Star Crossed Lovers (Girlxgirl)

Chapter 8

“So?” Billy asked.

“I just thought you two got a chance to get to know each other. You’re Alex’s best friend, I just assumed you’d like to know her better so that Alex doesn’t waste her time on the girl if she’s not for real.” She resumed with the chores.

“We didn’t get a chance to talk,” Billy said, recalling what she’d done instead. There was a special place in hell for such kinds of friends, she thought unpleasantly.

“How is work? Have you gotten more clients?” Kim asked.

Glad for the change of topic, Billy shook her head. “No, but I have a couple of potentials.” She had worked for a company for four years as a graphics designer until the company had gone bankrupt. Now, it was almost a year since she’d started working from her apartment after she’d successfully managed to leave the company with a couple of big clients.

They had been reluctant to work with her in the beginning, but after she’d proven that she could do even more from the comfort of her own house, they had given her a time frame to work with. She had a couple of pending campaigns she was working on, and because of how time consuming they were, she was starting to think about opening up her own firm.

“You know, when you get more clients, you’ll need bigger space and probably a couple of more people to work with. You can’t do it all on your own,” Kim said.

“I know that, Kim.” She worked for a real estate firm so her professional life was well thought out and planned for. It was because she was so settled that she felt she was ready to commit.

“I could help you get some office space,” Kim said.

Billy had thought about that. It was going to be her first step, but something was stopping her from taking the leap. “I’ll call you when I’m ready,” Billy said.

“If you need to continue working, please don’t let me bother you,” Kim said.

Billy watched her for a while and felt sorry for her. She did not know what Kim thought she was going to gain from dropping by to clean Billy’s house. Billy wasn’t usually a messy person, on the contrary, she was very neat and tidy since she worked from home, but the inward battle she was going through blinded her from seeing how untidy her house had actually been, so maybe she should have been grateful to Kim.

“Thanks, Kim,” she said.

Kim smiled at her and Billy went to the guest bedroom she’d converted into a working space. Work helped her to stop thinking about the disturbing things that were currently going on within her.

**

*

Alex’s POV

“If you two ever broke up you’d have such a hard time moving on from each other,” Alex said.

Her friends, Jade and Lana had been together for three years now. They were Alex’s role models since she had seen how quickly lesbian relationships tended to end. Theirs had to be the longest lasting one from the people she closely knew.

“What makes you say so?” Lana asked.

“Because it’s so hard trying to find an ideal person to be with. Everything is so complicated nowadays. Almost everyone I know just wants to have sex. No one wants real relationships anymore. You two are the perfect couple.”

“Every relationship has its own share of problems. Just because you see the surface of it doesn’t mean we’re always happy,” Jade said.

“Isn’t the best part knowing that when you do have those problems, you can sit down, talk about it and eventually fix it? Because at the end of the day, you’re still in love and you’re happy together.”

“That’s true,” Jade said.

“Is that what you’re searching for? A life partner?” Lana asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve been dating for so long, I needed to take a break.”

“What about that girl, what’s her name? Jesse?” Jade said.

“She’s cool, but I don’t think we want the same things. Plus we just met so I really don’t know what she’s looking for,” Alex said.

“How about you just play it by ear? She might surprise you,” Lana said.

Alex didn’t blame Jesse for initially turning her down. After the events that had occurred the first night they had met, anyone would have been turned off by something like that. They had only gone out once after Jesse had said yes, but the situation had been a little tense.

The movie had been a great idea since it had been a little hard trying to come up with topics to discuss. Alex had thought Jesse had lost interest and at some point of the night, she’d been about to give up until Jesse had apologized, promising to be better company on their next date.

Alex had been reluctant to go out on a second date with her, but had decided to just give it a shot. What would she have to lose? So on Friday, which was just a night away, they were going to have a small party at the beach house.

Alex did not expect anything, but she hoped the presence of her friends would ease the situation and make Jesse a little less tense.

“I don’t remember putting so much effort into a date,” she said.

“If you like Jesse, and if she feels the same thing too, then everything will work out the way its meant to.”

When Alex was about to respond, Billy walked into the restaurant. She waved her hand and when Billy spotted them, she approached their table.

“Join us,” Alex said as she got up to give Billy a light hug.

“I’m actually in a bit of a hurry,” Billy said after greeting everyone on the table.

“I haven’t seen you in almost a week, come on,” Alex said.

“Actually, we need to get going too. Billy, you can make ten minutes to catch up a little with Alex,” Jade said.

They got up and both pecked Alex and Billy goodbye. “See you at the party,” Lana said on their way out.

“What’s going on? Have I done something wrong? It almost feels like you’re avoiding me,” Alex said.

Billy sat down beside her. “No, its not like that. The campaigns are driving me crazy. I barely have time for anything,” she said.

“That’s good, the business is picking up.”

“Yeah,”

“So are you going to make it to the party?”

“I don’t know, maybe, maybe not,” Billy said.

“Come on, you have to be there. I need you there.”

“Why?”

“Because Jesse is going to be there and apart from me, you’re the only other person she knows. I want her to feel comfortable.”

“She will be, those guys are great.”

“Billy, dude, come on, are you going to make me beg?” Alex asked.

Billy was silent for a while and then her lips curved up in a smile. “I’ll be there,” she said.

“Now that’s what I want to hear.”

“I have to go now. I have a deadline tomorrow and I need to make it in time,” Billy said.

“No problem, I’ll see you on Friday night.”

***