Page 51 of Allured By Her

“What am I going to do about what?” she asked, but she absolutely knew what I was talking about.

“Everyone thinks your queer now, Tenley. Are you going to tell them that you’re not?” I asked.

“Are you?” she shot back at me, sitting up straight.

“They’re not my friends. I don’t care what they think about me,” I said. That was the truth. Now that I wasn’t trapped with them in high school, they didn’t have any power over me.

“No, I’m not going to tell them because then I’ll be the girl who faked being gay and that’s so much worse than them thinking I’m gay. Besides, bisexuality exists.”

“And pansexuality,” I pointed out. Sydney and Honor were both pansexual.

“Exactly. Just because I dated a woman once, doesn’t mean I can’t date guys going forward,” she said, her chin jutting out.

“You don’t have to convince me,” I said, putting my hands up. “I’m not attacking you.”

“It feels like you are,” she said, pouting.

“I’m not, promise,” I said.

Tenley huffed and picked up the remote. “Want to watch something?” Her quick pivot made me pause, but I wasn’t here to harass her while she was down. So I shut my mouth and didn’t say anything else as she flipped through her apps in search of something to watch.

* * *

Tenley settled on the same reality show we’d been watching together what felt like a thousand years ago, but was really earlier today.

“Do you want ice cream?” she asked me a little while later.

“Always,” I said. There was no situation in which I’d say no to ice cream.

Tenley hopped up and went to the freezer. She came back holding two pints in her hands.

“This one or this one?” she asked me, holding them out so I could read the labels.

“That one,” I said, selecting the strawberry cheesecake pint.

“Sprinkles?” she asked.

“Yes, please,” I called. I’d paused the show while Tenley got the ice cream ready. I would have just eaten it out of the container, but she put it in fancy cut-glass bowls that I assumed must also be from her grandmother.

“Thanks,” I said, taking it from her. Tenley had a bowl full of brownie batter with a moderate amount of sprinkles. She’d given me tons.

“How do you join the book club at Mainely Books?” she asked when I restarted the show.

“You can just come,” I said. “I’ll give you the email address and you can get on the newsletter and email chain. The next meeting is on Thursday, but you can still come and just hang out. No one has to speak or even read the book. There have been people who didn’t read the books and just come for the food and the gossip and sit and knit or scroll their phones the whole time. We take all kinds,” I said.

Tenley scooped up a big chunk of brownie from her ice cream and devoured it.

“That sounds pretty chill,” she said.

“Yeah, it is. A book club for people who aren’t into joining a book club. The bookstore also has a liquor license, so there’s almost always champagne or some fun drink,” I said.

“Boozy book club? Why didn’t you say so in the first place? I would have joined a long time ago.”

I grabbed my phone and sent her the most recent book club newsletter.

“Oh, I’ve read that already,” she said when she opened it. “Can you do me one favor, though?”

“What is it?” I asked.

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