Four #3
Robin looked disappointed as she hopped up to sit directly on the desk. “You didn’t sleep with her?”
Gillian scoffed. “Never.”
“Not even back in the day?” Tegan pressed gently as she sat on the couch.
“‘Never’ means ‘not ever,’” Gillian stressed.
“But she mentioned a bed.” Brooke remained standing, and Gillian got the sense she was being low-key cross-examined.
“She needed help moving a mattress into her office yesterday. It was blocking the door. I didn’t recognize her voice, but once we got the monstrosity all the way in, it tipped over, and she and I ended up tangled atop it.”
Everyone stared at her for a moment, Robin with her usual expression of glee at anything uneasy, while Tegan covered her mouth with her hands, and Brooke bit her lip.
“It’s fine,” Gillian said. “Awkward, but okay. It’s over, and there’s nothing more to the story.”
Brooke nodded. “Except at some point when you were, I don’t know, on top of her, you realized you knew each other?”
Gillian’s face warmed once more, though this time the heat wasn’t entirely due to annoyance as her mind flashed with a memory of Daphne’s body pressed against hers, dark eyes searching, and her own name perched on full lips. “She was on top of me.”
Robin broke first, nearly cackling. “Holy shit! Gillian bottomed for the girl next door. Are you sure she’s the only one making it sound salacious?”
“Yes.” Gillian snapped. “Actually, now you are.”
“Okay. Okay.” Brooke held up her hands. “I’m sorry we’re enjoying this more than you are, Gilly. That must’ve been disorienting, and yet, you have to see some of the humor in this, right?”
“I do not have to do any such thing, as this is my place of work, not sophomore year of high school. I don’t appreciate her trying to drag us back there.”
“For real,” Tegan agreed. “If anyone from my high school showed up and knocked me over, literally or figuratively, I wouldn’t enjoy that.”
“I might, under the right circumstances,” Robin said with a shrug, “but I guess it’s not your bag. Still, you can’t blame us for being curious, right?”
She certainly wanted to, but if anyone bore any blame, it was Daphne. “She’s always enjoyed pushing buttons, mine in particular.”
“She said as much,” Brooke agreed, “which is why it seems like there’s something more there than ‘we knew each other in high school.’”
“She’s merely trying to rev me up.”
“What makes her think she has the power to do so?” Tegan asked. “You’re kind of known for being unflappable. Once upon a time, I told you I’d had a one-night stand with your senior colleague, and you didn’t even flinch.”
“I did on the inside.” Gillian grimaced slightly. “But that was work.”
“And what’s this?” Brooke pressed.
“It’s, well, it’s …” She wanted to say, “annoying,” but that wasn’t the whole truth.
Still, everyone was waiting, watching, refusing to fill the silence, and suddenly she felt wildly exposed, sitting there with a trio of therapists doing to her what she was used to doing to other people.
“Look, she’s going to come back in here in a moment bringing her particular penchant for chaos. ”
Robin rubbed her hands together. “Excellent.”
“What’s important for us to know before then?” Brooke asked.
“Just that there’s nothing between us, and no matter what she says to try to get under my skin, there never was.”
“‘Never,’ as in ‘not ever,’” Tegan repeated back.
“We were classmates,” Gillian said in her calm and centered voice. “Our paths crossed in classes and at a few social events many years ago. It appears as though they’re crossing again, and we seem to like each other now about as much as we did decades ago, which isn’t much.”
“And no sexy fun times were had by all,” Robin said empathically, “which seems a shame for the only two out lesbians in a whole high school.”
Tegan shook her head. “Seems weird you didn’t even give it a go.”
A single set of memories flashed through Gillian’s mind, the disconcertingly dark parking lot and grainy images gone gray with time. She pressed her lips together tightly, and of course every one of her esteemed colleagues saw it.
“Whoa,” Tegan laughed.
“Holy shit. You did give it a go!” Robin pointed at her accusingly. “Did you two, like, try to meet behind the bleachers after basketball practice? Or was prom night the bomb night? Or, like, did you drive an old Chevy with a big back seat? Or—”
Brooke cleared her throat, cutting off Robin’s rambling descent. “I would love to hear Gillian’s level of consent with this line of speculation.”
“Zero.” Gillian sighed. “Can someone’s consent level register in the negative range? I give no one permission to speculate about me and Daphne in any compromising, high school fantasy scenarios. Or me with anyone else for that matter, but especially not Daphne.”
The familiar laugh rumbled in from the hallway. “Is that my cue to make my dramatic reentry from downstage?”
Gillian blew out a heavy breath, because of course that was exactly the kind of chaos she would have to expect with Daphne back in her life. “Sure. Why not?”