Meteorologist

  Removed 2 lines of dialogue about Maddy between Sarah and Emily outside of dressing room. That conversation was supposed to have context from this chapter, but I got the orders mixed up while editing. Either way, it's not super important

  [colpse]

  The first thing I noticed when I awoke was the stickiness. My skin was a sweaty mess everywhere, but my inner thigh felt like someone had spilled maple syrup all over and tried to clean it off with a stick of butter – it was gross. The second thing that I noticed was that my stomach hurt, but I assumed I was just hungry and my thoughts quickly moved on.

  As I sat up and looked around the dark room, I mented that I needed to wash the sheets yet again, as well as the fact that I’d slept past Luna’s arm. According to the time on my phone, I still had about ten minutes before she would leave, so even if we didn’t have time for a proper conversation, I could still say hi and get a kiss and a hug – hopefully.

  I frowned when I passed by the dark and empty bathroom, my concern growing when I saw that the lights in the main room were off. I flipped the switch and blinked away the brightness, my concern quickly becoming dread as I searched the couch and kitchen for Luna, but found them empty.

  My stomach clenched, worsening the ache there, and my tired eyes attempted to muster tears, but failed because of how dehydrated I was.

  “Fuck,” I muttered, stumbling back to the bedroom where I remembered there being a gss of water for me. Thoughts of where Luna could be ran through my mind as I moved.

  Is she out getting breakfast? Did she run away? Did someone kidnap her?

  All of those thoughts stopped when I flipped the light on in the bedroom, revealing a brownish red stain in the middle of the sheets. I stared at it, blinking.

  Nausea swirled in my gut as I slowly looked down. There, on my inner thigh, right where I’d felt the stickiness earlier, was dried blood.

  “Shit,” I hissed.

  My vision swam and I colpsed partially onto the bed, using my arms to support myself – I did not deal with blood well, not to mention… everything else going on.

  As I scrambled for my phone, sobs began wracking my body – I didn’t know what exactly I was feeling other than an overwhelming sense of ‘this sucks’.

  Madline picked up on the third ring, “Hey, Sarah. What’s up?”

  I sniffled, trying to compose myself. “I need help,” I whined.

  Concern bled into her voice. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m…” I gnced down at the bloodstain and the semen dried on my thighs, wondering how I was supposed to expin this. “Period,” I managed, speaking quietly.

  “Oh!” She paused for a moment. “What exactly do you need?”

  “Everything!” I snapped, “I can’t handle this, not after she just abandoned me…” My anger quickly fell to despair, and I sighed, trying to collect myself.

  “Okay, okay,” my sister responded. “I’ll be there in about an hour or so, in the meantime, drink some water, take some Advil or whatever, and lie down – can you do that for me?”

  I nodded silently, before remembering she couldn’t see me. “Yeah, thanks sis. I’m sorry I’m being such a pain.” My thoughts briefly ran away with visions of me driving away Maddy just as I’d driven away Luna, but I stopped it, grounding myself with the ache in my stomach and my head.

  “Don’t worry about it, Sarah – I’ve got you and we’re going to handle this just okay. I’m going to head out now, I’ll see you in an hour. Text me if you need anything.”

  “Okay,” I murmured, waiting for her to hang up before I dropped the phone from my furry ear and sighed.

  This sucks…

  —

  I was curled up on the couch, menting the cruelness of the world and my own inadequacy, when Madeline knocked on the door. I stumbled over, thankful I’d managed to get myself to shower – while shapeshifting my hair away so I didn’t have to bother washing it, something that made me almost as uncomfortable as temporarily getting rid of my ears and tail.

  I swung the door open, taking a quick gnce at my sister and the bulging grocery bag she was carrying, before turning around and plopping right back onto the couch under a stack of fuzzy bnkets.

  “Oh my,” she let out in pce of a greeting, closing the door behind her and setting down her bag in the entryway. She sat down on the edge of the couch, looking down at my miserable face with concern. “Are you— Well obviously you aren’t okay,” she ughed nervously, “What’s wrong?”

