Page 28 of SapphicLover69
“What happened?” I asked, searching her face with compassion. I couldn’t imagine R.B. Taylor ever doing anything humiliating, and the impeccable writer was no fool.
“About a year ago, I started living with a woman I’d dated for six months,” she recounted. “She seemed normal, charmingeven, and led me to believe she was in love with me. Anyway, she seemed particularly attracted to my writing. Everything about being a sapphic author excited her, even though she didn’t write. I encouraged her to give it a shot if she wanted to. There was no harm in trying, and who knew? A little while later, I caught her sending an unpublished manuscript of mine off to Past and Prologue Press under a fake name, claiming it was her work. I mean, it’s bad enough when anonymous pirates steal your creations and slap their name on it, but a woman you’d been sleeping with? Who you thought cared about you?”
“R.B., that’s awful!” Elaine exclaimed in a sharp tone. An angry glower replaced her customary smile as she shifted in her seat. “What did you do about it?”
“Well, I kicked her out, for starters.” R.B.’s expression was about as bleak as I’d ever seen. Jeri rubbed a soothing hand across her back and shoulders and brushed a supportive kiss on her cheek. “I felt so stupid to have been duped like that. And I told this story just to prove that it can happen to anyone, not for sympathy. None of us is above falling victim to an unscrupulous adversary—especially when they pretend to be otherwise.”
That was so true. For an instant, doubt reared its ugly head, and I wondered if one of the women at this table was only pretending to be my friend but was, in fact, my antagonist. I banished the absurd notion.
“I appreciate that,” Winter responded. “We mere peons of prose tend to think the more successful, glamorous writers have it made, when, really, you just have bigger targets on your backs, like with Aspen’s stalker.”
“You mean that vile business with SapphicLover69?” R.B. asked. She shook her head. “I never believed any of the garbage she put out about you.”
“Thanks,” I said, feeling much better about my situation after hearing some of what she’d been through. At least I hadn’t been seduced by a book pirate.
“Yeah, but that wasn’t the end of it,” Beth growled. “Her stalker is here at the conference. She threatened Aspen and trashed her room.”
“What? Are you serious?” interjected Jeri, whose protective hackles jutted up like swords around the Iron Throne.
“So that’s what all the fuss was about last night,” R.B. supposed in realization. “I heard someone’s hotel room had been broken into, but the rest …”
“It’s just one of those things,” I stated in resignation. “I count myself blessed to have so many good friends in my corner.”
The accommodating waiter appeared at our table. “Would anyone like dessert?”
Several other parties had joined us in the reception hall, but the atmosphere still felt private. The meal had been a feast for the senses, the exchanges eye-opening, and the company beyond compare.
Tammy checked her watch and nodded. “We have time. I’ll have a slice of pecan pie.”
Chapter 15
Earth, Wind, and Fire
When we entered the lounge in fresh shirts void of absorbed sweat, a sassy extrovert warbled out the lyrics toSeptemberby Earth, Wind, and Fire at the microphone. She was old enough to have danced to the song at her senior prom and without a reserved bone in her gyrating body. Because she wore a joyful expression living out her fantasy moment of superstardom, I smiled and reached for Winter’s hand.
She bounced as she clutched it tightly, lest I dare try to pull it away, and beamed at me in delight.
“There’s a table,” Tammy directed and pounced like a starving lion on a gazelle, ready to fend off any scavengers.
She waved us over with a triumphant grin. The tinny sound of canned synthesizers, drums, and brass filled the room, and the jubilant, older woman blasted out, “Ba dee ah!” flinging a hand in an arc over her head.
We were back to being a party of five again, as R.B. and Jeri were already sitting with Marty and another woman I didn’t know. I had learned a few additional names and faces today, but my brain was spinning with too many other bizarre facts for me to focus on anything.I’m attracted to a younger, petite nerd who’s traveled in space, who is a virgin, and someone might want to kill me. Oh, and will I or won’t I win an award tomorrow night?I congratulated myself for remembering my own name.
The four of us gathered around the table Tammy had procured and ordered drinks. This time, Winter played it safe with a light beer. I hadn’t mentioned she’d called me a tree after downing a hurricane last night because it had just been so cute. Not wishing to keep everyone waiting, I’d quickly freshened up and changed my red pullover for a marbled teal and white casual top Alice had called “Trendy yet unique.”
Taking my advice, Winter changed into skinny jeans and a charcoal T-shirt with a fun font displaying, “Reading is Lit” dancing above a white graphic of an open book—normal, while still expressive.
We chatted, flirted, and nursed our drinks while conference women—alone or in pairs—claimed the microphone to sing a favorite tune. Some sounded fabulous enough to make a career of it, and others projected a voice only a mother could tolerate.
When she was on her second beer, Winter turned a coy expression on me. “What shall I sing for you?”
“Oh, you can sing too?” I teased. “Did you sing on the space shuttle, entertain the rest of the crew? What other surprises do you have waiting to spring on me?”
She batted her lashes and grinned, revealing nothing. “You’ll have to wait and see. Now, give me a song.”
Gazing into her big, blue eyes, and aching to touch her, I couldn’t think of a single song title—karaoke or otherwise. “You’re good at surprising me,” I said. “You choose.”
With an energetic bounce, she hopped away to get in line for the mike.
