Page 62 of Shifting Gears

The comment is exclusively sexual. Yet the way Dani says it still causes an eruption of fluttering in Nora’s belly that feels suspiciously like butterflies. “Are you not used to people trying to return the favour?” Nora asks.

“Not really,” Dani says absently, as if that isn’t the saddest statement Nora has ever heard.

Instead of elaborating, Dani reaches for Nora’s hand, spreading the fingers wide. She starts to draw her rough fingertips over the creases of Nora’s palm, tracing every line and following them down to Nora’s wrist and then her forearm, cataloguing the smattering of moles and freckles as if making a star map.

“What are you doing?” Nora asks quietly, afraid that speaking too loudly will break this strange moment they’ve built.

“Making sure I don’t forget.”

The butterflies make themselves more loudly known.

She’s noticed Dani doing this a few times, running gentle hands over Nora’s body, slow and methodical, with a look of intense focus. She’d never put much thought into why. Knowing that Dani is memorizing her, logging the details of her body away for the inevitable time after they part, is information Nora doesn’t know what to do with. It makes her chest ache.

“What’s your life like back home?” Dani murmurs.

A burst of terror seizes Nora, obliterating the softer feelings she’s been basking in. The last thing she wants to do is let her real life infiltrate this happy bubble she’s so carefully constructed.

“I don’t have much of a life back home,” Nora says. It’s not a lie, but it carries the guilt of one. Dani shifts to tangle their legs together more closely.

“Sure you do. I’ve known you for months now, and I still don’t even know the names of these friends who told you to vacation here.”

“Kayla and Ash,” Nora says, seizing gratefully on the slightly less personal topic. “Kayla and I went to private school together, and Ash and I met in college. They’re my only friends. At least, before I came here.”

Nora can feel Dani’s smile against her chest.

“What are they like?”

“They’re…a lot.” Nora laughs quietly. “Kayla sort of adopted me when we were kids. I was like her pet introvert. We’re total opposites in so many ways, but she’s my oldest friend.”

“And Ash?”

“We got each other through university. He saw what was happening with my father, during the whole…roommate debacle.”

“Your first love?” Dani asks, tracing a slow spiral over the bare curve of Nora’s breast.

Nora clears her throat, sidestepping the question. “Ash offered a mutually beneficial arrangement. It worked for us for a long time. And it turned out that he and Kayla get along like a house on fire.”

Nora can feel the muscles of Dani’s face shift into a frown. “Are you saying Ash was your beard?”

“And I was his. Are you judging?”

“Not at all. I’m glad you could help each other,” Dani says, chuckling quietly. “I guess it’s just funny. I’ve never met anyone who actually did that.”

“Not all of us came out at age fifteen,” Nora drawls.

“You got me there.”

“They’re pushy. Interfering. Catty, sometimes,” Nora continues, smiling even so. “But they’ve stuck with me. They’re the most loyal people I’ve ever known. For some reason, they care about me.”

“You’re easy to care about.”

Nora scoffs. “Try telling that to my father.”

“I would if I met him,” Dani says grumpily. “I’d tell him twice.”

“As much as I would love to see that,” Nora says, clearing her throat, “you can’t. He died a few years ago.”

Dani’s hand stills. She lays it flat against Nora’s chest.

---