Page 45 of The Wrong Date Deal

She couldn’t help but imagine a younger, newly out Piper, staring up at Tegan and Sara like her whole life was changing.

She took another breath, smiling softly. “Tegan and Sara, huh? The ship that launched a thousand queers—notshiplike that, just to be clear.”

Piper laughed. “Yeah, who can blame us?”

“Indeed. I’m pretty sure mine was while sneakily watchingThe L Word, but same idea.”

“Ooh, very similar vibes. And, hey, at least neither of us fell for our straight best friend and had to struggle with that whole thing.”

August laughed. “I didn’t say Ididn’tdo that.”

Piper jolted, her mouth dropping open as she leaned even closer to August. “You fell for your straight best friend?”

“Eh… Does formerly straight still count?”

“Whoa. You really are just living all the stereotypes, aren’t you?”

“What? We all band together even if we don’t realize it.”

“Clearly.” She laughed. “What happened?”

August screwed her face up momentarily, now feeling awkward about the whole memory. “Well, I was pining for a little bit, came out, and she suddenly… had a lot of questions, made a lot of comments about whether I thought she was pretty, why boys didn’t compliment her as well as I did… You know, the standard experience.”

“Oh, my god,” Piper groaned, covering her face with her hands. “It’s painful just thinking about how much she must have been killing you.”

“Yeah. It was… not great.”

She peeked out from between her fingers at August. “So, what happened then?”

“Um…”

“Tell me.”

“Oh, well, um.” August cleared her throat. “At a friend’s birthday party—just like a sleepover kind of thing—they wanted to play hide and seek.”

“I already love where this is going.”

“Yeah, we… ended up in a tiny utility closet together. You know, pressed close, in the dark, all that tension about being found, and about being so close together.”

“And you kissed?”

“And we kissed.”

“Ahh, I knew it. Who kissed who?”

“Are you kidding? She kissed me. As if my gay little self would have made the first move.”

“You don’t make the first move?”

August felt herself blushing. “No, I do—sometimes—now, but, back then? When I thought she was straight and I was hopeless? Absolutely not.”

“Okay, yeah, fair.” She waved a hand in August’s direction. “So, what then?”

“Um. I guess she liked it because we… kept doing it. For quite a while.”

“Amazing.”

“Indeed. Last I heard, she’s still dating women, so, you know, not so straight after all.”

---