Chapter 33

"Why? Why did you ghost me Katherine?" Paige asked.

"I can't explain anything to you clearly, Paige. All I know is that I got really scared and I backed away." I replied.

I tried my best toake her understand what I felt then, being new to the world of love and affection and feelings.

And not surprisingly, she understood it all.

Then, she said, "do you want to know what I have been up to? Do you actually want to know how I discovered I was not straight?"

And I'm all sincerity, I said yes. Now, I really want to know Paige. I am no longer the little kid that did not know what she wanted. I am a grown ass woman, and I wanted to know this beautiful woman lying next tot me.

Now, let's hear...

Her Side

Looking back, the first time I saw her, I think I knew we were going to fall in love.

There's just something about McKayla...

The wicked glint in her eyes when she laughs. The way she tilts her head and smiles knowingly. Her hips sway when she walks. Her eyes seem to bore right through you. When she talks, you are the most important person in the world to her. She's the sexiest person in any room and she knows it.

It took me a while to realise what it was, but I was irrevocably smitten. Maybe it was because I was young and impressionable. Maybe I was in an "experimental" stage of my life. Or maybe McKayla was that person who comes along once in your lifetime and if you don't grab her right then, you'll regret it forever.

I had just moved to the beach after graduating from college. My uncle knew a guy who got me a job working for a buddy of his as the office manager for a warehouse. I didn't know a soul in the town, but I wanted to live anywhere but Po-dunk, USA, and that was the first job opportunity I got.

It was me and forty guys who worked at the local adult beverage distributor. They were a little crude and—shall we say—"unrefined", but they were all basically good guys. Most of the time, they tried not to tell sexist jokes around me and usually didn't burp or fart in my presence, but they didn't always remember.

Being the new person (and only girl), I was subjected to a lot of good-natured hazing, but pretty soon, I was just one of the guys. It helped that I liked football and could cuss up a bluestreak with the best of them. I also didn't tolerate their bullshit, and I could dish out as much as I could take.

Still, some days, I longed for some female company. The warehouse was next to a strip mall that had a doctor's office, a mom-and-pop Chinese restaurant and the local branch of a large bank in it. It turned out that a teller and a medical technician had the same lunch time as me and after meeting fairly frequently over the lunch buffet, pretty soon we were hanging out together after work.

Allyson was seeing a guy and Bretlynn was single. I had broken up with my boyfriend near the end of my senior year. We had gone out for about two years, but he never exhibited a lot of drive. He seemed to be on the six (or eight) year plan and was content to take all the classes he could as long as his parents were paying.

He was pretty, but his not having any ambition led to a lot of resentment in me which led to simmering anger which led to poor communication which led to him not being able to keep his dick in his pants. I dumped his sorry ass and never looked back. I wonder now why I put up with his shit for so long.

Anyway, a couple of nights a week Allyson, Bretlynn and I started going out for drinks and hanging out. Sometimes, Allyson's boyfriend would join us; other times he had to work late or we had a girl's night out. I dated around a little bit, but I wanted to be single for a while and enjoy being twenty two before I did the spouse and family thing that I thought everyone expected of me.

One night, Allyson brought her friend McKayla with her. She was a few years older than the rest of us and was a financial planner at the bank where Allyson worked.

I remember thinking how pretty she was. McKayla went to college on a softball scholarship and was tall, with a firm, muscular build, dark hair and perfect skin. She was the kind of girl that made everyone around her go "Dayum!"

McKayla also had an air of supreme confidence about her. I think that's what attracted me to her. She seemed to know herself. I didn't know what I wanted out of life. I didn't have a plan for tomorrow, much less for 10 years. Hell, I was just happy to have a college diploma and a job that would make my rent, student loan payments and leave me just enough to go out a couple of nights a week.

The four of us went to a local seafood restaurant for dinner and then downtown to the boardwalk for drinks and dancing. McKayla was nice and friendly. She's the kind of person that doesn't know any strangers. I ended up sitting next to her and we talked all night, mostly about work and other inconsequential stuff. She drew me out immediately.

We stayed out until close to midnight, but since it was a work night, we couldn't stay out too late, so we promised to all go out again.

As Allyson and I were walking back to her car, for some reason I turned over my shoulder to get one last glimpse of McKayla, who waved. I reflexively waved back.

"You know she's a lesbian, right?" Allyson said.

My jaw dropped. I thought she was just friendly.

"I think she likes you," my friend said with a wink, and I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

In hindsight, that certainly explained why some of the things McKayla had said to me earlier might have sounded like a little more than conversation just between friends.

What it didn't explain was why my pulse raced when I saw her smile.