“Tell me what? Tahoe?” Greene slid the cell phone she’d been interested in into her pocket and turned her full attention to Kellan.
“I’m going inside,” Kellan told both of them. “I’ll just meet you in there,” she told Greene.
She nodded at Emma and walked past them and into a coffee shop just down the street.
“What’s going on?” Greene asked Emma.
“I don’t know,” Emma replied.
“She called me and said it was urgent. Is she okay?”
“You should talk to her.”
Emma just wanted to walk home. She had no plans for the evening and just wanted to coil up into a ball, eat ice cream, and go to sleep early.
“Where’s Keira?”
“Working,” Emma replied. “I was just on my way home when I ran into Kellan.”
“So, you two are okay again?” Greene checked. “You and Keira?”
“Yeah, we’re okay.” Emma failed to mention their strange morning where Keira barely spoke to her and then kissed her on the cheek before leaving for home to start her workday. “She’s busy a lot right now with work,” she added, but she wasn’t sure why exactly.
“Yeah, I know. It was tough for her losing Michelle like that.”
“Because she handled the business side?”
“Well, that and the fact that she was there for everything else too. Michelle and Keira were like a match made in heaven when it came to their company, but it wasn’t just that. Keira is running the entire thing herself now; start to finish. She has to handle the marketing, the potential clients and moving them to actual clients. Then, she has to plan the event and attend the event and handle all the invoicing to make sure they pay her. She does that by herself now. Keira has to manage each step for multiple events at one time. Maybe there’s a bar mitzvah on a Saturday that’s kosher food only and two hundred people. There’s a wedding for a bridezilla on Sunday, and a new client meeting on Monday followed by a call with someone who hasn’t paid their bill yet.” She paused after that lengthy ramble. “I don’t know how she does it all by herself.”
Emma was at a loss. She felt horrible. She’d listened to Keira talk to her about her problems with the business, but she’d never fully understood until Greene explained it to her.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Emma supplied after a moment.
“Listen, I have to get in there with Kellan. Are you okay?” She placed a hand on Emma’s forearm.
“I’m good. I’m going to head home and see if Keira needs me to bring her dinner.”
“She’s terrible at feeding herself when she’s super busy,” Greene shared. “She’s a big fan of the Italian place like three blocks away from her apartment. She loves their breadsticks. Get the fettuccini, and she’ll love you forever.” She smiled and dropped her hand. “Or really like you? I don’t–”
“It’s okay.” Emma laughed lightly. “I got it.”
“See you around then.”
“Sure.” Emma headed in the direction of the train station.
◆◆◆
Keira found herself, strangely enough, thinking about flowers. She’d only spent twelve dollars on Emma’s gift, but that decision was coming back to haunt her. She shouldn’t have spent that money, but she needed to apologize to her girlfriend. The problem was that now she had twelve dollars less in her bank account. She could use that money for her dinner tonight. As she stared into the near-empty fridge, she saw only peanut butter but had no bread and the eggs that were expired. Kevin had been spending so much time at Tracy’s. He hadn’t gone shopping. Keira had been trying to avoid it because it made her head hurt, trying to calculate how much she could afford to spend. She grabbed at the peanut butter and picked up a spoon. In the cabinet, she had a box of rice she was pretty sure had been there since they moved in, but it looked okay. She’d snack on the peanut butter while it cooked. She had some soy sauce at least. She put it on to cook and opened the peanut butter.
“Mother fucker,” she said to herself when she realized it was near empty.
She scooped out the teaspoon and tossed the jar in the trash. When she returned to the kitchen table, she stared down at the mess of paperwork there that she needed to go through. Most of the day, she’d worked on the upcoming wedding and reception. She was playing catch-up and had to call the vendors already chosen and find new ones when necessary. It was after seven, and she was just now getting to everything else. She created a schedule for her week. Tonight, she’d focus on her invoicing work and follow-up with existing and past clients. This gave her a chance to reach out and see if they were in need of any more work or knew someone who was. Word of mouth was a huge part of her business. She allocated thirty minutes of monitoring her social media pages to add photos of the health fair and tweet out how much fun it was working with the Health Department. She budgeted one hour for the invoicing. She’d eat while she crunched the numbers. She’d take two hours to work on the other events she had scheduled, and then she’d spend time online looking for another job.
