A soft trilling sang through the fluffy remnants of sleep. Sunlight warm on Vera's face and mattress dipping under her, the deeper warmth at her back shifting away. A rustle of cloth; soft, quick footsteps that faded into the sleepy haze.
She rolled over, the subtle scent of tropical flowers wafting off clean white sheets, and settled again with a sigh of deep contentment.
The ringing went silent. Sharise's voice drifted down the hall, a low murmur indistinguishable above the hum of traffic through the open window. Snuggling closer into the pillow, Vera found herself smiling.
When they had made it back to Sharise's apartment the night before, the air had felt closer; warmer. The breathless urgency firing the kiss on the roof had eased with their slowing heartbeats, softening to a thrum deep beneath their flickering skin.
"There's no rush. We have all night," Sharise had said, lids low over sparkling eyes.
Vera hadn't said it out loud, but she thought she wouldn't mind hearing Sharise say that every night.
Sharise had put on some soft music. They had fed each other grapes and shit-talked their exes and jokingly debated whether Vera had a mommy kink (results inconclusive). There was no talk of work or schedules or Carmen, which was exactly how Vera liked it.
And they had kissed long and slow and sweet. Lips had pressed feathery promises against ear and throat and heaving ribs. Hands had made languorous exploration along welcoming curves, through warm hollows, over leaping pulses to find the sibylline secrets between one gasping breath and the next.
In the end, the long weeks of exhaustion and stress had caught up to Vera. She had yawned through removing their makeup side by side, over a new toothbrush Sharise opened for her, into the soft pillow of Sharise's arms when they finally fell together into bed. There was a kind of safety in Sharise's embrace, a steady surety in the twinkle in her eye, a certainty with every kiss. It had been months since Vera had slept so well.
Blinking now against hazy late-morning sunlight, Vera slipped from the bed. Her shirt and bra had been abandoned somewhere by the couch the night before, so she wriggled into her vegan leather leggings and padded down the hall topless.
Sharise was in the living room, laptop on the coffee table, her phone face-up beside it. One palm on the door frame, Vera stood admiring the fingers of sunlight spreading cobalt shadows across Sharise's dark skin. Without the harsh edge of eyeliner, there was an unusual softness to even her stern expression. A yellow terry cloth robe wrapped her curves, a pink-and-white silk scarf folded up over her hair. Vera loved her in a pair of pants but this unguarded, just-woke-up look was doing something funny to her stomach.
"Marina did what?" Sharise was asking, pinching the bridge of her nose between two nails as she stared at the computer screen.
From the phone, Carmen replied in a tone thick with sulk. "She was drunk, and she deleted it, but there are screenshots. It makes her look jealous and petty as fuck. It's a bad look, especially with the whole charity angle. Cora thinks I should--"
Sharise had finally noticed Vera standing topless in the doorway. Her perfect eyebrows arched. Vera couldn't help doing a little shimmy. The tiniest smile cracked Sharise's lips. Grinning like an idiot because she could see the laughter trapped behind those very white teeth, Vera tiptoed across the room to scoop her shirt off the floor.
"Are you listening to me?" Carmen demanded.
Sharise snapped her gaze back to her phone. "I'm listening."
Now that she was closer Vera could see Carmen on the screen. With a small yelp she ducked down out of sight because if she could see Carmen, Carmen could probably see her. But it was too late.
"Who the fuck is that?" Carmen demanded.
"Uh--" Sharise nudged Vera's shirt with her toe. Still hunched over to avoid the phone camera, Vera snatched the shirt, pulled it on as fast as she could. Her face was burning.
"Do you seriously have a girl over right now? You whore," Carmen said gleefully. "You never told me you were dating again."
Sharise glanced at Vera, who was hastily buttoning her shirt, then back to her phone. "My love life isn't your concern."
"Of course it is," Carmen scoffed. "Anyway, this's supposed to be a private fucking conversation. Tell her to leave."
"Uh, it's just me." Clothing more or less presentable, Vera popped up beside Sharise and waved awkwardly. Perching on the edge of the couch, knees not quite touching, she added, "Hi, Carmen."
Carmen stared. She looked like she'd had a long night; dark circles under her eyes, hair scooped into a messy bun on top of her head with flyaway strands sticking out in every direction. "Vera? No fucking way. You two are fucking?"
"We--" Vera began.
At the same time, Sharise said, "No."
Mouth still open but words caught in her throat, Vera looked at her in confusion. It wasn't like she had been planning to give Carmen the dirty details, but--
"Did I say you were allowed to fuck?" Carmen's joking tone had a cutting edge to it. "You both work for me. I'm pretty sure it's against the rules for you two to fuck."
