Chapter 8

8

S unlight streamed through the window of Ruby’s bedroom, but it didn’t wake Sasha up.

You couldn’t be woken up if you never went to sleep, after all.

Sasha sighed and turned to face Ruby and the bolster pillow that separated them. She was greeted with Ruby’s back, red hair down and tangled in a puddle across the pillow. Remembering that she’d sunk her hands into those soft, silky strands and pulled, remembering how that had made Ruby gasp and whisper fuck into the darkness… Sasha blushed. Slipping out of the bed, she grabbed her toiletry bag and some clothing and headed for the bathroom.

Sasha took her time with her morning routine, carefully taking the full dentist-recommended two minutes with her teeth. Her shower was a good hot one, leisurely yet attentive. She washed her face with care, then took the time to give herself a mini facial massage and a good moisturizing. Making sure every inch of herself was thoroughly dry, she pulled on a pair of soft black jeans and a gray henley before she meticulously styled her hair in the steamy reflection of the mirror.

The whole time, she thought about what she could possibly say to Ruby. When she’d broken off their intense make-out session last night, saying that they needed to talk today had been the only thing she could think to get out of her mouth.

The weight of Ruby’s full, warm breast in her palm, the sensation of stroking her pearl-hard nipple under her thumb… Sasha could still feel it now. If she hadn’t stopped, she’d know how Ruby’s pussy felt, how hot and wet it would be, how it would clench around her fingers. How much she craved it to press against her lips.

But she’d had to stop, for her own sanity. She just had no idea how to follow up her desperate declaration.

After forty-five minutes, Sasha knew she had taken all of the time she possibly could in the bathroom. More than was considerate, really, given that Ruby’s parents and a cousin were also on this floor of the house and would need their own time in here sooner rather than later. Sasha gathered up her belongings and scuttled off to Ruby’s bedroom.

Ruby was awake now, sitting up in the bed with her hair tousled and tumbling down around her shoulders. She’d pulled a blanket up to cover herself and was peering at Sasha nearsightedly from under her bangs, her expression faintly sheepish. “Good morning.”

“Hiya.” Sasha dropped her stuff on the desk chair in the corner and walked over to sit on the edge of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Thirsty. I have a headache. My mouth tastes like I ate only cheese for three days straight.” Ruby smacked her mouth and made a face. “Next time I’m invited to a champagne bar, I’m declining.”

“I think it was the double tequila shot more than the champagne,” Sasha said lightly. “But I don’t think that avoiding champagne bars is a bad idea in general.”

“Right.” Ruby flashed her an adorable smile, then fell silent. The room was very, very quiet apart from the sound of cars in the street and a murmur of conversation coming from downstairs.

Ruby took a deep breath. “Sash?—”

“Do you want some coffee?” Sasha interrupted, as the idea occurred to her. “I can go get you a cup, you can shower, then we can… yeah.”

Before Ruby could answer, Sasha bolted out the door and downstairs. She was in the kitchen in the blink of an eye, greeted by an astonished look from Mama Elena, who were heads together over their own cups of coffee.

Elena broke the silence. “I didn’t expect to see any of you kids awake before noon. You’re the second one, I just sent Dom Junior downstairs with breakfast for the kiddies.”

“Well, you know, early birds and all that.” Sasha made herself smile as she headed towards the coffeemaker. “I thought I’d get Ruby a cup of coffee while she got ready for the day.”

“So thoughtful.” Elena beamed and exchanged a significant glance with Cecelia. “It’s nice to see my Ruby treated so well, by such a good woman.”

“She deserves the best,” Sasha replied honestly.

Elena’s smile broadened. “I agree. Listen, take her these.” She got up and pulled a bakery box out of a cabinet. “They’re her favorite, I got them special for her this morning. Aragostines.” Opening the box, she revealed two lobster tail-shaped pastries made out of thin sheets of dough. “They’re filled with pistachio butter. Oh, and I got you some too.” She retrieved a second box. “Ruby told me you’re allergic to tree nuts, so here’s some lemon custard ones. Gino at the bakery assured me that they have separate counters for their nut-free stuff and they clean all the time, I hope that’s all right.”