  I grumbled, grabbing her hand and sticking it above my head pointedly, waiting for her to begin petting me to respond. Having my sister touch my ears was vastly different from Emily, Melody, or Luna doing so, although it was still very enjoyable. It was like the difference between hugging them; a hug with Luna and a hug with Maddy could both be described as ‘loving’, but the context and connotation was completely different.

  Once I’d mustered up enough good feelings, I spoke. “Well I feel like shit, and I think I drove Luna away so…”

  “Okay, okay,” she sighed, continuing to ruffle my hair and rub my ears. “Start from the beginning – what exactly happened?”

  “Well…”

  “C’mon sis, don’t be shy – I’m an adult, I can handle it.” She raised an eyebrow, knowing.

  “We had sex…” I mumbled.

  “Oh! That’s a good thing, right?” Her excitement dissipated. “Why’s that not a good thing?”

  I scrunched my eyes shut, holding back another round of tears. “She was kind of distant when we… and then she just disappeared this morning – I got up like twenty minutes before she usually leaves!”

  “And did you two talk about your feelings, or have any kind of discussion about what would happen between you two going forwards?”

  “No…”

  Madeline sighed, “Sarah, Luna loves you. Only she can say whether that love is romantic or ptonic, but she would not do something if she knew it would hurt you. You two need to have a nice long conversation when she gets home from work, but for now, I promise she cares deeply about you and whatever is going on in her head is different from the worst-case scenario you have going on in your mind.”

  I sat with that for a moment, trying to sort through my feelings. I knew my hormones were messing with my emotions, but it still felt like my reaction was pretty reasonable – why wouldn’t I be distraught about her not staying to talk to me about what had happened? Unfortunately, I didn’t want to get into the specifics of Luna coming inside me with my sister, so I settled on taking a deep breath and enjoying her pets.

  “Alright, what else do you need, Sarah? Do you think you can stomach some chocote?”

  After I nodded, she stood, taking her precious pets with her as she rummaged through her grocery bag on the way back. I whined as she sat back down and began unwrapping the bitter treat, but she just ughed, saying, “I need both hands for this, I’ll go back to petting you in a second.”

  I hummed in assent, content for a moment with being a bratty nuisance.

  Soon after, Madeline had gotten me to rest my head in her p while she watched tv, petting me with one hand and using the other to occasionally feed me pieces of chocote.

  “You’re the best sister ever, I love you Maddy,” I murmured, my emotional fatigue becoming physical.

  “I love you too, Sarah,” she smiled.

  —

  When I woke for a second time that day, Madeline wasn’t on the couch anymore and Snuffles had curled up next to me. I yawned, sitting up and looking around as I took stock of how I felt. My cramps had gone down a bit and my headache was mostly gone, but I was hungry and thirsty, and the possibility that my sister brought ice cream dragged me into the kitchen to search.

  While I was scooping the vegan mint chip into a bowl, my sister entered the room, waving when she saw me. “Hey, Sarah. How are you feeling?”

  “Better,” I said, blushing at the memories of how I’d been acting. “Thank you Maddy, I’m sorry I was being such a bitch to you…”

  She ughed, grabbing herself a bowl and a little bit of ice cream for herself once I was done. “Don’t worry about it, I’d rather be here than sleeping through css.”

  I spped my forehead, groaning, “I made you miss css?!”

  My sister ughed again, leaning up against the counter across from where I’d sat at the dining table. “I promise it’s fine – I’m not missing anything and you’re more important than school anyways.”

  “If you say so…” I grumbled, “But if you ever need help feeding yourself while you’re busy working on assignments or studying, feel free to call me up – I owe you one.”

  “Alright,” she said, “But you’re fine? Cramps aren’t killing you? Feel better about Luna?”

  “Mostly better,” I hedged, twisting my lips as I basked in uncertain feelings and minty, chocotey coldness. “I’m worried, but it feels manageable at least – and my cramps are… there, but I’m a big girl; I can deal with that.”

