Chapter Twenty #2
Realization reared its ugly head at the same time a hideous moray eel popped into Lissa’s view.
It stared at her for a second, accusation in its dark eyes, before swimming away to hide behind a large rock.
Part of Lissa wanted to dive into the tank and go hide with it.
Of course Ria had nothing to do with the marketing failure.
They kicked her out and dropped Smooth Expressions because Lissa’s tiny studio wasn’t worth their time.
Ria probably didn’t even know the campaign never went off!
Was it time to come clean? Ria was nothing but innocent, and continuing to manipulate her felt even more wrong than before.
“I hope so,” Lissa said, her brain rebooting back to the conversation. “Didn’t you tell me before you were working on something for a company in Seacliff? Maybe you could reach out and see if it was executed. If not, you could probably get them to hire you if the work is already done…”
Ria waved a hand dismissively as she paused to watch a loggerhead sea turtle float by. “It wouldn’t matter either way,” she said. “It was a Christmas-based project. I’m sure they’ve already moved on.”
Every bit of hope Lissa had been clinging to died. If the secret campaign she’d been hoping might save them only worked at Christmas, that was it. Game over. She was out of options, and the studio was doomed.
“Hey, are you okay?” Ria asked, waving a hand in front of Lissa’s face. “You look like a fish stole your soul and swam off with it.”
She wasn’t far off the mark, because when her studio was sold to Marge in less than two weeks, a part of her soul would go with it.
“I’m fine,” Lissa replied, faking a smile that undoubtedly would fool no one. “Probably just hungry.”
Ria analyzed her for a second before nodding. “Okay. I noticed a dining area back toward the front if you want to go grab lunch? I could eat.”
“Sure, let’s do that.” They came to the end of the tunnel, and Lissa followed Ria out of the building like a zombie. She wasn’t really hungry, and anything she ate would probably feel like lead in her stomach, but she was too stuck inside her own whirlwind of thoughts to change her excuse.
She’d been hoping Daria’s plan would be flawless. In fact, it felt like she was casting her own spell with all the steps Daria had made her memorize.
Daria’s Ritual of Love and Forgiveness
To make two people who are obviously in love stop being dumbasses and admit their true feelings, follow this ritual precisely.
Step 1: Tell the subject you just want to be friends.
Step 2: Take the subject somewhere seemingly unromantic.
Step 3: Casually bring up the subject’s past to learn what you need to know.
Step 4: Once the information is obtained, activate the secret romantic setting.
Step 5: Confess the truth about EVERYTHING.
Step 6: Beg for forgiveness, consider groveling. Pray she accepts your apology.
Step 7: Live happily ever after.
The only problem with Daria’s little ritual was it didn’t contain a contingency plan for when she got snagged on step three.
There was no point in getting the plan out of Ria now, given that it couldn’t be executed.
Which left Lissa sinking under the weight of a depressing reality that involved her being unemployed in two weeks.
And that wasn’t even the end of it. Now that getting the secrets from Ria was off the table, Lissa was facing one hell of a conundrum.
Most people visualized an internal debate as having an angel and a devil on their shoulders, but for Lissa it was more like her heart, head, and vagina became squabbling toddlers fighting over a prized toy.
Her head wanted a full confession, because no relationship could ever work with secrets involved.
Her heart wanted a modified confession where she told Ria about knowing who she was but kept that pesky, underhanded manipulation on the backburner where it couldn’t ruin their future.
And of course, her vagina wanted no confession.
That bitch just wanted her to drag Ria into the nearest dark corner and fingerbang her up against the octopus tank.
Those horny little cephalopods would probably appreciate the show.
Lissa had plenty of experience ignoring the demands of her naughty nether regions, so that voice was easy to shut out.
The other two, though? They were the ones causing problems. If she wasn’t even going to be working at the studio in a couple weeks, then technically she could probably get away with not telling the whole truth.
She could confess that she remembered seeing Ria on a video call when she popped into her boss’s office one time and used the spell thing as an excuse to get to know her.
Not great that she started their relationship off with a lie but definitely forgivable.
As opposed to telling the whole truth in that she only reached out to her about a spell so she could get the marketing secrets.
That was…less forgivable. And Lissa really, really, wanted Ria to forgive her.
Two hours later, Lissa still didn’t have a single inkling of how to handle her predicament.
