Chapter Ten
P iper’s place was nice. The shared areas were light and open, but with rich burgundy accents that August could only assume had been added by Piper and Massima. Her room, however, had a different feel altogether. It was warm, modern browns, a thick fabric covering on the wall behind her bed, and the opposite wall was filled with shelves of music—CDs, tapes, records. She had them all, and the players to go with them. Somehow, she’d managed to make the space feel luxurious and cohesive rather than cluttered, despite all of the music on display.
It was the kind of room you got an incredible night’s sleep in. And the sublime mattress she had on her bed only added to that. When August had been lying on it, she’d been thinking about how it was even better than the one she’d spent a good month researching and purchasing.
“What does Massima do?” August asked as she sat at the kitchen table and watched Piper dish spaghetti into handcrafted stoneware bowls.
Piper glanced over her shoulder at August. “Interior designer. Why?”
August smiled. That made sense. “Just curious. Your place is very… put together.”
Piper laughed. “Yeah. It was a bright white canvas when we moved in. Which is fine, but it was that almost clinical version of white. Every single thing was the exact same shade. Cold, you know?”
“Well, it’s not cold now.”
She glanced around her own kitchen as if seeing it for the first time again. “Yeah. We’re lucky they were pretty chill about what we wanted to do—so long as it doesn’t wreck the property value and can be returned to white when we move out.”
“So you let an interior designer go ham?”
She shrugged slightly as she carried their bowls to the table. “Kind of, yeah. I mean, I was plenty involved, but Massima was great at knowing exactly which textures we needed and where. All those things the professionals know.”
“So, now, you get to live in a model home.”
She laughed. “I guess. Bit more lived-in than a show home, don’t you think?”
“I do.” August glanced around. “I like this better.”
“Me too. Predictably, I suppose.”
While they ate, Piper didn’t say anything about the app or the reply August had gotten, but August knew it was a topic they were coming back to. Indeed, once they were done and August had insisted on clearing the plates, Piper made them drinks, led August back into the living room, and grinned mischievously.
“So,” she said, curling her legs up under her as she sat and sipped her drink. “Opening lines…”
“Like, in books or movies?” August asked, avoiding her gaze.
“No,” Piper laughed. “You know what I mean.”
“Ugh. I do. And even a reply doesn’t make me think I’m any better at it than I already thought.”
“You did fine with me.”
“You spoke first. So you have the opening line.”
She bobbed her head from side to side, allowing that. “Fair. I guess.” She pulled her phone out. “Here.”
August stared at the phone she was being handed. It was an awful lot of trust to just hand someone your private messages on a dating app. “Should I…?”
“Yeah. Go ahead.”
She was so relaxed about the whole thing that it confused August. She’d always considered herself a fairly confident person, but she had nothing on the chill Piper had about this whole thing.
She looked down at the messages. It didn’t take long to realize that Piper’s approach was to lunge in like they were already beyond the awkward introductory phase. She zeroed in on something interesting on their profile and jumped right into a conversation about it. It wasn’t something August was unfamiliar with, she’d just never thought to do it with strangers. Sure, she’d read their profiles and comment on things, but it was always so stilted and awkward. However, Piper’s approach was like… how August would text her. Piper just acted like whoever she was messaging was someone she already had an existing dynamic with.
And it worked.
People replied in kind. They weren’t awkward and uncomfortable and floundering for conversation. They matched Piper’s energy and it succeeded.
Well, not all of them, of course. There were a few that didn’t match the energy, and those that completely bypassed it in a bid to more overtly hit on her, or—like with August’s recent reply—those who jumped straight to wanting to meet. But, the general trend was a lot better than what August had been experiencing.
“Not too bad, right?” Piper asked when August finally handed her phone back.
“Yeah, no.” August shook her head. “You’re very good at that.”
She laughed. “Thanks. Think you can handle doing something similar?”
“Maybe?”
“Is that a question?”
“Probably?”
She laughed again. “Okay. We’ll practice.”
“Come again,” August said, her voice flat. “We haven’t been matched.”
In truth, August was still curious why they hadn’t. In real life, they got along so well. She couldn’t imagine what was in their profiles that wasn’t coding them as compatible. And she couldn’t deny that she was desperately curious to know what was in Piper’s profile. Perhaps she could have looked when Piper handed her phone over, but she was supposed to be looking at opening lines, doing anything else felt like it was overstepping.
Piper grinned at her and grabbed one of the remotes off the coffee table. After a couple of taps, music started filtering into the room from speakers that were clearly arranged by someone who understood music and sound dynamics better than the average person.
“This playlist is called ‘Queer Bangers’,” Piper said as she put the remote down. “It’ll help loosen you up.”
“You say that but…”
“I’m very good with music. Trust me.”
