“Yeah, we have to cancel our event.”
“Cancel?”
“The funding we thought we were going to get has fallen through,” he offered in explanation. “The investor backed out at the last minute. He was a private investor, and while researching a competitor, he decided they had the better ROI. We’re out the cash.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Eric.”
“Me too. We found out last night at a party. I wanted to call you before you got too far into the planning. We just don’t think it’s prudent to host an event like this when we now have to consider who we have to lay off.”
“I understand. That wouldn’t be in good taste,” she replied.
“I know you’ve already spent time on it and made purchases. Can you send me the invoice for everything we owe you?”
“Of course,” she agreed.
“If anything changes, we’ll reach back out. We enjoyed working with you a lot.”
“And I you,” she replied, and they said their goodbyes. “Shit,” she exclaimed.
This event was going to be massive. It was almost going to be the size of the health fair, but with a different crowd; a crowd she could also try to wrangle more work out of. Keira had high hopes that she’d get at least five more events out of this one and maybe more, but she also needed the income. The bulk of her time had been spent on the health fair. She’d planned to spend the next two weeks on Time Works. So far, she’d only billed maybe ten hours of work and worked out the beginnings of deals with vendors, but nothing had been finalized. That meant she’d make hardly anything. She’d counted on that money to get her through to the next month.
She opened the bank app on her phone to check her accounts. She had one personal checking account, one with personal savings, and one account for the business. Her personal checking account had just enough money to cover the bills and her expenses. Her savings account only existed at this point because she’d had it since college, but there was under a hundred dollars in it. She hated being in her thirties and not having any savings. It made her feel like a failure. She had used the money to start the business alongside Michelle. It had been a good decision. They’d been on the road to success. But now, things weren’t looking great. The deal she’d made with Ivy only allowed her to add a little more to these amounts. She’d have to pay special attention to her finances this month to make it to the next one. There would be no drinks at the bar with the gang and no big purchases or After Dark this month.
She’d make up excuses, as she’d done a few times in the past. Her friends would pretend like they believed her because all of them knew about the situation but were kind enough not to bring it up. None of them had money to lend, but they’d all offered individually when it had come up in conversation. They’d bought drinks or paid for lunch once or twice to try to help out. Keira hated being a charity case to her friends and wished that she could just catch a break. The business account had hardly anything in it. The good thing was she was a business of one person and had no overhead.
She loved what she did. She loved being her own boss. But she wasn’t sure how much longer she could do it all alone. She was starting to wonder if she even wanted to. She had two options if things didn’t start turning around. She could try to get her old job back and find another firm if that didn’t work, or she could move back to Southern California with her parents. Those were her options. Neither of them was at all appealing.
“Hey, you okay in there?” Emma’s voice sounded from outside the door.
“Yeah, sorry.” Keira closed the bank app and opened the door. “I got a call. I didn’t want to wake you. I guess I failed.” She gave an apologetic look.
“You only woke me up because when I rolled over and reached for you, you weren’t there,” Emma explained with an adorable expression on her face. “Everything okay?”
“I just lost a job,” she stated and rolled her eyes in defeat before leaving the bathroom with Emma in tow. “They lost the funds, so the event is canceled.” She sat on the side of the bed. “I was really counting on that job.”
“I’m sorry.” Emma sat next to her and tried to straighten her hair that had been mussed by sleep. “Was it a big event?”
“Yeah, but that’s not it. It’s not just that job. It’s all the jobs I would have gotten from it. The networking opportunity would have meant a lot.” She turned to face Emma, placing one leg under her body as she did. “I don’t know that I’m cut out for this.”
“Cut out for what?” Emma placed a hand on her leg.
“Doing this all by myself. With Michelle, it was easier. Long hours still, but easier and much more fun.”
Emma ran her hand up and down Keira’s leg and asked, “Are you okay? I mean, will you be okay financially?”
Keira had another choice to make. She could be honest and tell Emma that she was barely hanging on, and that was with Kevin as a roommate and him helping her out with things like food and groceries every so often. She could also lie and tell her that she’d be fine.
“I’ll be okay. It’s just a hit I wasn’t planning on having to take.”
She went with the lie. They’d been on two dates. Now was not the time to tell the person she was just starting to date that she was broke and considering her next career move.
“If I can help, I’m happy to offer my assistance. I’m great at gift bags.”
Keira laughed. She felt better immediately, despite the very real dilemma she was facing and that she just lied to Emma. She chose to see it as embellishing the truth rather than a straight up lie. That made the laughter come out easier.
“I remember,” she replied.
“I can make more of those or I can help you do something else. I do have a master’s degree. I can probably do other stuff too.”
“Like what?” Keira asked with a smile.
Emma sat up straight and said, “Well, I can help during breaks.”
“What?” Keira laughed.
“When you need a break, I can be there to offer my services as a distractor.”
“Distractor?”
“I can supply certain distractions that will help your brain get the proper rest from your tasks and then return to them refreshed when the break is over.”
