Totally Worth It, page 4
They quickly settled in a corner in the back of the front room, each armed with a cold beer. Sam took off to do a lap, checking to see if the renters had arrived, leaving Lexi and Meg to themselves. Meg looked around, trying to absorb every last tidbit of the scene that she had been absent from for so many months.
“What’s up, Meg? You’re all smiles right now.”
“Just happy,” Meg answered. She took a sip of her beer. “I haven’t been out in a while. It’s good to be here.” She tried to sound nonchalant, but she feared the enthusiasm in her voice probably gave away how excited she was to be here, with friends. Luckily Sam appeared in the archway and waved them into the back room, sparing Meg the opportunity to further display her dorkiness.
As promised, a small group of girls hovered near the back bar next to Sam, nursing their drinks, trying not to look too eager to meet Lexi and Meg. Sam introduced them both as “my friends who live at Bay West,” which Meg was grateful for. She had been nervous that she would look like a hanger-on, but Sam’s introduction instantly made her feel like she was part of their crew.
A dark-haired girl who had been introduced as Julie was the first to break the ice. “So you’re the girl who grew up in the development,” she said, focusing her attention entirely on Lexi.
“That’s me.” Lexi lifted her shoulders and raised her drink slightly in mock-toast to herself.
“So cool. What was that like?”
Meg and the other girls listened in as Lexi gave Julie and the rest of them a condensed history of being raised at Bay West by her two moms.
Somewhere along the way Sam and one of the other girls—the blonde—fell out of the group and into their own flirtatious conversation, leaving Meg and Lexi holding court with the others. And Sam had been on the money—Julie was totally crushing on Lexi, and from the looks of it, Lexi was into it too. The rest of the night followed pretty much the same pattern. There were drinks and dancing with breaks for talking here and there. When they weren’t in the same conversation, she and Lexi and Sam checked in on each other frequently, and it felt to Meg like they were a team.
*
At two fifteen, Lexi was telling Meg and a very drunk Sam, who was openly pawing the blonde, her plan to get home, which involved Julie’s cousin, a city bus driver, picking them up on his final route and dropping them off at the condos.
“Hey, there’s Jesse,” Meg said completely interrupting her. “Looks like she’s just getting here.”
Lexi whipped around to look at the front entrance, before turning back to Meg. “You know her?” she said, a mix of surprise and envy in her tone.
“Yeah, she helped me move in.”
“Really?”
“I’m going to say hi. We have a few minutes, right? Before we head out?” Meg started over in Jesse’s direction, without waiting for an answer.
Lexi watched, mouth agape, as Meg approached Jesse easily and chatted for several minutes before coming back.
“What happened?” Lexi asked, too anxiously to go unnoticed.
“Nothing. She was nice. She invited me over to her house for, like, a pre-party to that fall festival thing. Are you guys going to that?”
“What?” Lexi stammered. “Are you gonna go? I mean, to her house?”
“I don’t know. I guess so, I said I would.” Meg frowned. “It’s not for a few weeks, though, right? Why? Is there something wrong with her?”
“Nothing’s wrong with her, Meg.” Sam fielded the question before Lexi had a chance. “Lexi’s just jealous.”
“Of what?” Meg furrowed her eyebrows.
“She’s jealous because she basically picked a career just to get a sit-down with Jesse, and you just did it in two seconds.” Sam laughed at her own joke as she slurred out her words.
“Shut up, Sam.” Lexi shot an annoyed look at her friend, not as amused as she was by the turn of events.
“What do you mean?” Meg asked.
“Nothing. She means nothing,” Lexi said sharply. “She’s being a jerk. Come on, let’s go. Julie and the other girls are waiting for us outside, her cousin’s bus will be coming down Seventh in a few minutes.”
