She wouldn’t know what hit her.

  Because I was just full of surprises.

  CHAPTER Twenty-Three

  The week dragged on, and I got lots of fun picture updates from Ella. And Ella got lots of different sexy pictures from me. I had never been a nude-sending kind of gal, but it made my belly flutter in ways I very much enjoyed sending dirty pictures.

  Even though the picture updates of the girls were great, I missed Ella. Our regular phone calls were put on hold because I didn’t want to burden her with my neediness, and if I was on vacation with my girls, I wouldn’t want to call and check in every night. So, I understood it, but it didn’t mean I loved it.

  It had been a long time since I missed someone. Talking to them every day and wishing we had more time together. I kept showing off all of Ella’s pictures to my friends and roommates, who would make jokes about me being head over heels in love.

  I don’t know if I was there quite yet. I could feel myself falling in love. Like, we were getting there, but I wasn’t ready to say those words or just jump right in. I knew that was way too soon and could be overwhelming. Everyone came to love on their own time, and I wanted to hold space for that, which is why, on the day we planned to see each other, I bought flowers and brought a letter where I wrote down cute, gooey things to share deeper feelings to test the waters.

  My palms were sweating as I waited at the door. I couldn’t remember the last time I had written a quasi love letter to anyone, but here we were. I had sent a text saying I was here because who actually knocked anymore, amirite?

  The lock jiggled, and when the door opened, I was stunned. Ella was standing in front of me—not Landon—and I don’t know why I didn’t see that coming.

  “Oh my gosh. You look so good!” I said.

  Ella’s face broke out in a huge grin. I wrapped my arms around her and gave a squealing squeeze, burying my face in her long blonde hair.

  “Is this surprise okay?” she whispered into my hair.

  “Of course it is! It’s great!” I stepped back and held her at arm’s length. “I just want to look at you.”

  I was in awe.

  She was stunning in a light-blue mini dress and strappy sandals, the opposite of my jeans and cropped tee. Her lashes were long, pink glitter shimmering on her eyelids, and her glossy lips looked good enough to bite.

  “Well, shit. I would have dressed nicer,” I said, looking at my own outfit and laughing.

  She smiled and intertwined my free hand with hers. “No, you look perfect!”

  “Well, these are for you!” I said, holding out the colorful bouquet, then fishing out the letter from my back pocket before sheepishly saying, “Maybe don’t read the letter until I leave today.”

  I didn’t need to watch her open it and read it while I melted into a pile of vulnerability.

  “No one has ever gotten me flowers before.”

  Her eyes shined.

  “I am more than happy to be the first of many flowers delivered to you, beautiful.” I leaned in to kiss her cheek. “I would kiss your lips, but I am not about to ruin your makeup.” A silly grin curled on my face. “You look stunning. Where do you want to go for brunch so I can show you off?” I stepped in, and Ella closed the door.

  “Let’s go to the Gratitude Café,” she said, setting the flowers down and looking for a vase.

  “I’ll do that. Do you want to grab a jacket or your purse?” I said before taking the flowers away and asking for a pair of scissors to cut the stems.

  Ella beamed at me.

  “What?” I said, dumbfounded.

  “I just really like you. Is it okay if I post this to IG?”

  I nodded. “Do you think your followers will be excited or upset that you are dating someone?”

  I wasn’t that familiar with how influencers circles were. I mean, I knew about influencers because I followed quite a few, but I had never been on this end.

  “I think they will be excited.”

  “Okay, do I look fine? I have, like, a colonial ponytail going on here,” I said, running my hands through the ends of my tangled, curly hair.

  “You look perfect.”

  My belly was doing weird things again, and warmth spread from my heart to my limbs and other places.

  “Okay, let’s do it,” I said, smiling, finishing the flowers and moving to stand next to Ella.

  “So, Elena, were you surprised to see me today?” Ella said, talking into her phone.

  “So surprised but in the best way! I’m so happy to see you today!” I planted a kiss on her cheek.

  “We have been seeing each other for almost a month, and this is the first time you are meeting Ella.”

  I nodded, looking at her dreamily and squeezing her sides. “Yes, and I can’t wait for many more dates together.”

  She locked her phone and wrapped her arms around me.

  “Thank you for doing that. Let me know if the vlogging ever gets too much, okay?”

  “It’s a part of your life. You don’t need to feel weird about it all. I will let you know if it ever overwhelms me. Are you making a full video, or is this going on your story?” I pulled our bodies closer.

  “I posted that on my story, and I will take some more video of us to make into a full post.”

  I snaked my hands down to her ass, then pulled her closer to reach up under her skirt.

  She gasped and looked at me with a twinkle of mischievousness. “It’s not right to reach under someone’s skirt.” She bit her lip as I explored the lace underneath.

