“I’m okay.”
“You sure?”
She lingered as long as she could, but at some point, Kelsey shooed them out and fussed over me until I admitted what I had done at the party. She had never been so silent.
In the morning, she wouldn’t speak to me. I was too hungover to care, and too consumed with conflicting feelings about Jess to care.
***
Shannon paid for her drink and shuffled toward the alcove where Jess continued her astrology reading. The blond woman sitting across with her was rapt with attention, while her stoic girlfriend sat in one of the arm chairs, eyes glazed over as she stared at her phone. Shannon decided to sit in the empty chair next to her. Slightly out of Jess’s line of sight, but close enough to hear what she said.
Until the woman next to her interrupted her thoughts.
“In line to learn your horoscope?” That voice was deeper than Shannon anticipated. “Might be a while. She likes to get all the ‘facts,’ if you can call them that.”
Shannon blushed. This woman was more stereotypically lesbian-looking than Jess, and Shannon had to often remind herself that wasn’t a feat. Everything about Jess’s appearance was still soft, even when she wore intimidating boots and cut her hair so close to her scalp that she looked like she was too cool for everyone in the room.
“It’s interesting, I guess. Found out more about myself than the newspaper ever told me.”
“Man, I guess. I usually don’t care until my girlfriend drags me in…”
“Baaaabe!” The blond woman cooed from her perch by the window. “When’s your birthday again? I’m finding out if we’re destined for true love!”
“What?” The woman next to Shannon was almost offended. “You don’t know when my damned birthday is?”
“Sometime next month?”
“It’s in April!”
“Geez! No need to be such a butt!”
Jess cocked her eyebrow and lazily asked, “Are you an Aries?”
“Lucky guess when there’s only two signs in April…”
“I mean,” the blonde interjected, “you could be a Taurus?”
“Don’t lump me in with those bullshitters.”
“Aha! See! You care about this stuff!”
“I don’t… you… whatever.”
Jess’s laughter filled the air. “That’s the usual response I get from Aries.” She leaned across the table, but didn’t do much to lower her voice. “They love hearing about themselves, but that doesn’t mean they like what they hear, no matter how true it is.”
“Aaahhh, that sounds so much like her!”
“Like you don’t like hearing people talk about you!”
“Because I’m a Leo! I like being the center of attention!”
Shannon’s companion sighed. “You can say that again. The fuck are you doing right now?”
“Good news is,” Jess began, “Leo and Aries are a great match. There are few signs in the zodiac who can put up with a Leo’s personality.”
“You can say thatagain,” the woman in the chair reiterated.
The blonde tipped Jess for her help and took her girlfriend’s hand. They retreated to the other side of teashop, where one sat in the other’s lap, their giggly conversation filtering through the air.Amazing I can hear them with so many people talking in here.The acoustics weren’t the best, either, and the music was so loud that Shannon could barely hear herself think.
