Page 43 of No One Like You

“Oh, good. You and Sophia don’t have issues with shrimp, right?”

“Yeah, I would have said something once I saw it on your list.”

“Cool. I’m gonna make us shrimp scampi for dinner tonight.”

“That sounds great, can I do anything?”

“Nah, it’s simple. Just hang out and chat, unless you need to tend to Sophia.”

Megan turned her head to observe her daughter. “Nope, she looks happy. She’s reading and Nocturne looks to be settling in for a nap.”

“Good. It’s nice to talk with you. Feels domestic. In a good way.”

“Yeah. Oh, about Christmas. Do you celebrate?”

“Sort of. I may not believe anymore, but the important parts, you know, family, friends, being good to other people—that stuff is universal. Plus, it’s so commercialized these days, I’m happy to focus on people instead.”

“Has it been lonely for you, because of your family?”

“It has. But once I became friends with Maria I got to hang out with her and her friends, and that helped a lot.”

“She’s really nice. Um. This might be too personal, but, um… You said that I was the third person besides your tattoo artist to see where your cat paw tattoo ended. Is Maria one of those three?”

“That is personal, but it’s fine. Yes, she is one of the three. We, um, haven’t dated in a long time, but, um, we have done the occasional friends with benefits thing.”

“Wow. Um, okay. I’m not sure why I asked that. Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry.”

“It’s okay, Megan. So anyway, when do you want to get a tree?”

“Maybe in a couple of weeks? I don’t want to get it too early and have it all dry by Christmas, but not too late before all of the good ones are gone. Will it be okay with Nocturne?”

“I’m not sure, actually. She’s never experienced a Christmas tree before. We’ll at least do lights on the tree and maybe some wooden ornaments. Definitely no glass or tinsel. None of us want her pooping tinsel…”

“That makes sense. Um, about presents. Uh, I want to make sure that Sophia has a nice Christmas, but I’m not sure how much I’ll have left over, especially after paying rent. We never discussed that before. How much should I contribute?”

“That’s a lot. Maybe let’s not worry about rent yet. You’ve been getting the groceries, so let’s call it even for now.”

“That doesn’t sound fair to you.”

“Megan, I can decide what’s fair for me. Tell you what. Once you get settled down with PPS, let’s sit down and figure out some kind of cost sharing. For right now, though, why don’t you handle groceries and I’ll handle rent, and we’ll call it good, okay?”

“Alright, but only if you’re sure.”

“I’m sure. And don’t worry about presents. Not between us, alright? You and Sophia being in my life, plus you getting me to talk with Momma again… You couldn’t give me better presents than that. Plus, the holidays are stressful enough. We don’t need to add to it by searching for gifts that neither of us needs.”

“I like that, I like that a lot. Maybe we can find something to do, just us, or us and Sophia, as a gift to ourselves.”

“The gift of an experience. That’s perfect! Good idea, Megan! Since we’re on the subject of gifts, though, I do want Sophia to get a nice gift from her Aunt Tasha. Do you have any thoughts about that?”

They discussed possible gifts for Sophia until dinner was ready. Then, after dinner, Sophia fed Nocturne, and they all spent time together as a family until it was time for Sophia to go to bed. Megan and Tasha did some late night yoga to clear out the kinks and stress of the week before getting ready for bed themselves.

CHAPTER 27

COLD SHOWER

Tasha woke up in a big pile of people, and, presumably, a cat. Sometime in the night, Sophia must have gotten up, because instead of being in the middle, she was on the outside, and Tasha was now in the middle. She could see Nocturne’s ears, barely visible past Sophia. Meanwhile, she could feel Megan spooning her from behind. Well, this is definitely different. I don’t really have to get up anyway. I really hope that Megan moves her hand before she wakes up, because that is definitely going to be awkward otherwise.

She was planning to work on some websites this morning for the adult boutiques that Lauren referred. Concentrating on this mental task list was more difficult than usual because she could feel the bare skin of Megan’s legs touching hers. It was distracting.

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