Chapter Two
“I start Monday morning. I’m so excited!
They’re gonna work me up front to start, but I’m sure after a while I’ll get to spend time in the kitchen.
” Sid looked down into her mobile screen at the shadowed face staring back at her.
“If you think about it, since they hired me it means business is good so Tish will have to let me help.”
“I’m happy for you, Sid, but don’t get stuck doing a job you don’t want. If you hit a glass ceiling, have a plan. Damn, where the hell are you?” The scene on her phone shifted back and forth, and the man on the other end squinted.
Sid looked over her shoulder to seek whatever activity her brother presumably caught.
She’d come to The Woolf’s Den, a gay bar on the outskirts of town with a higher lesbian patronage than the rest, to indulge in a celebratory cocktail.
With Wyoming two hours behind her, she thought to make a quick call to Roman and apprise him of her progress on the employment front.
Looking down the bar counter, she saw nothing that appeared out of place, just people sipping drinks after a long day.
She turned back to Roman’s miniaturized face. “I’m out having a martini. It’s the weekend, after all.”
“Lezzie bar?” Roman grinned a full set of teeth, and Sid huffed.
She’d come out as bisexual to her family in high school, yet her brother teased her with good nature every chance he got.
Clearly his idea of such a place included hot women in thongs serving whipped cream body shots to everybody who walked through the door.
Not that she didn’t appreciate the kinds of movies Roman watched to get that idea in the first place, but she liked socializing among all women.
The Woolf’s Den was a classy place with great food, patronized by all kinds of people.
“Yeah. The nude ramen noodle wrestling tournament ended before I called you. Sorry.”
Roman pushed out an exhausted laugh. “Whatevs, sis. Get your kicks however you want. Listen, you let me know when you get promoted. I want to see my little sis on the Food Network winning a cake war. I gotta motor. Talk later in the week?”
“Will do. Love you.” She rang off without saying goodbye and sipped her drink.
The bartender had made her Cosmo a bit heavy on the vanilla vodka as she requested, and it cut the tartness of the cranberry juice.
Sid checked out the taller woman’s lingering stare when she’d set the dewy glass in front of her.
When not using her phone, she fixed her gaze on two bottles high on the shelf, as though discerning the liqueurs The Woolf’s Den offered.
She’d bounced between the beach and Dareville over the last few years, having come to Virginia to earn her culinary school degree, yet still felt like the new girl in town who couldn’t make her way around.
Outside of classmates she saw regularly and a few baristas at her favorite coffee joint, Sid knew few people, and she wouldn’t exactly consider those men and women friends.
Tonight marked her first actual visit to the Den, and even here she had trouble making eye contact with the staff to order a lousy drink.
She sighed. She needed to work on her shyness, of course, if she expected to impress Tish Richmond.
Manning the counter of a busy shop meant answering questions from customers and communicating often with the kitchen.
If her new boss suspected discomfort every time Sid turned her face away from somebody, she might question if Sid could represent them on the sales floor.
It also mattered to her that people didn’t mind having a member of the LGBTQ community ring up their chocolate orders…not that she’d introduce herself that way. Hi, I’m Sid. I’m bi. Would you like to try our chocolate-dipped toffee bites?
Coming out in a small Wyoming town proved to be an adventure, to say the least. Not everybody expressed support, and she imagined the people back home thought she moved away to avoid a scandal.
In truth, she wanted to live near the sea.
She found affordable prospects in California, closer to home, but a pastry chef friend had graduated from Hancock, and Sid trusted her recommendation.
She sipped deeply from her martini glass and flagged down the bartender for a refill. The alcohol helped a bit this time. She didn’t flinch when the woman rewarded her with a wink.
Sid then looked down the bar at a couple in an intimate clinch, and she realized they shared the same barstool. Oh, my. The woman with her dark hair swept into a ponytail supported her lighter, blonder companion on her lap, and they laughed and kissed, oblivious to the world around them.
How easy did that look? Find a mate, get busy in a bar, and go home to a night of unbridled passion and orgasms. Sid had plenty of memories to savor on cold, lonely nights, romps with willing ladies in the years between getting her B.A.
in Wyoming and Hancock, but she preferred the real thing.
When she did get lucky, it happened after slow courtships. No wham bams for her.