“Oh, wow.” Sasha blinked back emotional tears at Ruby remembering the allergy and making sure her mother was aware of it, at Elena sweetly finding an alternative and ensuring it was a safe one. She was reminded of her own mother, whom she hadn’t seen in far too long. Sasha swallowed. “Thank you so much.”

“Sweetheart, of course! Now, here, you’re gonna have your hands full, let me get you these coffees in travel mugs.” With expert speediness and the long experience of a mother of four, Elena pulled down two travel mugs and filled them with coffee, sugar, and milk. “I made yours like Ruby likes hers, I hope that’s all right.”

“It’s fine,” stammered Sasha, standing like a statue with her bakery boxes.

Elena moved around her, adjusting the boxes and tucking the handles of the travel mugs securely into Sasha’s hands. “Now, you be careful going upstairs, and bring those mugs back down for a refill. You got it?”

“I got it.” Maneuvering carefully, Sasha edged out of the kitchen and made her way up the stairs, focusing hard on her balance and on making sure she had each foot placed fully on the steps. At the top, she met Ruby coming out of the bathroom, to her relief. She hadn’t been sure how she was going to open the bedroom door, laden with treats as she was.

“What’s all this?” Ruby shoved the door open and held it as Sasha inched over to the desk to set everything down.

“Breakfast treats from Mama Elena,” Sasha announced, selecting one mug of coffee and the box of pistachio pastries. She handed them over to Ruby, who dropped everything in her hands on the floor and smiled like sunshine when she saw the bakery logo on the box.

“Gino’s! That means this is…” A gasp as she lifted the lid. “Pistachio aragostines,” she cooed. “Come to mama.”

Spellbound, Sasha watched as Ruby raised the flaky pastry to her lips and bit in, letting out a tiny groan that sent Sasha flashing back to the previous night with a blush. “God, these are my favorite ever,” Ruby mumbled through her mouthful. “Heavenly. Mmm.”

Desperately needing something to take her mind off of the noises Ruby was making, Sasha opened up her own box of Aragostines. A bite into her lemon custard one immediately had her understanding Ruby’s pure orgasmic joy. The pastry was perfectly flaky and crispy, with a good buttery bite under all the edges. The custard was rich and full of the delicate sunshine flavor of sweet Meyer lemons.

“Isn’t it so good?” Ruby asked, her eyes wide and hopeful as she finished her treat off. “Gino’s is the best.”

Sasha had never been a pastry chef, but right at this moment she was tempted to enroll in a course just so she could make these forever. Even the pistachio ones—she’d risk it all to make Ruby as happy as these pastries did. And, selfishly, to have this kind of celestially delicious goodness at her beck and call whenever she wanted it. “Amazing,” she breathed, going in for another bite.

Ruby sat down on the edge of the bed with her coffee. “I’m going to save my second one. I need caffeine now.” She took a sip. “So. Last night, you said we needed to talk?”

Sasha all but choked on the bite of pastry she’d just taken. Hurriedly, she reached for her coffee. “Say what now?” she asked, stalling for recovery time. She wasn’t used to Ruby being so blunt! But then, until yesterday, she had never kissed or touched Ruby before, never left her high and dry. Is that what made the difference?

Ruby certainly seemed calmer and more composed than Sasha would have expected. She was continuing to sip at her coffee, hair damp and fragrant around her shoulders, eyes inquisitive, demeanor fully unbothered. “You said we needed to talk. You had my breast in your hand, you were kissing me, pulling my hair. I told you, that doesn’t come easy to me…” Her bravado melted away. “What did I do wrong?”