There was little conversation between them on the short walk to the bus stop. As soon as the bus arrived, Sam and the blonde—whose name Lexi still hadn’t learned—slid into a seat all the way in the back, not even trying to keep their hands off each other. Meg parked herself in the front and played with her phone, while Lexi and Julie flirted with each other a few rows back. When they reached Staten Island, Julie’s cousin diverted from his regular route and carefully maneuvered the bus through the network of streets that made up Bay West in order to drop the girls off directly in front of the rental section of the condos. Sam and the blonde were out of sight in seconds.
“I guess they’re not wasting any time.” Julie smirked as she watched their path to the house. Then she turned her attention back to Lexi and said with unmistakable hope in her voice, “Do you want to come in?”
“It’s pretty late, I should go home,” Lexi answered, but she still flirted with her eyes.
“I’ll walk you, then,” Julie offered as Meg stood by awkwardly in the background.
Lexi refused the offer, explaining that she and Meg lived next door to each other. Julie didn’t seem to be too put out. She gave Lexi a quick kiss on the cheek and waved to Meg before she scooted off toward her unit.
“Sorry about that,” Meg said as they headed toward a cut-through path that led to the main section of the development.
“Please, don’t even.” Lexi waved her off. “It’s not like I was going to make out with her outside my parents’ house.”
“She seemed nice, though. You guys seemed to hit it off.”
“Yeah, she is nice. We actually made plans for Thursday. So we’ll see.” Lexi shrugged and smiled. “What about you, did you have fun tonight?”
“Yeah, I did,” Meg answered truthfully.
“Listen, about before with Jesse.”
“Yeah?”
“Sorry I was a weirdo. It’s just that Jesse’s kind of my boss right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m in law school, a 3L, and right now I’m interning at her law firm.”
“Oh.” Meg nodded, and Lexi was relieved she seemed to accept the explanation. “Well, that’s pretty cool, right?”
“I guess. I don’t know. I had, like, a meeting with her today, and I kind of blew it. So I think I just freaked out tonight when I saw her there. And then Sam just acts like a jerk, saying all that stuff.”
“Listen, don’t worry about it. Sam was drunk, people say dumb things when they’re drunk. And I’m sure your meeting with Jesse was fine. You’re probably overthinking it.”
“You think?” Lexi was unconvinced.
“Sure.” Meg smiled. “And if not, I’m totally going to get all the dirt at her fall festival pre-party.” Meg bumped Lexi’s shoulder and smiled, as they reached their houses. “Hey, I want all the details on your date Thursday,” Meg said, opening her front door.
“I’m sure you do.” Lexi trailed off laughing, as they entered their separate houses.
Chapter Five
Meg was seventeen slides into her presentation and about three inches from her computer screen when she was startled by the hollow sound of tapping at her back patio door. She nearly hit the ceiling at the noise as she turned around to see Lexi already through the sliders and halfway into the living room.
“Hey, stranger. Saw your light on. You should lock this door, you know.” Lexi padded casually across the room toward the counter where Meg was sitting.
“You almost gave me a fucking heart attack.”
“Whatcha doing?” Lexi glanced at the laptop screen.
“Work.” Meg put her hand over her chest, feeling it thump. “Holy shit, my heart is still racing.”
“Oh my God, calm down. You live in a lesbian community. Who’d you think it was? The neighborhood militia, storming in to see if you’re recycling properly?” Lexi laughed at her own joke as she plopped herself on a stool across from Meg.
“Ha-ha. Very funny.”
“Seriously, what have you been up to? I’ve barely seen you in the last few weeks. I was shocked when I noticed you were home.”
“I’ve been working. Like crazy hours. Still working right now, actually.” Meg nodded toward the computer screen.
“So what do you do that you’re working all the time?” Lexi asked.
“I work for a management consulting firm.”
“What does that mean?” Lexi folded her arms on the counter and rested her head on them as she waited for an answer.
“My company is hired by other companies to provide consultation on how they operate and manage their businesses. Then we offer solutions—how to cut costs, provide better management, increase profit margin, things like that.”
“Sounds fancy,” Lexi teased.
