Page 65 of February

CHAPTER 15

“Hey, why did you run off like that?” Bridgette asked.

“I didn’t run off,” Monica said as she lifted her head to look at Bridgette, who was standing in the open doorway of the conference room, holding a cup of coffee.

“Uh… Yeah, you did. You left a half-eaten bowl of grits, untouched eggs, and a bowl of fruit that only I had touched. I couldn’t finish your coffee because I can’t stand soy milk, but I tried to at least make it so the chef in the back wouldn’t think you hated their cooking for you.”

“How did you–” Monica stopped.

“How did I what?”

“Know it was soy milk.”

“I’ve been with you when you ordered coffee before. I pay attention. Don’t change the subject.” Bridgette closed the door behind her. “What happened, Monica?”

“Nothing. I just had to call Lily.”

“You couldn’t wait, like, five minutes? You had to run out of there like a weirdo, leaving me to deal with Toya, who was wondering what happened?”

“She’syourex-girlfriend,” Monica replied. “WasIsupposed to deal with her?”

Bridgette sat down across from her and said, “Toya and I… It’s complicated.”

“It always is with us lesbians, isn’t it?” Monica started typing on her laptop.

“Are you busy right now? Should I leave you to buy someone else’s company?”

“What? No, I’m replying to an email.”

“And you can’t look me in the eye and reply to that email later?”

Monica stopped typing and closed her laptop.

“Thank you,” Bridgette said.

“I don’t need your relationship backstory, Bridgette. I’m sorry I had to leave abruptly like that, but I didn’t want to intrude on whatever was happening between you two.”

“Nothing,” she replied quickly. “Nothing is happening between me and her. She goes there for coffee sometimes. New Orleans is like that: you can go a year without seeing someone and then bump into them ten times in a month. I refused to change some of my regular places when we broke up, so there’s always going to be a chance we bump into each other, but that’s all that happened this morning.”

“That’s between the two of you. You don’t need to explain yourself to me,” Monica told her.

Bridgette nodded and said, “This is for you. I’ll leave you alone to send that email now. I hope the call with your ex went okay.” She placed the cup of coffee a little closer to Monica on the table.

“You brought me coffee?”

“You left yours there. It looked like you’d taken one sip, so I thought you might need the caffeine. Caramel, right?”

“Yeah,” Monica said with a soft smile. “And I’m sorry, Bridgette. I think the headache from going out last night is really starting to get to me.”

“Drink the coffee. I’ll bring you some water from the break room,” Bridgette said.

“I have a bottle in my bag.”

“The bag that could fit this entire building inside it?”

Monica laughed, so Bridgette thought they were maybe back to whatever their version of normal was.

“Yes, that very bag,” Monica replied. “I was thinking about stealing the copier later, and it’ll fit quite nicely.”

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