Of all the things Sasha thought Ruby would ask, that, in such a soft and wounded tone, wasn’t what she expected. Sasha put down her pastry and rushed over to sit next to Ruby, taking her free hand. “Nothing. You did nothing wrong.” But she was starting to panic, because she still didn’t know what to say. She could not, no way, tell Ruby she’d pumped the brakes because sleeping with Ruby, touching her, kissing her, making her come, would be the beginning of the end for Sasha.

She was already in love with Ruby. Getting physically involved was the last frontier, and if they did that now while they were in this weird fake relationship, it would kill Sasha to see it end once they were home. She couldn’t do it. But she also couldn’t tell Ruby the truth about why.

Sasha realized, however, that she could fudge things a little, and it would only be a little. “You did nothing wrong,” she repeated, scooting closer and pressing a kiss into Ruby’s hair. “But we were drunk. I wouldn’t want it to be like that, with you. With anyone. It’s just not right.”

“Oh.” Ruby swallowed hard. “Okay. I just felt…”

“I know. I’m sorry. I never meant to make you feel bad, or to leave you hanging, Rubes. But things weren’t supposed to get that far anyway, right?” Sasha tried to inject jovial cheer into her voice, to get that sad rejected look off of Ruby’s face. “We’re only girlfriends in public.”

“That’s true.” Ruby’s face was unreadable for a moment, but then she sat up straight and smiled. Carefully wiping her lips clean with a tissue from a box on her end table, she leaned over and kissed Sasha, just a soft, fleeting butterfly of a kiss on the lips. “Apology accepted, and I’m sorry for putting you in that position. Friends?”

“Friends,” Sasha agreed, firmly ignoring the dagger that word was to her poor tender heart.

The Fierelli house was bursting at the seams with dozens of family members ready to caravan over to Lorenzo’s Bar and Restaurant for Angela and Daniel’s rehearsal dinner. Ruby reveled in the hustle and bustle and loud conversation of it all as she and Sasha arrived downstairs. As much as she loved her life in LA with her chosen family, coming home to Winston and Natalie was never like this, never a loud and wonderful cacophony of love and bickering and happiness.

“Hey! Everybody listen,” Papa Dom bellowed, his powerful baritone bringing the multiple conversations to a screeching halt. “I got all the cars sorted out, come see me and I’ll tell you who you’re ridin’ with. Rubes, Sasha, you’re with me and Mama, plus Rosie and Jim, so you all go get in the Suburban. Everybody else, see me right now so we can get this show on the road!”

Grabbing Sasha’s hand, Ruby scooted out the door right behind her sister and brother-in-law. She and Rose were very familiar with Papa Dom’s strict rules when he was acting as Caravan Chief. When assignments were given, it was best to simply get out of the way. The four of them piled themselves into the Suburban and buckled in.

“What’s this Chiara’s place like?” Sasha asked, snugging her seatbelt up over her lap. “Italian?”

“Upscale Italian, and it’s in a mansion,” Jim said, his amiable face brightening up. “Beautiful place with incredible food. We had our rehearsal dinner there too, didn’t we, Rosie?”

“We did,” Rose confirmed. “So did Dom Junior and Dante.” A lovely, if sly, smile spread across her face, and Ruby narrowed her eyes at her big sister. Rose’s smile only grew bigger and she continued, “It’s become a sort of tradition. Maybe you’ll continue it, Ruby?”

“Maybe one day,” Ruby gritted out from behind her clenched teeth.

“You’ll have to tell us what you think of the food, Sasha,” Rose trilled out as Jim chuckled into his fist. Sasha went pink.

“ Thank you, Rose,” Ruby bit out, resisting the urge to reach out and yank on her sister’s high ponytail. The best strategy for coping with any of her siblings when they felt mischievous was to grin and bear it. Violence would only beget further violence, and she had no interest in finding out just how lethal Rose’s knucklepunch still was. Her sister had a real knack for finding the softest, most easily bruisable site on a person with the first blow. Ruby rubbed at a phantom ache that sprang up from her upper thigh, circa approximately 2002.