  “Good – I picked up some heating pads on my way over, so try those out if it gets worse. Oh! And I cleaned up your sheets, they’re in the dryer,” she said, pointing out the door and down the hall. “I can show you how to get stains out if you need, but I figured you probably didn’t want to deal with that right now.”

  I blushed, mortified that my sister had dealt with my sex-stained sheets. “Maddy, you really didn’t have to do that…”

  She rolled her eyes, pinning me with an unimpressed look. “Sis, I’ve dealt with more than my fair share of bloody sheets and messy post-sex sheets. I’m not a little kid.”

  I sighed, mollified. “Thank you again…”

  “Don’t worry about it,” she said, waving off my concerns. “Now what do you want to do now? Pets and tv? Gossip about women?”

  Snuffles meowed from across the room, reminding us of which option she’d prefer.

  I sighed, “I just don’t even know what I’m supposed to do – not just with Luna, I mean. Like I love her and everything, but I don’t want to ruin our friendship and I’m worried that I’ve already done that – and then there’s…” I hesitated, not wanting to get into my work with my sister. “There’s an ex of mine that’s kind of back in the picture, and one of our mutual friends who I also kind of went on a date with is interested in Luna… And, like, I’d throw everything to the wind if it meant Luna would return my feelings, but I don’t even know if she does, and everything else is just so…”

  My sister blinked, staring at me with a bnk expression. “Okay, that’s a lot to take in…” After a moment of thinking, she continued, “Have you talked with any of them about it?” When I shook my head, she gave me a pointed look. “Okay, talking is a start – especially with Luna – but if you and Luna do end up working out some kind of retionship, why not ask about polyamory? It sounds to me like that’d resolve a lot of your issues, no?”

  I shook my head instinctually, saying, “No, I’m not–” I cut myself off from saying I wasn’t polyamorous, wondering why I thought that about myself. I’d heard of being poly years ago – it wasn’t that uncommon for gay men – but at some point, I’d decided that I had no interest in juggling more than one retionship with a man…

  “Shit,” I cursed.

  “Well it seems like you figured something out…” Maddy snarked. “I’m curious about those two you mentioned: your ex and their friend? Unless you have something else to talk about?”

  “No that’s fine,” I grumbled, still upset with myself for not reconsidering how I approached retionships after how much my understanding of myself had changed.

  The two of us put our bowls in the sink and moved to the couch, me sitting on the end and my sister sitting between me and Snuffles.

  “So, Melody…” I started, “We met one of the first times I went out like this – I was clothes shopping – and we went on a date together. She’s cute and smart and really interesting – but I don’t know that much about her. Our retionship got ruined when I lied about my shapeshifting – but we’re friends now.”

  “Hmm.” Maddy leaned over onto my shoulder and moved my tail into her p, brushing one of her hands through the fur.

  “Emily is her roommate, my coworker, and also my ex-girlfriend from a few years back,” I ughed, realising how absurd it was as I was saying it. “Um, she’s more of a confident tomboy and she’s really really hot.”

  “Oh!” Maddy let out, “You mean Emily Beaumont? I know her.” She turned to me, surprise on her face.

  Oh no, please tell me she doesn’t know where Emily works…

  I cringed. “How?”

  “Well I met her when you two were dating, and then we ran into each other not that long ago when I was at a thing,” she said flippantly, “we chatted and we’re kind of friends now.”

  I let out an internal sigh at her not mentioning where we worked. My eyes narrowed, “You two never dated, right?”

  She ughed, shaking her head, “No, I wouldn’t date your ex, and I’m probably too young for her anyways. I definitely agree with your assessment though…”

  “Yeah…” I said, thinking about Emily and my feelings for her. “I hate feelings…”

  “It’s okay, Sarah, you’ll figure it out…” She patted my tail reassuringly.

  I sighed and rested my head on her shoulder, quickly dozing off for a second time while nebulous feelings swirled in my head.

