Flirting Lessons

Chapter Six

Six

The next afternoon, as Avery walked over to the community garden after work, she still felt a glow from last night. She’d been stupidly nervous before the burlesque show— No, Avery, no bad self-talk, remember? Okay, she’d been very nervous before the burlesque show. She’d never gone to anything like that, and it had stressed her out to be there with Taylor, who was so cool that she’d probably been to zillions of these things, and who probably knew the performers and knew what she was supposed to act like and how and why. And then she’d had the ridiculous idea to sit up front?

But she realized during the show that she hadn’t given Taylor nearly enough credit. Taylor had been so supportive—smiling at her, cheering for her, moving a little closer to her when she could tell that Avery was anxious. It had made her want to bring Taylor along to all stressful events, to everything that she thought she couldn’t really do, just to have Taylor there to be her cheerleader. She felt like she could accomplish anything with Taylor by her side.

Even though Taylor wasn’t actually cheering for her—she was only doing this because…Wait, why was she doing this, anyway? Because she was having fun doing it? It must be that, right? Taylor didn’t do things she didn’t want to; she’d made that very clear. And Avery had gotten to know Taylor pretty well in the past month; she wasn’t the type of person to blow smoke up someone’s ass. Taylor was only giving her flirting lessons because she wanted to. She must be cheering her on because she actually believed in her. All of those compliments Taylor had given her on the ride home from the burlesque show about how funny she’d been and how well she’d done must be because she’d meant it, right?

Though, wow, Avery got embarrassed all over again just thinking about the moment when the Goddess had shaken her blue-tasseled boobs in her face. She’d had the urge to reach out and ring the tassels like they were bells. That had made her blush even harder than she had before, and made her scared to make eye contact with either the Goddess or Taylor, out of fear that they’d know what she’d been thinking. And then that had made her wonder what Taylor’s boobs looked like, and what they would look like swinging back and forth, and what it would feel like if the hand Taylor had put on her knee moved up just a little bit higher, and, well, she’d had trouble making eye contact with Taylor for a while after that.

Fine, she’d admit to herself that she had a tiny crush on Taylor. That was normal, wasn’t it? Especially since they were spending so much time together, getting to know each other, and Taylor was teaching her how to flirt. Plus, Taylor was the kind of person that everyone had a crush on. She was hot; she was confident in her own skin; she knew how to talk to everyone; she sometimes looked at people with those warm eyes and slow smile like she really, really liked what she saw; she walked and danced in that unselfconscious, open way that meant she was probably very good in bed… In a word, Taylor was fucking sexy. Fine, that was two words, but it was true. Obviously, she would have a crush on her, especially since she was just starting this whole dating-women era of her life.

But that didn’t mean anything. It was no big deal. She’d let this crush go on and keep that energy to continue learning how to flirt with other people, and maybe she’d eventually go on an actual date with an actual woman and put those skills to use.

She pushed open the gates to the community garden. Maybe gardening would take her mind off Taylor.

“Hey, Avery!” Beth waved at her from their shared garden plot, and Avery waved back. She was weirdly excited to see the garden today. She hadn’t been there since the weekend, and even then there had been so many changes; she wondered what would be there today.

“Oh my God, look at the zucchini!” she said to Beth when she got to their plot. “I feel like it’s grown a foot in the last few days!”

Then she laughed at herself.

“Sorry, I feel ridiculous getting so excited about zucchini, I don’t know what’s gotten into me,” she said to Beth.

Beth shook her head.

“Please do not apologize, you’re making me feel better for scaring the birds away with my shout of glee when I saw the radish seeds we planted.”

Avery walked down to the other end of the garden plot. She got to the corner where they’d planted the radishes, and looked up at Beth, her eyes wide.

“Wait. Are these huge sprouts our radish seeds?”

Beth grinned at her and nodded.

“Isn’t it amazing?”

Avery pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“I don’t care how dorky it is, I need to document this.”

“Oh, good idea,” Beth said, and reached for her phone, too.

They spent the next hour working in the garden together, weeding and watering and planting and asking James and some of their fellow gardeners questions, but most of all, laughing and chatting. They didn’t talk about anything important, only what they’d done the week before and what vegetables and flowers they wanted to learn more about next and what they both thought of the book from that bookstore event, but Avery enjoyed every moment of being in the sunshine and working in the dirt and talking.

