Page 43 of April

“Sounds good,” Asher said.

As Linden walked past Monica and Bridgette to leave the room, Bridgette asked Asher, “So, when are you going to get back on the woman dating horse?”

“That’s a weird sentence,” Asher said with a laugh. “And tonight, actually.”

Linden just kept walking until she was at the front desk, where she asked the receptionist to check on conference room availability. She reserved the one she needed just in time for Kyle and Melinda to come through the elevator.

“Hey, congratulations,” she said with a smile.

“Thank you,” Melinda replied and pulled her in for a hug. “I still can’t believe it.”

“I can.”

Linden turned to see that another woman was standing behind them.

“You must be Kyle’s sister,” she said.

“That’s me,” Jolie replied.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Linden.”

“You too.”

“Well, Monica and Bridgette are here, too, meeting with Asher. We were all thinking that we could chat together today. They want to make sure that the dates are good for all of you so that you can be in their wedding, and they can be in yours.”

“Yeah, Bridge and I talked about that.”

“You did?” Kyle asked her now-fiancée. “When? I’ve been with you every second since you said yes.”

Melinda smiled at her and said, “Babe, I knew this was coming. Bridge and I have been talking about our possible weddings since she and Monica got serious.”

“I got us a conference room. We can order lunch in, if you want,” Linden offered.

“Yeah. Let’s do it,” Melinda said.

Two hours later, they had wrapped up. Ironing out the initial big details wasn’t usually a big deal because things would change repeatedly over the course of the process, but planning two weddings with people who would be heavily involved in both meant that they needed to lock a few things in now that wouldn’t change later. Dates came pretty easily. Color schemes came next. Monica didn’t have a preference. Bridgette wanted silver and something else but was flexible. Melinda had her own ideas, and Kyle nodded in agreement. They would all go visit venues and decide on those later, but both weddings would take place in or around New Orleans. Knowing that, Asher and Linden could get to work.

Vendors and budgets had been discussed, too, but only loosely. Lunch had been eaten. Laughs had been had. It had been one of the best work meetings Linden had ever had, yet, there was something in the back of her mind that she couldn’t quite shake. Watching her new friends all planning weddings made her wish she had one of her own to plan, too.

It was the first time she had caught herself thinking like that. She’d wanted to date around since before even coming out and knew that she’d settle down eventually, but that was the last step in her masterful step process. Slow down on the sex on first dates. Go on more second and third dates. Find someone to go on a fourth one with, and so on and so on until she finally got down on one knee, should she decide to do that, and propose. Maybe she would propose. Maybe she wouldn’t. Weddings were fine, but she could do without one. She could do without themarriage, too, technically. She just wanted one person. While Linden knew she wasn’t ready to plan her own wedding, she also felt like she might be about done with this whole dating-around thing.

When Linden looked over at her best friend, who was typing something into her phone, she thought about the fact that Asher was going on another date that night, her second one with a woman. There was that stomach thing again. But Linden had just eaten, so she knew it wasn’t because she was starving this time.

???

“I should tell you that I can only stay for one drink,” Linden said.

Her date lifted an eyebrow and asked, “Giving yourself an out just in case?”

“What?”

“I’ve done this before, too, you know? Can you really only stay for one drink, or are you just saying that in case this doesn’t go well?”

“Oh, no. It’s not a lie. My friend needs me to stop by later.”

“Later?”

“Yeah,” she said.

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