  —

  My short nap was interrupted by the sounds of the door unlocking and opening, my eyes opening just in time to watch Luna inch through the door and immediately notice me with a half-suppressed wince.

  “Hey, Sarah,” she said shyly, before her eyes darted to my sister and widened. “Madeline?!”

  “Okay,” my sister said, slipping off of the couch and heading towards the door. “I’m going to let you two work this out – my job here is done.” She sent me a pointed look and a wave, even as I begged her with my eyes to stay.

  “Thank you Maddy,” I reluctantly called after her as she left.

  Luna entered, dropped her purse, and removed her shoes, watching us with confusion. “Why was she here? What’s that?” she asked, gesturing towards the bag my sister had left for me, including menstrual products and pain relievers.

  “Uh…” I gnced at Snuffles, wishing she would expin the situation for me. I suppressed a ugh, realising why Maddy had left so quickly. “I had a rough morning, so I called her. My first period came.”

  “Oh,” she let out. “Are you okay? Why didn’t you call me? What about your birth control?” She strode over to the back of the couch, reaching out to pet my head, but she hesitated, ultimately pulling her hand back.

  I ignored her questions. “You were gone this morning,” I said, letting sadness bleed into my voice and staring at her pointedly.

  “I…” She walked around the couch to sit next to me, sighing. “I slept on the couch st night and left early in the morning because I needed to apologise for what I did. I’m sorry for what happened st night, I shouldn't have done that, especially when you’re still figuring yourself out.”

  My brow furrowed. “What are you talking about? I came onto you – and by the end you didn’t even seem into it. If you regret it then that's fine I guess, but you have nothing to apologise for.”

  “But you… You still don’t identify as trans. You’re still getting used to your new hormones. It’s irresponsible for me to do anything to you when you’re still unsure of yourself.”

  I gred. “I’m not some bumbling teenager, Luna – I’m perfectly capable of consenting to sex, and insinuating that my identity has anything to do with that is condescending.”

  “No, that’s not–”

  “Then what, Luna, what were you trying to say?” I interrupted.

  She covered her face with both hands. “I think you might’ve been in heat and I took advantage of that,” she stammered.

  My mouth hung open. “Luna, I’m not an actual cat!”

  “I know that, but you were acting weird and we don’t really know how your shapeshifting affects you…”

  “I was acting horny, Luna, because I was turned on – because you’re really fucking attractive!” I shook my head, leaning back into the couch and trying to wrap my mind around what was going on.

  Before she could respond, I continued, waving my hand in front of me. “Look, sorry I yelled at you. I feel like you’re being really patronising and you’re talking past me right now. The way you treated me when we were having sex and the fact that you avoided me afterwards hurt me, and I’m left with the impression that you regretted it.”

  After a moment of thinking, Luna asked, “What did Maddy say?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “She said to talk to you…?”

  “And you told her that we…?” At my nod she continued, “Huh. Uh, how do I say this?”

  She let out a long breath before trying again, “I… When you first showed me a picture of Sarah, I was like, ‘wow I’m so jealous, she’s my dream woman,’ and then when I first met you and realised what was happening…”

  She continued after a shaky ugh., “Well it was too good to be true, right? My best friend gets magic powers and transforms into this beautiful woman? And then you come out and it’s real – and you’re also so much more you without dysphoria…”

  “But you’ve got so much going on and I’m living in your apartment,” she was practically pleading, tears beginning to spill from her eyes, “And all of my retionships have been complete fucking disasters – hell, I couldn’t even keep my hands to myself until you were sure of yourself; I’m no better than Emily.”

  I pulled her into a loose hug, resting her face on my colrbone as she spilled more tears. I thought about our retionship and the anxieties Luna has from being kicked out of her previous apartment.

  Is it really worth the risk to come out and tell her my feelings? Sure, she’s admitted she’s attracted to me, but I could just as easily drive her away, and then our peaceful little home life together would break…

  I took a few deep breaths and finally said, “Luna, I’m in love with you.”

