Page 100 of Love Is…?

Chapter

Twenty

“Right!Fill me in! Otherwise I may die.” Angel literally hauled Tessa into the apartment, then pushed her over to the couch.

Tessa laughed. “I’ve been gone two nights chaperoning Grace while Sam and Abby hang out in Daylesford. It’s not like I was kidnapped.”

Angel perched on the edge of the chair opposite. “Kidnapping schmidnapping. You were a guest at the wedding of the year, and I need all details that your NDA allows.” Then she grinned. “Maybe some it doesn’t. Actually, make that many.”

Tessa laughed. “Okay. Well, mostly famous people being very ordinary. Beautiful outfits.” Tessa counted on her fingers. “Sam and Abby were gorgeous and their ceremony was perfect. I danced with quite a few people who I’ve only seen as eight-metre tall characters on a cinema screen. I nearly had upright, fully clothed sex with Jayde. The food was?—”

Angel thrust out her palm. “Whoa! Stop right there. Rewind a moment.” She beckoned to herself indicating the rewinding. “Sex with Jayde.” She blinked. “At Abby and Sam’s wedding. Wow, that’s a new take on reception entertainment.”

Tessa giggled, then shook her head. “We were in an anteroom looking at the late afternoon sky.”

“Sure.”

“We were! But then Jayde got handsy, and… I did as well. Then we kissed, and then hands roamed a bit more, and?—”

“Almost upright sex. Got it.” Angel sat back, her hands folded over her stomach. “You two are perfect and hopeless. Perfectly hopeless. And clueless.”

“What? I thought you wanted to know details of the wedding.”

Angel rolled her eyes. “I’ll circle back to it but first, let me make an observation. Most of the women in my life are queer and all of them, including you, wear one of two expressions on their faces when they’re falling for someone. A, I’ll die for you or b, I’ll just pop down to the servo and rent a U-Haul trailer. Or both.”

Tessa stared, lost for words. “I’m not falling for Jayde.”

“Oh, for the—you are, or have already, but I just know your expectations of her will be ridiculous.”

“How did you go from, yay, me almost having sex with Jayde to deciding I suck?”

“You don’t suck, but I’m checking in with you. Here’s the question: is Jayde perfect? Because I know you. You always want perfect. It’s what I mean when I say you have Disney princess love. You want the fairytale, but maybe not the reality.”

Tessa stared past Angel’s head, feeling her lips wobbling. “I liked you better when you were fangirling.” She sighed. “That thing you said just then? It makes me sound childish.”

Angel leaned forward, her hand landing on Tessa’s knee. “Babes, it’s not childish. It’s innocent, but you know logically that love is about being real. When you’ve told each girlfriend that you loved them, like you might do to Jayde if you follow the current trajectory, do you think the love was real?”

Tessa scrubbed at her eyes with the heels of her hands, then decided the floor was a good place to rest her gaze. “Of course it was real. It was.” She swallowed. “I’d much rather talk about the wedding.”

“This is important. You and Jayde…” The pause made Tessa lift her head. “Babes, you and Jayde, and I said this to her as well, you and Jayde are travelling in the same direction. All those Love Is definitions that Jayde’s been collecting? I think you’ve realised that they fit you both. Maybe she’s been hit with the obvious stick as well. But I want you to protect your heart. I think you told those other girlfriends that you loved them as part of the fairytale, and I’m worried that if you end up saying anything that resembles those three words to Jayde, it might not come off as believable.”

“I don’t know if I can say that to her yet.” Tessa delivered a light slap to her thigh. “Which is tricky because I like telling someone I love them as soon as I feel it.” She snapped her mouth shut at the admission.

“Hmm.” Angel sat back again looking slightly satisfied. “There we go. You do love her.”

Tessa opened and closed her mouth silently. “I don’t know,” she said eventually.

“That’s new.”

“So, back to the wedding. We ate?—”

Angel raised her hand. “Love has to be real otherwise it’s all smoke and mirrors and everyone gets duped.” She nodded. “There. That’s all I’m going to say.”

Tessa gave her a long look. “You know a lot for someone who doesn’t do love.”

“I’m a savant.” Angel shrugged. “So, do you love Jayde?”

“I thought you’d finished.”

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