“Yeah, consulting firms are basically the middlemen for companies that want to either fire people or downsize. Instead of doing it themselves, they hire us to do an analysis. Then they can blame us when they let their people go.”
“That doesn’t sound fun,” Lexi said seriously.
“No, it’s not all bad. I’m just cranky.” Meg saved her presentation and twisted on her stool, giving Lexi her full attention. “A lot of times you get the chance to find alternative solutions and save people’s jobs just by thinking outside the box. Then it’s pretty cool.” Meg continued, “I’m just in a bad mood because I’ve been working at this project nonstop and I feel like I’m not getting anywhere.”
“You want me to go?” Lexi made no move to leave.
“No way. I need a break. What’s up with you? How’s things with Julie?” Meg waited for Lexi to bring her up to speed on her fledgling romance. Two and a half weeks ago, on the Saturday morning after her first date with Julie, Lexi had come over to Meg’s with bagels and coffee and dissected the entire evening with Meg. Since that day, Meg and Lexi had slipped into a quick friendship, but their schedules had kept them at cross-purposes for a true gabfest.
“I don’t know. Things are good, I guess.”
Apparently, Lexi needed some coaxing. “Come on, Lex. Give me a little more than that. My whole life right now is Sullivan and Son, Inc.” Meg pointed a thumb at her presentation.
Lexi sighed. “What do you want to know?”
“Uh…everything,” Meg said teasingly, although they both knew she wasn’t kidding. “But let’s start with the easy stuff. What does she do?”
“Julie? She works for a Web media company, doing research, some writing.”
“How old?”
“Your age, twenty-six or twenty-seven.”
“You’re not sure how old I am?” Meg asked, mock-hurt.
“No.” Lexi laughed, shaking her head.
“I’m twenty-six, by the way. Just so you know,” Meg chided her. “What else, what else? How many times have you gone out with her or hung out?”
Lexi rolled her eyes upward, counting in her head. “Like…five, I think.”
“Did she meet your parents yet?” Meg knew that they both knew the significance of the answer.
“No way!” Lexi practically screamed. “Are you crazy? We are so not there yet.”
“Okay, okay. Just checking.”
They were both laughing. Meg loved their revelry. In all the years she had spent with Becca’s friends, she had never struck up a friendship as real as what she had developed with Lexi in just a few weeks. Truthfully, in her whole life, she really hadn’t ever had a friend she felt so herself with. Only her longtime friend Tracy, who had moved out West after high school, even came close. Meg felt like she could ask Lexi anything, so she did.
“So, how’s the sex?”
“Don’t know. Haven’t done it,” Lexi answered promptly, looking directly at Meg.
“Really?” Meg paused and then continued without filtering, “Wait, you haven’t done it with Julie, or ever?”
“I’ve had sex, Meg,” Lexi answered, a hint of faux annoyance in her voice. “With girls and boys, thank you.” She stopped and then added, “Not at the same time, just to clarify.”
Meg held her hands up in surrender. “Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you or anything. I don’t know, I just thought for a second there that maybe you were a girl-virgin.” She dropped her hands back on the countertop. “You can’t really blame me, you did give me this whole explanation about how you live here but, like, were never really part of the scene. Until now.”
“I know. I didn’t mean to jump down your throat.”
“So what gives. Why haven’t you and Julie slept together?”
Lexi shrugged her shoulders. “Just hasn’t happened yet, I guess.”
“But things are good, though, you like her?” Meg backed off a little.
“Yeah, I like her,” Lexi said. Her small smile was enough to reveal the pronounced dimple in her left cheek.
“Sam must be psyched. The renter plan is working. What’s going on with her and the girl from The Kitchen?” Meg asked, redirecting the conversation.
“Nothing, really. She’s actually one of Julie’s roommates. She’s barely there, though—I mean, I still don’t know her name, which is getting stupid. I think she has a girlfriend who lives in Jersey or something. Which is actually good, because Sam has been hanging out with me and Julie and Julie’s other roommate.”
“Wow, that’s fast.”