Papa Dom and Elena climbed into the Suburban. “Everybody got their belts on?” Dom asked, cranking the vehicle on. At the collective nod and the click of Elena’s seatbelt buckle, he let out a whoop and pulled out of the driveway. “Then let’s go eat!”

Ruby leaned over to whisper in Sasha’s ear. “I’m sorry about Rose.”

“It’s okay,” Sasha whispered back. “It’s cute that she wants to help plan your future wedding.”

“She’s not the only one,” Ruby sighed, looking down at her hands in her lap. She began to pick at her cuticles. “They all keep making comments to me. It’s… a lot.” And she’d never let them know how it hurt her, how she wished she did have someone to plan a wedding with.

A gentle hand wrapped around hers and squeezed. Ruby looked up to see Sasha smiling fondly at her, as if she understood what Ruby wasn’t saying. Ruby swallowed. She probably did understand. Just like Ruby understood that Sasha was likely wishing she had a crowd of rowdy, interfering siblings of her own. She squeezed Sasha’s hand back. At least she had her, no matter how puzzling her own feelings were at the moment.

They let everyone else carry the conversation for the twenty-minute drive to Chiara’s, each of them occasionally interjecting some kind of agreeable noise when called for. It was nice, Ruby thought, to be here with such a good friend, one who knew her so well, who could sync in and just know how to move with her through a crazy week like this one.

Dom pulled up in front of the lovely old mansion that housed the restaurant. “Rubes, you two go in there and let them know we’re all arriving, okay? Make sure they’re ready for us.”

“But we’re all the way in the back seat, Pops,” Ruby replied, bewildered. “Why can’t Jim and Rosie do it?”

“Be a good girl, Ruby Margarita,” Elena said, twisting in her seat to fix Ruby with a stern glare she knew all too well. “Do as Papa says.”

Ruby exchanged glances with Sasha, who shrugged and reached for the door handle. “We can manage it, no problem,” Sasha said. “Rose’ll scoot over and let us out.”

“Yep,” Rose concurred, lifting the arm of her seat and sliding over to snuggle up to her husband. “There you go.”

Sasha eased herself out of the SUV and turned, extending her hand to Ruby to help her down. “Thank you,” Ruby said, blushing with pleasure.

“Run on in, girls,” Elena instructed.

Ruby gripped Sasha’s hand and headed into the restaurant, making a beeline for the elegant, dark-haired woman at the host stand. “Hi there. The Fierelli party is here, we’re just waiting for the rest of us to arrive.”

The hostess looked down at her list, adjusting her gold wire-rimmed glasses to get a better look. “Fierelli, party of two. Yes, we have your table all ready, just follow me.” She picked up a pair of black leather-bound menu folders and waited, looking at them expectantly.

“Two? No, no, that’s not right. It’s more like two dozen… it’s a rehearsal dinner.” Panic began to set in, making her heart flutter. “There should be a whole reservation.” Of course, this would happen when they sent her in to handle everything! Ruby swallowed and tried not to cry.

The hostess smiled reassuringly. “I assure you, it’s a party of two here. Domenic Fierelli called in the reservation three days ago. You’re lucky a table came available!”

Sasha squeezed and patted her hand. “I’ll go check with your dad, Rubes. Don’t worry. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” Blinking, Ruby sat down on a little black lacquered bench. The hostess shrugged and put her menus back in the bracket on her stand, circling back around to wait for another, less eccentric party to check in for their table.

How could this go so terribly wrong? Ruby knew her family, they would have double and triple checked this. This check-in should have been a cakewalk, a bit of nothing. She lifted her hand to her mouth and began to gently nibble at her thumbnail.

“Quit that.” Sasha swept in and pulled her hand back away. “Listen, your dad’s gone. Nobody from the family’s here.”

