Page 91 of Push & Pull
Petra chuckled. “I wouldn’t know. We never got as far as seeing the real hair beneath. Or pictures of her from before. All I know is that the carpets never matched the drapes.”
“What a fantastic way to talk about this woman you’re hoping to see here tonight.”
“You’re intrigued though, right? Do you think she’ll show up?”
“I don’t know. The person I’m waiting for isn’t here yet, either.”
“Maybe it’s fate that we met, then.”
“Maybe.”
That word always hung between them.Maybethis.Maybethat. The game continued, but a resolution was nowhere in sight.It kills me that she’s so close, but I can’t do a damn thing about it.Simone might as well have been a million miles away – on the other end of the earth.The galaxy.The person Petra most wanted to see was on the other side of the screen.
Was she the one Simone wanted, though?
“Perhaps we should take it as a sign that we were meant to meet,” Petra said. “I don’t know you. You don’t know me. We’re both waiting for people who aren’t going to show up.”
“Are you propositioning me?”
“Uh, I can be forward, but I don’t know if I’d put it that way. Yet.”
A small smile returned to Simone’s face. “That’s how it started with this other person. She asked me to sleep with her the first full night we knew each other. Guess it was stupid of me to go along with it, but I knew I wanted it. Even though, deep down, I always think of myself as self-destructive. I’m not as put together as I look.”
“You think I’ve got it all figured out?”
“You ever been to rehab?”
“No, but I’ve been to prison for a week. My mom’s in a different prison right now, down in Pennsylvania.”
“Right. I forgot about your prison girlfriend.”
“I don’t believe I told you about Theodora Smash-Tits.”
“Is it true what they say?” Simone asked. “That in a women’s prison, you have as many girlfriends as you can juggle in your tight schedule?”
“Sure, but most of them aren’t actually the slightest bit queer. They got needs. Me, though…” Petra gestured to herself. “I’m hella queer.”
“Is that so?”
Such an inquiry must have stemmed from how the two of them broke up that cold winter’s night in February.It’s spring now, but it’s still cold outside.“I’ve had plenty of opportunities to test this out. Yes. I can confidently say I’m gay. In a perfect world, I’ll never have to flirt with a guy again. How about you?”
She may have deflected to Simone, but her companion wasn’t letting it go. “I’ve never had to flirt with a guy.”
“So you’re 100% on the lady train, too, huh? Whew. It really was fate.” Petra checked the entrance of the bar. Every so often, she swore she saw a man who looked like her fancy lawyer. Then again, what middle-aged man in a suit and a bald spot didn’t? “I’ve got a room upstairs. Why don’t we take this conversation somewhere more private?”
The tip of Simone’s straw tapped against the counter. “Depends. What if the person I’m supposed to meet shows up?”
“How do you know she hasn’t already?”
Petra was ready for this façade to end. She yearned to feel Simone’s skin against hers once more.I’ll touch you in places you’ve never experienced before.Petra knew that there were still some things Simone had yet to show her, too. Wouldn’t it be a shame if they went their separate ways now when life was still so full of surprises?
“Guess you could say I have a few trust issues,” Simone confided. “I don’t think I should be doing one-night stands.”
“Who said it would be a one-night stand?”
That was Petra Kallis talking. The woman who had known Simone for a whole week and swore it was a year.A whole relationship in one week.Up. Down. Over-under and back again. Petra had never experienced anything like it before, and she hoped that she could continue to explore this strange life with the woman who responded to her best.
Yet did Simone hear her?
