Page 33 of No One's Like You
If only she weren't in love with her best friend, because if not for that, she would ask Linda for another date, she's sure of it. She would love to keep getting to know her and fully explore that connection she knows they have, but it wouldn't be fair to Linda to do the same thing she did with Amelia. Ruby knows she needs to heal from her love for Ellie before starting over with someone else. She gets up to find her clothes and thinks again about Route 66 while glancing at Linda. If she manages to forget about Ellie during that trip, when she returns, she'll call this woman if she's still interested.
"What time is it?" Linda asks sleepily. "Is there time for coffee before leaving?"
"Yes, don't worry," Ruby smiles. "If you give me permission to invade your kitchen, I'll make it while you get dressed."
"All yours," Linda responds with a hand gesture.
Ruby goes to the bathroom, washes up and finishes dressing before heading to the kitchen.
"You smell like sex and coffee. I like it," Linda says, hugging Ruby from behind as soon as she enters the kitchen.
"It's my new perfume," Ruby jokes, turning toward her.
Linda kisses her, with tongue, and Ruby curses Ellie for having her so in love.
Half an hour later, Linda parks across the street from the Early Bayou.
"Why didn't we meet here yesterday if the bar is yours?" Linda asks, looking at the facade through the car window.
"Don't hook up where you work," Ruby responds.
"Very wise," Linda agrees, turning toward her. "Hey, if we don't see each other before you take that trip, enjoy it."
"Thanks," Ruby replies, letting herself be pulled in when Linda grabs her by the shirt collar and draws her closer.
"Call me when you get back and tell me how it went," Linda whispers against her mouth, just before Ruby captures her lips and their tongues meet again.
Ellie, who is arriving at the door of the bar at that moment, almost drops her phone when she recognizes Ruby inside the car across the street. Her feet stop abruptly and she stands frozen to the ground, feeling something shift inside her body as she watches Ruby kiss lips that aren't hers. Ruby's lips, the ones that shattered her composure the other night, now kiss a mouth that isn't hers, and Ellie's heart trembles, her throat tightens, and her eyes fill with tears before she can move again and walk through the doors of the bar.
Chapter 20
Ellie Trahan feels like a burning rod has pierced her side, dangerously close to her heart. She doesn't understand it, no matter how hard she tries, she struggles to comprehend this feeling. She sits at her desk in the office, rests her elbows and massages her temples. She strives to put everything in order and thinks about each event she's experienced in recent months which, of course, have been like one of those rides where several people sit with their feet dangling in the air and suddenly, without warning, drop freely. The divorce from Marcel is the only thing that has somewhat disrupted her life. Well, that and the alumni reunion where she shamelessly devoured her best friend's mouth. Since that moment, her tranquility has transformed into anguish, wet dreams, and confusion; that's why she can't figure out exactly what's disturbing her, because Ruby hasn't mentioned the topic or given it any importance, which leads her to understand that for Ruby it was just nonsense.
"I'm going to lose my mind," Ellie whispers and runs her hand through her hair in a futile attempt to let go of her thoughts.
Obviously, she fails; her mind works on its own and makes her relive everything she's been experiencing in an endless loop. Suddenly she gets angry, frowns because here Ruby is the one who likes women, and her friend has the moral duty to talk to Ellie and explain that it's normal for a kiss to make her this nervous. It's pure biology, two mouths joining with momentum after consuming a good amount of alcohol. She clicks her tongue, starts to ramble, but she's so overwhelmed that many of the things she thinks make no sense. The only thing she's clear about is that Ellie isn't the same as two weeks ago and that the flips in her stomach are becoming very repetitive when she sees Ruby in situations that are, of course, completely normal, like flirting with some girl or another stranger leaving her breathless, like that girl from the car or even the hateful Dr. Theresa Reis.
"It's going to be hellishly hot today," Ruby enters the office with a carefree attitude and leaves a kiss on Ellie's cheek. "I need to call Joe to come check the air conditioning at the entrance; I have a feeling it's not cooling well."
Ellie nods like a poorly designed robot and opens her laptop to start working. This is normally how she begins her day, checking emails, correcting orders, or fighting with some supplier, unless she needs to help her employees with a more urgent task.
Ruby leaves the office and returns ten minutes later with two cups of coffee. Ellie realizes that the mousecursor has been blinking for that same amount of time in the cell she marked in the spreadsheet when she opened the program. She lowers her gaze and notices the aroma of coffee with a hint of cinnamon, exactly how she likes it, and Ruby Hebert does everything just as Ellie loves it, it's always been that way, but now it's as if she's living an extrasensory experience because she feels those small details and gestures from Ruby more intensely on her skin, gestures Ruby has always had.
"How was your date?" the question shoots out of Ellie's mouth and she closes her eyes tightly because she firmly assumes that, in reality, it's not something she wants to know. She'll go crazy.
Ruby takes a sip of her coffee and smiles broadly.
"Very good," she sits in her chair and searches through a folder. "Linda is very fun and we had a good time. I slept at her place and this morning she brought me to the bar."
Of course. Of course they slept together, otherwise, what reason would this Linda have to bring Ruby to the bar. Ellie supposes that sleep isn't the correct verb to use, but she forces herself to smile.
"Will you see each other again?" Ellie wishes someone would sew her mouth shut.
Ruby makes a face and drinks from her coffee again.
"It's possible, but first I want to focus on solving the bar situation," she pauses and releases what she hadn't dared to say until now. "I want us to resolve this so I can start planning my Route 66 trip."
Ruby hadn't brought up this topic because, if Ellie's life lately has been in free fall, hers has been a tortuous journey through a house of horrors. It's ironic, but after so many years in love with Ellie and after the disappointment she felt thinking that her divorce was a possible beginning of something between them, opening a dating app is what has saved her, and it's only recently that Ruby has begun to shed the burden of loving someone who only sees her as a friend.