  “Sorry, I just couldn’t help myself. Such easy access.” I brushed upward to her lower back.

  “I mean, you don’t have to stop.”

  I laughed. “Does that mean I get to take Ella’s virginity, too?”

  “Yes, please,” she said, her smile widening.

  I moved my hands to the front of her dress and explored her breasts and nipples, whispering, “Food or sex first?”

  She moaned faintly. “Food, then sex because you are going to royally fuck up my hair and makeup.”

  I cackled at that. “You aren’t wrong, okay? Let’s go, beautiful, before I drag you to the bedroom!”

  We walked out the door hand in hand. Ella and Elena had a fucking cute ring to it.

  The day was perfect. We had a delicious brunch, and no one was a royal asshole to us. They all seemed to leave us alone as we walked and held hands while sneaking kisses.

  In my experience, I would get more unwanted attention when I was with women. But it seemed like everyone was on their best behavior that day, which I was eternally grateful for. We shopped, then went back to Ella’s. It felt like two normal people on a fun, romantic date.

  We were on Ella’s plush white couch, cuddling, when Ella looked at her phone. We had done some filming for her vlog, and it, honestly, was enjoyable. I loved being a part of her world and claiming she was mine to her world and the Internet.

  “So many notifications on the story we posted!” she said, opening IG and scrolling through her DMs.

  “What do they say? Good or bad?” I said, a little nervous.

  “Mostly really good. People are already shipping us to be married, which is sort of weird.”

  I laughed at that. Of course people would do that, even though it was clear we had only been seeing each other for a month. “Whew, talk about a shotgun wedding. What else?” I snuggled into her shoulder and looked at her phone.

  “A lot of people praising us, saying it gives them confidence to walk out as they are and be seen with their partner and date again.”

  Representation was important, but it was weird to get praised for dating the person you liked. Straight people weren’t called brave for going out in public with their significant other, so why did ours need to be an act of bravery? I understood people’s sentiment and intent, but I was irritated that society made us feel like that. Like, anyone outside of the heteronormative rhetoric would be praised for the simplest of things simply because it was outside the norm.

  I snuggled in deeper. “Anything else?”

  “Not really. We will see how it goes when I post the whole video! People really love seeing us together, and tons of people are clicking to your profile. You might get some interesting new followers.” She looked at me seriously.

  “I can handle it. I promise,” I said, placing a kiss on her bare shoulder.

  “Or some weird messages.”

  Worry took over in her eyes.

  “And that’s what blocking people is for. Really, I will be fine. Thank you for your concern. I wouldn’t have let you post that if I didn’t understand that there might be some weird or interesting repercussions. You have a large following. People will be curious, and some might be weird about it. It’s okay. Doesn’t change a damn thing,” I said, sitting up to face her.

  “Okay,” she whispered, looking at my lips.

  I trailed my fingers across her bare arms. “Does that mean we can have sex now? Because you have been distracting and teasing me ALL day.”

  She got up and straddled me, placing her hands on my shoulder.

  “I’ve always wanted to do this to someone in a skirt.” Her eyes grew wide and wild.

  I reached underneath and played with the flimsy material of her underwear.

  “I have an idea,” I said, moving my hands farther up her torso, and raked my nails across her skin.

  She gasped and arched into me.

  “Do you want to hear it?” I placed a kiss at the top of her collarbone.

  “Yes.”

  I pointed to her glam station and smiled. “Do you have any bright red lipstick?”

  She returned the smile. “Yes.”

  “How about we both put some on and mark each other all over.”

  She walked over to where her makeup was, leaving my lap cold and empty.

  “Not on the white couch but let’s get to the bedroom. I would like to mark you first,” I said, snatching the lipstick from her and dragging her into the bedroom.

  I applied a heavy coat on my lips and pressed her against the sheets.

  “Now it will be very obvious that we are one another’s.” I placed kisses on all the soft curves of her body one by one, trying to show with my actions the feelings I felt in my heart.

  CHAPTER Twenty-Four

  "A summer what?” I said, unsure if I heard that right.

  I was officially exhausted that week, lying on my bed with my phone on my belly and Landon booming through the speaker.

  “A Summer-Ween! Like dressing up for Halloween in the summer, for fun . . .”

  We were moving on to the stage where you meet one another’s friends, and this, apparently, was our first outing. Landon’s friends were hosting a Halloween party nowhere near October. But, hey, I was down.

  “Great, well, I’ve never been to a Summer-Ween, but I would love to go and be your date. Who would I be meeting at this Hotdog-Ween?” I said, trying to think of funny puns.

