t worry, Jane. You don’t have to come down to the shop if you don’t want to.”

  “But what if I do want to, despite myself? What do you young people call it? FOMO?”

  “Then come down and see what all the fuss is about, after which you can go back upstairs again and continue in your solitary ways.”

  Jane knocked back the last of her champagne. “This means so much to Annie. I think she feels she’s got a second chance. She’s reading even more than before. I think she really wants to have read every new book that comes in, in order to give the best possible recommendations. I told her it was impossible, but I have a sneaky suspicion it’s her way of dealing with the change. Because it is a big change. She’s so used to being in this shop on her own. Granted, she’s much more sociable than I am, but she’s quite solitary as well, in a way.”

  “Jane, come here.” Sheryl ambled up to them, arms wide open. “Have I told you how honored I am to be in business with you?” She threw her arms around Jane and pulled her into a hug.

  “About a dozen times already,” Jane replied. “But you can keep saying it, if you like.”

  “I’ve even persuaded Lou and Mia to read your books. I think Mia has gone through most of them and Lou is quickly catching up.”

  “I shall be forever grateful,” Jane said.

  Lou recognized the tiny signs of retreat—the stiffening of the smile, the too-fast blink of the eye—in Jane. She was even more uneasy dealing with praise than she was dealing with people.

  Lou left them to their conversation and found Amber and Martha chatting to Micky and Jo.

  “All the things that have happened since I started work at the Pink Bean,” Micky said. “No offense, Jo, but you worked there for two years before me and nothing spectacular happened. I show up, and boom!”

  “Yes, Michaela.” Jo gave her a round of fake applause. “You are the very reason for all the wonders of our world. I shall compose a song in your honor and sing it—”

  Amber turned to Lou. “They’re at it again. I think Micky misses Jo much more than she will ever admit. I’ve known Micky forever, but we don’t have that kind of relationship.”

  “That’s because you take everything so seriously, babe.” Martha leaned into Amber. “Nothing is trivial in your world. I love that about you.”

  “Hello, friends.” Mia slung an arm around Lou’s neck. She held a bottle of champagne in her free hand. “Who wants a refill?”

  Everyone held out their glass, except for Amber and Lou.

  “We’re both teaching tomorrow,” Amber said. “Best keep it civilized.”

  Mia shook her head. “I was told those Sunday morning classes were meant to be taught alternately. This is young love you’re standing in the way of, Amber.” Mia kissed Lou on the cheek, then turned to Martha. “What do you say, Martha? Shall we start a petition against Sunday morning classes at Glow so we can keep our significant others in bed a little longer?”

  Neither Amber nor Lou had expected the Sunday morning classes to be such a success, but apparently quite a number of people like to begin their last day of the weekend with some yoga.

  “Do you have any idea what time Amber wakes me up when she doesn’t have a class to teach?” Martha shook her head. “I prefer it like this because she sneaks out silently and I can have a lie-in.” She grinned at Amber.

  “Don’t worry, Mia. I promise you’ll have at least one in two relaxing Sunday mornings with Lou soon. I’m very close to finding another suitable teacher.”

  “You’ve been saying that for weeks,” Mia said. “I thought yoga teachers grew on trees these days.”

  “We’re very particular at Glow.” Lou came to Amber’s rescue. “It needs to be a good fit.”

  “She’s just looking for a second Lou,” Martha said. “And that’s proving hard to find.”

  Mia refilled Martha’s glass, then said, “I can hardly argue with that, can I?”

  Lou leaned into Mia a little closer, then let her gaze wander over the group she was standing in. She remembered going to Glow for the
first time, being impressed with the teacher and the whole vibe of the brand new studio around the corner from her parents’ house. So much had changed since then, not least of all the reintroduction of Mia Miller into her life.

  “As if you won’t be here bright and early tomorrow morning.” Lou grabbed Mia’s hand. Merging Annie’s with the Newtown branch of the Pink Bean had been Mia’s baby for the past couple of months. It would always be intertwined with Lou’s memories of the beginnings of their relationship.

