Page 66 of Spicy Sapphic Christmas

Piper was too stunned to even think about eating again. Bunny was willingly doing something gay? Something out there where other people could see and not just behind closed doors and hidden away in closets?

“She’s making a song explicitly gay?”

“Yeah, that’s what she said. If we toned down the gay in the outfits.” Jo shoved another forkful of food between her lips, powdered sugar catching on her chin.

Had Piper not been so shocked, she probably would have leaned in to kiss it off. Instead, she sat in silence, still trying to wrap her brain around the fact that Bunny was doing something queer. Willingly. Without much arm twisting… Wait. Siena. Snagging her phone, Piper immediately texted Bunny.

Piper:How did the conversation with Siena go? We changing the entire set list?

Focusing back on her guest, Piper smiled. She would get as much information out of Jo about thisnegotiationas possible. Especially because she now wanted to go into the conversation with Bunny as informed as she could be. What the hell was happening with her best friend?

“How is she changing the lyrics?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see them.” Jo finished off her first slice of French toast. “Lyrics are more Bea’s thing anyway.”

“Bea?” Piper furrowed her brow.

“She writes all the lyrics to our songs.”

“Huh.” Piper played with the food on her plate. Maybe Bea and Bunny weren’t as different as they initially came off. “She hasn’t said anything about the set list. Not really anyway.”

“They’re Christmas songs. It’s not like there’s much to write or change. This isn’t our normal music.”

“That’s true.” Piper gnawed on her lip, mulling everything over. “Do you write all the music, then?”

“No, not all of it. We tend to write together.”

Piper really should have done some more of this basic conversation before now, shouldn’t she? She’d just been soenamored with them, and watching Bunny try to fight her own base urges whenever Bea was in the room. That had been amusement enough for Piper.

“Same with Bunny and me.”

“Bunny writes with you?” Jo gave her a disbelieving look. “I’m pretty sure she’s even more of a control freak than Bea.”

“That very well may be true, but when you’ve been around her for decades, she eases up a bit.”

Jo squinted, still not believing Piper. “I’m pretty sure Bunny doesn’t know how to let loose, ever.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised.” And Piper was. Because Bunny giving in at all on the queer thing was huge. Piper and Siena had been battling that one for years at this point, and Piper had all but given up on the possibility of making any headway. Yet somehow, one suggestion of an outfit from Jo had Bunny questioning something.

“Does she really?”

“Get her drunk enough and she’ll let all the gossip slip about the industry in this town.” Piper laughed.

“How much does it take to get her drunk?” Jo glanced at her phone as it buzzed three times in rapid succession.

“A lot, unfortunately. Are you going to answer her?” Piper couldn’t hold back anymore. She wanted to know what was going on with Jo and Mandy. In part because they’d slept together, and in part because Piper really cared. From everything Jo had told her, Mandy was bad news, and yet here Jo was, still getting texts from the one person she said she didn’t know how to deal with.

Jo sheepishly snagged her phone off the counter and opened up the texts, sending a short one, and then putting it onDo Not Disturb.“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry for answering a text. I just want to know what’s going on.” Piper was back to playing with the food on her plate. “Are you two getting back together?”

“No.” Jo frowned, her jaw clenching. “I don’t want to get back together with her.”

“Then what are you doing texting her?” Piper nodded toward the phone. “Because that’s only going to send her mixed signals.”

“I know. But if I don’t text her, she just continues to bug me.”

“Jo.” Piper pursed her lips, her gaze dragging up Jo’s body and then back down to her hands. “You know what I’m going to say, right?”

---