  She let out a slight gasp. “What?”

  I cringed at her response – that was not exactly what I’d been hoping for. “I think that’s the only thing that matters here – I can not imagine being apart from you, and I’d do anything if it meant the two of us getting closer. But, just for the sake of crity, I am sure of myself. When’s the st time I shapeshifted? Other than getting rid of my hair this morning so I could take a faster shower, I used my powers once at my mom’s house as a demonstration and then… I don’t even remember the time before that – I’m very sure that I like my body.”

  “How can you be in love with me? You realised you were attracted to women less than a month ago,” she protested.

  “I don’t know,” I shook my head, “I haven’t figured out all of my feelings from before, and I’m not sure I ever will – but right now, I am more than sure that I love you.” There was something freeing about just saying it, even if the conversation wasn’t going very well.

  “It’s not just weird shapeshifting hormones?” When I shook my head, she continued, “But…” she trailed off, unable to find another reason why it couldn’t be true.

  I sighed, “Luna, it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way – you’re still more than welcome to stay here as long as you need.” I turned away, holding back tears.

  “That’s not… I–” she stammered. She grabbed my face with both hands, cupping my cheeks and turning me to face her. Then, she leaned forwards, and, before I had processed what was going on, her lips pressed into mine.

  I squirmed with wide eyes, pulling away from her with a wince, “What the hell?”

  “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I thought…” She cringed, curling in on herself.

  “You– Luna, just talk to me,” I said, trying not to be frustrated even as my body started to ache again.

  “I… I’ve liked you for a long time,” she managed.

  I blinked, trying not to feel a sense of anticlimax. “Okay…?”

  She nodded, but remained silent, with her hands in her p. Snuffles meowed behind her, finally getting up and leaving the couch after being unable to continue watching our awkward dispy.

  “So, did you want to try dating each other…?” I asked, hesitant.

  Luna hesitated, but ultimately nodded, saying, “Yes… I’m still scared that you’ll get sick of me, but… I can try.”

  I threw myself into her arms, pushing her back to y out on the couch with an ‘oof’. I wrapped my arms around her back, pressing my face into her chest and enjoying the moment as she began stroking my back.

  After a few moments of silence, I turned my face so I could speak. “There’s still so much stuff we have to talk about…” I sighed.

  “Hmm?”

  “Well we should talk about my job again, and I should talk to you about polyamory – not that I’m dating anyone else right now – and then there’s the fact that you didn’t use a condom st night…”

  “Wait, why does that st one matter?”

  I peeled away from her slightly to stare into her eyes, incredulous. “I’m pretty sure I can get pregnant, Luna.”

  She stared back, confused. “Oh, did you not know? I had an orchiectomy – I can’t…”

  “Oh.” I slumped back down, my tail going from frazzled and pointing up to drooping behind me while motionless. Shame bubbled in my gut as tears began welling up my eyes.

  It was such a stupid thing to be upset about – of course it would be a terrible idea for Luna and I to have a kid right now. Our retionship had just started, and I wouldn’t be able to go to work, meaning she would be stuck at the job she hated… It was obviously a good thing that she couldn’t accidentally get me pregnant.

  But at the same time, through the whole day, I’d been thinking that Luna had done that on purpose, that she’d made the same deliberate choice of intimacy – and finding out that wasn’t the case was like a cold bucket of water on my dreams.

  “Sarah, I’m so sorry. I feel like I’ve been a bumbling fool and—”

  I interrupted, “If you say ‘and this is why we shouldn’t date,’ I’m going to murder you.” I looked up and pouted at her with tear-stained eyes.

  “I’m sorry…” She resumed stroking my back and used her other hand to brush her fingers through my tail.

  I sighed, feeling a little bit better now that I’d cried myself out – although we still had a lot of things to deal with. “I think I’m going to go hole up in bed – my body feels terrible and I’m exhausted. Take your time doing whatever you need to this evening, but I’d appreciate it if you spooned me ter tonight.”

