Page 27 of Sparks Like Ours

Gia stared at her, lost.

“Marilyn D’s name. We gave Hadley five dollars to go and ask.”

“I get why she just goes with D,” Autumn said, sadly.

Isabel winced. “Wouldn’t you? Think about it. Hi, I’m MarilynDepper—”

“I think I just discovered why Elle was so out of it at thecommercial shoot today.”

“And why is that?” Isabel asked, still clearly in the land ofDepperschmidtson.

“She apparently had a sex dream about me.”

Three faces froze.

“More,” Hadley said, with the come-here gesture. “We’re going toneed so much more.”

Autumn nodded, setting down her virgin daiquiri. “A bomb has beendropped.”

“Can I just say that I’ve been waiting patiently for such a bomb?”Isabel said with a know-it-all grin.

“No, not like that. This is astraightgirlbomb,”Gia said, still trying to laugh off what she’d just learned and wrap her mind aroundit at the same time. “And no, you can’t say that,” she told Isabel. “You haveto stop with the harassment.”

“I’d like to know how I’m harassing you so I can be more effectiveat it.”

“Well, to start with, you’re constantly insinuating with the—I don’teven know. With the sparks talk and the whatever, thetension—”

“Do we know that she’s straight?” Hadley said quietly, attemptingto regroup the conversation. “Do we know for sure?”

Isabel shrugged. “We were all straight once. Just saying. Don’tget me started on Cindy Mackleroy tossing her hair in the seventh grade. Shechanged my entire life for the better. I should send her a gift basket, nowthat I’m thinking about it.”

“Not me,” Autumn said. “Not even for a swift second. Women fromday one.”

“Prophetic,” Isabel said, and fist-bumped Autumn. “Doesn’tsurprise me. You’ve always been ahead of your time.”

Autumn grinned. “Right? I knew hot chicks were destined to be mycalling, and in the end, I nabbed the hottest one and now we’re happily knockedup.” A second fist bump, this time from Hadley. Gia struggled to follow thethread of the conversation, as her mind was on the events of the last fifteenminutes.

“While Kate is extra yummy,” Hadley said, gesturing to Gia to takethe floor, “I think we need to hear more about this dream. The details needcoloring in.”

“Oh,” Gia said. She paused as her three friends stared at herexpectantly while she tried to figure out how to articulate the random,drunkenly dropped details. “She didn’t give me much. Just that there waskissing and we were apparently naked and that it was good. Wait. I think shesaid sooo good.” Thesooostuck out in Gia’s mind. For some reason, it mattered.

“Doesn’t look like she was the only one who was surprised.”

“I’m not surprised.” Damn. She couldn’t sell that. “Okay, maybe alittle. The thing is, I’ve never imagined myself naked with Elle Britton, andnow I am. So, yeah, I’m figuring it out.” Even hearing those vague descriptionsplayed back had Gia…affected and dealing with the creative images theyinspired. Her face felt hot. She sipped her apple whiskey, hoping it somehowcontained the antidote to right her shell-shocked ship, because things wereextra upside down.

Elle Britton had a sex dream about her? Really? That was reality?

Regardless, the knowledge should have rolled right off her back.Instead she was imagining herselfonitbeneath Elle’s touch. This wasn’t good and so shallow. She feltdizzy from the aggressively battling emotions.

Meanwhile, her friends continued to patter back and forth aboutthe dream and what it meant. Luckily, they kept their voices quiet enough thatnearby tables wouldn’t pick up on the direction of the conversation, which wasrare for them. All the while, Gia tried her best not to look over at Elle. Butthat was hard because she really did radiate tonight, all loosened up and less“on” than Gia had ever seen her. She was just…a person. Apparently, theafter-hours suited her. And it wasn’t like Gia was lusting after Elle, either.It so wasn’t. She was merely intrigued by the week’s series of events.Hostility, friendship, support, and now…this. Gia thought back to a phrase hermother used often when she was a kid. Will wonders never cease? Yeah, that one.And would they? Fucking wonders.

* * *

Why was there a drumbeat inside her head? Elle opened her eyes. Ohno, that felt awful. Opening her eyes had been a bad idea, and who was doingthe drumming? And why wouldn’t they stop? The searing pain when she tried tosit up was enough to keep her lying down for the foreseeable future, which wasunfortunate because she really needed to train. She looked around and attemptedto get her bearings. She was on the couch, apparently. How had she ended up onher couch? She didn’t remember that part.

There was a glass of water and two Advil on the coffee tableacross from her with a note that readTakeme, please.Aha, Holly’s handwriting. She smiled, as much as onecould when their face was about to fall off. She’d left the exact same note forHolly last year when she’d gotten blitzed on New Year’s Eve. So, that was it.She’d had way too much to drink last night and Holly and Christopher had madesure she was home safe and sound. There had been pineapple margaritas, chipsand queso, the memory of which turned her stomach, and some sort of runningjoke about her loosening up and how nice it was. And oh, she had, too. That wasthe problem, and she was paying for it dearly. She wouldn’t drink a margaritafor the rest of her life. She promised the heavens, offered them this sacrifice,if they would just take away the awful.

With determination, she sat up…slowly, drank the water, and tookthe Advil. More details from the night floated back to her. Gia had been thereand they’d chatted at the bar. It had been nice. She pushed herself up andheaded to her bedroom to see about a shower. But there’d been more with Gia,she reminded herself as she stepped under the hot stream of water. As the heatcaressed her skin, waking her up more fully, she froze. No, no, no. Thebathroom. The confession. The horror!

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