Page 70 of March

“I remember.”

“Would you ever consider that? I don’t mean tomorrow or in three months. I’m not asking you to–”

“I would, yes. I love Tennessee, but I’m not tied to it beyond my friends and family. I love them, obviously, but I can always visit,” she said. “And I thought we weren’t going to talk about this stuff right now.”

“We don’t have to. This interview just got me thinking about where we might be in three months.”

Bryce sat on the end of the bed and said, “It’s still new, Soph, but what Icansay is that I want us to be together. I don’t care how or where. I just know for sure now that this wasn’t one night in a bar. This matters, like we said to Victoria.”

“I know it does,” Sophie said, turning in the chair to face her. “I’ve never been great at following my heart, Bryce, but I’m no idiot when it comes to how good this feels. It was never meant to be one night in a bar.”

She smiled, and Bryce took her hands in hers.

“We should get moving. You have another interview to get ready for. I was thinking I could wait here, and when you are done, we could meet up.”

“You’re not coming with me?”

“I thought you’d want to be alone.”

“I’ll do the interview in my living room. I have a desk there, so you could be in the bedroom, if you want. You can write. It’s okay if you’d rather not, but–”

“No, I’d love that. And not just because it means I get to see your bedroom.” Bryce winked at her.

CHAPTER 23

Sophie sat at her desk in the living room. She hardly ever used it. Back when she first moved to New Orleans for her job, she’d bought a desk because she was bringing a lot of work home with her and needed somewhere to sit other than her sofa. Over the years, though, she’d slowly stopped bringing work home because they didn’t pay her well enough to devote her entire life to the company. In fact, the last time she brought work home with her had probably been more than six months ago, and that had been an actual urgent task after she had had to let go of one of her employees. Now, she sat here because she was unemployed and about to interview at Arnette for the second time in her life.

“Hey,” Bryce spoke.

Sophie turned and found her exiting the bathroom and headed her way.

“Hey,” she replied softly.

“Are you getting nervous?”

“Getting? I’m already there,” Sophie shared.

“You’re going to do great, okay?” Bryce knelt down beside her chair and took her hand. “I’ll stay in your room and get some work done. I’ve got to write about gator bites.”

“If you do that, people are going to figure out you’re in New Orleans right now.”

“Oh, that could be cool: post about gator bites and wait for the comments to roll in.” Bryce kissed Sophie’s palm.“‘Are you in New Orleans? Oh, my God! Are you with Sophie?’”she pretend-quoted the possible reactions.

Sophie laughed and ran her free hand through Bryce’s hair.

“What will you say?”

“That I’m definitelywithSophie.” Bryce closed her eyes as Sophie repeatedly ran her hand through her hair. “I’monlywith Sophie, and she’s all I want.”

“That’s sweet. But you’ll actually tell them that?”

“I think I’ll wait for the interview to be live and link to it. I’ll post something then and make them all guess about those gator bites.” Bryce winked at her. “Now, I’ll leave you alone, but you’re amazing, and you’re going to do great, okay?”

“Kiss for luck?” she asked.

Bryce stood, leaned down, kissed her on the lips, hovering there for a moment with closed eyes, and said, “Always.”

When Bryce left her alone, closing the bedroom door behind her, Sophie only somewhat worried about the fact that her sex toy drawer was right next to where she slept, and yes, it was full. About the only thing she could claim about herself that was remotely interesting was that she bought new sex toys regularly, trying just about anything to see if it got her there. She probably had about twenty different vibrators in that drawer, along with her two favorites, always close at hand. She hoped Bryce wouldn’t just open the drawer, but if she did, Sophie thought it would be something funny for them to discuss later. She had no idea what Bryce’s thoughts were on vibrators or strap-ons, so it would be a fun way to bring up the topic.

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