  “Of course, Sarah. I…” She paused and then blew out a long breath. “Is there anything else you need?”

  I sat up, staring at her uncertain expression. I hated seeing her like this – stressed and unsure of expressing her feelings. It felt to me like there was something she was holding back, and it hurt that I wasn’t good enough for her to let me hear it. I leaned back down briefly, brushing my lips against hers. “I love you, Luna,” I said, before standing, grabbing the bag that Maddy left, and scurrying off into the bedroom.

  —

  When I woke up, the lingering feelings from the nightmare I’d had made me tense, ready to find that Luna had packed up her stuff and moved out while I was asleep. I immediately rexed, however, when Luna’s arms tightened around me, keeping me pulled into her as she softly breathed behind me.

  Her arms were around my middle, my tail was sticking out between her legs, and both of us were sweaty with the dual heat of each other’s bodies under the covers – but I’d never felt better. Luna, my girlfriend, was cuddling with me, and that may as well have been the best thing that ever happened to me.

  I basked in my sappy feelings for a moment before Luna stirred behind me, a dozen minutes ahead of her arm as usual.

  “Morning,” she murmured, her voice dry and husky with sleepiness.

  “Morning, love,” I preened back, massive smile splitting my face. When she loosened her grip around me slightly, I spun to face her and peppered her face with kisses, pausing before switching from her cheek to her jawline, asking, “Is this okay?”

  “Very,” she sighed, closing her eyes and humming as I made my way down her jaw and to her neck. Eventually she interrupted me, smiling and saying, “As much as I love this, I’m not going to have time to make you pancakes if I don’t get out of bed now…”

  “Pancakes?” I asked, sitting up slightly and twitching my ears.

  “I threw together some mix st night so I could make you breakfast this morning. I know yesterday was a mess and I’m doing a bad job at this, but I really do like you…”

  “That’s so sweet,” I sighed.

  She ughed, “C’mon little vixen, let me go take a shower.” Her smile abruptly fell. “Is it okay if I call you that?”

  I nodded, “Of course – it’s cute.”

  She rexed, giving my cheek one kiss in return before getting out of bed and throwing together her outfit for the day. “I’ll be right back.”

  It did take a while for her to get ready, but I didn’t mind. She had to shower and shave and blow dry her hair and put on makeup… It was a lot.

  She came back into the bathroom and gave me another kiss on the cheek – for this one I could see her shy expression – before leading me out to the dining table and starting on the pancakes.

  They didn’t turn out perfectly – the first one was a little underdone and the rest overcompensated slightly – but sitting next to Luna as we each snuck shy looks at the other in between bites, it was the greatest breakfast I’d ever eaten.

  “Um, I still have time before I have to leave,” she said in the middle of our meal, “If you wanted to talk about the stuff we didn’t get to yesterday?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I wanted to talk about my work first – how do you feel about all that, if we’re dating?”

  “Um, I’m fine with it, but I would appreciate it if you talked to me about your coworkers and were honest about how it all felt. I trust you, but…”

  “I get it, after what Candice did…”

  “Yeah,” she said, looking down.

  “So, um, on that same vein I guess,” I started. “My sister suggested that I bring up polyamory. I love you, and that’s not going to change, but I do have other feelings and I would maybe want to try something along those lines at some point… So how would you feel about me dating someone else or you dating someone else? Like Emily or Melody,” I added, not crifying who would be dating who.

  Luna paused, thinking. “If you’d been saying this about some stranger, I’d probably say no, I wasn’t comfortable with that, but Emily and Melody…” She sighed. “While I’m open to polyamory, I'm not sure about having separate retionships with other people. It seems like a lot, and I don’t know if I could handle it. But maybe if we both had a retionship with the same person…” She trailed off, thinking. “But our retionship is very new so I don’t know.”

  “Okay, I can work with that. So, just so we’re on the same page, maybe, once we’ve figured our retionship out more, we could try dating someone else? But for now, because of my job, we have like a semi-open retionship?”