“What? Oh, my God.” Ruby felt dizzy. Just then, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out.

Enjoy your romantic dinner, baby girl. We love you two!

“Oh,” she whispered, knowing her eyes were round as gumballs at the sight of her father’s message.

Sasha held her hand out. “Can I see?” Ruby handed it over, and Sasha read the screen. Then blinked and read it again. Her face went tomato red from neck to forehead. “Oh. Oh .”

“We’ve been had, Sash.” Heat was spreading across her own face at the realization. Her own parents had conspired to send her on a romantic date with Sasha. A romantic and very expensive date, she knew well. After all, as Jim had pointed out, they’d all been here several times for family occasions. The menu had often changed over the years, but the prices had always stayed… well, at a level Ruby could never afford even if she’d been a bestselling author ten times over.

Swallowing hard, she stood up and brushed her sweaty hands down her good black knee-length skirt. The hostess looked at her with interest as she approached, Sasha tagging close behind. “You said there was a table for two, for me?” Ruby asked, stomach in knots.

“Yes, indeed.” The hostess flashed them a quick smile and pulled out the menus again. “Follow me. I’ve got a great table for you, overlooking the water.”

“Oh, wow,” Sasha muttered in amazement, following behind. “Can we afford this place, Rubes?”

“Everything is taken care of, ladies,” the hostess informed them, leading them up to the second floor of the converted mansion. “You’re to order anything you want. Your waiter is going to bring you a complimentary bottle of wine.”

“Complimentary?” Ruby asked, knowing that the wine list was as exclusive and upscale as the menu.

“To you.” The hostess winked and led them to a table that did indeed overlook the water. “Jason will be your waiter this evening, and he’ll be with you in just a moment.”

As she vanished, Sasha pulled out a chair and held it. “Ruby?”

“Thank you.” She sat down and fiddled with the silver moon pendant around her neck as Sasha took her own seat. “This is crazy, Sash.”

“It is. Do I dare even look at the prices?” She opened her menu. “Never mind. They gave me the menu without them.”

Ruby checked hers. “Me too. Jesus. Pops can’t really have meant for us to get what we want?”

Sasha shrugged. “He hasn’t struck me as the kind of guy who’d lie about that.”

True enough. Dom was a straight shooter, as direct as they came. And Ruby was the baby of the family who’d brought a ‘significant other’ home at last. So yes, this was exactly what he’d intended.

She looked at Sasha. “I think we should start with the baked clams,” she announced. “I know I usually don’t eat seafood besides shrimp, but they’re so good, it’s my favorite appetizer here— only here. And they have a crabmeat salad I think you’ll love, because you and Dante like a lot of the same foods and he adores that.”

“And for dinner?” Sasha asked, an indulgent grin on her face as she leaned on the table, propping her chin in her hand.

“Let’s see… they have this fish they debone and grill right at the table. I’ve never had it but I think you’d really like that.” She scanned the menu. “I’ll have the Caesar salad and then their roast duck, it’s incredible. And then dessert…”

“We don’t have a dessert menu here yet,” Sasha pointed out.

“We don’t need it. You’re going to get the deep-fried banana cheesecake and you are going to love it .”

“I bet I am,” Sasha replied with a grin.

The food at Chiara’s was indeed as incredible as it sounded. Sasha groaned as she pushed aside her plate with the remains of her grilled sea bass. “I can’t possibly eat dessert,” she announced, wishing she could open the top button of her best black trousers. They didn’t have any kind of forgiving elastic in the waistband, and she was only just shy of being uncomfortably full.

Ruby’s recommendations had been thoughtful and exactly what Sasha might have ordered for herself if she’d been alone. The baked clams just by themselves had been revelatory—they’d have to have been, to get Ruby to eat any seafood apart from shrimp and love it—the crabmeat salad generously portioned and perfectly put together. The tableside-grilled sea bass was delicate yet bursting with succulence and flavor, and it wasn’t the least bit overdone. So, Sasha knew the dessert Ruby had suggested would be amazing as well.