After they were done with their plot, they walked together around the garden to check out what everyone else was growing.

“Wow, they harvested onions over there,” Beth said. “I wonder how long those took to grow.”

Avery nudged her.

“Those sunflowers are enormous. And look at those strawberries.”

Beth bent over the strawberries and then took a step away.

“I can’t get too close, otherwise I’ll just start picking them and eating them, they look so good. We should definitely grow those next year.”

It felt nice, for Beth to say “we” like that, for her to assume that of course they would share a garden plot next year, too, that they were in this together. That’s how Avery felt. She was glad Beth felt the same way. She had a sudden impulse to acknowledge this somehow. Taylor had told her to put herself out there.

“Speaking of wanting to pick and eat those strawberries, I’m hungry,” Avery said. “What are you doing after this? Want to grab something to eat?” As soon as she said it, she questioned herself. Had she sounded as nervous as she felt? Maybe Beth just thought of Avery as a gardening buddy, but not an actual (or even potential) friend; a person she only ever wanted to see inside the walls of the community garden. Avery had had work friends like that, people whom she got along great with at work but where she was perfectly happy to leave that friendship at the office. She and those friends now wished one another happy birthday every year on Facebook but otherwise never interacted.

Maybe Beth would say no and roll her eyes and think it was weird for Avery to ask her to get food, and then things would be awkward between them at the garden from then on. Oh God, she never should have said anything.

“God yes, definitely,” Beth said. “I’m starving, and Greta is working late tonight, so I’m on my own for dinner. What do you want to eat?”

Avery held back her sigh of relief.

“I’ll eat anything—all I had today was the random snacks I had in my office. So long as it’s not a mini granola bar from an airplane, or a handful of candy from last Halloween, I’ll be happy.”

Beth laughed.

“How about pizza? Are there any places that you like around here that won’t care if we show up with dirt under our fingernails?” She looked at Avery’s gardening gloves and grinned. “Metaphorically speaking, I mean.”

Avery pulled off her gloves with a smile.

“Our main product here in Napa Valley is agriculture, after all.”

Fifteen minutes later, they were ensconced at a corner table in the back garden of one of Avery’s favorite places.

“I’ve been coming here since I was in high school,” Avery said. She looked around and then laughed. “And, unlike almost everywhere else I went in high school, this place is both still standing and also still good.”

Beth looked around, then gestured to the restaurant or the sky, Avery couldn’t tell which.

“If I grew up in a place like this, I’d never want to leave,” she said. “I couldn’t wait to get out of my hometown and never go back.”

Avery laughed.

“You’d be surprised at how many people feel like that about growing up here. Most people either never want to leave, or they leave and never come back.” She shrugged. “And then there are those of us who thought we’d be the latter and came back anyway.”

Beth picked up a piece of pizza and paused with it halfway to her mouth.

“Okay, look, I know there’s probably a better way to do this, but I’m just going to ask so I stop wondering: You are queer, aren’t you? Because I thought so, but Greta said no, that you were obviously straight, and I need to know which one of us is right, and we may have even bet about it…and I’m making a mess of this, aren’t I? Let me know if I need to get up and leave because I will, even without taking a bite of this pizza that looks and smells very delicious.”

Avery burst out laughing.

“This is definitely the first time that anyone has ever had a bet about my sexual orientation.”

Beth held up a finger.

“That you know of.”

Avery stopped to consider that.

“That I know of, yeah, I guess you’re right. And, um, you win the bet.”

It felt both weird and good to say that. Despite going out with Taylor once a week for the past month or so, she hadn’t really talked to many people about this, outside of the people she’d met around Taylor.

It also felt both weird and good that Beth had thought she was queer and cared enough to have a discussion and a bet with her fiancée about it.

A huge grin broke out across Beth’s face.

“I knew it,” she said. “I can’t wait to tell Greta.” She made a face. “Oh no, I’m making it weird again, aren’t I?”

Avery nodded.

“Yeah, but I don’t really care.” She took a careful bite of her own slice of pizza. “Can I tell you something?”

Oh no. Why had she said that? She hadn’t meant to say that. Why did she keep doing this?