It saddened her to think about that, but it really was her only option if she didn’t want to move home with her parents and be a failure of a woman in her mid-thirties that needed mom and dad to pay her rent. She decided to text Indy tomorrow night to see if she could get her some shifts at the bar on nights she wasn’t working events. She’d made pretty good tips as a bartender when she was younger. Hopefully, she’d make some good ones a couple of times a week. That would help with groceries and utilities. She also planned on finishing up her current clients, and that would be the end of her business. She’d find new ones if she needed to while she was searching for something more permanent, but she wouldn’t actively take on any more unless she needed some money coming in. She determined that once her current events were wrapped, she’d bartend two nights a week at first while searching for some random clients to help bring in some money. She’d actively begin a job search and, hopefully, she’d find one quickly. But if not, she’d pick up more bartending shifts and maybe some serving shifts at a few restaurants near her apartment. With her past experience and the fact that she’d been a regular at many of them, she felt she’d be able to get a serving or bartending job and make some extra cash that way. It wasn’t at all how she planned on spending her thirties, but she’d do it because she had to. The water with the rice she’d been cooking spurted angrily in the pan.
“Crap,” she exclaimed, stood and ran over to turn down the heat. There was a knock on the door, which pulled her attention away enough for her thumb to just graze the burner. “Jesus! Shit! Kevin, I swear to God, can you just remember your key more than once a week?” She placed a wet rag over her lightly burned finger and headed to the door. “I burned myself because of you,” she announced as she opened the door to Emma.
“I’m sorry?” Emma replied, shrugging her shoulders.
“Em?” Keira dropped the rag. “Did I know you were coming?”
“No, and I’m not staying.” Emma entered the apartment, walked past Keira to the dining room table, and placed a plastic bag on top before returning to a still frozen Keira, picking the rag up off the floor and standing in front of her. “I know you’re busy. I don’t want to interrupt.” She lifted Keira’s burned thumb to her lips and kissed it lightly before placing the rag back on top. “I brought you dinner. I wanted to tell you that I understand about the moving in thing. I said it, and I meant it. But I get your point. I won’t bring it up again.”
“Em…” Keira stared down at her hand, which Emma still cradled between her own.
“Oh, and sorry about the burning thing,” she added.
“Babe, stay and eat with me,” Keira suggested.
“I don’t want to get in the way,” Emma replied.
“You won’t get in the way, but I might need to work while we eat.”
“Is there anything I can help with?” Emma asked.
“How are your social media marketing skills?” Keira lifted an eyebrow.
/> “Mine? Not great, but I do know someone.”
“You know someone?”
Keira pulled Emma by the hand to the table. Emma glanced toward the kitchen.
“You were already making dinner? Do you want to just save this for another night?”
“What? No,” Keira answered a little too quickly. “It’s just rice. It’ll keep.”
“That was your dinner?” Emma’s face showed concern.
“I haven’t been shopping lately.” Keira pulled apart the tight knot in the plastic bag. “What did you bring me?” She opened it and saw the familiar to-go boxes. “You got me Antonio’s?” Her voice went up an octave when she realized Emma had gone to her favorite Italian restaurant.
“Fettuccini, the family size, and two orders of breadsticks. I got Alfredo and marinara sauce to dip, because I wasn’t sure which one you’d like with them.”
Keira turned to face her and gripped both sides of her face.
“You are an amazing girlfriend. Thank you.” Keira applied a gentle kiss to Emma’s lips.
“So, you get the food set up, and I’ll call Hailey.”
