“Are you okay?” Lucy said.
Erica nodded.
“Really?” Lucy said.
“Mostly.”
Lucy reached over, and put her arm around Erica’s shoulders, and hugged her quickly.
“I’m fine,” Erica said. “Honestly.”
“Do you want to talk?” Lucy said.
“About that?” Erica said. “About what just happened? Um, not really. It’s kind of embarrassing…”
“Nah it isn’t. My shit’s embarrassing. Yours is just… people getting a little upset.”
“A little upset?” Erica said, starting to smile. “That’s all? Really?”
“Very upset?” Lucy said, smiling back.
“That’s probably a bit more accurate.”
They sat there for a moment.
“Anyway,” Erica said. “There’s not much to talk about, is there? It’s really just people being people, I think. People being unreasonably peopleish.”
“I suppose.”
“Or some people being assholes,” Erica said. “Maybe that.”
Erica’s voice was calm, but there was an edge to her voice as she spoke, as though she was angry, but forcing her anger down. Lucy looked at her, wondering. Erica was calm. She was a calm person, and rarely got upset, but Lucy suddenly wondered if she was more hurt or irritated than she seemed. She had just been smiling, and being a bit silly, but then again, she also had to be upset. She couldn’t not be upset, with what had just happened.
“Are you really okay?” Lucy said. “Not angry or whatever?”
“I’m fine. I guess I’m annoyed, but I’m mostly fine.”
“We can still talk, if that would help?”
Erica sat there for a moment, silent, as if she was thinking, and Lucy almost thought her silence meant yes.
“We can,” Lucy said, encouragingly. “You’ve been helping me all day. Now I can help you, if you like?”
“What?” Erica said. “Sorry, I was… I drifted off.”
“We can talk if you want to?”
Erica looked at Lucy, seeming confused. She must have been so lost in her thoughts that she had stopped listening.
“We can talk,” Lucy said again, gently. “If you’d like to?”
“About Allie?” Erica said.
“Yes.”
“Oh,” Erica said, then, “Nah. I mean, thanks, but not now. Maybe later.”
“Are you sure?”
Erica nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
YOU ARE READING
Losing Everything
RomanceLucy loses everything that matters to her, her partner and job and business and all her money. She loses everything, and in doing so she reconnects with an old friend, Erica, and begins to fall for her instead. And as she does, she realizes that e...