“Most definitely.” Beth looked very interested. Of course she did. And of course that would be her answer. No one would say no when someone said, Can I tell you something? unless they were a sociopath or a complete misanthrope, and Beth was neither. By now she knew Beth well enough to know that she would absolutely be interested in what someone would tell her when they asked her Can I tell you something? in that tone of voice. So now she had no choice but to tell her.

“I, um, have never really dated women, even though I’ve wanted to,” she said, watching Beth’s face for scorn or pity. She saw neither there, just friendly interest, so she went on. “And earlier this summer I told that to my friend Taylor—well, she wasn’t really my friend then, but I guess she is now—also that I didn’t really know how to flirt with women. I mean, I don’t really know how to flirt with anyone, but especially women. So, Taylor has been teaching me how to flirt this summer.”

Beth’s eyes were wide as saucers.

“Wait, I love this. What is she teaching you? How’s it going?”

Avery felt a very strange combination of abject embarrassment and glee.

“It’s going well, I think? I’m not totally sure. But it’s been fun so far, at least? We’ve only had a few classes or whatever so far; that bookstore event was actually the first one, then we went to queer salsa dancing, and last night was a burlesque show. She gives me tips on what to do, and I talk to people and get embarrassed about it, rinse and repeat. I don’t think I’m particularly good at flirting yet—or even okay at it—but at least I’m less terrified about it, which is progress.”

Beth nodded.

“Definite progress. But, okay, I need to know more about your friend Taylor! Why is she qualified to teach flirting classes?”

Avery laughed.

“Oh, you wouldn’t ask this question if you’d met Taylor at the bookstore. She was hiding away in the corner most of the night, I think so I wouldn’t feel overshadowed, which was very nice of her, but she’s basically a magnet for women. She’s really good at flirting, but not in a superficial way—she’s just good at talking to people, you know? Which I guess I am in a work context, but not when it comes to personal stuff. And she also seems to know every queer woman in the area, so she knows good places to take me and, like, people to introduce me to. And also she’s…I don’t know, really kind about it all. Which is good because I still can’t believe I’m doing this.”

She also couldn’t believe she was telling Beth about it. Maybe it was heatstroke after spending two hours gardening in the sun.

“Well, I’m glad you’re doing it, and I can’t wait to hear more about this,” Beth said. “And I also desperately want to meet this clearly very hot friend of yours. Obviously, I’m taken, but I can still look, can’t I?”

Avery laughed. As they ate their pizza, they talked in more detail about the flirting lessons (Beth laughed until she cried when Avery told her about the boa incident), about plans for Beth and Greta’s surprise wedding, and how Greta was liking her new job. Avery walked back home later that night proud of herself for inviting Beth to dinner, for maybe even making a new friend. Taylor was right; putting yourself out there was worth it.

Taylor texted Avery on Saturday morning.

Taylor

Want to go to a birthday party tonight? it’s for callie, from the salsa class, she said to bring you along if you want to come. there will be great snacks and many people to practice flirting with…

There would also likely be many people who would ask Avery a million questions about what was going on between her and Taylor, which was why she’d hesitated to invite her. But Callie had specifically told her to invite Avery, and Taylor knew that would be a nice little confidence boost that Avery needed.

Avery

Ugh I totally would have but I can’t, i’m working an event tonight and by the time I get done it’ll probably be too late. tell callie I said happy birthday!

Taylor felt a flash of disappointment, which was ridiculous. Her fixation on Avery was obviously just because of this stupid celibacy bet. She’d been spending more time with Avery than almost anyone else lately, so of course she couldn’t stop thinking about how much she wanted to sleep with her. It wasn’t anything about Avery, exactly, just her own hormones. If things had been normal, she would sleep with someone else and not give Avery another thought.

Well, if things had been normal, Erica wouldn’t have bet her to do something ridiculous like stay celibate for months. This was all Erica’s fault.

Was Erica even coming to the party tonight? Taylor hated that she didn’t know the answer to that. In the old days—a year ago—she would have known this. She and Erica used to see each other all the time, talk almost every day; there’s no way she wouldn’t have known. But now she had no idea. She and Sam were probably hanging out with Sloane and their other grown-up friends, talking about, like, mortgages and the stock market and property taxes, things that Taylor was too immature to know anything about.

But to her surprise, Erica and Sam were at the party when Taylor walked in.