She could use a good hard bam tonight.
Perhaps if she swallowed back her fears and came to the Den more often, somebody with a thing for tallish, petite girls might approach her. As it appeared now, though, everybody seemed paired off for the night.
Except…
The kissy couple slid off the stool in an awkward tango toward the dance floor, revealing a familiar yet stooped figure.
Kit Cheever from the shop stabbed her thumbs on her phone screen and shook her head.
Either she texted a date who stood her up, or a green video game pig thwarted her attempt at a high score, she looked that irritated.
Oh, goody! At first sight of the ginger brown-haired cutie in the park, slender in yellow and black plaid pants and a white t-shirt with the Tish’s Riches, she had hoped to spot a potential playmate. Kit still rocked the pants but now had on a black Eisenhower jacket over a different white shirt.
In her head, however, her conscience nagged at her in Roman’s voice. You think that’s a good idea? Flirting with a new co-worker, especially since you haven’t started the job?
Sid considered the consequences of such actions, and pondered the different avenues one hello in a gay bar might spur.
She sidles up next to Kit and is politely declined.
She sidles up next to Kit and they hook up, but end on a sour note when the work/dating dynamic fails to mesh.
She sidles up next to Kit right about the time the person she’s texting shows up, and Sid becomes the third wheel on their date night. Or, if they’re adventurous, the third in their bed.
Nah. Kit didn’t give off that vibe. If she was seeing somebody, judging from the look on her face, Sid guessed it wouldn’t be for much longer.
She’d never mixed personal and professional aspects of her life, either, but as her conscience chattered in her brain another thought in her own voice spoke over it.
Was it possible that keeping these worlds separate attributed to her single status?
What if she and Kit hooked up, got on well at the shop, and enjoyed each other for a long time afterward?
One way to find out.
Sid grabbed her fresh drink and stood. Time to practice extroverting.
~*~
Dafuq are you? demanded Annalise’s text, which came with a not-so-smiley icon.
At the Den for the last twenty minutes, waiting on you. Where else would a self-respecting lesbian in Southeastern Virginia come on a weekend night for a drink? Hung up at work?
No, I’m at Rumors. Nickel beer night. Get ur ass over here!
“Rumors? I’m not going to the fucking beach.
” Driving more than an hour to a bar defeated the whole point of drinking.
Why was Annalise there when the Den existed?
Yeah, Rumors was a popular LBGTQ establishment, but it catered mainly to older men.
Kit had gone there once with Annalise to see a drag revue, and the regulars acted coolly towards them.
They nursed watered-down whiskey sours that took forever for the waiter to bring, and none of the pool tables opened up for them to play.
Like hell was she leaving now, friend or no friend. Annalise’s behavior of late puzzled her, and before Kit began her next text to inquire about the change of venue she spied a familiar figure in her peripheral vision. Well hell. Question answered.
Cory sidled up to the bar next to her, twining her fingers into a large ball. “Saw your pictures on the ‘gram today,” Annalise’s ex called out to her over the music. “I’m sorry I missed you at that party in the park, whatever they call it.”
“Oh, it was crazy mobbed. We sold out with two hours to go, but couldn’t leave right afterward.
Too many people asking questions and stuff.
” Exhaustion had claimed Kit thanks to that event.
She almost didn’t make it to the Den, and wanted to stay home and crash, but Annalise insisted on hanging out.
Cory’s presence, however, well compensated for Annalise’s neglect.
“That’s cool.” Cory nodded and waved as the bartender set down a beer bottle. “I have to come by your store next week. Denise loves y’all’s chocolate popcorn.”
“Denise?” Kit’s heart sank as Cory nodded over toward a corner booth. A lovely femme, dressed to the nines in a red cocktail dress and matching heels, watched them with smoldering interest.
“Met her here last weekend,” Cory said. “We really hit it off.”
Of course they did. Of course a boi with stunning looks and a great job wouldn’t stay unattached long in a bar full of love-hungry ladies. Caught on the one Saturday night Kit elected to take in a movie. Damn it! Why hadn’t Annalise said anything about breaking up with Cory when it happened?
She bet this Denise didn’t have a problem with public displays of affection, either. Why not? She could see why the woman attracted Cory.