Page 4 of Loving Her

“You’re like, stoic, Sash. You could withstand any pressure, and anyway, you know the family, right?” Cam’s eyes sparkled, but Sasha couldn’t really get a read on her. What was she up to? Her next words did nothing to settle Sasha down. “You and Ruby are really good friends. You could actually fake being girlfriends super well, plus you kinda do look like a couple.”

“I do know the Fierelli family,” Sasha replied slowly, ignoring the latter half of Cam’s outrageous suggestion. She was afraid to look at Ruby. Would she laugh off the idea? Dismiss it with some witty comment? Swallowing hard, Sasha tucked a curl of her black hair that had escaped her bandana back into confinement and forced herself to meet Ruby’s gaze.

But surprisingly, Ruby looked thoughtful, like she was actually contemplating the idea. “That’s… not a bad idea. Straight out of my second book, actually, and I’m furious I didn’t think of it first. It could work… if Sash is up to it, anyway.” Her eyes lit up again. “Nat suggested I take her, but it would be pretty clear pretty fast that we’re just friends, and I’d be in for a world of even more nagging then. My family wants me to bring adate, apossibility. Not just a friend.”

“You and I are just friends,” Sasha managed to get out, but she could hear the words emerging in a choked gurgle. Dimly, she was aware that Esme had taken her hand in a reassuring grip. That helped her a little.

“We can fake more, though.” Ruby was in full imagination mode, her glasses now propped up on her head as she thought out loud. “We’ve been friends for so long, and you do know my family, they like you a lot. They’re going to be really crazy all that week, though. Hopped up on love and romance and matchmaking.” She gazed soberly at Sasha. “It’s only a suggestion, Sash. You absolutely don’t have to do this. It would be a great favor to me if you did, though.”

Esme’s soft, warm hand on hers was the only thing keeping Sasha from fleeing back to the kitchen without another word. She fished through a dozen possible responses. Terror made her want to say no, but the idea of pretending to be Ruby’s girlfriend filled her with a fizzy happiness she found immediately addictive.

Girlfriends touched, they hugged, they were always close and aware of each other. To be so deeply in Ruby’s orbit for a week, even if onlyforthat week, could be like a test run. Maybe it would help Sasha confess her feelings out loud at last, if she liked it as much as she thought she would. And if it didn’t, well, she’d have that week to keep her warm for a while, at least.

“Yes,” she blurted out before she could talk herself out of it. “Yes, I’ll play girlfriend, take some of the pressure off you. A New York vacation could be a lot of fun even with all the wedding stuff.”

She felt Esme and Cam staring at her, incredulity from her boss and mischievous satisfaction from her friend. But in front of her there was only Ruby, pretty Ruby, sweet Ruby with her face lighting up in gratitude and happiness that was all for Sasha. She basked in the warmth of it as Ruby babbled, “Sash, thank you, thank you, yes, we’re going to have so much fun! I’ll take you to all my favorite places; I can’t thank you enough for this.”

“I’ll text you, we need to have a meet up, make sure we have our stories all in order,” Sasha said, pulling her hand out of Esme’s. Her cheeks were burning red with excitement and amazement. She could not believe what she’d just agreed to. “Tickets have got to be piling up in the kitchen. I’ve been out here for too long—gotta go, Rubes.”

Before anyone else could say anything, Sasha turned on her heel and all but raced back to the Indigo Lounge kitchen. Cooking made sense, food didn’t give her any kind of confusingfeelings, and she needed to surround herself with that blissful normality before she could talk herself out of the decision she’d just made.

3

“This can’t keep happening,” Nicola protested, trying to pull the heavy quilt over her naked body. “You can’t keep coming through my window, Declan, you’re compromising my virtue.”

“I’ll be compromising more than your virtue tonight,” Declan growled, striding towards the four-poster bed. He stood at the end of the bed, pulling his dun-brown linen shirt over his head. Nicola, pressed up against the wall as far as she could get, couldn’t take her eyes off of the dark whorls of hair on his muscled chest. She knew it would feel silky and warm under her fingers, and she longed to touch it.