  “Yeah, I guess…. I feel bad because I feel like I’m holding you back. There’s no way they’d be interested in me, so it’s like I’m just saying no with extra steps.”

  “Luna,” I chastised, “Don’t make me keep you home sick from work and show you just how attractive you are…” Unfortunately, as much as I wished that was possible, I wasn’t even sure my body was up for anything sexual at the moment, even if Luna didn't have work.

  She blushed. “Sorry… To be clear, I do like them, and I could see something working out… but it just seems so hard.”

  I leaned over and sneaked a quick peck on her cheek. “If it doesn’t work out then that’s fine, we still have each other.” I held back another decration of love, feeling like I was pushing her too hard. “Thanks for the breakfast, it means a lot to me.”

  “Oh no, it’s no big deal, you cook for me all the time.”

  “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. Anyways, I should talk a bit more about Emily, because we’re probably going to be filming again soon.”

  “Oh?” She raised an eyebrow, seemingly comfortable with the topic despite my expectations.

  “So she’s attractive, obviously, and the st time we filmed… It was intense. We were doing some kind of rolepy as lovers and towards the end, she said she loved me, and even though it was acting… She’s a really good actress.”

  Luna nodded, staring off into space. “Yeah, it made my heart pound too, not to mention the look on your face…”

  I stared across the table, struggling to understand her comment, especially with how nonchant she’d said it. After a moment my eyes widened. “Wait, you’ve seen it?!”

  “Oh, yeah,” she winced. “I hope that’s okay…?”

  “Yeah… I didn’t even know the video was out yet…” I shook my head, not knowing how to feel about that. The idea of her watching me wasn’t bad, but it was kind of mortifying. I’d barely gotten used to the idea of performing for strangers I’d never see, and so I wasn’t prepared to hear about someone I cared so much about seeing me at my most embarrassing, not that I didn’t want her to see.

  I shook my head, resolving to think about all of that ter. “So my point was that I’m interested in Emily, but I don’t really know what she’s thinking – that was one of our issues when we dated – so I’m nervous about working together with her again. Our boss thinks we have good chemistry and anything will work out, but…”

  “I think she’s right,” Luna said, surprising me again. “You two did have really good chemistry, and even when she came over here, she was really good at flirting with you – and that’s not me being jealous or anything, that’s just fact.”

  “Yeah, I guess. She was good at flirting with you too, though,” I pointed out.

  Luna blinked. “What? She never flirted with me.”

  “Oh my god, yes she did!” I rolled my eyes, “She was all like, ‘Luna you’re so pretty and special and I’m so gd you watch my videos.’ And that is me being jealous, I was scared you two were going to date and I was going to watch on, bitter and sad.”

  “Oh,” she let out. “I thought… Well…”

  “Useless…” I muttered under my breath.

  “Hey!” she protested, ughing and getting out of her seat. She grabbed both our ptes and took them to the sink to wash. “It’s not fair when your sister gave you all her best tips – all she ever tells me is ‘talk to them, maybe you should tell them how you feel, Luna.’” She rolled her eyes.

  I stifled a ugh, “And did you ever listen to her?”

  “No, obviously not – and I refuse to believe that’s my fault.” Despite her best efforts a sly smile escaped out onto her face.

  While she went off to the bathroom to brush her teeth and touch up her makeup, I stayed seated, letting the positive feelings flow through me. Luna and I still got along, everything was fine – and we were dating. That was so cool.

  When she came back, sighing at having to leave, I gave her a hug and a peck on the lips. “I’m going to miss you.”

  “You’re worse than Snuffles,” she smiled, rolling her eyes. “I’ll miss you too, don’t get up to too many hijinks while I’m gone.”

  “I promise nothing. Bye!” I waved as she closed the door behind her.

  I sighed as soon as she was gone, the room feeling dimmer without her.

  Has that always been the case? Regardless, it’s nice to feel like we’ve finally made some progress… Time to get to pnning our first date.