Chapter 6 Deborah
DEBORAH
Deb held up a black tank top and a plain white t-shirt. “Which should I wear?”
On her phone screen, Paige steepled her fingers together and cast her eyes heavenward. “I am begging the lesbians of my life to remember that I am, tragically, a straight woman. I have inbuilt bad taste because I am attracted to men, Deb. I have no idea what women would like.”
“But you have to have an opinion of what might look good on me,” Deb begged, holding each shirt in front of her. On her bed, her Ragdoll cat, Cory, yawned and rolled over with a chirp. He was thoroughly over her little fashion show. “I can’t trust my judgment right now.”
“Well, that’s not surprising to hear given that I am helping you dress for a date with Hayley Milton of all people.” Paige shook her head, setting her sloppy gym bun bouncing even more than it already had been as she Facetimed Deb from a Planet Fitness treadmill. “Tell me again how that happened?”
“Come on, Paige. We’ve been… I don’t know.
Connecting, kind of.” If she was being honest, Deb was having trouble explaining it to herself.
It just felt like after Hayley dragged her into that kiss in the ICU on-call, she owed it to herself to see if there was something actually there between them, more than her long one-sided lust-hate crush.
“You once called her ‘Full Metal Jacket with blonde hair,’” Paige pointed out. “I’ve hardly ever heard you say a positive thing about her.”
“What positive thing have I said to you about her?” Deb asked, curious.
“Not to me, per se,” Paige hedged, pressing buttons on the treadmill and increasing her speed. “But I did catch you staring at her ass once after she ripped you a new one and walked off, and you were muttering about how you hated how great it was.”
Deb’s fingers tightened around the shirts in her hands. “Jesus.”
“I guess that does answer the question I had about how this happened, though,” Paige said with a grin. “Your hate for her has never been very straightforward. Can I beg you, though, not to fuck up the relationship between the ER and the ICU again? That was a rough 24 hours.”
“Shut up,” Deb muttered. She looked at the two shirts again.
She’d asked Hayley to a casual early dinner at the Indigo Lounge before the evening entertainment began.
A Polish DJ was coming in to headline a long night of thumping electronica sets, which Deb felt sure Hayley wouldn’t be into.
She was interested, though. She decided to wear the black tank top with her black skinny jeans and motorcycle boots.
The Lounge got warm on a really intense dance night, and she intended to dance well into the night after bidding Hayley farewell.
On the phone screen, Paige covered her eyes as Deb shucked off the oversized vintage KISS t-shirt she had on and exchanged it for the tank-top. “Hey!”
“Paige, we’ve seen each other change clothes in the hospital a billion times. We’ve gone surfing together. I know you have a butterfly tattoo on your ass and a navel piercing.” She shoved her yoga pants down and stepped out of them.
“I am in the gym,” Paige yelped. “And why are you wearing Wonder Woman undies?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Deb asked, yanking on her skinny jeans and bouncing to get into them. “Wonder Woman is awesome.”
“I agree,” came a masculine voice to Paige’s left, and to Deb’s horror, a grinning, bearded face entered the phone screen. She and Paige both shrieked. In the next moment, Deb’s screen went blank as the call ended.
She zipped her jeans and sat down next to Cory on the bed to catch her breath after that jump scare. As she yanked on a pair of socks, messages came through on her phone.
That was the gym manager, Paige’s first message said. He asked me to refrain from making phone calls on the treadmill in future.
Deb winced. Then she saw the second message and grinned.
You look great in the black tank top. Straight Gal Approved.
Deb stood nervously outside of the Indigo Lounge, hands stuffed into the pockets of her leather jacket.
She was fifteen minutes early, and punctuality wasn’t usually her bag, but somehow this time it seemed important that she be early.
Deb wanted to escort Hayley into the Lounge, to hold the door for her and let her choose her seat in the booth.
Why exactly she wanted all of these things, she had no idea, since until very recently, she and Hayley Milton had rarely had a civil word to say to each other.
But it felt important, so she was going to go with it.
She wanted this to be a nice couple of hours. If nothing else came of it, at least they’d both walk away without any further animosity between them. She hoped.
An LA Metro bus pulled up over on the next block of Broadway and disgorged its load of passengers. The mass of humanity dispersed in multiple directions, except for one slender blonde figure in a floaty blue dress.
Deb’s mouth went dry.
Hayley poked around on her phone and then glanced up and around.
Deb managed to pry one hand out of her pocket so she could raise an arm and wave, catching Hayley’s attention.
