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“Okay. Hey, I’m just as shocked as you are,” Piper said with a smile. “But I’m so happy for you.”
“I don’t know what to think.” She leaned back fully, resting her head against the wood. “I feel… Drunk or something.”
“Wait til you fall in love.”
2
The aroma of freshly brewed coffee mingled with the warmth of the autumn sun filtering through the large windows of the cozy café. Rebecca Moretti leaned back in her chair, her hands wrapped around a steaming mug of chai latte, savoring the comforting blend of spices. Across from her, Sarah Fallon took a sip of her cappuccino, a smile tugging at her lips as she set her mug down.
“So, how did your date go last week?” Sarah asked.
Rebecca smiled, recalling the evening she had spent with the charming woman she’d met online. “It was nice,” she said, her voice soft and contemplative. “We had dinner at a little Italian place a little over an hour from here. We wanted to meet somewhere that was halfway, but yeah, she was lovely. Great sense of humor, easy to talk to.”
“But?” Sarah prompted, sensing the hesitation in Rebecca’s tone.
“But she lives two and a half hours away,” Rebecca sighed, her fingers tracing the intricate pattern on her mug. “I’m not sure there’s much point in pursuing it.”
“How are there no gay women here?”
“There are, but they’re spoken for. All four of them,” Rebecca said with a slight roll of her eyes. “It’s just the way it is. Facebook tells me that three women and five men that I graduated with are gay, and they all live in New York, Seattle, or somewhere in California. It’s just easier to leave.”
“Would you have left? If you’d known?”
Rebecca opened her mouth and closed it again. “I don’t know.” Sometimes, Rebecca wished that she could have had more self-awareness when she was younger. “Things were different back then. I didn’t really think beyond finding a guy to settle down with, and Anthony was the obvious choice. We spent all our time together anyway.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever said this out loud, but I’m proud of you.” Sarah leaned forward, her blond hair falling across her shoulders. “I’m serious. If I were in your shoes, I would have stayed married.”
“Yeah, but you had children. I didn’t.” Rebecca took a sip of her coffee. “But thank you for saying that. I still feel guilty though. That I wasted Anthony’s time. He’s starting over too. It’s not just me out there dating.”
“You have nothing to feel guilty about.”
“I know, but…”
“But nothing. I think you forget sometimes how easy it would have been for you to keep going as you were. You weren’t unhappy, right?”
“No. I wasn’t. But I realized I was into women when I was twenty-five so I stayed in that marriage for twenty more years.” Rebecca shook her head. “I still can’t believe it took me as long as it did to tell Anthony.”
“But you did tell him. And here you are, three years later, officially divorced and trying to meet someone. And I know you will.”
“I don’t know. Not everybody is as lucky as you.”
Sarah smiled, the lines around her eyes fanning as she did. “Don’t I know it. Reagan barely tells me who she’s seeing, and well, I have to hear about Quinn’s love life from the tabloids while I’m waiting in line at the grocery store. I would love for both of my daughters to settle down, but there’s no sign of it.”
Rebecca brought her mug to her lips and took another drink. Sometimes, she forgot that Sarah’s oldest daughter, that athletic teenager who always looked after her younger sister, was now a world-famous actress. “They’re still young.”
“Quinn just turned thirty, and every time I think that I’m going to have one of Hollywood’s rising stars as a son-in-law I find out that she’s called things off. Again.”
“How is she? I can’t even imagine how insane her life must be, having photographers follow her and having her personal life all over social media.”
“Normally, I’d say your guess is as good as mine. I rarely get more than a few minutes on the phone with her, but she’s here. She came back yesterday.”
“For your birthday?”
Sarah nodded. “I don’t know how much longer she’s staying, but yeah, she said she wouldn’t miss it, although I’m not sure how she’s going to navigate it.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, to most of my friends and co-workers, even if they’ve known Quinn all her life, she is still famous, and Quinn knows that she’ll draw a certain level of attention. I don’t know. I told her not to worry about it, that I’m just happy to have her there, but I don’t know.” Sarah exhaled softly, pausing before she spoke again. “She didn’t seem herself last night at dinner.”