She was just so full.

Ruby was also eyeballing the last of her duck and its accompaniments—which Sasha had also tasted and swooned over—and seemed to feel dubious about dessert as well. But she looked up at Sasha with an adorably woeful look on her face. “I want the cheesecake,” she whispered. “But my stomach…”

She clearly had intense feelings about this banana cheesecake, which only made Sasha want to try it more herself, not to mention to get the rush that came from doing something nice for Ruby and seeing her smile. Sasha took a careful deep breath. “Why don’t you get a go box for that, and then we can split the banana cheesecake?”

The grateful look she got in return made her feel like she’d just saved a puppy from oncoming traffic. “Yes, please, let’s split it,” Ruby burbled in glee, raising her hand ever so slightly to get their waiter’s attention. Sasha basked in the glow of that happiness that she loved so dearly.

The dinner had been incredibly romantic: candlelit, excellent wine—a beautiful Italian red with a full body, followed by glasses of a delicately fruity white to go with their entrées—and the most incredible food Sasha had ever tasted. Their conversation had flowed and centered on themselves in a way it never had before; usually they talked about their friends, their work, the Lounge, the movies or concerts they’d all go see as a group.

Sasha realized somewhere between bites of sea bass and potato terrine that this was possibly the first time she and Ruby had ever truly been alone since they met years ago. She did consider Ruby her best friend, and they did things together, but never alone together. Someone from their friend group was always there. And this week, they’d been surrounded by family until they escaped to go sleep.

While Sasha had known a lot of factual, observable information about Ruby, after that night she knew just how passionately Ruby felt about her work, whether published under her own name or someone else’s. How characters lived in her head, acting out their stories, revealing themselves bit by bit. How she kept a notebook by her bed to write down middle of the night ideas, and some mornings she woke up to find she’d written either a whole story outline or three pages of scribbled nonsense.

After two glasses of the red, Sasha had found herself talking about how, at the age of three years old, her mother had carefully taught her how to wash and peel potatoes and carrots for stew. At five, she was learning how to tell a weed from an herb or vegetable in the garden. When she was ten, her father began teaching her how to grill in the lazy, humid warmth of the Minnesota summers. Everything she loved about food was rooted in how much her parents loved her, and it had become how Sasha herself showed how much she loved the people in her life.

That, she realized, was skating a little too close to the edge of danger, and she redirected the conversation back to the dinner itself. And to what the rest of the Fierellis were doing.

“I wonder where they really went for the rehearsal dinner,” Ruby had wondered. “And how they all kept this secret. Because I know they all had to be in on it. At least my siblings and their spouses, anyway. But they’re all such gossipy bitches! I can’t believe nobody let this leak.” She’d reached across the table to give Sasha’s hand a gentle squeeze, and her little smile was lovely. “What a nice surprise this was. It's lovely being here in this place I’ve come my whole life, with you.”

Sasha had swallowed hard, and Sasha had smiled, and Sasha had poured herself the last of the bottle of red.

Now, a wide white plate with two forks and a mountainous wedge of something battered, fried, and delicious looking drizzled in caramel was being placed in the center of their cleared table. “That… looks pornographically good,” Sasha stammered.

“It is.” Ruby handed her a fork and gestured with her own, a tiny smirk lifting the corner of her mouth. “You first. I want to see your face when you try it.”

There was something in the way she said it, something a little seductive and naughty that Sasha was sure Ruby had no idea was there. But it was, and it made Sasha blush. Focusing on the cheesecake, she broke through the tender pastry crust with her fork, making the thick caramel run down over the creamy ivory filling. Mesmerized, she lifted a bite away and slowly slipped it into her mouth as Ruby watched.

The groan fell from her lips before she could even think to stop it. “Jesus Christ.”