The smile she got in return, a sight so rarely seen during their butting heads era, made her stomach fizz a little with excitement.
She’d never seen Hayley in civilian clothes before. Or with her thick blonde hair down, for that matter. To see her now, not in a bun, in a pretty blue flowered dress instead of black scrubs and sneakers… honestly, it was breathtaking. Like a whole new person.
A whole new even more very attractive person. Deb swallowed.
“Hi,” Hayley said as she walked up. “Sorry I wasn’t earlier.”
“You’re not even late. No worries.” Deb found herself shoving her hands back into her pockets in the face of Hayley’s unrestrained prettiness.
“Well, good. I just wasn’t totally sure where to go. I’ve never been here before.”
“Never?” That took Deb aback. She’d thought every queer woman in LA had been to the Lounge at least once.
“I’m a little bit of a homebody,” Hayley confessed as they walked towards the doors of the Lounge. “I’ve heard good things about the food here, though. I just don’t like driving downtown, honestly. That’s why I took the bus today. I really thought that would be more of a hassle, but it was fine.”
“No weirdos, pervs, or noisy preaching types?” Deb raised an eyebrow as she reached for the Lounge door.
“I didn’t say that.” Hayley chuckled and stepped through the door. “Thanks.”
“Sure.” They stood in the doorway to wait for a hostess, letting their vision adjust to the dim lighting. “I love this place, honestly.”
“Yeah?” Hayley was looking around in interest at the opulent décor of the Lounge, at the velvet-curtain-draped stage, the multiple floors ready for loads of sapphic dancers, at the tiled bar standing central to it all.
Ruby was sitting at the bar, her laptop and a big milkshake in front of her. She glanced up and spotted them at the door, and her eyebrows went up with interest. That her? she mouthed.
When Deb nodded, Ruby’s face brightened up with an impressed smile, and she offered a surreptitious thumbs up that made Deb chuckle.
“What’s funny?” Hayley asked, curiosity in her blue eyes.
“Just an inside joke between me and a friend.” Deb indicated Ruby at the bar.
To her surprise, Hayley’s eyes widened. “Is that Ruby Fierelli?”
Deb’s eyebrows show up. “You know Ruby?”
“I know her books. I love her books.” Hayley looked almost girlish in her excitement, and as at odds as it felt to the no-nonsense protocol stickler Deb knew, it was also endearing. She liked it.
“Come on, I’ll introduce you.” Deb gently took Hayley’s elbow in her hand and tugged her over to the bar. She tried not to be distracted at how warm and soft Hayley’s skin was under her fingers. “Ruby, hey. I’m bringing a fan to meet you.”
“A fan! I love it. Hi!” Ruby hopped down from her barstool, beaming brightly. “Ruby Fierelli. And you are…?”
“Hayley Milton.” Hayley’s eyes were wide and sparkling with joy as she reached out to shake Ruby’s extended hand. “I’m a huge fan. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve re-read the London Heartbeats trilogy.”
“Oh, God, thank you! I loved writing that series so much. Definitely made me want to visit London one day soon.” Ruby’s smile grew wider.
“You’ve never been? Wow! I really felt like you knew the city well.
I spent a summer at Cambridge in college, I went down to London so much.
” Hayley was animated, talking with her hands, and Deb was fascinated by this new side of her.
She was used to seeing stern-faced, judgmental, uptight Hayley.
But this Hayley was smiling, gesturing, expressive, and… happy.
Hayley was always pretty, but this kind of deep-down-in-the-heart joy for something? That made her beautiful. Deb fought to keep her own face from melting into a sappy grin at the sight.
A Lounge hostess walked over. “Table for two?”
“Oh, yes, please.” Deb touched Hayley on the arm, hating to interrupt the conversation. “Hayley?”
“Yeah! Sorry!” With a wave to Ruby—who looked at Deb with wide eyes and a delighted smile—Hayley all but skipped alongside the hostess towards their booth, as alight as a Christmas tree. “Wow! Ruby Fierelli! I had no idea she came here. I would have 100% paid a visit sooner.”
“I’m learning so much about you today. It’s amazing.” They slid into their booth and accepted the menus handed to them by the waitress. Deb waited for her to leave before setting her menu aside and leaning across the table. “You really studied at Cambridge?”
“I did a summer program there, yes.” Hayley was scanning the menu with interest. “I had a minor in English Lit, and, like, God, there’s no more iconic place to study the subject.
” She looked up and grinned. “All my friends went to Barcelona and partied through their semester abroad. But I was surrounded by old stone buildings and books.”