“You don’t understand,” Eve said as she quickly sorted through a rack of Adidas T-shirts, one after the other, causing the loud, ear-gouging metal on metal scrape of the sliding hangers. “I have never, ever been more turned on in my life.”
“Why? Because a seriously prude woman told you her heart ached for you?” Karen was at the next rack, doing the same as Eve only with Under Armor tees. They were inside Dick’s Sporting Goods at Arrowhead Towne Center, and thankfully, because it was midmorning on a weekday, no one was nearby to overhear their conversation.
“It was so much more than that,” Eve said. “She actually told me she wanted to act on her feelings. And the way she said it…my God, it was like lightning surging right through me.”
“Yeah, okay, sure. If you say it was hot, then it was hot. Who am I to judge?”
“Precisely. Who are you to judge?”
Karen held up a T-shirt for examination. “She just sounds so God damned puritan.”
“And there went the no judging right out the window,” Eve said as she, too, held up a T-shirt. It was light pink with the white Adidas stripes on the sleeves and, not only was it her size, it was on sale. She draped it over her forearm and continued. “Puritan or not, she gets me hot. Beyond hot. I’m talking burst into flames hot. I mean every single cell in my body goes haywire.”
“Uh-huh. I’m pretty sure Hester Prynne had that same effect.”
Eve rolled her eyes.
“Will you quit? I’m trying to tell you that she’s different.”
“So you’ve said.”
“She’s got layers to her, and every time I see her, I swear she pulls back another and shows me something unexpected. She’s very intelligent and the way she expresses herself, she’s like a poet. An incredibly eloquent romantic poet. I would love to curl up next to a fire and read her all night long.”
“I bet you would. But not because you’re such a diehard romantic.”
Eve laughed but continued with her point.
“She’s confirmed to me that she’s never been with a woman, yet she’s somehow able to convey all that burning passion and insatiable yearning that women feel when they desire another woman. It’s like she already knows what being with a woman feels like. I can’t imagine what she would be like when she really did make love with a woman.” She cocked her head. “Actually, you know what? I can. I think about that all the time, and let me tell you how it’s wreaking havoc on my sleep at night.”
“Well, you sure sound smitten, like you’re two star-crossed wannabe lovers. But didn’t she cancel your session yesterday?”
“She said she had to meet her group for a class project.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I have no reason not to.”
“Eve, it’s summer. Is she even enrolled in a class right now?”
Eve’s stomach fell. “I would assume so. That’s what she said she was doing.”
“You don’t think maybe her poetic confessions of desire scared her back into her shell?”
“God, I hope not. I hope she’s not freaking out to the point of avoiding me. I don’t know what I’d do if she is.”
“What could you do?” Karen started in on the opposite side of Eve’s rack.
“I’ve tried to pull back a little with her. Tried to keep things less personal and more professional. After our conversation in her car and how she insisted we keep things status quo, I thought maybe that would help.”
“Has it?”
“I don’t know. We didn’t talk a whole lot. We focused on our workout.”
“I don’t know how you’re doing this. You’re up and down and all over the place with this woman emotionally. And you’ve told me more than once that your libido is so high you’re practically pelvic thrusting when the wind blows.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t deny that. It’s more than true.”
“And the ol’ vibrator’s not cutting it anymore?”
“No.”
She tsked. “That’s a crying shame.”
“You’re telling me.”
Karen finished with the shirts and winked at her. “So, are we done here? Did you get enough goodies to last you a while?”
Eve held up the five T-shirts and three pairs of shorts folded over her arm.
“I think I’m good.”
They walked to the register and paid for their clothes, then headed for the interior of the mall with their bags in tow.
“I don’t know about you,” Karen said. “But I’d blow my ex-husbands twice right now for a soft pretzel.”
“Ugh, Jesus, thanks so much for that image. I think I just threw up in my mouth. I could’ve gone for a pretzel too, you know.”
“Oh, get off it. You’ve heard worse from far better.”
Karen nudged her as they continued on, now with the pretzel stand as their unspoken destination. Eve inhaled the smells that only a mall could bring and stared up into the bright light beaming down through the skylights.
“I worked here in high school,” she said. “Hard to believe that was more than ten years ago, now.”
“Ha, talk to me when it’s been thirty, kid.” She shook her head. “So, where did my little Evie-Eve work?”
“Dairy Queen and PacSun.”
“No kidding? Huh. You probably made about a million Blizzards for me.”
“It’s possible.”
“You guys put crack in those things, don’t you?”
“What?” She laughed. “No, there’s no crack, Karen.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Monroe. I can’t handle being accountable for my issues with ice cream at the moment. My blood sugar’s dropping and I can’t even smell the pretzel place yet.”
“We’re almost there.”
“I’m obsessing already. Should I have the cream cheese with my pretzel or the nacho cheese?” She shook her head. “You’re going to say neither if I want to keep my girlish figure.”
“You know me better than that. I’m not going to say a word.”
“Maybe I need you to. Help keep me in line.”
“No. I know very well you’re capable of making decisions about food on your own.”
“Yeah, well, not here. Walking through the mall with all these smells and temptations, it’s like going to the God damned state fair. Fuck the rides, the games, and the cute little farm animals. I go for the food.”
Eve cracked up as Wetzel’s Pretzels came into view. Karen sighed with apparent relief as they stood at the counter and looked at the menu. After Karen finally decided on her cheese preference, they ordered and then took their food and drinks to search for an empty bench. They settled into one next to a large silk plant, and Karen busied herself tearing her pretzel apart to dip it in nacho cheese.
“You’re still going to go Friday night, right?” Karen asked just before taking a bite.
“Hm? Oh, you mean for drinks?” She shrugged. “I guess.”
“Good, because you know, I’m bringing that friend of mine. The one I told you about.”
Eve forced down a swallow. “No, Karen. Don’t. Oh, God, I would’ve said no if you’d told me that sooner. You know I would have.”
“Which is why I didn’t tell you. I probably shouldn’t have told you now. But I’m not a total schmuck, so I thought I should let you know.”
“I’m not up for meeting anyone.”
“You may not want to, but you need to. At the very least to just enjoy the company of another lesbian. And it wouldn’t hurt if it led to a little sex now, would it?”
“Karen.” Eve looked at her, ready to fight it out.
“You owe me, Monroe,” she said. “I hate to call it in for something as trivial as this, but it seems I have to.”
Eve sighed as she recalled Karen saving her ass on a double date they’d gone on over a year ago. Karen and her date had hit it off, but Eve’s had been a nightmare. She couldn’t totally recall why it was a disaster, but she did remember that the woman was overly loud and obnoxious. Eve had been so turned off she’d been willing to chew her own arm off to escape. Thankfully, Karen saved her by claiming that she felt ill. She’d insisted Eve take her home and they’d left. Karen, however, had yet to let it go.
“You’re wrong,” Eve said. “You are a schmuck. A big, giant schmuck.”
“I may be, but I’m also your friend and I care about you. So, be there, Friday night, eight sharp.”
Karen popped in another bite and Eve sipped her drink, hating both Karen and her life at the same time. She rubbed her temple, unable to find a way out of the arrangement. She finally sat back and crossed her ankles, the fight in her unwilling to even spark. She thought about the date and realized that she’d never dreaded an oncoming Friday night before. Fridays were supposed to be fun, light-hearted, and a promise to a wonderful weekend ahead.
But not this one.
This one, Eve knew, was going to be anything but fun.