“I do,” August said, and she meant it, but she simply stared at Piper.
She’d never gone through the whole ‘practice flirting’ phase with her friends. That wasn’t something they did. And it didn’t feel easier just because she was an adult now. If anything, it felt worse. Far more awkward to need practice as an adult. Teenagers were understandable, they were still figuring out life and adulthood and everything that came with it. And, with how many messages August had sent and continued to send in her life, the fact that she needed to practice with a friend felt mortifying.
But, worse, would be sitting down to another meal with Měilíng and having to admit she was doing no better in her dating life.
She let out a heavy sigh and glanced away. “Okay. Fine. Let’s do this.”
Piper smiled triumphantly. “Great. You’re going to do fantastically, I just know it.”
August grimaced. “Well, at least one of us does.”
Piper shot her an impossibly fond look. “It’s just me. And, you know, if that’s more of a hindrance, pretend it isn’t me.”
August laughed. “So, either lean into the fact it is you, or really, really don’t?”
“Pretty much, yeah. Do what works best.”
“But it won’t be you at the end of the messages I send.”
“Pretend it is while you’re sending your opening line. It’ll help get you out of your head.”
August groaned. “Well, we’ll see if it does. Let’s… try it, I guess.”
She smiled again, pausing before diving in. “Okay, so, I’m going to give you some info that might be in my profile and you just react like I do.”
August nodded. She could do that. Probably.
Piper looked around, considering. “Got it. Since childhood, I’ve been a really big fan of clowns.”
August recoiled. “Clowns?”
Piper shot her a look. “Since the first time I met one at a fair, they’ve fascinated me. The colors, the emotions, the fun style choices… They’re just filled with all of these amazing connections to my family and attending fairs.”
“If this is what’s in your actual profile, I’m no longer surprised we haven’t been matched,” August said, shaking her head.
Piper gave her a pointed look and leaned in a little closer, continuing. “I thought about becoming a clown myself, but I worried that would take the joy out of them. You know, if clowning is your nine-to-five, is it any fun anymore?”
“Ugh. Fine.” August laughed and cleared her throat. “One year, for Halloween, my brother’s best friend dressed up as a clown—he was about seven at the time—but he got really weird with it, chasing everyone and screaming, throwing dirt at them. It was quite the production and made a lot of the adults wonder which movies his parents had been letting him watch. Sort of a funny story now, but I haven’t liked clowns since then. Interesting how our childhood experiences impact us as adults, huh?”
Piper smiled. “Good. Next.”
“Wow. You’re quite the drill sergeant.”
“And don’t you forget it.” She chewed her lip momentarily. “Working out is more than a chore to me. It’s my absolute lifestyle. Every free minute I get, I’m in the gym. It’s like my holy place. There’s nothing I can’t face when I’m pumping iron or running on the treadmill.”
“The way your whole body and voice change…” August said, marveling at just how much Piper was embodying each of her characters.
She met August’s gaze intensely. “The sweat, the burn, the gains. There’s nothing else like it in the world.”
“This morning, I was on the treadmill thinking about how cool it would be to follow in Forrest Gump’s tracks and run that same route. I could just feel the challenge in my bones. And consider how much thinking you’d get done while you ran… Amazing.”
Piper laughed, breaking character. “Now you’re getting it.”
August rolled her eyes. “Thank you.”
They went a few more rounds, and the more they did, the easier the replies came. Sure, they weren’t August, but Piper’s examples weren’t her either. They were caricatures and August’s replies were perfect for that. It was simply an activity in easy conversation.
As Piper downed the last of her drink, a sultry song by FLETCHER filled the space around them, and August noticed how low the light had become and how she and Piper had shifted closer together over their conversation.
Piper put her mug on the table and turned back to August with a look in her eyes that August couldn’t quite place but which made her ridiculously eager to hear what Piper was about to say.
“When I was in college, I went to a music festival with my friends. It was actually the first time I’d seen live music,” she shook her head like it was ridiculous she’d waited that long. “Tegan and Sara were playing. I’m pretty sure that was the moment I really… felt at home in who I was. Just this moment of seeing all these queer people—mostly women—singing along and being part of something so wonderful. If I hadn’t gone to that festival, I don’t know if I’d be the person I am today.”
August took a breath, her chest feeling tighter than it should. This one was real, she knew it. She had no idea if it was part of Piper’s actual profile, but, right there, in that room, it was real.
She couldn’t help but imagine a younger, newly out Piper, staring up at Tegan and Sara like her whole life was changing.
She took another breath, smiling softly. “Tegan and Sara, huh? The ship that launched a thousand queers—not ship like that, just to be clear.”
Piper laughed. “Yeah, who can blame us?”
