Page 12 of March

“She lives here, Bryce. You’re on vacation. Did you want to hook up? You said you weren’t about that when–”

“Sean, calm down,” Kelsey interrupted. “Let the woman shower. She’s smelling up the whole room. The maid is going to search for the vomit we’ve somehow managed to hide if Bryce doesn’t get the stench off her soon.”

Bryce didn’t think she smelledthatbad. She knew she’d been grouped together in some police van or small bus thing with mostly drunk people, and many of them had alcohol spilled on them or on their breath, but she’d been stone-cold sober the whole night, especially when she’d gotten pulled away from Sophie. She remembered yelling Sophie’s name over the noise. She had tried to tell her to stay there, not to go anywhere, but she’d known Sophie couldn’t hear her.

As she showered, she thought of their kiss and how Sophie had wanted her to go back to her place. Bryce would have. She’d said yes. She would have gone back there just to talk more without other people and loud music around them. She didn’t need sex with Sophie. Yes, she would’ve happily done that all night long, but she’d just wanted to keep talking to her, to keep kissing her, and to try to figure out what this was because it was the best thing that she’d ever felt in her life. Bryce’s entire bodyhad tingled the moment she’d seen Sophie, and it hadn’t stopped until they’d been pulled apart from one another because of some drunk frat boys. Her lips were still somewhat tingly, and she wished she knew how to make them always stay that way until she could find Sophie so that she could recharge them, make them electric again, and light Bryce’s entire body back on fire.

“She’s just a–” Sean started.

“Sean, I mean it: stop,” Bryce told her when she walked out of the bathroom, finding Sean standing there.

“What are we doing today?” Megan asked. “We’ve got one more full day here.”

“Shit,” Bryce replied as she shook the towel on her head to try to dry her hair a bit.

“What?” Kelsey asked as she put her phone and wallet into her small purse.

“She doesn’t even know I’m leaving tomorrow,” she replied. “We didn’t get to that part. I was putting it off because I didn’t want her to leave, thinking there was no point, with us leaving in basically a day.”

“Not that big of a deal,” Sean said. “Weareleaving. The most you would’ve had was one night.” She walked back into the main part of the room and sat on the bed Bryce had shared with Megan.

“Let’s go to Café Du Monde again,” Megan suggested. “We can have a late breakfast or early lunch.”

“I think that’s just called brunch, Megs.” Kelsey smiled at her.

“Brunch of beignets and coffee?” Sean asked.

“We could have that first and then go somewhere else for sandwiches.”

“So, donuts and then sandwiches? I like how you think, Megs,” Kelsey said and placed a hand on Megan’s shoulder.

Bryce looked over at Megan, who forced a smile when Kelsey touched her.

“I’ll skip it. I want to go find the bar from last night. I got all turned around with the cops and the stupid alley, but I want to find it and wait.”

“Bryce, she’s probably not going to be there. You know that, right?” Kelsey said sympathetically.

“Not when I get there, maybe. But if I wait, she could show.”

“What if the night was only awesome foryoubut notasawesome forher?” Kelsey reasoned. “I’m not saying that to be mean. I’m just thinking that you don’t know her all that well. She’s a local, and it’s the kick-start of the tourist season. Maybe her thing is hooking up with tourists.”

“It’s not,” she said, shaking her head.

“How do you know for sure?” Megan asked.

“Because I know. You guys weren’t there. I’ve never–” She paused and looked over at Sean, who lowered her eyes to the floor, avoiding her gaze. “I’ve never felt this before. There’s something here. Maybe you guys should drive home, and I’ll fly back in a few more days.”

“What? Bryce, come on,” Sean spoke. “You can’t stay here just in case she happens to show up.”

“I can’t just leave.”

“Don’t you have that interview about your blog with that food magazine?” Megan asked. “It’s in person, isn’t it?”

“It’s a local magazine, so I can skip it or ask them to postpone.”

“You were so excited about this,” Kelsey said. “This is your first real interview.”

“Well, Sophie is the first woman I’ve been excited about in forever.”

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