"We're not--" Sharise's brows knotted. "We just-- Vera slept over because we--"
For someone who was once a talented actor, Sharise was such a terrible liar that it was unsettling to watch her try. Vera didn't understand it, but she didn't like the pinch in Carmen's expression as she looked at them so she blurted out, "Because Sharise needs a roommate and we thought maybe I could move in."
It was Sharise's turn to stare blankly. For a moment there was utter silence.
"So we were, uh, testing it out," Vera said, fiddling with her buttons and realizing she had fastened them all askew. "Seeing if I liked the place."
Carmen's laughter bubbled like a forest creek over mossy stones. "Are you still in the hotel? I thought you'd already moved out. Jesus. You're wasting all my money. Sharise, why hasn't Vera moved out yet?"
"I've been looking for a good apartment," Vera said. She didn't add that she had been too busy to look very hard. "It's just all really expensive--"
"You two are so cute, though," Carmen said, waving her hand dismissively. "You'll make perfect roommates. Sharise has been so lonely since Ellie left, haven't you, Sharise."
"We haven't made any decisions yet," Sharise said, tone cool as winter wind. "I'll come over, Carmen. Let's talk about Marina when I get there."
Carmen pouted. "Fine. I want you here soon. Vera, call Cora back. You need to put your post up."
"Shit. I almost forgot."
"You forgot?" Carmen pointed one threatening finger. "You better be joking, bitch. My viral moment is gonna stall soon. You need to keep it fresh."
Vera scratched at the back of her neck, smiling guiltily. "Yeah, totally joking. Sorry. I'll call her."
Sharise hung up and gave Vera a long, flat look. "We thought maybe you could move in?" she echoed. "Weird. I don't remember that."
Vera made a face at her. "I was trying to cover your ass. You're a terrible liar. Why don't you want Carmen to know about us?"
Snapping her laptop shut, Sharise pressed to her feet. "Is there even an us?"
"What?" Stomach plummeting, Vera jumped up and hurried after Sharise as she strode down the hall to her bedroom. "What do you mean, is there even an us?"
Sharise yanked her closet open to reveal a profusion of luxurious fabrics in a rainbow of colours. At any other time Vera would have been drooling, but right now the tightness between Sharise's shoulders made her stomach feel hollow.
"This is all moving very fast," Sharise said. "I don't know I'm comfortable with it."
Vera pulled in a quick breath and then another. Alex had said the same thing at the beginning. Can't you slow down a little? Panic fluttered between her ribs. She couldn't scare Sharise off like this. She would hate herself forever.
"I'm sorry. The thing about moving in-- It was dumb. I was just--"
"Please let me get changed," Sharise said shortly, tugging a silky green shirt off a hanger.
"I--" Vera clenched her hands up into fists. It wasn't fair that Sharise's sudden coolness felt like finding a lost pincushion by stepping on it barefoot, but arguing wasn't going to help. "Yeah. Okay."
Swallowing through her tight throat, she shut the bedroom door behind her. She had a sudden vision of her sister Ivy, lips pursed in pity. Ivy would say Vera was an idiot. That she always fell too hard, too fast. She didn't know how to take things slow. It would make anyone nervous.
Back in the living room, Vera found her strappy bra and squirmed into it; buttoned her shirt again, correctly this time.
Actually, Ivy would probably say, Don't worry about it, you can do better than her. So fuck Ivy. Sharise had been into it the night before. She liked Vera's boldness. She'd said so. This was just a small misunderstanding.
Vera ate three grapes out of the bowl on the coffee table and found her phone on the kitchen counter.
When the screen lit up, she nearly choked on the last grape.
Notifications cluttered her screen. Voicemails from Cora and her mom and Ivy; texts from Jay and half her friends back home and even Mona who had wanted to fire her; more DMs than she used to get in two months. A dozen people that she followed, small designers and stylists and famous influencers she worshipped, had followed her back. She hadn't even posted the behind-the-scenes videos yet but people were already combing through her whole catalogue of posts. Her follower count ticked up as she watched. Over three hundred thousand. She felt light-headed, like she was still in bed, dreaming.
Carmen was trending on every platform. Vera had wanted polarizing, but she had never imagined this chaos. Every article led with the red carpet photos, the blood-stained bodysuit and ice queen expression. Some blogs contrasted it to the blue queen-of-heaven look she had changed into. A few loved the irony of Carmen going on to win the Best Kiss Award. There were more period jokes than Vera had ever heard in her life, more feminist rants, more sexist bad takes. Her feed was thick with commentary on Marina's mysterious since-deleted post, the one Carmen had been talking about. The memes were already getting very strange. Most posts remembered to mention the charity. Gossip about Troy was buried deep, if it showed up at all.
