Chloe
I’m glad my plan worked and Irene felt more comfortable being physical with me. We took turns in the bathroom while I thought about how much fun I just had. I washed my hands and face before laying back on our bed and turning on a movie, one of the endless re-runs being aired.

She looked over to me from the bathroom, still kind of dazed from everything that just happened. Oh no, was she going to try to complicate this all again? I swear, this is why I usually prefer talking to plants.

Irene cleared her throat, standing in between the bathroom and me on the bed, “Um. So, did you want to…” Irene trailed off, looking at the ground.

I gave her a questioning stare. Where was she going with this?

“Did you want me to reciprocate?” she forced out, red in the face.

Oh. Gosh, she was so shy about this. “No,” I told her in an even tone, “I don’t know if that’s my thing, I think I prefer to just do whatever you need and then we can just cuddle.” I made grabbing motions with my arms to emphasize my point.

She looked stunned for a moment before walking over and falling into my arms in bed, still naked.

I gave a contented sigh. This was perfect. Well, maybe it could be perfecter if she was a little less shy in asking for what she wanted, but having room to grow was the perfectest.

“So like,” she started.

I thought about if I should stop her, not let her overthink things, but I knew that’s how she was. I underthought things and she overthought them, and that was okay. I needed to let her vent her feelings, no matter how much I thought it would be simpler to do what we wanted and love each other with all our hearts, however that looked.

“...are we still friends?” she asked.

I didn’t even know what that was supposed to mean. “Yes,” I said, “my feelings for you haven’t changed,” I elaborated. I didn’t really understand her need to label everything but if it gave her peace of mind I wouldn’t deny my love the things she needed.

She sighed and buried her face in my neck. Was that a good response, bad? ‘People are so complicated,’ I thought.

I stroked her back, watching the television absentmindedly, enjoying her presence for a long while until she informed us we had to get ready for our dinner reservation with our parents. I had completely forgotten that was planned after my sickness, and I spent a moment disappointed I couldn’t stay alone with Irene right now.

While I looked through my luggage for the best dress I’d packed, she threw on a cream blouse and deep blue pants. She ended up pairing her outfit with small gold hoops in her ears and a thin gold chain necklace. She looked so cool; I almost swooned.

I found my dress, a backless navy pile of silk. It hovered just above the floor when I put on my black stilettos, which brought me to Irene’s height

Right before we left our room, she stopped us behind the door. She brought me close, staring at my lips. My eyes wandered to hers, and not for the first time, I thought about kissing them.

I gave her a slight nod, in case that’s what she was waiting for, and she closed the distance, tilting her head slightly.

Her soft lips met mine, and I sighed into them, feeling her embrace me with her arms as she gently moved her mouth against mine. What a wonderful feeling, being this close to her.

We quickly broke apart; I knew if I took it any further Irene would be distracted during dinner.

We opened the door and walked out into the living room where our moms were already waiting. We listened to the excited gushing they did about how adorable we looked and how grown up we each were. Irene seemed a bit more awkward than usual, but I was sure it would be fine, we could have a normal dinner with our parents and everything would be okay.

Irene
How was I supposed to pretend everything was okay?

Ok, maybe that was a bit dramatic, and everything was fine, great even, but I really didn’t know how to act at a nice dinner around my mom and Vivica, Chloe’s mom, hours after having sex with Chloe. I hardly knew how to act around her, let alone her fucking mom.

I had no idea how she was so casual about it, like this was just something we did, something that was natural for two lifetime best friends to do. Didn’t this change things? Didn’t we have to change our title to friends-with-benefits, girlfriends, something?

I shook my head. I needed to focus, act natural, don’t let anything slip, and maybe talk about it later with Chloe.

I returned my focus to the present, only to realize the waiter was staring at me, waiting for me to order. I looked at my menu, which I hadn’t even opened yet, and then looked to Chloe instinctually. She nodded and addressed the waiter, “She’ll have the lemon basil pasta,” she said confidently. God, when did she get so sure of herself. It was doing things to me I really didn’t need right now, especially at the dinner table.

“So, kids…,” Vivica started after the waiter left, “we’ve noticed that you two are really close, and we’ve been wondering about something.”

My mom continued, “We’re not mad or anything, but we just don’t want to be in the dark.”

What the fuck were they talking about? I looked at Chloe to see if she had a clue, but, although she schooled her expression much better than I had, I could still read it as utterly bewildered.

Vivica addressed her daughter, “Chloe, are you guys together?”

What? Did they hear us? My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Oh god, I was never going to live this down.

Chloe somehow remained calm, despite the corner of her mouth twitching, “I’d love to stay together with her for the rest of my life,” she said. She was so sweet. I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but it was really sweet.

Vivica shared a look at my mom and the two of them broke into grins. “You owe me fifty dollars, Clem,” Vivica said.

Chloe and I looked at each other, confused. What was even happening?

They excitedly launched into this story about how they’d been disappointed when we’d both been born girls, saying that they’d hoped for one boy and one girl between them, and then they’d push us together so they could be nagging in-laws together when they were older.

It was kind of a cute story, if a little weird, thinking about Chloe being like an arranged marriage candidate. I mean, since it was Chloe, I found it cute, but if it was anyone else I’d probably hate them.

They then explained their hopes were revived when I came out and they started noticing the way we looked at each other.

At this point, way later than it should have, it dawned on me that they thought we were romantically involved, not friends-with-benefits. Oh god, could this get any more awkward? And the way we looked at each other? Did they mean the way I’d been pining after her for years?

They then concluded the story saying my mom had predicted we needed a push to admit our feelings, while Vivica predicted we were already together, we just hadn’t told them yet.

As they talked, I periodically watched Chloe’s expression, noticing as her face twitched more and more before, at the conclusion of the story, she sneezed and broke into a fit of giggles.

Usually I’d help her sober up, but this whole thing was so weird that I started laughing too.
My mom looked at Vivica, mumbled something about young love, and they both sighed before waiting for us to finish.

We managed to stop once our food arrived, and Chloe and I took turns answering a series of increasingly weird questions from our parents.

I just followed Chloe’s example. When she answered the question, ‘When’s the wedding date?’ with, ‘At least after Irene proposes to me,’ I figured she was going to play along and we could talk about this later in private, before clearing up the misconception later.

I had to admit, however, playing at being a serious couple with Chloe was intoxicating. I found myself getting drawn into the fiction, telling them I’d be moving to where Chloe’s job was since I could work remotely. And it wasn’t like that wasn’t what I wanted to do, regardless of if we were a couple or not.

At some point, however, Chloe’s increasingly excited answers started to hurt me. I felt like I was laying my heart out in the open, and she wasn’t taking me seriously. Maybe I’d been feeling like that for a while.

We eventually survived the gauntlet of questions, received another pointed comment about noise, this one actually landing its intended meaning on us this time, and we returned to our house in the dark.

As I was heading to our bedroom, Vivica pulled a small black box out of her purse and gave it to me with a wink before heading upstairs. I stared at the box confusedly for a second before putting it in my pants pocket, walking into mine and Chloe’s room. I’d deal with that later, I had more important things to think about.

I waited for Chloe to finish getting ready for bed, looking out the French doors to see the moon reflecting off the ocean, my feelings as choppy as the surging waters.

What was going on? Why did it always feel like Chloe brushed my feelings aside? Maybe she’d understood this whole time, and she was just playing with me?

That didn’t really seem like her, but I couldn’t think of anything that made sense to me. I wanted clarity on where we stood, and the only way to do that was going to be to sit her down and tell her how I felt until she understood.