Page 35 of August
“This would be hilarious.” Gwen laughed a little. “Havehim pay for a dog he can’t actually have.”
“You’re terrible, you know that?” Elisa replied, laughing along with her.
“Nah, it’s all stuff that doesn’t really impact him much. He sniffles for an hour after I leave; that’s all. He probably won’t even notice the pet insurance thing. It’s more that you are doing it and getting that small bit of revenge on him for being an asshole that keeps me going. I love him because he’s my brother, but I wouldn’t voluntarily hang out with him. In fact, the only times I’ve seen him in the past two to three years have been because you’re my friend more thanheis. I haven’t been by the house since you moved out, not even to see the kids because they’re here most of the time.”
“My divorce is really working out foryou, huh?” Elisa joked.
“Yes, obviously,” Gwen replied, winking at her. “And it should be foryou, too. What happened with Myra?”
Gwen started walking again, and Elisa joined her.
“I told you; I froze. Then, the food arrived, and we ate dinner in near silence. I think I asked her to pass the barbecue sauce once.”
“Wow! She was awkward, too?”
“Yeah,” she replied with a sigh. “I think she was awkward because I was, though. It was like we had forgotten how to talk to one another, even though we’ve been having such a good flow to our conversations since we met.”
“So, it was like a first date, then? Maybe a first blind date where you don’t know the other person, and you’re not sure how to talk to them?”
“I suppose,” she said. “It was more like she knew something about me that she didn’t before, and she wasn’t sure how to act with that new information in her head. I screwed up, didn’t I?”
“What? Why?”
“Because she asked me a very important question, and I didn’t answer her. I was shaking so hard; I’m sure she could see it. Hell, she could probably feel it even when we weren’ttouching.”
“Does she know you’ve never been with a woman?”
“Yes, I revealed that along with the fact that I’m gay. I’m sure that was the part that scared her off.”
“Scared her?”
“Yeah, the whole awkward thing we’re talking about right now, Gwen.”
“Well, it might have been awkward, but she still stayed. You two had dinner. It sounds like neither of you was brave enough to bring up the little moment you two had, but she didn’t flee or anything, and she lives right next door, Elisa. She could’ve easily left you with that food, making up some excuse to go home, but she stuck around. You told me she left after dinner and even took the trash out for you.”
“She did,” Elisa said with a smile. “She felt bad because the to-go containers filled up the can in the kitchen, so she took it out when she left.”
“So, she sat through an awkward dinner, probably waiting for you to bring it up. You were waiting forherto do that, and neither of you did.”
“I thought she’d say something to me.”
“And she thoughtyou’d say something toher,” Gwen said as she laughed. “It’s like high school, where you like each other, but you’re too scared to tell the other person in case they don’t like you back and you’d have to see them every day in the halls or at the football games or something.”
“Shedoeslive next door. Itwouldbe awkward.”
“She almost kissed you, Elisa.”
“Until she didn’t. She could tell how nervous I was and didn’t.”
“Okay. Then, why were you so nervous?”
“My first kiss with a woman, Gwen. God, whowouldn’tbe nervous about that? And it’s not like I’m a teenager or in college. I’m a thirty-eight-year-old woman who’s never kissed another woman before. Hell, I’ve only been with one man my whole life.”
“So? Plenty of women come out late in life. And we’vetalked about this before, so there’s more to it that you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”
Elisa sighed and said, “Myra is experienced.”
“Yeah. So?”