“Hey, stranger,” Taylor said, and immediately regretted it. She didn’t want to be all passive-aggressive about this; she wasn’t that kind of person. So when Erica pulled her into a hug, she gave her a fierce embrace. Then she stepped back and laughed.

“Oh wow, the little rutabaga is really starting to make herself known, huh?”

Erica patted her belly.

“I’m really showing now, aren’t I? It’s great—I’m not sick anymore, I’m not exhausted all the time like I was for the first few months, I have a ton of energy. This part is fun.”

Sam sighed.

“A little too much energy, if you ask me.” She gave Taylor a quick hug. “She’s spending all of her time organizing things with Sloane. I swear, if one more thing in our house gets a cute little label on it, I’m going to be afraid that I’ll wake up one day and look in the mirror and right there on my forehead there’ll be a little handwritten label in perfect script with ‘Sam’ on it.”

Ugh, of course Sloane had perfect script and would put handwritten labels on everything. She probably put them all on cute little baskets all over her house.

Erica just swatted her wife on the shoulder and laughed.

“I’m not that bad. We might as well get our house all in order before crunch time. We hadn’t really gotten ourselves organized since the move, and we needed to! And it’s so nice to be able to find everything.” She turned to Taylor, her face all animated. “Did I text you pictures of our linen closet? It’s so great now; we have designated labeled shelves for everything, and little baskets for washcloths and toilet paper and extra beauty supplies.” Baskets. Yep. “And what used to be our junk closet now has baskets for the random cords we have and lightbulbs and batteries and instruction books and all of that stuff. Someday, I’m going to bring Sloane over to your apartment and we can do this for you.”

Taylor burst out laughing. Erica just shook her head.

“You laugh now, but just you wait. Next time you come over, you’ll see how convenient it all is. It maximizes so much space. Plus, I can write so much of this off on our taxes because it’s for the home office.”

You know who would probably be fascinated by this organization talk? Avery. She was far more of an adult than Taylor was. She probably had baskets and labels and stuff, too.

“I need to get to the food before it’s all gone,” Taylor said. “Come tell me more about these organized cords or maybe even, for the love of God, something more interesting while I get some food and say hi to Callie.”

Callie’s parties always had great food. That’s why Taylor had to get some right now before whatever the best thing was disappeared into the stomachs of the people who had gotten there before her.

Sam pulled out her phone and made the I have to take a call gesture, while Erica followed Taylor outside.

“It’s the little phyllo dough turnovers,” Erica said under her breath. “They’re the best thing this year. Everything is great, obviously, but those are incredible. She has them with a spinach and feta filling, and a sausage filling; get both. I’ve already had probably ten of each.”

Taylor widened her eyes.

“There’s always someone who eats all of the best snacks at Callie’s party in the first hour. Has it always been you?”

Erica shook her head and laughed.

“No, no, it’s not usually me, I swear. But I’m pregnant! I’m always starving! And I can’t eat any of the charcuterie and most of the cheese, and you know how tempting her cheese and charcuterie platters always are, so I had to just…”

“Go to town on the turnovers?”

Erica grinned.

“Exactly.” Then a mischievous look came over her face. “You should get the recipe from Callie so you can make them for my baby shower. You know, when you have to throw it for me. Have I won that bet yet, by the way?”

“Nope, and you’re not going to. I can’t wait to hear all about that baby shower as I lounge at my spa day.”

Erica looked smug.

“Feeling very confident, aren’t you? And yet, I’ve already seen you exchanging looks with at least two people at this party. You’ll cave soon, I know it.”

Taylor slid three of each kind of turnover onto her plate.

“First of all, I was not ‘exchanging looks’ with anyone, I was simply smiling a hello to people who smiled hellos to me. Do you want me to be rude? And secondly, wow, you have so little faith in me.”

She tried to make that sound like a joke, but it wasn’t really. It did kind of hurt her feelings that Erica thought like this about her. It stung that she thought Taylor was so childish or so ruled by her hormones that she had to be celibate for months to, what, learn how to be a grown-up like Erica?

Erica just laughed.

“You know that’s not true; I have all the faith in the world in you. I know that you can get literally any woman that you want if you set your mind to it. Your power is too strong; the queer women of Northern California need a break, that’s all!”

Taylor ignored that as they walked over to Callie.

