Page 8 of Love Legacy

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. I guess these shoes aren’t as loud as I thought they were.”

God, that voice. That accent.The voice is velvety soft and rich, warming me from head to toe. I turn toward the voice, and of course, it belongs to my lady love.

“Naomi, right? Maeve told me you were coming to rush today,” I say, wiping my hand on my pants before holding it out. “Nice to meet you.”

She takes my hand in hers, holding it in a light grip as she shakes my hand. “Nice to meet you, Sage.”

I wish I had recorded that.I could listen to Naomi say my name over and over again on an endless loop.

“Nice to meet you too. So what do you think of the sorority?” I ask, crossing my arms across my chest and leaning back against the kitchen island.

“Y’all are really nice!” she drawls. “And you seem like you’ve made a nice community here too.”

“Yeah, it was nice finding an organization that accepted me for who I was. You don’t find too many women like me in sororities.”

She squints her eyes toward me, trying to size me up. I’ve seen that look before. From teachers, parents of friends, and colleagues. It’s thewhat’s wrong with youface. And the answer varies depending on who’s asking—gay, tattooed, neurodivergent, a foster kid—take your pick.

“What? Do you mean covered in tattoos?” she asks, her eyes roaming my body, taking in the many fine-line tattoos covering my arms and hands. She did have a point, I was covered in more ink than most of my peers, but she was incorrect.

“No, I mean gay. Many sororities still have a lot of work to do regarding their LGBTQ inclusiveness. It’s a bit backward, in my opinion. An organization for women, but my interest in other women disqualifies me from membership? Pass.”

“So is that how you ended up in Kappa Theta Alpha? It was the only sorority willing to accept you?”

I chuckle softly, shaking my head. “No, I actually received a bid from another sorority. The one that the girl I was seeing casually was in.”

“How’d you end up here then?”

“Gabby, my roommate, joined Kappa Theta Alpha when we were freshmen, I accepted the bid from the other sorority. But things went sideways very quickly. Turns out the woman I was seeing wasn’t out yet. So I let it slip to one of my new sisters that we were seeing each other, and she told someone else, who told someone else, who told the president, and it was a chain reaction. She got brought up on standards violations within the chapter and was ultimately blacklisted from their national organization. I then had my bid revoked and was blacklisted from rushing any of the other sororities on campus.”

“Except KTA because they do things differently.”

I wink at Naomi. “See, you’re catching on. Since we do continuous open bidding, technically, anyone can rush our sorority at any time, assuming we haven’t hit our membership quota yet. We always try to reserve one or two spots within our sorority for this purpose.

Once she was a fully initiated member that spring, Gabby fought for KTA to extend a bid to me during COB. Originally, they didn’t want to. I mean, who would want to take on a blacklisted pledge? But once they found out why I was blacklisted, they offered me membership. They would’ve offered it to my ex too, but there were other hoops she had to jump through in order to join another organization, and she didn’t do any of it.

I joined Kappa Theta Alpha that spring semester and I’ve been fighting the good fight ever since,” I say jokingly.

“Wow… Well, that’s their loss, then, because it seems like Kappa Theta Alpha hit the jackpot with you. Everyone that stayed wants to join your sorority from what I heard, even a couple of the girls that left to go to the other houses are still interested.” Naomi sips her punch, checking her phone. “Shoot, I have to take off. I have a meeting with my academic advisorabout my transfer status and degree progress. I’ll hopefully see you the rest of the week?”

“You can count on it, Naomi. I hope you do decide to join KTA. We’d be happy to have you,” I say, giving her shoulder a small squeeze as I walk her to the door.

“Bye, Sage,” she says with a wave before heading out the door. I close it behind her, turning around to see Maeve and Gabby converging on me like hungry wolves.

“So…?” Gabby asks, bouncing with anticipation.

“Sage has a massive crush on her,” Maeve answers before giving me a wink. As much as I’d like to deny it, I wear my heart on my sleeves, and both Gabby and Maeve know me well enough to know when I’m lying.

“Shut up, really? So does this mean she’s in?” Gabby asks Maeve, completely forgetting about me standing right there.

“I think so. We still have to put it to a formal vote with the rest of the exec board, but I don’t see why we can’t offer her membership.”

“My vote is yes,” I chime in, reminding them of my presence.

“We know,” they say in unison, heading back to mingle with the rest of the sorority and PNMs.

Maeve was right, though. I do have a big crush on Naomi, and I’m going to do everything I can to get her to want me too.

4

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