“Indeed. I’m pretty sure mine was while sneakily watching The L Word , but same idea.”
“Ooh, very similar vibes. And, hey, at least neither of us fell for our straight best friend and had to struggle with that whole thing.”
August laughed. “I didn’t say I didn’t do that.”
Piper jolted, her mouth dropping open as she leaned even closer to August. “You fell for your straight best friend?”
“Eh… Does formerly straight still count?”
“Whoa. You really are just living all the stereotypes, aren’t you?”
“What? We all band together even if we don’t realize it.”
“Clearly.” She laughed. “What happened?”
August screwed her face up momentarily, now feeling awkward about the whole memory. “Well, I was pining for a little bit, came out, and she suddenly… had a lot of questions, made a lot of comments about whether I thought she was pretty, why boys didn’t compliment her as well as I did… You know, the standard experience.”
“Oh, my god,” Piper groaned, covering her face with her hands. “It’s painful just thinking about how much she must have been killing you.”
“Yeah. It was… not great.”
She peeked out from between her fingers at August. “So, what happened then?”
“Um…”
“Tell me.”
“Oh, well, um.” August cleared her throat. “At a friend’s birthday party—just like a sleepover kind of thing—they wanted to play hide and seek.”
“I already love where this is going.”
“Yeah, we… ended up in a tiny utility closet together. You know, pressed close, in the dark, all that tension about being found, and about being so close together.”
“And you kissed?”
“And we kissed.”
“Ahh, I knew it. Who kissed who?”
“Are you kidding? She kissed me. As if my gay little self would have made the first move.”
“You don’t make the first move?”
August felt herself blushing. “No, I do—sometimes—now, but, back then? When I thought she was straight and I was hopeless? Absolutely not.”
“Okay, yeah, fair.” She waved a hand in August’s direction. “So, what then?”
“Um. I guess she liked it because we… kept doing it. For quite a while.”
“Amazing.”
“Indeed. Last I heard, she’s still dating women, so, you know, not so straight after all.”
Piper laughed warmly. “You’re her gay awakening.”
“I don’t know if I’d say that.”
“I would. And I’d be right. Took a so-called straight girl and showed her exactly what she was missing.”
“You really are overselling it,” August protested. “We were just teenagers figuring it out, you know?”
She shrugged. “Maybe, but still. Is she the one you’ve had an… interesting time on a table with?”
August choked on her laugh. “She is not.”
“Wow. Just all the girls in all the places, huh?”
“Definitely not.”
“Hmm. That sounds like excuses to me.”
August opened her mouth to point out she hadn’t made a single excuse, but the moment was cut short by the front door of the apartment bursting open and letting in a bright flood of lights that changed the mood in the room.
Massima paused in the doorway. “Oh. Sorry. Hi. Who are you?”
Piper laughed, leaning back from August and seeming perfectly at ease. “Hey, Massima.”
“Why are you sitting in the dark?”
“We’re not.” Piper turned the music off and smiled at Massima. “It just happened to get a little darker while we were sitting here, but it’s only dark if you just came in from the hallway.”
Massima hummed like she didn’t agree. “Sure. Well, I’m putting the lights on, so you two vampires can guard your eyes.”
August and Piper both laughed a little harder than they should and earned a look from Massima, who was still watching August curiously.
“Massima, this is August. August, Massima,” Piper said, gesturing between the two of them.
And, suddenly, Massima’s whole expression shifted. “Well, hello. I’m getting to meet you first? Hermes is going to be so jealous!”
August shot Piper a look, but she simply shook her head fondly.
“He'll meet her soon enough,” she told Massima.
“Should I invite him over now?” Massima started pulling her phone out and August stood up quickly.
“I should probably get going. The snow’s calmed down and I’m giving my brother a ride to work. Don’t want him running all over the city in this weather.”
“Oh,” Massima said, seeming a little disappointed. “Well, that’s very sweet of you. The roads are clear, but it is still pretty cold.”
“Indeed.”
“But you’re welcome over whenever you like. You know, if, when you drop him off, you want to come back over, that would be cool.”
August laughed a little uncomfortably. “That’s very sweet of you, but I should probably go home.”
“Okay, well, if you change your mind, we’ll be here all night.”
“I thought you were going out tonight?” Piper asked her.
Massima waved a hand. “Nah. We canceled because of the weather, but I’d have canceled either way if I knew August was coming over.”
August shifted from side to side. “I don’t know what Piper’s said, but I’m really not that interesting. Don’t ever feel like you need to cancel your plans to hang out with me.”
“Yeah, right,” she said, laughing. “I do what I want.”
“I’m sure you do,” August said, shaking her head.
Piper laughed. “I’ll… see you out.” And she headed towards the door with August, shooting Massima a look on her way.