And then, pinging into her notifications, an article that made her heart stop: Who's the Woman Behind Carmen Juarez's Style Metamorphosis?
Hyperventilating, she skimmed it, too afraid to read deeply. It was just a superficial skiff off her own social and blog, but it made Vera's chest swell. Somehow this felt like just the beginning. If making Carmen go viral once could get Vera this much attention--
"It's overwhelming, isn't it."
Vera glanced up to see Sharise, looking beautiful in denim and that strappy, clover-green top, locs gathered into a thick braid over her shoulder, makeup perfect.
"It's wild," Vera said, awe in her voice. "I can't believe we made this happen. No one gives a shit about Troy anymore, that's for sure."
"You certainly made a moment happen. The girl is taking it surprisingly well." Sharise gathered up purse and sunglasses and keys, and suddenly Vera remembered their fight--argument--disagreement?
She shoved her phone into her purse and pulled herself up to her full, unimpressive height. "Look, I'm sorry I said that thing about moving in. I mean, I was thinking about it, but not as like, moving in moving in. Just because you need a roommate, and I need an apartment. I would be okay staying in the second bedroom. I think we would get along, and I like spending time with you--" She adjusted her purse strap over her shoulder, thumbing her red luck charm. "I mean, it doesn't matter. I get it if you feel like I'm moving too fast. It was a bad idea anyway."
"Vera, it's--"
"I really like you, Sharise." Vera spread her hands with a sheepish grin. "I want to get to know you better. I want there to be an us."
Sharise tilted her head, expression unreadable. Slowly, she said, "I wouldn't have invited you over if I didn't want the same." Vera's heart leaped into her throat, then plummeted again as Sharise went on, "But I'm not ready for any kind of commitment yet."
"Sure." Vera nodded, her smile weak. "I get it."
"Decisions like moving in are made together. I don't enjoy having something like that dropped on me. Ellie used to do that. She thought spontaneity was cute. I don't."
Vera snorted out a laugh, then covered her mouth. "Okay. Don't be like the cunty ex. Noted."
A small smile on Sharise's lips, just the tips of her teeth visible. "Are you really having that much trouble finding a place?"
"It's a nightmare, honestly."
"We do need to get you out of that hotel. Carmen doesn't exactly have an A-list income anymore," Sharise said, then grimaced slightly. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that. That's none of your business. I'll think about it. See how it goes with Ellie. We'll talk about it again in a few days. Okay?"
"Sounds awesome." Stepping closer, Vera hooked her fingers into the front pocket of Sharise's jeans and grinned up at her. "I just think you should know, while you're thinking it over, that I'd love to see your beautiful face every morning when I wake up."
"Oh, stop." Smile curving the corners of her lips deeply, Sharise leaned down for a kiss that should have been quick but instead lingered until they were both breathless.
Vera was quite certain it wouldn't be long before that I'll think about it would become a yes.
Sharise dropped Vera off at her hotel. It was still not exactly luxury, but in the month she'd been staying there, the sparse, sterile room had started to feel homey. She wouldn't miss it, though. She would only miss the fact that Carmen paid for it.
Opening the window wide to let in the soft warm breeze, she ordered delivery, then set up her laptop in a puddle of gentle afternoon sunlight. She made her call to Cora. While she ate tongue-searing pad thai from a carton, she revised her post to conform to the new story. A few lines were cut from the videos; a few edited in. The goal was to make it seem like the period-stain look had been planned all along, rather than a last-ditch effort to save a terrible situation. She thought it was convincing.
Finally, she sent the finished product off to Cora for approval. A simple thumbs-up emoji came back. She hit post.
To distract herself while her notifications began to blow up again, Vera went through her DMs. She deleted hate and blocked trolls and smiled over heartfelt comments. To her surprise, there were two interview requests in her messages; one was a legitimate site, and she immediately fired off a note with her email address, saying she would be happy to answer any questions. Four different mid-size fashion influencers had sent offers to collaborate, which was intriguing. She was still reviewing those when she got another text from Jay.
You busy tonight, girl? Come for dinner. Plus we're going dancing later. Don't say no. We need to celebrate making Carmen go viral.
Huffing out a laugh, Vera looked at her notifications counting higher. She was still feeling giddy, almost high with the adrenaline of it all. It felt like a waste to spend her viral moment shut up alone in a hotel room. She deserved a second night off. I'm in. Who's we?
Bea wants to meet you. And she wants to know how TF you got Carmen into that outfit.
Despite a twinge of nerves, Vera was intrigued at the thought of meeting the woman she had replaced as Carmen's stylist.
Oh, Jay added. I'm supposed to tell you that she's got a tempting offer for you, too. I'm not supposed to say it has to do with Marina, but it has to do with Marina. You got your second client, V.