But then what he’d said penetrated the fog of her growing desire. “Compromise more… Declan, no, we can’t!” She clutched the quilt more tightly. “My father will kill us both.”

“Nay, he’ll have no choice but to marry ye to me at last. And if he tries to kill me, he’ll sore regret it, lass.” His eyes crackled with dark fire. “I love ye, Nicola. I want to take you back to Inverary as my lady. I’ll not wait any longer, nor make you wait…”

Ruby slammed her laptop shut and packed it away into her messenger bag. Declan was getting a little more non-consensual than she’d preferred, and she needed a break from him so she could figure out how to move forward with more enthusiastic participation from the lust-filled but reticent Nicola.

She looked around at the coffee shop Sasha had suggested for their first Story Matching Sunday, as Ruby was calling the knowledge exchanging sessions. It was a nice place, she thought. Not as boho-glitzy as the Indigo Lounge, more of a cozy, ersatz-Tuscan grandma’s house vibe with white-painted stucco walls and curated clutter everywhere. Ruby observed rococo frames on the Renaissance-esque art prints, gold-trimmed edges on the handpainted porcelain vases holding elaborate bouquets of silk flowers, and lots of cherubs hanging on the walls. The furniture was an eclectic assortment of battered, overstuffed chairs and mismatched old tables. Yes. It was nice here.

The coffee hadn’t been bad either—not as good as Natalie’s, but definitely serviceable, and it came with a tasty amaretto biscotti. She hoped the food was good, too. Ruby’s stomach growled. She was ready to eat a proper lunch now, but Sasha hadn’t arrived yet, and Ruby didn’t want to be rude and start without her.

Usually on a Sunday, Ruby joined the core Indigo Lounge gang—Esme, her wife Nora, Cam, Mia Cortés, Esme’s daughter Holly, Deborah and Sasha—for a multi-hour picnic hike in the Hollywood Hills. It was a welcome time in the sun with her friends and generally a good break away from her desk. But this week she’d begged off in favor of getting more work done on her brooding Highlander romance.

Sasha had gone on the hike, but she’d said she’d be at the Villa Primavera Café by 3 PM. They’d spent the week putting together lists of what they each knew about the other and weregoing to swap them and expand on them today, just to get them started. But Sasha wasn’t here.

Ruby checked her phone. No messages, and it was 3:15 PM. It wasn’t like Sasha to be late for anything.

Just then, the little cowbells on the café door jingled, and Ruby twisted to peer around the fraying wing of her chair.Finally!

Sasha stood in the doorway, looking around the busy café. Ruby raised a hand to wave her over.I see why she was late, Ruby thought. She’d expected Sasha to show up straight from the hike, in her usual beat-up black denim shorts, an old sleeveless t-shirt, her ancient brown leather hiking boots and a red bandana over her short curly crop.

Instead, Sasha seemed to have made an effort at a level Ruby didn’t recall seeing before. She’d clearly gone home and showered off the grime of the Hills first. And she was wearing an ensemble Ruby didn’t see her in often, a neat black button-down with the sleeves rolled up, good black jeans without a rip or stray string in sight, and her best black combat boots.

In contrast, Ruby had shown up in black yoga leggings, lipstick-red Birkenstock clogs, and a long t-shirt that had once been black but was now an indeterminate depressing gray. Sasha’s short hair was styled so that her dark quiff of curls drooped dashingly over her brow. Ruby’s red mop was about two days past needing a wash, loaded with dry shampoo, and she’d only just managed to wrestle it all into a bun. She and her clothes were otherwise clean, but she felt very sloppy and not put together at all. Sasha, on the other hand, looked amazing, and Ruby could see other women in the café surreptitiously checking her out.

It was mortifying.

“Rubes, you look great.” Sasha sat down in the lilac wing chair opposite Ruby and smiled. “How was writing?”

Ruby stared at her friend. “I look great? I look dragged through a hedge backwards, Sash. By a bear. You look amazing, I’m a mess.”

“Nah, I just wanted to show you that I clean up pretty good.” Sasha spread out her arms to show off and beamed. “You won’t have to worry about me looking scruffy in front of your fam.”

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