Lucy walked up Erica’s steps, and knocked gently on the side of the doorframe. Erica looked up, and grinned, and didn’t seem especially surprised to see Lucy standing there. She might have heard feet on the wooden steps, Lucy supposed, or she might just not be surprised Lucy had come back.
Lucy wasn’t sure she really wanted to know which it was.
“So hi,” Lucy said.
“Hey,” Erica said. “You came back.”
“I did,” Lucy said. “I think maybe I changed my mind.”
“Changed it from what?”
Lucy stood there for a moment. “Running away from you, I suppose.”
“So you were going to?”
Lucy shrugged.
“I thought so,” Erica said, a little smugly.
“Yeah,” Lucy said. “Clever you. And I suppose you were right too. That I sometimes do that.”
“You always do that.”
“Yeah, I know. Probably. But I changed my mind this time.”
“Yep, you said.”
Lucy nodded. “So that’s good, right?”
“I think so.”
“Yeah,” Lucy said, and looked around. At the blue sea, and the blue sky, and at the sunny, windy day. “So can I hang out here for a while? I mean, do you mind if I do?”
“Of course not.”
“Are you sure? It might get messy.”
Erica looked at her, and suddenly seemed to be thinking.
“Messy for work,” Lucy said quickly, realizing what she thought. “Messy for everything with Bitmo. Not with us.”
“Are you sure?”
Lucy nodded. “I want to… know you again,” she said. “I think you’re the only person I’ve been around in years who I actually liked. And I miss you. Terribly.”
Erica sat there for a while, looking at Lucy.
“Not in a bad way,” Lucy said. “Not in a way that upsets anyone or makes things difficult for you. Just as friends, because I always liked you a lot, even without everything else. So now I’m here, and around you again, and I’d really like us to be friends again. And I’m sorry I took so long to say that.”
“Okay,” Erica said.
“Really?” Lucy said.
“Yeah,” Erica said. “Why not?”
Lucy stood where she was. She didn’t actually know why or why not. She stood there, and looked at Erica, and after a moment Erica stood up and came over to the door.
“But messy,” Lucy said. “Really messy.”
“I don’t care.”
“It might get public. There are lots of angry people looking for me.”
Erica shrugged. “I make crypto components for people who develop financial services software. There’s nothing these people of yours can do that’ll bother me.”
“What about Jake?”
“What about him?”
“Jake’ll be pissed off if he finds out that I’m here. I mean, after everything that happened. After everything he suspected and thought he knew, that I end up here? That’s going to look really bad, isn’t it?”
“That’s true,” Erica said slowly, and then thought for a moment. “So I guess you should probably stay here, then, shouldn’t you?”
Lucy grinned.
“Why do you care what he thinks any more?” Erica said. “He fucked you over. Completely. So fuck him. Who cares.”
“He didn’t…” Lucy said, then thought, and decided that actually Jake had. And Erica was right. It was completely. “Yeah,” she said. “I suppose.”
“So come inside.”
Lucy didn’t move.
Erica looked at her for a moment, then said, “Please, just do.”
“In a sec.”
“You have more to say?”
“Maybe.”
“So say it later,” Erica said, and reached out, and took Lucy’s hand, and pulled her through the doorway. Pulled, like the open space in the door was some kind of barrier, and it was some kind of achievement to get Lucy through it.
And Lucy let herself be pulled.
YOU ARE READING
Losing Everything
RomanceLucy loses everything that matters to her, her partner and job and business and all her money. She loses everything, and in doing so she reconnects with an old friend, Erica, and begins to fall for her instead. And as she does, she realizes that e...