“Hailey?”
“Yeah. It’s late there, but she’s probably still up,” Emma offered. “I’ll put her on speaker. You can tell her what you need.”
“What I–”
“Hailey’s the Director of Public Relations at one of the largest companies in the country.”
“She is?” Keira sat in the already pulled out dining room chair in surprise.
“She’s great at this stuff. I’ll call her, and she’ll get on it.”
“She’s a Director in a huge company. She doesn’t have time for–”
“Keira, she’s Hailey. She’ll make time if I ask her to. Besides, she’ll love having an excuse to meet you over the phone.” Emma pulled out her phone. “Get the food out.”
“I have water and water. Which would you prefer?” Keira asked in a playful tone Emma hadn’t heard her use in a while.
“Water,” she replied with a smile. “Hey, Hails,” she greeted Hailey.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“I need a favor.”
“Okay,” Hailey answered.
◆◆◆
An hour later, they’d finished eating their dinner and Hailey was talking to Keira about some things she could do with her social media profiles and ad placement on relevant sites. Emma watched Keira avoid talking about how much something like that would cost, but then Emma listened as Hailey explained that she had an account with a site that could place Keira’s ad for free on several sites because she’d done business with them for so long. Keira’s face seemed to light up with excitement and then falter in fear. Emma took her hand and gave her a reassuring smile.
“I’m going to be out there in a few days. I want to meet you in person,” Hailey told her to Emma’s surprise. “Em, sorry. I forgot to tell you.”
“You’re coming out here?” Emma asked.
“I’m bringing the wife with me. I just booked the trip this afternoon. There’s a big meeting I have to go to out there, so we’re staying for a few days.”
“That’s great, Hails. I can’t wait to see you guys.”
“And I want to meet your girlfriend, Em. No keeping her from us like you did with Eli at first,” she retorted.
“You kept your ex from your friends?” Keira lifted an eyebrow.
“Eli was…” Emma thought about how best to describe her ex-girlfriend to her current girlfriend.
“She was weird,” Hailey supplied for her.
“And she cheated on you,” Charlie added. “Hey, Emma.”
“Hi, Charlie.” Emma laughed. “Charlie, Keira’s here.”
“Nice to kind of meet you,” Charlie replied.
“You too.” Keira laughed.
“She just got home. Work thing,” Hailey explained. “Anyway, I’m going to go. My hot wife just got home, and–”
“Hailey Jane!” Charlie yelled over the speakerphone.
“I was going to say we’re going to bed,” she retorted mostly to Charlie. “To sleep,” she added probably for Keira and Emma’s benefit. “I’ll call you tomorrow, Em, and we can make plans.”
“Okay. Sounds good.”
“It was great to meet you, Keira.”
“You too. Thank you so much for the help,” Keira returned.
“Of course.”
“So, it looks like I’m maybe meeting more of your friends.” Keira smiled over at Emma.
“Looks like it.” Emma ran a soft hand over the back of Keira’s tense neck. “How much time will you have though? I know you’re busy, and if–”
“I’ll make time. I’ll figure it out. Hailey was so nice. I can’t not meet her now.” She relaxed into Emma’s massaging fingers. “That feels good.”
“Why don’t you lie down and let me continue?” Emma suggested, standing behind Keira and applying pressure to both of her shoulders.
“I can’t, babe. I wish I could, but I still have so much more work to do. I have an event tomorrow night. It’s just a retirement party, but I still have stuff to do on it tonight. It’s a golf theme. Imagine that,” she joked and let out a sigh when Emma’s hands increased their pressure.
“Can I help?”
“I wish you could, but I have to just get through tonight and tomorrow night. The wedding this weekend will be the big test. I need to get everything organized on that tomorrow.”
“Should I go then?” Emma asked, stopping her movements.
“What? Why?” Keira turned her head and looked up at her.