They’d gotten some food and drinks at the Jellymoon Cafe and spent a while just chatting.
When they initially sat down, Lissa had struggled to hide her inner turmoil, but after a bit, she’d found herself thinking less and less about the studio and her manipulation.
For the first time, she could simply enjoy Ria’s company without any ulterior motive.
They talked about their families and childhoods.
Ria told her all about the pressure her mom put on her, but that they might have turned a corner.
Lissa told Ria about how much she struggled growing up as a lesbian in a conservative state, and how she spent years after high school bouncing around from place to place and job to job, trying to find somewhere that felt like home.
Her grandma recommended Seacliff shortly before her passing, and it broke Lissa’s heart she never got to see how happy Lissa felt there.
Ria, for all her kindness, never once pressured Lissa to talk about whatever was clearly troubling her. They sipped their drinks, munched on sandwiches, and watched the jellyfish bounce around in the circular tank that took up the center of the cafe.
After they’d eaten, they strolled along the back walkway that looked out over Yaquina Bay, taking in the beauty of nature and the sounds of birds chirping.
The heat hadn’t let up, but the breeze from the water kept Lissa from dissolving into a sweaty mess.
They were approaching the end of the trail when Lissa’s watch beeped, alerting her to the time.
“What’s up?” Ria asked.
“Just a reminder about your surprise,” Lissa answered. “We need to get moving so we don’t miss it.”
“Does that mean you’re going to tell me what it is now?”
“Nope. That’s kind of how surprises work.” Grabbing Ria’s hand, Lissa tugged her back toward the aquarium’s outdoor exhibits at a brisk pace.
The surprise was supposed to be the culmination of Daria’s plan. Make Ria so happy she couldn’t help but see how much Lissa cared after the confession came out. Then they could forget the whole spell nonsense, and Ria would forgive all Lissa’s past deception.
Granted that part of the plan could still happen, Lissa just hadn’t figured out exactly how much of a confession was going to come out. She’d play it by ear and see how Ria reacted first.
“Where are we going?” Ria asked, laughing as we plowed through crowds of sugar-hyped small children and exhausted parents.
“We are going—” Lissa pulled Ria around the back corner of a large exhibit and stopped at a door tucked behind a fake rock facade. “—here,” she announced proudly, a grin spreading across her face as all traces of her earlier melancholy disappeared under the excitement bubbling up.
“A door?” Ria asked, her brow wrinkling in confusion. “Does it lead to Narnia, because I’m a little confused.”
Lissa laughed and knocked on the door three times. “Sadly no, it doesn’t lead to a magical realm, but it does lead to someplace very few ever get to see.”
The door cracked open, and a blond male head popped out. His eyes swept over Ria before landing on Lissa. “You Daria’s friend?”
“I am,” Lissa confirmed, holding out a hand to shake his. “You must be Jason.”
Jason hip-checked the door open wider and held up his blue rubber-clad hands, displaying the bits of fish guts coating them. “Trust me, you don’t want to touch me right now. Come on, get inside. Show starts in a couple minutes.”
Lissa gave Ria an excited grin and took her hand.
“What is all this?” Ria asked, her eyes taking in the sterile room with rows of stainless-steel tables loaded up with buckets of fish.
“This is the prep room,” Jason announced, snagging a bucket off the table and heading off down a long hallway. “We have a strict regimen to make sure they only get fed the best fish.”
“Who gets the best fish?” Ria called, rushing after him.
He passed by a series of gated exits then paused at a heavy steel door beside a large pool, empty of any inhabitants. Glancing back at us, he said, “The sea lions of course.”
Ria pulled up short, and Lissa crashed into her back, nearly knocking Ria into the water. “Wait, do I get to feed the sea lions?” Ria whirled on Lissa, squealing so loudly it reverberated back down the hall.
“Ooh, gonna need you to keep that to a minimum,” Jason said, unlocking the door. “They don’t love sharp, high-pitched sounds.”
“Sorry. I’ll be quiet. I promise,” Ria gushed before grinning at Lissa. “How is this happening?”
Lissa grinned back. “Considering the tattoo on your cute booty and the moment when we were at Pride and you lost it over a lady in a rainbow sea lion shirt, I figured you might enjoy something like this. I mean, I was honestly worried you were going to attack that woman and steal her shirt.”
Ria blinked at Lissa. “I remember no such thing.”