Page 2 of Stay Here Tonight
Lydia could salvagesomepride from this situation, yes? “Have you seen her?”
“I’m not the one drooling over a rich bitch.” Joanie caught herself. “Butch. Sorry. Rich butch.”
“God.” Lydia slumped down in her chair and flung the back of her hand against her forehead. “Iwouldlike the most stereotypically lesbian woman on the block. My mother was right when I came out to her. I’m going to marry a woman wearing a tux.”
“Isn’t that a good thing? From what you say about your mother, she’s all about you wearing that big white wedding dress and pairing you up with a masculine partner.”
“Pretty sure someone like Maxine isn’t what she had in mind.”
“Yeah, but Maxine is rich as fuck. Your mom would make an exception for that.”
“My mom is in denial, and there’s not much more to say about that.” Lydia turned around and leaned against the crescent-shaped desk. “Stop picking on me, eh? It’s never gonna happen.”
“No. Probably not.”Great. Thanks, Joanie.“She’s notorious for sending girls packing. Remember Ramona?”
“Vaguely.”
“Last time I saw her at a drinking party, she confessed she slept with Maxine a couple of months ago.”
Lydia was sick with both curiosity and rancid jealousy.Who the fuck does Ramona think she is?Lydia barely remembered the young woman. Whatever! That would show her!
“Said it was some of the best sex of her life.”
Lydia glared at her coworker.
“Then our champion of justice told her to get the fuck out right away. Like, not even five minutes after they were finished comin’. I hear that’s a pattern for Ms. Woodward.”
“She does come off as rather distant.”
“Distant? Lyds, honey, Maxine is what we hussies call a one-night stand addict. Great if you don’t actually have to see her again, terrible if you live in the same neighborhood, or, uh…”
“Or what?”
“Or if you see her at the resource center every week.”
“Didn’t I say that it’s never gonna happen? I don’t have to worry about her rejecting me afterward and making things awkward.” Lydia readjusted her glasses. “Because she never notices me to begin with.”
“Just saying. There might come a day when shedoesnotice you.”
Lydia rolled her eyes. Yeah, right.
Then her eyes settled on Maxine sitting in a darkened classroom, the blinds opened to show her svelte figure slumped over the large conference table in front of the whiteboard. She lazily flipped papers over and highlighted sentences here and there. Her eyes were hardly focused on her work. Whatever she thought about, it was not plans for the upcoming fundraiser she was throwing for the foundation.
A part of Lydia wanted to pretend that Maxine thought about her. About asking her out. About breaking a pattern of behavior that could not have been healthy. Because while Lydia would never pretend to know much about Maxine’s personal life, she had a feeling a woman didn’t indulge in endless streams of one-night stands without something eating her subconscious.
Still… would it be totally terrible to be one of those one-night stands? That was the stupid thought Lydia had before her boss walked into the building, back from her lunch break.
Maxine glanced in Lydia’s direction.“Hello, Ms. Kellerman. Still wearing those panties, I see.”Lydia choked on her own spit. Joanie giggled behind her.
Chapter 2
Maxine wanted a drink. A hard one. Now.
Her lawyer had advised her against drinking on this important day. After three years of fighting both in and out of mediation, courtrooms, and the backs of country clubs, not only was Maxine Woodward legally single again, but that fuckhead ex-wife of hers was finally getting her shit out of the house.
The crap was piled in a guestroom Maxine never went in. She barely let her maid go in there, other than to air the place out and to make sure Penelope’s shit was dusted on a regular basis.Fuck her, fuck her belongings, and fuck her again.No one would say that a divorce that took three years to finalize was amicable, especially when no children were involved, but Maxine and Penelope had managed to take it to a new crazy level.
Okay,Penelopehad done it. That conniving woman that Maxine couldn’t believe she had ever loved, let alone enough to marry the day gay marriage was once and for all legalized in California. They had been happily together for two years by that point. Maxine had carved herself a niche as a trailblazing leader of gay rights. It seemed natural to join one of the mass-marriage ceremonies taking place at City Hall. They had a private ceremony a week later, but that was the beginning of the end.