Lexi shook her head. “No, no, no. Not like that. They’re just friends. All of us, it’s nice. Which is why you have to hang with us this weekend. It’s Fall Festival. We’re all going to go to the fair together and then to the social that night. Are you in?”
Meg smiled. She was really excited about the Fall Festival fair and the social. As Lexi had explained in painstaking detail, there were three kinds of events at Bay West—socials, open houses, and closed parties. They were all held in the Bay West Commons, a two-story building in the center of the development. Socials were the biggest deal. They were massive parties that were thrown several times throughout the year by the Bay West board. Socials were open to everyone.
Meg was excited for her first big community event. “I’m definitely up for going. The only thing is, I’m going to this pre-party at Jesse’s before.”
“Oh, right, I forgot about that.” Lexi’s tone was unconvincing.
“But let’s go to the fair together, then I’ll go to her place and meet you guys over at the Commons. Sound like a plan?”
“Sounds good.” Lexi nodded.
“Speaking of Jesse, how is your internship going?”
“It’s fine. The lawyer I’m assigned to is kind of a bitch, but other than that, it’s pretty uneventful.”
“What about the whole Jesse situation? Is it weird working for her because she lives here and everything?” Meg asked.
“I haven’t even seen her much since that one meeting. I guess I made a big deal over it for no reason.”
“Well, that’s good, right?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Lexi fidgeted uncomfortably, avoiding eye contact. Her body language suggested there was way more to this story than she was giving up, and Meg was dying to find out what it was. But she could sense that tonight was not the night for it, so she let the conversation drift back to the previous topic.
“So, how crowded does this party get?”
“It’ll be packed.” Lexi seemed to be relieved to change the topic. “The board does a whole marketing push for it in the lesbian community.”
“Yeah? Is it like all the same people that you see at The Kitchen and Cubby Hole?” Meg asked, referencing the two most popular girl bars in the city.
“I don’t know. I’ve never been to any of the socials before. I never had anybody to go with. Friends, I mean.” Lexi looked almost embarrassed to admit it.
“See, I knew there was a virgin in there somewhere.” Meg laughed, reaching out and poking Lexi.
Swatting her hand away, Lexi shot back playfully, “How’s your sex life, by the way?”
“Terrible. That’s why I’m so interested in yours,” Meg joked. “Seriously, it’s like nonexistent.” Meg paused and then felt the need to explain. “I just got out of a relationship. Before I moved here. So I’m kind of taking it easy on the dating front.” She hoped that made it sound like a choice.
“What happened? With your girlfriend?” Lexi said, not letting her off the hook.
“Nothing really. I think that was the problem.” Meg got up to get a glass of water. Talking about Becca still made her uncomfortable, mostly because she felt like the last one to realize that their relationship was a joke.
“Hmm?” Lexi prompted for more detail.
“We dated for two and a half years. Sort of,” she mused, as her glass filled. “Maybe on and off is a more accurate description.” She shut off the tap and leaned back against the sink. “I think, now, she really considered us friends that whole time. You know, friends who hook up.” She shrugged, making light of it. “I guess that’s what it was for her. Anyway, I thought it worked—I mean, I thought we were just taking our time. But at some point, like way after everyone else, I realized that it was never going to go any further.” Meg sighed, looking straight through her glass to the floor.
“Not over her, huh?”
Meg shrugged and sipped her water.
“Well, I think it’s time for you to get back out there.” Lexi punctuated the statement with a nod for emphasis.
“I don’t know. Maybe I should take it easy for a while. I have a lot on my plate. New job, new house.”
Lexi shook her head. “Excuses. Meet up with us at the social. Julie’s friends are coming in from New Jersey. Maybe you’ll like one of them.”
Meg couldn’t help but smile at Lexi’s determination. “All right. I’m in.” There had never been any doubt that she was going, but it felt good to have a set plan, and a friend looking out for her.
Lexi slid off the stool and headed for the back door. “Back to your project. I’ll let myself out. See you Saturday.”
