Page 9 of March

“I don’t know. I think that depends on you.”

“Why me?”

“Because I’m kind of into you, in case the hand-holding, dancing, hair brushing out of your face, and generally monopolizing all of your time tonight didn’t give it away.”

“It didn’t. I had no clue,” she teased.

“No. Really?” Bryce joked back. Then, her hand moved from Sophie’s hair to her cheek, and she added, “Maybethiswill convince you.” Bryce leaned in as she licked her lips, and Sophie readied herself because Bryce was about to kiss her.

“Oh, shit,” Jill said. “Well,thatescalated quickly.”

When Sophie pulled back and turned her face, which was still being cupped by Bryce, she saw Jill standing there, looking apologetic. She’d completely forgotten that Jill and one of Bryce’s friends, whose name Sophie couldn’t even remember right now, were downstairs.

“Sorry for interrupting,” Jill added.

“It’s okay,” Bryce said as she leaned back and dropped her hand.

“It is?” Sophie asked.

Bryce laughed softly and pulled back all the way.

“I’ve actually had to use the bathroom for the past hour. Can you save my seat?” she asked Jill. “And where’s Kels?”

“Oh, I walked her to her Uber. She said she’d call your friends on the way back to the hotel for safety. I came back to check on this one.” Jill pointed at Sophie. “But I can see that I didn’t need to.”

“Will you still be here?” Bryce asked. “You won’t go anywhere?”

“I’ll still be here. Not going anywhere,” Sophie told her with a smile.

“Okay. Like, two minutes,” Bryce said before she stood up and walked briskly in the direction of the bathroom, turning back to Sophie several times to check that she’d kept her word, which Sophie found adorable.

“She’ll be ten minutes, at least. There’s a line.” Jill sat down next to her. “So,thisis going well, huh?”

“She’s…” Sophie looked after Bryce, who had turned the corner and was gone. “I’ve never…”

“Damn. Really? I thought you might just hook up or something,” Jill said.

“I don’t really do that, hook up with someone I just met.”

“You were about to kiss her.”

“Kissing isn’t hooking up,” Sophie said. “Andshewas about to kissme.”

“You were absolutely going to kiss her back.”

“Oh, definitely. I’ve wanted to do that all night. How long have we even been up here?”

“About two hours. Kelsey and I talked for a while before some guy asked her to dance. I really thought she’d say nobecause I’d bought her a drink and was clearly giving her signals, but she said yes, and when the dance was over, she invited the guy and his buddy back to the table with us. The buddy hit on me, and I told him I was gay. Then, the guy she danced with asked if Kelsey was, too, and she said she was straight, so there went my one chance at making out with my own hot woman in a bar tonight.”

“Sorry, Jill,” Sophie replied.

“I didn’t want to leave you here, but I’m ready to go home. I’ve been killing time for a while.”

“Oh,” Sophie said, looking down the hallway again.

“Youdon’t have to leave.” Jill laughed. “I’m a local. I know how to be safe. I live five minutes away from here.”

“Still, I should go with you.”

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