EPILOGUE
“I think it’s done,” she said.
“You said that, like, a month ago,” Lacey noted, handing Cameron a beer. “And you sure you want this before we have to go?”
“I can’t help that I finally feel like it’s really done on the night we have a premiere to go to. I want to celebrate.”
Lacey chuckled and asked, “Do you actually mean it this time?”
“Yes,” she replied and wrapped an arm around Lacey’s shoulders. “Any regrets on letting me do this?”
“None.” Lacey kissed her on the cheek. “I love it.”
A year ago, they had bought their house on the beach.
It wasn’t the same house they’d stayed in that fateful weekend, but it was built in a pretty similar way, at least, with the exposed downstairs toward the water and the front entry upstairs.
Cameron and Lacey had managed to find it through a celebrity friend who lived in the neighborhood and had assured them that it was safe and private, which had been Cameron’s main concern.
After triple-checking that it would work for them, she and Lacey had bought the place together, but they hadn’t moved in right away, needing to buy furniture and make some changes first.
Cameron had relished the opportunity to choose paint colors alongside her girlfriend and then to paint the walls with Lacey, too.
After they’d finished painting everything they’d wanted to tackle before moving in, they’d had the furniture they’d picked out arrive, and they’d gone about determining where things should go.
When that had been done, the game room stuff had been their next focus, and since this house had an extra room downstairs, she and Lacey had decided to make it a small theater.
Getting that set up had taken a while because they’d needed to hook up all the technology, soundproof it, and get the furniture, but when they’d finally been able to sit down and enjoy a movie in that room for the first time, Cameron had known the extra effort had been worth it.
The last big thing they’d wanted to tackle had been the game room itself.
Cameron had built a wet bar, which she’d never done before.
Tiling had been complicated, but she had figured it out, and Lacey had been there to help when she’d needed it.
They’d painted that space, too, and then added an air hockey table, a pool table, and a dart board among a wall of shelves where they’d placed board games and books, and a sofa, a chair, and a TV had gone in the other corner in case they ever wanted to sit down there or watch something while they played.
Cameron had told Lacey several times that the space had been done.
She hadn’t needed anything else. But then, she’d realized that the wood stain of the shelves hadn’t quite matched the rest of the space how she’d wanted it to, so she’d stained the wood herself.
She’d also wanted posters on the walls, so she’d bought those.
Then, she’d wanted to add something to the wet bar.
Today, though, she’d told Lacey to come downstairs because it was finally done, and she knew it would be good for at least a little while, so she wanted to celebrate.
“Are you happy?” Lacey asked as she wrapped her arms around Cameron’s middle, holding on to her.
“Very,” she said. “I’ve got my girl. We’ve got our dream home. We’re going to a premiere for our friend tonight. I’m very happy.”
Cameron kissed the top of Lacey’s head.
“Maybe I shouldn’t go,” Lacey suggested.
“What? Why wouldn’t you go?”
Lacey held up her hand in explanation.
“I don’t get it, babe,” Cameron told her.
“It’s Kennedy’s night. It’s taken two years for this movie to come out.”
“That’s pretty normal, Lace.”
“Sure, but it’s her night. I don’t want to pull focus.”
“The ring’s not that big,” Cameron said. “You wouldn’t let me get you the big one.”
Lacey laughed and replied, “My finger wouldn’t be able to hold the one you wanted to get me.
And we’ve not been anywhere since we got engaged, so they’re going to ask us about it.
Well, you. They’ll ask you about it, and I’ll be hiding behind you because I still get embarrassed when they ask me things. ”
“I know. It’s super cute.” Cameron laughed and pulled Lacey over to the sofa, where Lacey straddled her after Cameron set her beer on the table.
“If I stay here, it’ll be easier for you to side-step questions about us.”
Cameron laughed again and said, “No, it won’t. They’ll ask anyway. I can just refuse to answer and keep the focus on Kennedy, whether you’re there or not, Lace. I’m very well-practiced at deflecting their questions.”
Lacey squinted at her and said, “Miss Levine, you just announced your engagement to that lowly massage therapist woman. Laney, I think, her name is.” Lacey tried to use a deeper, mock-reporter voice that had Cameron laughing yet again.
“Tell us: when is the big day? How many helicopters can we bring to invade your privacy? And is there a strict one-helicopter-per-reporter rule, or can we have multiple?”
Cameron knew what Lacey was doing, so she replied, “Tonight, I’m here to support my friend in her new movie.
She’s getting so much award buzz that I don’t think Lacey and I should set our date yet because we might need to attend all the award shows and parties next year to support Kennedy in all her nominations and wins. ”
Lacey lifted her eyebrow and said, “Nicely done.”
“Thank you,” she replied with a wink. “Now, can we finish celebrating down here before we need to get upstairs? The seventy-two people it takes to make me look decent for a red-carpet photo-op will be here soon.”
“You always look gorgeous, and you know it.”
“Don’t go giving me a big head,” Cameron replied and pulled Lacey’s T-shirt off.
“Cam! They’ll be here in, like, twenty minutes.”
“Yes. And I plan to take advantage of every single one of those minutes.”
◆◆◆
“You’re still nervous,” River stated.
“No, I’m not.”
“Oh, yes, you are,” River replied with a little chuckle. “I know your nervous expression by now, babe.”
“Fine. I’m nervous,” Kennedy admitted before she took the pillow that had been tossed aside and put it over her face. “This was supposed to be a lame-ass mom movie that I did just to have something to do.”
“But after, like, nine rewrites, the script got really good, and now, people are telling you you’re going to win things.”
River moved to straddle her naked girlfriend.
“What happened to the whole ‘no pressure, it’s no big deal’ from Zane? The pressure was supposed to come from leading my own show. That’s where the buzz was supposed to go.”
“It went there, too,” River said and shifted again until she was on her knees between Kennedy’s legs. “You need to relieve this stress before everyone gets here.”
“Again? You already helped me relieve it.”
“Clearly, I didn’t do a very good job. You’re still tense.”
“Babe, you could give me a million orgasms right now, and I’d still be nervous about this. It’s my first premiere in a long time; for one of my things, at least.” River licked her hard then, and Kennedy let out, “Oh, fuck.”
“Just one more. Then, we can shower, and everyone can show up, do your hair, and make you look all camera-ready. Later, though, I’d like another shower, and you not going to look camera-ready after that.”
“Yes, dear,” Kennedy replied, laughing. “But seriously, I can’t handle another one right now. When we get back, I’m all yours, I promise.”
“Well, that’s disappointing.”
River went back to straddling Kennedy’s hips.
Kennedy winked at her and said, “Trust me, I’m more disappointed than you are.
But when we do this, I like it to be all about us, and right now, I’m thinking about how many questions I’m going to get about the best supporting actress nomination or if all of them are going to be about the fact that Cameron and Lacey just got engaged.
They love asking me every single time if Cameron and I are still friends and if you and Lacey keep in touch. It’s been over two years.”
“I know. It’s annoying,” River replied and climbed off Kennedy.
“My answer hasn’t changed since they started asking. I mean, Cam and Lacey will be there tonight. I wouldn’t have invited my ex-girlfriend and yours if we all weren’t good, you know?”
“I do know. Now, come on. Shower time,” she replied and held out her hands for Kennedy to take.
As they showered together, River kept her hands to herself, but even after two years with this woman, she still found herself always wanting to touch Kennedy.
She never stopped wanting her, and she hoped she never did.
Things had changed a lot since they’d gotten together, and while change wasn’t something either of them was great at, they’d both made the commitment to living in and enjoying the gray areas a little bit more, and they had.