“Happy birthday!” She gave Callie a hug. “Avery couldn’t come, but she wanted me to say happy birthday, too. She has a work event tonight, but she told me to tell you she wished she could be here, and she hopes you have a great birthday.”

Erica gasped. “You met Avery?” she asked Callie. “What’s she like?”

Callie grinned at Taylor.

“So there is something going on between the two of you! We all thought so!”

Erica turned to stare at Taylor, and Taylor shook her head at both of them.

“There is nothing going on between the two of us, and you know that,” she said, with a pointed glance at Erica. She hoped that glance said, You’re the only one who knows about the flirting lessons, keep your mouth shut. But now Callie was looking at her, wanting to know what Erica had meant. Fuck. She had to explain that, but how? Then she had a brain wave. “I am simply helping introduce her to queer society, that’s all. She had a dunce of a boyfriend for years, and now she’s gotten rid of him and is ready to date women. It’s like she’s a debutante, and I’m her chaperone.”

Callie, who has a weakness for historical romance novels, grinned. Taylor had to look away from Erica; her trying-not-to-laugh face was going to make Taylor crack up.

“That makes sense,” Callie said. “There’s no one better than you to launch someone into queer society. But how’d Avery manage to get you for that job?”

“Oh, I felt bad for her, that’s all. Plus, she’s great. I hope she finds some people to date who are good enough for her, they’ll be lucky.”

Someone else came up to hug Callie, and Erica dragged Taylor back to the food.

“Oh no, the turnovers are gone.” Erica shrugged. “I guess I’ll just have to get some of these adorable little sliders, then.” She loaded three onto her plate. “But also, I need to hear more about ‘introducing Avery to queer society.’?”

Taylor grinned.

“Sorry, I just feel like Avery probably wouldn’t want me to tell the world that I’m teaching her how to flirt with women, so please, don’t tell everyone that. Callie and Liz and Rex met her because we ran into them when we did queer salsa lessons, and we also went to a bookstore event and a burlesque show. And I think next week—”

“You went to a burlesque show with her! Oh my God, Taylor, you didn’t tell me you did that!”

You didn’t ask. Maybe if you weren’t so absorbed by your new bestie Sloane and her little baskets and her perfect handwriting, I would have told you.

“Oh, it’s a better story for in person,” Taylor said instead.

“Taylor!” She heard Liz’s voice, and then felt Liz grab and hug her from behind. “I was wondering when you were going to show up!”

Taylor turned to her and returned the hug.

“I’d never get to one of Callie’s parties late; you miss all of the good snacks that way.”

Erica drifted off to the other side of the backyard; she and Liz had never been huge fans of each other. Taylor chatted with Liz, with Dani and Charlie, with Anya (one of the people Erica had accused her of “exchanging looks with”) and Zoe (the other person). Which, okay, fine, Taylor had sort of given them each a look that possibly said that she’d like to see them naked. And yes, fine, Zoe had whispered a little something in her ear that indicated that Taylor could do that—and many other things to her—as early as tonight. But she wasn’t planning on doing any of those things until after Labor Day. She did not want to lose this bet with Erica.

Speaking of Erica…Taylor looked around the party for her and didn’t see either her or Sam. Maybe they were hanging out inside? She poked her head in, but she still didn’t see them. They must have left. And even before Callie cut her cake, which was a travesty. Callie’s cakes were always fantastic.

Erica hadn’t even said goodbye to her. So much for her wanting so badly to know about how stuff with Avery was going.

Taylor looked across the party and saw Kelsey checking her out. She grinned at her as she tried to brush off the hurt she felt. It wasn’t like Erica owed her anything. It was fine for her to not say goodbye when she left a party, she was an adult, she had a wife now, she didn’t need to check in with Taylor when she left somewhere and when she got home like they used to do.

But still, it stung. She pulled out her phone to see if maybe Erica had texted. She hadn’t. But Avery had.

Avery

How’s the party? what are the good snacks? who is flirting with who and is there anything I could be learning from this? there are at least two more hours in this event before I can go home, and I need all the hot gossip.

Taylor laughed out loud and immediately texted Avery back.

Taylor

Oh my friend, everyone is flirting with everyone, i’m sad you aren’t here, it would be so educational

But don’t worry, I have a plan

Taylor knew what Avery’s response would be. Sure enough.

Avery

Oh no.

Taylor laughed at her phone. This week with Avery would be fun.