  “Only because my bed will be empty, babe.” She put down the bottle of champagne, turned fully to Lou, and curved her arms around her waist. “You will always come first.” She flashed a smile that touched Lou deep in her core. A smile that said everything and that echoed all the ones that had helped erase the memories from Lou’s mind about the other Mia she once knew, but who had long ceased to exist. So many new memories had been made since then and with every day that had passed, Lou had felt her own confidence grow.

  Not only had she picked up the pieces of her life after her break-up with Angie, she had also faced herself, and the person she once was, the scared teenager who would always be a part of her, but who she could see as so much more than all the things she blamed herself for then. That girl had been her and she had grown out of her, but she had only fully become herself—the self she was now—once she had looked Mia in the eye and told her, in a clear and steady voice, that she had forgiven her.

  “I know.” Lou kissed Mia on the nose to loud howls and whistles from the others. Perhaps Jane had been right. She had no idea what she was letting herself and Annie in for by allowing this crowd into their shop and into their lives. For Lou, every single one of them had been a godsend.

  * * *

  THE END

  * * *

  No Other Love, Book Six in the Pink Bean Series, is available now.

  Get it HERE

  * * *

  Read on for an excerpt of No Other Love

  Excerpt of No Other Love

  Chapter One

  “Best make things look spic and span,” Mia said as she handed Annie a cup of coffee. “The boss is stopping by today.” She shot Annie one of those smiles Annie had seen her use on the customers to great effect. Inspired by being on the receiving end of one of Mia’s smiles, Annie had tried smiling at people like that, but she instinctively knew her own attempts didn’t have the same effect. She practiced sometimes in front of the mirror while washing her hands and she simply didn’t have a Mia-smile.

  “Sheryl or Kristin?” Annie asked, still amazed that she was able to get a real cup of coffee in her own book shop. Not the instant stuff she used to brew. It was part of the deal she had made with the Pink Bean owners. They leased part of her shop and Annie got all the free coffee she wanted, on top of a bunch more visitors through the door.

  Annie needed the clarification on which one of the two was stopping by because last time Mia had said the boss was dropping in, Annie had mentally prepared for Kristin only to have Sheryl show up. There was a distinct difference.

  “Kristin,” Mia said. “We have some numbers to crunch. Sheryl is not much of a number cruncher.” That smile again.

  Annie nodded, while she wondered if she had time to run upstairs and drag a comb through her hair. It sometimes felt as though Kristin was her boss as well as Mia’s, even though that was probably not the right way to describe it. Annie checked her watch. It was before eleven. Not that she was banned from her own house, but she knew Jane preferred she didn’t come upstairs too early in the morning, or until her wife had ventured down for her first Pink Bean coffee—and social interaction—of the day.

  Besides, Annie had a perfectly able comb in the downstairs bathroom, which they’d had remodeled to include a stall for customers and Pink Bean employees.

  Annie didn’t want to admit to herself that she was nervous because Kristin was due to arrive. The success of the Pink Bean in her shop was of crucial importance. If Kristin and Mia didn’t sell enough coffee, they would pack up their coffee machine and move elsewhere. Annie shook off the thought. Mia had told her time and time again that the decision to join forces with Annie’s shop was influenced by much more than purely business. Still, Annie felt like she had to impress.

  The door of the shop opened and both Mia and Annie looked up. It was always a guessing game whether the person walking in was after coffee, a book, both, or none.

  Annie didn’t need to look at Mia to know a smile was spreading on her lips. Annie smiled too at the sight of Lou.

  Lou gave Annie a wave and headed straight for the coffee counter to kiss Mia on the lips. All this young love on display. Annie wasn’t entirely sure how that made her feel. She was happy for Lou, who had suffered a bad breakup in Brisbane, and she and Mia made a great couple. That wasn’t the issue. It was witnessing what the beginning of romance looked like that put her out sometimes. The energy between them was palpable. It had been a long time since Annie had felt that kind of energy buzz through her.

