Page 44 of Can We Skip to the Good Part?
“No need,” Max said. “I know exactly where your bed is. Tell us about the woman you met.”
“She seemed like she was around my age. I liked her eyes. Goodnight.”
Ella swung around to Max, beaming, hand on her heart. “She met someone.”
“Is that the naive romantic in you lighting up all over?” Max winked.
“Yes, as a matter of fact, it is, Maxine. Is your cold, logic-driven heart even in there anymore?” She made a show of craning her neck to find out.
Max pretended to be fixated on the road. “Stevie’s story might have made it grow a size or two.”
“I’m so impressed with you right now,” Ella said in what sounded like her most earnest delivery. “Having actual feelings.”
“I can’t tell if you two are flirting,” Stevie’s voice said, floating in from the back seat. “If so, I say go for it. Whole hog it, Max. Life is too short. Ella is a catch.”
“Thank you, Stevie,” Ella said. “We’re a complicated mess, though.”
“I’m going back to sleep now.”
“You do that.” Max grinned as they pulled into Stevie’s driveway. “I agree, by the way.”
“You agree that I’m a catch or that we’re a complicated mess?” Ella asked. Her makeup had faded, and she stole Max’s breath in a whole new way.
“Yes,” Max said, and slid the car into park. She turned around to see Stevie in her cowboy boots, full-on snoring in the back. “Hey, Stevie. Guess what? We’re home.”
“Hallelujah. So done for. I haven’t moved this much since 1998. I’m dying to get naked and get into bed.”
Ella’s eyebrows shot to the ceiling, and she turned to Max. “Well, well.”
“We’ll get you as far as your bedroom,” Max said, regarding Stevie in the rearview. “But we’ll leave the naked portion to you.”
“You’re good people and kind girls. I can’t believe you did all of this for me. Family,” she said. “That’s what it feels like.”
“Well, that’s what we are,” Max said.
She and Ella shared a private smile before exiting the car. The moon was brighter than it had any right to be, making the cool, crisp night a beautiful one. Stevie, moving a little slower than Max was used to, ambled from the car to the house as they followed, making sure she found her footing. Once they were inside, she waved to the two of them as they stood in her darkened living room. The digital clock on the end table read 1:03 in a bright-green glow. “You get out of here. You’ve done your job.” She turned to head down the hall, paused, and grinned, immediately sending warmth through the room. “It was a really good night, wasn’t it?”
“It was the best,” Max said. “Proud of you, Stevie. You took a big step.”
“And now you’ve been on your first super gay outing,” Ella tossed in. “You’re a pro now. And maybe someday when you’re ready, you can message that number you scored.”
“I just might. Sylvia. That was her name.” Another smile. “Night, you two.”
“Night,” they each whispered back.
In the darkened room, Ella turned to her. “I honestly thought tonight would be me alone in my pajama bottoms and a Diet Coke with lime.”
“That honestly doesn’t sound terrible.” A beat. “This was better.”
“And enlightening. I think you’re hot, but I had no idea how forcefully the rest of the world agreed with me.” She grinned and held up a conciliatory finger. “Well, maybe I did.”
“I didn’t notice,” Max said without taking her eyes off of Ella. The comment made the smile fade right off her face.
“When you say things like that, all I want to do is kiss you.” Her voice was quiet. She was trying not to disturb Stevie. But her words slid up Max’s spine and inspired action.
She was close enough to Ella to reach out and catch her wrist. She pulled her in until they were pressed together. Ella’s breath hitched, her hands finding Max’s waist as if drawn there by instinct. For a moment, they hovered in the space between anticipation and certainty, the air charged with the weight of what was about to transpire.
Then Max closed the distance, her lips brushing Ella’s in a kiss that was slow and deliberate, filled with the longing of things she felt but didn’t say. Ella sighed against her mouth, melting into her, and Max felt it again—that deep, undeniable rightness. Like she’d been waiting for this, for her, all along.
