Page 12 of Together at Ruby's

Chad waved a hand dismissively. “Not necessary,” Chad said as he went out the door, leaving Tate alone with Aurora Price.

The table was set,the wine was open, and even though dinner was still in the oven staying warm, Liza knew the chicken was drying out. A quick look at the clock in the kitchen and Liza frowned. It was well past seven when Tate had been due at five. Out of frustration, Liza had sent multiple texts to Tate asking her if she was all right. As was the woman’s usual style, she had not replied.

With an angry shake of her head, Liza picked up the wine sitting open on the counter and filled a wine glass. It was a healthy serving, but she was done waiting on Tate. At least as far as the drinking part.Where the hell is she?Liza thought as she took a long sip. It made no sense that she not only said she would be home for dinner but promised to be home. That she did not show up was infuriating. A small worm of doubt crept into her stomach. The time had come to contact Nikki and see if she knew where Tate might be. She hated to involve any of their friends, but if there had been an accident or something, she needed to know.

Picking up her phone, Liza typed a message. “Hi,” she wrote. “You wouldn’t happen to know where Tate is would you?” Three dots started to show that she was replying almost immediately, and for a second Liza was amazed with how quickly her friend always responded. It was especially the case considering she was one of the busiest people Liza knew.Or at least busy with women, Liza thought, not that she held anything against Nikki for her habit of interchanging young ladies regularly. Being a player was a strange part of the woman’s charm.

The text came through. “Let me do some checking.”

“Thank you,” Liza wrote back, feeling a tightness in her chest over her concern for Tate. She decided to send another text to Tate. “Where are you?”

There was no response for a full minute and then she saw that Tate was writing back. “At the office but leaving now.”

“What?” Liza shot back her worry turning to anger in a heartbeat. “What happened to being home for dinner?”

“We will talk about it when I get there.”

Liza shook her head. Enough was enough. “I can’t take this anymore,” she wrote and as soon as she hit send, she realized what she had said. It was not something she wanted to admit, especially in a text to Tate, but now that it was out, she knew it was the truth.

There was a long pause. “I’ll be home soon,” Tate sent.

Liza put her phone onto the counter. “And she just assumes I’ll be here waiting?” Liza said to the empty kitchen.Maybe leaving for a night or two is what it would take to let Tate know I am serious,she thought.And she’ll stop taking me for granted.

10

After pulling into the garage and shutting the door, Tate turned off the engine but did not immediately get out of the car. A strong part of her wanted to simply turn around and go anywhere else.Maybe I should stop in at Ruby’s, she thought.Have a drink before dealing with everything.Surely at least one of their friends would be there and it would give her a chance to maybe talk some things over. A chance for her to gather herself after a horrible day. She had no doubt Liza was inside the house furiously waiting for her. Tate had no trouble imaging the way Liza would act—angry, hurt, fed up.

Glancing at her phone, she saw the multiple texts from her girlfriend each one escalating. Except the last one which made Tate realize she had worried the woman she loved. Still, she hadn’t known what to say to explain and so she hadn’t sent anything. Texting was never her thing. She was more of a face-to-face kind of person, which she knew often frustrated Liza.

With a deep sigh, Tate was about to get out of the SUV when her cell phone buzzed again. If Liza was still home, she would’ve heard the garage door open, so it was possible the text was not from her.Unless she’s going to ask me why I’m just sitting here, Tate thought as she looked at the screen and saw a message from Nikki. “Hey. Where are you? People are getting a little worried.” Tate felt even worse. Apparently, Liza had called in reinforcements when she couldn’t reach her.So now I’ve worried even more people I care about.

She shot back a quick response. “Just pulled into the garage,” she typed. “Nothing to worry about.” With that she prepared to face the music and got out of the car to let herself into her house. As she suspected, most of the lights were off, including the dining room which was now likely set for a nice dinner. Wandering further into the house, she stopped in the living room and saw Liza on the couch. She was holding a glass of wine and at first would not meet Tate’s eyes.

Not knowing what to say Tate stood there silently until finally her girlfriend gave her a glare. “Where have you been?” Liza asked. “I was worried when you didn’t answer my texts.”

“I’m sorry,” Tate said. “I ended up having to work late to bring the new VP up to speed.”

Liza gave a slow nod. “So, does that mean you didn’t talk to your boss about the situation?”

“I didn’t get a chance.”

Narrowing her eyes, Liza fixed Tate with a look. “Is there something else I should know about the situation? Maybe you should tell me more about this VP?” At that Tate held her breath. The last thing she wanted to talk about was Aurora Price and how their evening together had gone.

The meeting had been rocky with Aurora asking questions of all kinds, and not just about the three big clients which were supposed to be the focus of the presentation. Aurora had interrupted early on with a question that caught Tate off guard. “You’re not wearing a ring,” she had said with a raised eyebrow. “Does that mean you’re single?”

Tate had frozen, not even sure how to respond to such an inappropriate question. “No, I’m not,” Tate finally said keeping her voice calm. “I have a girlfriend.” Aurora had nodded but there was a sly smile on her face. Then the woman had redirected them back on topic at hand with a work-related question. Being jerked around had knocked Tate off balance, yet somehow, they muddled through. The one-hour presentation took three hours. She thought it was probably Aurora’s intention all along.

“You’ve taken a long time to answer,” Liza said. “Was that a hard question?”

“There’s nothing to say,” Tate said. “And I can see this is not a good time to try to have a conversation.” She set her bag on the couch and started to unbutton the top of her shirt. “I’m going to take a shower.”

“Maybe you should do that,” Liza snapped. “I’m so angry I’m not even sure I know what to say.”

With that Tate turned, not bothering to say another word, and retreated to the bathroom.

Sitting on the couch,wine glass still in her hand, Liza wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t know what to say. She had been angry many times in their relationship, but it had always been rather superficial. Even when it was over topics like marriage and children, she never worried too deeply that their relationship was in trouble. But for the first time, she did worry. They seemed to be racing toward a crossroads, and she didn’t know what it meant. A part of her wanted to go into the bedroom and confront Tate. She wanted to find a way to reassure herself that everything was still okay, and yet even in her anger and frustration, she knew it would not be welcome. Her usually stoic girlfriend wouldn’t talk about anything serious until she was ready, and that could take hours if not days.

Liza’s cell phone on the coffee table rattled with the vibration of a text coming in. She took a quick glance at the screen and saw it was Nikki. Although the timing wasn’t perfect, she knew Nikki would mean well, so she decided to read the text. “Everyone home okay?” the message said. There wasn’t an easy way to answer the question, especially in a text so Liza decided to call her friend. “Hey there,” Nikki said after one ring. “Are you okay?”

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