For the second time in a week, she wanted to propose to a baked good. The bakers and dessert chefs of Staten Island were truly masters of their craft, because she had never, ever had it so good in terms of sweet treats. The cream cheese and banana filling was warm, fluffy, and melted on her tongue. The caramel had been made with delicately browned butter, giving it a deliciously nutty depth of flavor. She couldn’t even talk about the perfectly flaky, buttery batter.

Across the table, Ruby’s eyes were half-closed, and the moan that came out of her mouth was just like the one this morning that had made Sasha remember the bachelor party and…everything else. “I could eat this forever.”

“Get me the recipe and I would make it for you forever,” Sasha breathed. She hadn’t said it this morning over the aragostines, but she couldn’t help but let it slip now.

Ruby’s eyes opened and their gazes locked. Curiosity was beginning to stir in those blue depths. Curiosity and… possibly the slightest hint of realization? Was she connecting the dots? The delectable bite of dessert began to dry in the back of Sasha’s mouth.

“Ruby? Ruby Fierelli!”

A dark-haired man about their age was standing by the table, a broad grin on his handsome face and good humor in his brown eyes. Ruby squealed a little as she leaped to her feet to give him a huge hug. “Mike! I didn’t think I’d get to see you before the wedding!”

“Same! Isn’t this the night of the rehearsal dinner?” Mike stood back and looked at Ruby quizzically. “Why are you here?”

Ruby looked back at the table, where Sasha was sitting awkwardly with her mouth full of cheesecake that suddenly tasted like sawdust and fear. She tried to smile as Ruby indicated her. “My family thought my partner and I could use a romantic dinner out together. They tricked us and dropped us off here. So, they’re… I don’t know where, but we’re here.” Ruby offered Sasha a soft smile before she turned back to Mike. “This is Sasha Ashford. She’s the chef at the Indigo Lounge, I’ve told you about the Lounge.”

“Oh, wow, this is the genius chef I’ve heard so much about?” Mike edged past Ruby to get to Sasha, who found herself forced to swallow the cheesecake and stand up to shake his hand. “The way Ruby talks about your food in emails, I know my husband and I have got to come out to visit someday. I’m Mike Colangelo.”

The name rang a loud bell. “The prom date? When you broke your wrist?”

He threw his head back and laughed heartily. “I can’t believe you got that story out of her! She always forbade all of us to talk about it, she was so embarrassed. You really are someone special if you know about that.”

“Oh, I don’t know…” This was a lot. It was one thing to be fake girlfriends with Ruby’s family, but with someone who was clearly as much found family to her as anyone at the Lounge was, it felt different. Especially since Ruby talked to him about her to him, told him about Sasha’s cooking so well that he wanted to come try it. It made things feel a lot less fake somehow. She had no idea how to cope with that.

“This is my husband, Gray.” Mike was motioning to a slender blond man that walked up behind him. Gray tucked his arm through Mike’s in a gesture that was unconscious, yet so tender it made Sasha’s heart ache. There was a clear comfortable familiarity between them that she envied, but she also tried to soak it in while they talked to Ruby about Daniel’s wedding.

She wanted that, so badly it hurt. Every day she spent with Ruby in this fake relationship that was feeling more real by the minute, she had no idea how she would ever be able to walk away. She wanted the casual hand holding to be permanent, she wanted to be able to walk up to Ruby and wrap an arm around her waist and for Ruby to lean into the embrace the way Gray was leaning against Mike.

Friends , she’d said just that morning, and she’d meant it. This morning, she had been sure she could survive whatever happened this week. They’d be able to go back to life as it was before and eventually, it would hurt Sasha less.

Now, after an exquisite candlelit dinner and all of the revelations of the last few moments, revelations that Ruby remained blissfully oblivious to as she chatted with her friend and his husband… now, the dagger in Sasha’s heart, the dagger she’d basically thrust into her own chest when she agreed to this…

…Now, it began to twist.