“What kind of distractions did you have in mind?” Keira asked in a suggestive tone, leaning forward slightly.
“Shoulder massages, back massages or foot massages. I’m thinking a lot of massages.”
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind.” Keira leaned forward still, her lips an inch away from Emma’s.
“What exactly did you have in mind?” Emma replied, matching the suggestiveness.
“It involves lips.”
“Lips? My lips?” Emma pointed at herself with her free hand.
“Yes, your lips. Also, my lips.” Keira pointed at Emma and then herself.
“Well, if your lips are involved, I think I can lend mine to the cause.” Emma smirked.
“And they’ll be available for every break I take?”
“Every break I’m invited to,” Emma stated.
Keira leaned back, realizing she wanted to say something before the inevitable kissing started.
“We’re going to see each other less because of work.”
“Because we’re not working together?”
“Yeah, it kind of sucks. We just started dating.”
“And we’re still dating. We’ll see each other all the time. Work just won’t be involved. I think that’s a good thing because we can do anything and everything not involving work now and not feel guilty. We can actually go on dates and not worry about Ivy or someone else from my office seeing and gossiping. You can come to the office to pick me up for lunch. We can go to After Dark again if you want. When you want me to, I can meet your friends. Maybe we can meet at the bar for drinks or go to dinner.”
Keira tried to hide the concern from her face, but Emma’s entire list was exactly what she’d just told herself she could
n’t do. There could be no extraneous spending. Emma wasn’t exactly well off. It wasn’t like she could foot the bill for their dates. She shouldn’t have to anyway. Keira would have to ask Kevin to help with the utilities this month and eat ramen to try to get ahead for the next month. All she wanted to do was buy Emma drinks as they sat with her friends. She wanted to take her to a nice dinner and share a decadent dessert and take the check with no worries about her card coming back as declined.
“What are we going to do this morning?” Keira asked, trying to change the subject.
Emma looked at her confused for a moment and then seemed to understand that they’d moved on.
“I can make you coffee. It won’t be as good as your coffee, of course, but my machine doesn’t sound like someone shot it and its blood is gurgling out of its body.”
“It’s an old machine, but it makes the best coffee,” Keira defended the coffee machine she and Michelle bought when they first became roommates in San Francisco.
“Well, I’ll do my best to make mine taste good. I’ll have tea. Oh, there’s this place down the street that does the best waffles. I can call in the order and run down to get it. It’s half a block away. We could be eating in thirty minutes.”
“We could just eat the food Katie left us.”
“That doesn’t exactly strike me as breakfast food. Besides, I’m in the mood for waffles and bacon too. I don’t have any here.” She stood up. “I’m buying. Waffles and bacon for you too?”
“Just waffles.” Keira decided that was a good compromise.
“I’ll start the coffee, call it in and get dressed.”
“And what am I supposed to be doing while you do all that?”
“Nothing.” Emma leaned down and kissed her lips gently. “Just lie back and relax. Put something on the TV if you want.” She headed around to the sofa and tossed the remote control onto the bed. “You’ve earned a relaxing morning. In fact, I’m insisting on it.”
“You are?” Keira laughed.
“Yes, I am. Keira, you’ve been working hard. I’m going to take care of you this morning. And if you’re good, I might actually deliver on one of those massages I mentioned earlier.”
She walked back over and kissed her again. It wasn’t the kind of kiss Keira really wanted from Emma in that moment, but it would do. Just having those lips pressed against her anywhere on her body made her resonate on a different frequency and took away all her worries.
CHAPTER 18
“She’s amazing, Hill,” Keira told her friend over coffee the next morning.
Keira had brought her own coffee from home. It was a way for her to save money, but Hillary knew she loved her own coffee. She didn’t ask any questions as they sat in the café.
“You just met her. Of course, she’s amazing. You think every woman is amazing when you first meet her.”
“I do not,” Keira objected. “Not every woman. If I did, I’d say yes to every woman that asked me out. And trust me, I’ve turned down most of them.”
“Then, what makes her so amazing? She stood you up at After Dark.”
“She didn’t stand me up. She didn’t commit to coming. She said maybe. She made it up to me by taking me to After Dark last week. It was cute.” Keira couldn’t wipe the smile off her face even if she tried.
“You are smitten, aren’t you?”
“I am,” she confessed and took a sip from her thermos, hoping none of the employees would catch her in the act. “She’s different, Hill. I never seem to get tired of her.”
“You just met her.”
“I’ve spent nearly every moment with her since. Well, not initially, but the entire weekend and most of last week,” she explained. “I woke up next to her this morning. It’s like two hours later, and I miss her.”
“Her place or your place?” Hillary took a drink of her iced coffee.
“My place once and her place the last two nights because she’s closer to work. I needed to be in the city for an appointment anyway.”
“And?” Hillary toyed with her straw.
“And what?” Keira lifted an eyebrow.
“And how was it?”
“Staying at her place? Fine. Why?”
“The sex, dummy. How was the sex?”
“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” she offered.
