And they always did, no questions asked.
Iris shook her head and swiped out of her drawing program. She just needed a distraction. She’d spent her whole weekend in her apartment, writing romance and remembering, and fuck, she needed to do something else.
Someone else.
Her hands shook as she pulled on a pair of high-waisted jeans and a yellow crop top, as she slicked on mascara and some sparkly coral lip gloss. Low blood sugar. That’s all it was. She never remembered to eat when she was writing. In the kitchen, she dug into a box of crackers, then tapped out a text to the group chat, now named Cheers for Queers.
She tapped out Anyone up for Lush, but then hesitated before she hit send. She’d seen the way Claire had looked at her in Stella’s the other night, the assumptions all of her friends were making about Iris and Stevie, even as Stevie danced with Jenna. Honestly, she didn’t want to deal with their horror that Iris was looking for a random hookup.
She exited out of the group chat and tapped on Simon’s name.
“You know, normal people text,” he said when he answered her call.
“I’m not normal, Simon,” she said. “Surely you know that by now.”
He laughed. “Fair enough. What’s up?”
“You in Portland?”
A pause, just long enough to make Iris ask if he was still there.
“Yeah, sorry, I’m here,” he said. “And yeah, I’m in Portland. Why?”
“I need a wingman,” Iris singsonged, grabbing her keys and bag.
“You don’t,” he said. “You really don’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“You honestly think I didn’t hear about how you stormed out of Stella’s after Stevie got with Jenna Dawson?”
“Oh fuck, not you too.”
“I’m just saying, Claire would stick needles under my fingernails if she knew I took you out to get laid.”
“It’s not Claire’s business.”
“Okay, fine, but it is mine, since you’re asking me to participate here, and I’m saying no.”
Iris laughed. “Be serious.”
“I am being serious, Iris,” he said, his voice annoyingly soft and gentle.
“Okay, what is going on?” she asked, but her insides were starting to clench, her throat going thick.
Simon sighed. “Look, I don’t want to tell you how to live your life.”
“Then don’t.”
“But I love you. We all love you, and I just think that if you slowed down for a second, really thought about what you wanted, you’d see that—”
“No,” Iris said, her throat full-on swollen now. “Hell no, Simon, you are not going to tell me what I want or who I do or do not want to sleep with.”
“I’m not—”
“You are. And you can fuck right off, and yes, feel free to communicate my sentiments to everyone else.”
“Iris, I—”
But she ended the call before he could get anything else out. Her hands were shaking, and tears swelled into her eyes. She knew it. She fucking knew it, all this time, that her friends thought she was screwing up her life, that to be happy, to be whole, she had to be with someone.
Well, fuck that.
“Fuck that!” she screamed to her empty apartment, her voice echoing off the walls. She swiped at her face, willing the tears to reverse their path. She pressed her palms to her kitchen counter, breathing in . . . out . . .
She was fine.
She was fucking great, and she didn’t need a wingperson to have a good time. Granted, for safety reasons, she never went to Lush or any club by herself, but she didn’t have a choice. She was not going to let her friends’ small-minded views stop her from meeting her own needs.
She flung her bag over her shoulder and headed for the door. She wrenched it open, ready to hurl herself into the hallway, but her path was blocked.
By Stevie Scott.
Dressed in cuffed gray jeans and a black tank top, her curly hair brushing her shoulders, the slight mullet style making her look like she was about to step out on stage with a guitar.
“Hi,” she said.
Iris stood there for a second, her chest heaving with adrenaline and anger.
Go away.
It was right there on her tongue—she needed someone else, not Stevie Scott, but fuck, even as she thought it, she felt herself reaching out, pulling Stevie inside by her waist and kissing her.
Hard.
She pressed her mouth to Stevie’s, groaning into her mouth, tongue seeking contact. She slipped her hand up the back of Stevie’s shirt, her skin so soft, so smooth. Iris squeezed her eyes closed, imagined herself as anyone, Stevie as anyone, two nameless women seeking comfort, sensation, and— “Hey, hey, hey,” Stevie said gently, pulling away and wrenching Iris out of her fantasy. “Slow down a sec.”
Iris blinked at her, reality rushing back in. “Shit. Sorry. That was a little aggressive, huh? I should’ve asked.”
“It’s okay,” Stevie said. She rested her hands on Iris’s waist. “Seriously, are you all right?”
Iris waved a hand. “Fine. Just . . . turned on.” She smirked at Stevie, all flirt and swagger, but Stevie didn’t smile back. She just studied Iris in a way that made Iris want to scream.
Iris stepped back, causing Stevie’s hands to fall away from her hips. Cleared her throat. “I was just on my way out.”
“I see that,” Stevie said.
“Did you need something?”
Stevie smiled. “Actually, yeah. I was hoping you’d go somewhere with me.”
Iris frowned. “Where?”
“That’s a surprise.”
“What?”
Stevie ran her hand through her hair, laughed a little nervously. “I was at home, thinking about you, and I realized we hadn’t had a true romantic date yet.”
“A date.”
“Our deal is still on, right?” Stevie said. “You’ve held up your end, but I’ve been a pretty horrible teacher to you.”
Iris sighed. “Stevie, you don’t have to do that.”
“Is your book finished?”
“No, but . . .” She trailed off, because despite Stevie’s claims, Stevie had actually helped Iris a lot, igniting every dormant romantic bone in Iris’s body. Tegan and Briony’s enemies-to-lovers story was flowing from her like a chocolate fountain at a wedding. Iris had even sent the first fifty pages to her agent last week, who loved them and encouraged her to keep going.
So Iris had, writing as if in a fever dream in the mornings and late into the night after play rehearsal.
Writing and drawing.
Drawing Stevie.
Stevie and Iris.
She shook her head, determined to tell Stevie no, she wouldn’t go with her.
Couldn’t.
But as Stevie tilted her head, that soft smile on her mouth, Iris found she was curious about this surprise, curious about what Stevie had planned for this next romance lesson.
And, if she was being honest with herself, she wasn’t actually sure she was in the mood for Lush, for searching for someone to fuck in a sea of nameless faces.
She didn’t really want nameless tonight.
She wanted a friend. The kind of friend who wouldn’t ask her about her love life or give her I actually know what’s best for you looks like Claire had been doing lately.
And Stevie was just such a friend.
If they ended up having sex at the end of this fake date, then so be it. Iris certainly wouldn’t say no to that. She’d never admit it to Stevie—and definitely not to Claire or Astrid or even Simon—but her night with Stevie was the best sex Iris had ever had.
“Okay,” Iris said. “Fine. What’s this surprise you have up your sleeve?”
TWENTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER, they turned into a driveway with a sign welcoming them to Woodmont Family Farms. The sun was just starting to dip below the trees, turning everything golden and soft.
“We’re . . . going . . . strawberry picking?” Iris asked.
“Not quite,” Stevie said, smiling as she parked next to a tiny house with a sign on the front porch that said Farm Office. “Ready?”
“I’m not sure,” Iris said, laughing.
Still, she got out of the car and let Stevie take her hand—this was a romantic date, after all, so what the hell—and they walked along a dirt path through a copse of trees. Iris continued to guess at what they were doing.
“Scavenger hunt?” she asked.
“No.”
“Vampire hunting.”