  Annie had known Lou for a long time and she wasn’t the type to engage in too much public canoodling. Yet Annie saw her melt under Mia’s smiling gaze. She was still looking at them from her place by the cash register when the door opened again. This time it was Kristin. Annie nearly jumped to her feet, even though that door opened countless times a day and it was hardly the first time Kristin had come in to see how everything was going. Annie was happy Mia and Lou were preoccupied with each other so they hadn’t noticed her reaction.

  Having spotted Lou, Kristin headed straight for Annie, and stood at the counter. Just as Mia kissed Annie on the cheek every morning when she arrived, so did Kristin when she bestowed a visit on the second Pink Bean branch. When Mia kissed her hello, Annie didn’t even think about it. It was as automatic an action as actually saying hello. But with Kristin it was different.

  At first, Annie had believed it was because Kristin’s demeanor was, in general, a little more uptight, and it was always more uncomfortable kissing someone like that, but then she’d had a good hard look in the mirror—probably while she brushed her hair in anticipation of Kristin’s arrival—and she had realized it was all down to herself. She was the one having an issue. It had been a disconcerting feeling. One that manifested itself again now, as she stood in front of Kristin thinking of suave ways to peck her on the cheek.

  Annie stepped from behind the counter—her safe space from where she observed all the goings-on in the shop—and put a hand gently on Kristin’s shoulder before letting her lips touch down on Kristin’s smooth, cool cheek.

  “How’s business?” Kristin asked. She really wasn’t one for small talk.

  “Mine or yours?” Annie scampered back behind the counter.

  “Mia will tell me about mine once she’s done schmoozing with her girlfriend.” She rolled her eyes and Annie couldn’t help but grin. “Yours.”

  “Sales are up!” Annie exclaimed. “It can’t be denied. Who said print was dead?” Oh Christ. Was she no longer capable of having a normal conversation with Kristin either?

  “I believe it was your wife who came up with those words of wisdom.” Kristin glanced at the display of Jane Quinn books they had set up right next to the counter—a massive feather in Mia’s cap. “How are those doing?”

  “Not too bad, although Jane cringes every time she comes down and sees all of her books presented like that. And word must have spread, because the other day she was having a coffee just as someone was browsing her books. The person put two and two together, bought one, and promptly walked up to Jane to have it autographed.”

  “She must have loved that.” Kristin sniggered. Apparently she was beginning to know Jane and her solitary ways.

  “I had to bring her coffee upstairs for the rest of the week.” Annie grinned. “But it’s good to push her out of her comfort zone once in a while. She needs that. That’s why this was such a good idea.” She pointed at the coffee machine, then at the book display. “And this as well. She’s
Jane Quinn, for crying out loud. She should take some pride in that.”

  “We’re all different,” Kristin said matter-of-factly.

  “Aren’t we just.” Talking about her wife, who was toiling away upstairs on her next book, made Annie feel guilty about overthinking kissing Kristin hello. “And that’s why I love her so dearly.”

  “Hello and goodbye.” Lou joined them. “I need to rush to Darlinghurst for my next class. Someone’s been having a bad influence on my punctuality.”

  Kristin shook her head. “I’ll give her a stern talking-to.”

  “Please do.” Lou shot them both a wink and left the shop.

  “Talk to you later, Annie,” Kristin said, and sat down in the exact same chair she always did, waiting for Mia to join her.

  When nothing much was going on in the shop, Annie usually read. She used to easily go through a book a day, but since the Pink Bean had set up shop, she was lucky to make it through a book a week. Today, Annie willed her attention to remain on the book she was reading, but having Kristin in the shop, made it that much harder to focus.

  * * *

  To read the rest of Annie and Jane’s story, get No Other Love HERE

  A Note from Harper

  Dear Reader,

  * * *

  If you’ve enjoyed this book, you can make a big difference. Reviews are the most powerful tools in my arsenal when it comes to getting attention for my books. Being an author who writes for a niche market (lesbian fiction), I don’t have the financial muscle of a big New York publisher behind me when it comes to marketing. I can’t take out full page newspaper ads and put posters in the subway.