Page 25 of Emerald Moon
It’d be totally harmless!Unlike the trope, Jo wasn’t harboring some secret feelings for her and Cass was into women.It would be perfect.Only Jo was certain they’d never work up the nerve to ask her.
Krista and Jo sat at a table by the big front window in Pertinacious, the slightly-snobby, but always delicious coffee shop across from Violet Moon that was run by the most prominent vampire coven in Hickorywood.They’d had to wait outside before they got their drinks, but they were lucky enough to snag a table before someone else got it.
“Sorry work’s been rough lately,” Jo said and took a sip of their iced coffee.The flavors and syrups might change, but Jo always got an iced coffee, even in the dead of winter.Luckily it was summer and the shop had specialty iced coffees for the season.
“Eh, it’s okay,” Krista replied.“It’s just hard covering shifts with so few people.I like the extra cash, though.And the tips!Meals there cost an arm and a leg, so the tips tend to be great, except for when you get a table of awful people.I cast curses on those people — tame ones!”
Jo grinned.“Like what?”
Krista explained, “Like ‘I hope you stub your toe really badly later,’ or ‘I hope you have to pee and are stuck in traffic.’Those sorts of curses.”She swirled the ice in her drink.“What about you?How are you holding up lately?”
“We talk everyday.”
“Yeah, but not like this we don’t.So spill.I know you’ve been a little less yourself.”
“That’s just the thing, though, isn’t it?Which parts of these are me?Aren’t they all me?Even the awful parts?When I get like this, it’s hard to know what’s real inside me and what is temporary, especially when it keeps coming back.”Jo sighed.“But I certainly don’t feel like myself.It doesn’t help that I just went and got my dress altered.”
She grimaced.“I’m sorry.That can’t have been easy.Was it at least quick?”
“No!The woman was nice, but she was really old and took ages with all her small talk.I just wanted to get out of there.I finally worked up the nerve to ask her to make the chest lay flatter so it would look fine with my binder on, and she looked at me like I was insane.But she said she’d do it, so that’s something.”
“Good for you!”Krista smiled.“You’ve got to take the wins where you can get them.Are you going to make it through that weekend alright?”
“I think so.I’m excited for June.And happy to see her.She’s, like, the one person in my family who doesn’t treat me like a total weirdo or just ignore me — when she does find the time to talk, you know?”
“I’m glad you have her and it’s not all bad.Are you still going to go alone?”
“Definitely not.I need backup or I’ll lose my backbone entirely and be terrible to myself the entire weekend.”
“So who’re you bringing?My offer still stands to go.I’d promise to wear something outlandish so no one would even notice you enough to make snide comments.”
Jo felt a little lighter imagining that.“Thanks.And I might take you up on it, but I had another idea.”
Krista raised an eyebrow questioningly.
They wrapped their hands around their iced coffee.The cold felt good on their palms.“I thought maybe I could bring Cass with me.”
Her eyes widened like her smile.
“Not like that!”Jo mentioned hastily.“I’d like to go as friends,” they stressed.“But also not like friends — pretending to not just be friends.It’d get my mom off my back about meeting these dudes, plus Cass is super sweet, but she can look intimidating, which would be great to have on my side that weekend.”
“Jass,” Krista said.
“What?”
“Your ship name would be Jass.Co is no good, so it’s Jass.I ship it.”
“Don’t ship us!There’s nothing to ship!We’re just friends.”
“Friends who might go to a wedding together as a fake dating situation?”She laughed.“Babe, we all know how that ends.We’ve read it a billion times.”
“It’s not like that!”
“Could be like that,” Krista teased, swirling her straw in her coffee.
“It’s not, though.It’s just —“ Jo searched for the words to defend their idea.“Going with you or Wil would be great, but there’s no added benefit of ‘dating’ to get my mom off my back.It would be way too weird to pretend to date you or Wil.”
“But not too weird to pretend-date Cass.Got it.”She winked.“Totally correct teasing aside, I think she’s a good option.You two hit it off great — so great there was a kiss involved.”