“Because I can’t help you, but I can’t just stay here if you’re working and I’m not helping.”
“Yes, you can,” Keira asserted. “You can head to the bedroom if you want and sleep or watch TV, or–”
“Not if you’re out here working like this just to keep your head above water, babe.” Then, Emma had an idea. “Actually, I am going to stay.” She pulled back from Keira.
“Yeah?” Keira smiled again.
“I’ll be back in about an hour though, okay?”
“You’re leaving but you’re staying?” Keira stood in her confusion.
“I just have to run an errand.” Emma moved toward the living room. “I’ll be back though.”
“I have stuff here for you if–”
“Just give me an hour.” Emma winked at Keira who was moving toward her as she moved toward the door. “I’ll be right back. I love you.” She pursed her lips together in a kiss that had Keira laughing and then made her way out of the apartment.
“I love you too,” Keira had said to herself after Emma’s hasty departure.
Then, she sat back down at her computer, rubbed her temples furiously for a moment, and got back to work. About an hour later, there was a knock at the door. She shook her head rapidly sideways to try to wake herself up and opened the door to reveal Emma standing there with two giant brown paper bags.
“I’m back,” Emma said with a smile.
“What are…” Keira couldn’t quite complete the sentence. “I should just give you a key,” she said after a moment instead.
“Huh?” Emma walked into the apartment.
“I’m going to give you a key to my place,” Keira replied and followed Emma into the kitchen. “What did you do?”
“Is that really how you do stuff like that?” Emma laughed and placed both bags on the kitchen counter. “Giving someone a key is a pretty big deal there, and you just blurt it out like that?”
“Says the woman that asked me to move in with her because I’m broke,” Keira returned.
Emma seemed put off by that comment for a second before she shook herself out of it.
“Right.”
“Em, I didn’t mean–”
“It’s okay. We said we weren’t going to talk about it anymore.”
“But, I’m an idiot. I’m sorry. I’m so tired, and I still have work to do. I just–”
“Hey.” Emma turned to fa
ce her. She took both of Keira’s hands in her own. “It’s okay. I know.” She turned her head in the direction of the bags. “And I went grocery shopping for you. That’s where I went.”
“You what?” Keira softened immediately and closed her eyes with a smile before opening them and staring back at her beautiful, thoughtful girlfriend.
“You’re too busy to go, and I want you to eat properly.” Emma kissed Keira’s cheek. “Now, I’m going to put all this stuff away for you while you finish up for the night. Then, I’m going to tuck you into bed so you can sleep.”
“You’re still staying, right?”
“Yes, I’m still staying.” Emma wrapped her arms around Keira’s neck and pulled her into her body.
Keira felt the sturdiness of Emma’s body pressed against her own and relaxed into her.
“I love you,” she let out as she dropped her head to Emma’s neck. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome. Now, finish up. You’ve got about five minutes before I expect you to start getting ready for bed.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Keira joked.
Keira needed another twenty minutes to finish up after Emma put her groceries away for her and headed into the bedroom. Keira wondered at her luck at finding this woman. Why Emma would continue to put up with her was beyond Keira, but as she stared at Emma’s sleeping form, she knew how unbelievably lucky she was. She vowed that she’d do whatever it took to make Emma know how much she appreciated her.
Keira stood in the doorway of her own bedroom with her arms across her chest, dressed only in her sorority tank top and underwear, watching Emma as she lay above the blanket on her side facing Keira. She was beautiful all the time, but she was exquisite when she slept. Her face was calm and nearly always had a small smile, making Keira smile just by looking at it.
“Babe, hey,” Keira whispered as she pushed a fallen strand of hair back behind Emma’s ear and leaned over the bed. “Em?”
“Hmm,” Emma muttered, opening her eyes. “Hey.”
“Hey, beautiful,” Keira replied softly. “Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you, but you fell asleep above the blanket. Let’s get you under it.” She tugged back at her side of the blanket.
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