“You’ve spent three nights together, and you haven’t had sex yet?”
“You know I haven’t been with anyone for a while.”
“I know the thing Michelle told you really shook you up after she died and that you were waiting. But if she’s so amazing, what’s stopping you now?”
“Nothing,” Keira answered honestly. “There’s nothing stopping me. I want to. She’s incredibly sexy. It’s hard not to just tear her clothes off, but I’m waiting. We’re waiting.”
“For what?” Hillary asked.
“Not for long, that’s for sure. I can’t wait for long. But it’s also just nice falling asleep next to her. We talk a lot. We’ve been getting to know each other. Taking sex out of the equation gave us time to get important questions out of the way.”
“Like what?”
“Like marriage, kids, where she wants to live, work, and stuff like that.”
“Damn. I repeat, you just met,” Hillary said.
“Hill, I really like her. This stuff is important. You know what happens when you don’t get that crap out of the way before things get really serious. It gets too far along, and someone gets hurt if the big things are different for you.”
“I know. I remember.”
Keira knew Hillary was thinking about her ex-girlfriend. The ex-girlfriend, actually. Every lesbian in their thirties likely had an ex-girlfriend that they talked about all the time or that they’re reminded of constantly at least. Keira had been somewhat lucky in that department, but Hillary hadn’t been. Hillary and Caroline had been together for three years. They’d gotten engaged near the end. Then, the fighting started. Hillary wanted an intimate ceremony, and Caroline wanted a large ceremony. That wasn’t a big deal, but Caroline got a promotion at work that required her to move to Seattle. Hillary didn’t want to move to Seattle. They’d agreed they wanted to stay in San Francisco and raise their family just outside of the city when the time came. Caroline turned down that promotion but was offered another later that was better and required her to move to London. By this time, she’d told Hillary she wasn’t sure she wanted a family anymore. Her job had grown more intense and forced her to work sixty to eighty hour work weeks. Hillary refused to move to London. Caroline took the job and left.
“I’m not naïve enough to think that nothing changes, but it’s nice to be able to talk to someone I’m interested in and know that at least for now we’re on the same page about this stuff,” Keira said.
“I get it, I guess. I’m just protective of you.”
“I know you are, and I appreciate it.”
“When do I get to meet her?” she asked.
“I’m thinking drinks tomorrow night if you’re up for it.”
“I am if she is. What about Greene?”
“She’s invited. I already texted her.”
“And Kell?” Hillary lifted an eyebrow.
“That one I’m not so sure about,” she replied.
“Because you still think she’s in love with you?”
“I’m trying to believe her when she says she’s over me. We’re friends, and that’s okay, but she pulled some lame crap with Emma during the whole speed dating thing that caused Emma to misconstrue something. I know Kellan did it on purpose. I’m just not her biggest fan right now.”
“You can’t not invite her, Keira. If she finds out it was just me, you, Emma and Greene, she’s going to be upset. We have our rituals, you know?”
Michelle had been her only straight female friend in the area. Michelle was always invited out with Keira’s gay friends and usually came, but sometimes, she preferred to hang out with other friends or go to straight bars to meet guys until s
he met Kevin. The gang formed with her, but also functioned without her. Michelle had always been the first to meet any of Keira’s dates or potential love interests. After that, she’d bring them to drinks with Hill, Greene, and later Kellan. The others did the same. Kellan hadn’t brought anyone around yet, but when Greene did have someone she thought she might want to hang onto, she brought her around for drinks. Hillary had done the same a few times after Caroline. It had become their tradition. They would vet the new potential member of their group. Most didn’t pass the test, but Keira had hope that Emma would.
“If I invite Kell, she has to behave. I’m not letting Emma put up with her crap.”
“Let me talk to her,” Hillary offered. “I’ll mention that you and I talked about Emma and gauge her reaction. If I think she’s going to do something stupid, I won’t tell her about the drinks. If she seems okay, I’ll invite her.”
“That sounds good, I guess.”
“For what it’s worth, I do think she’s mostly over you.”
“Mostly?”
“I just think she’s at that stage where it still kind of hurts that you’re moving on and she hasn’t yet. I don’t think she’s trying to be an asshole.”
“I know she’s not, but if she’s not ready to be my friend and support me when I do find someone I like, then I don’t think we should be hanging out.”
“Don’t mess with our mojo, Keira. We’re all good together. I’m sure Kellan’s fine.”
“Hey, I’m not trying to mess with the mojo. Kell’s the one that acted out.”
“Acted out? Are we ten?” Hillary laughed and sipped her coffee.
Keira looked around the room and saw what she knew she’d find. She smirked immediately and turned back to Hillary.
“Hill, your number one fan is here again,” she commented.
“Stop it,” Hillary ordered.
“What?” Keira laughed.
“She’s not my number one fan. She’s a fellow coffee drinker, enjoying her mid-morning caffeine buzz.”
“She stares at you every time she’s here, and she’s here a lot when we’re here. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s paid attention to when you’re here and shows up at the same time just to see you.”
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