  “Summer-Ween,” Landon corrected. “One of my best friends, Samantha, and her husband. Additionally, two other of my good friends from high school, Kate and Katie.”

  “Great! Can’t wait to meet some of your people. Do you have some costume ideas for this ween fest?” I asked, thinking of cute couple’s costume. “And when is this party?”

  “Uhh, next weekend?”

  “Well, fuck, where am I supposed to get a costume that fast?! Okay, we gotta decide tonight what we are going to be. Ugh, Amazon, it is. Not my favorite.”

  A witch was easy but basic. A pirate was a little more fun, but I could pull it together. I could be that basic bitch and go as a sexy cat. Or like an assassin in all black. Someone I knew had to have a costume utility belt or something.

  Or we could do like the decade thing, but I wasn’t in love with that. We could do better.

  “I think I want it to be an Ella night, though,” Landon said, interrupting my aggressive stream of costume ideas.

  “Deal. Do we like the idea of a couple’s costume, or is that a no-go?”

  “Let’s do a couple’s costume! I’ve never done one with someone else both being feminine,” Landon said wistfully.

  “We could do a heteronormative couple, and I could be the boy if you want?”

  I didn’t love that idea, but I was totally on board with what would make Landon the most comfortable.

  “Gross, let’s not do that,” Landon snarkily said.

  “So, two women,” I said, smiling and googling best lesbian couple costumes.

  “Okay, so here’s what I am seeing. Did you ever watch Sailor Moon?” I said.

  I would obviously need to be Sailor Jupiter—because duh—but Ella would make a sexy-ass Sailor Moon.

  “What is Sailor Moon?”

  “Okay, your lack of knowledge on pop culture is astounding. We need to get you consuming more mindless TV and movies like ASAP,” I said, giggling.

  “But it’s the best joke to be a film major and not actually watch that many films . . .” Landon said playfully.

  “And of course you would hate to actually be predictable,” I said, teasing.

  “Right. My worst nightmare is to be boring like my dad, who does the same thing day in and day out like an NPC,” Landon said sarcastically.

  “Well, at least you’ve played some video games. And, for the record, I think you are actually the opposite of boring. But I digress. Next costume idea, you ready?” I continued scrolling through the ideas Google was trying to feed me. “I am going to guess you don’t know who Winx Club is, either?”

  “What is a Winx?”

  “Ugh, okay. They are fairies. Like, you would just look so cute in a little tutu and fairy costume, but it’s fine. They just did a Netflix reboot, and it was sort of terrible but great. Okay, moving on. Would you like to contribute to this conversation, or am I just in charge of the ideas here?” I said, moving on to Instagram to shuffle through hashtags.

  “No, you’re the idea person here.”

  I could hear the smile in his voice.

  “Fuck you, but I am good at ideas. Fine, I’ll keep going. What about I could be, like, Miss Congeniality, and you could be, like, Miss USA or something? Pretty dresses, sashes, crowns!” I said, thinking that was a fucking clever idea.

  An evening gown would do. Surely someone had a prom dress that would fit my mid-twenties body.

  “I think that’s the best idea so far, but I feel like maybe we could do better. A devil and angel?” Landon threw out.

  “Feels too easy . . .” I said, thumbing through tons of pictures of Halloween costumes tagged #lesbiancostumes.

  “How about Anna and Elsa?”

  I bursted out laughing. “You realize they are sisters, right?”

  I could hardly contain my laughter. I would absolutely not be doing that.

  “Wait, seriously?!”

  “Have you actually never seen Frozen? IT’S A CLASSIC, BABY!”

  How you could go through life without having seen at least that Disney movie in the last decade?

  “There’s a lot of porn about those two, you know. I feel weird about it now. I thought they were unrelated.”

  I laughed more, nearly dropping my phone on my face. “I am just going to move right on past that suggestion and the fact that there is porn about that because, honestly, that’s not surprising at all. But I can’t do the sister thing as a couple costume. I just can’t.” I turned to my side and snuggled deeper into my bed.

  “Okay, what about Daphne and Velma? That’s cute!” I said, hopeful.

  That would be an easy costume to throw together, and I could probably buy something I would want to wear again.

  “So, I would be Daphne, and you would be Velma?”

  “Sure, whatever you want is perfect!”

  “Yeah, let’s do it! I think that’s the best one we have right now,” he replied.

  I was about to agree when I scrolled past a picture of the perfect costume.

  “WAIT!” I smiled at my phone.

  “Jesus Christ!”

  “Sorry for yelling, but I found it. I found the costume . . .”

  “I thought we just agreed on Daphne and Velma?”

  “No, this is better. Are you ready?” I said, giggling and envisioning this in my head.

  “Yes, tell me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Elena, I swear to God.”

  “It’s not nice to swear to our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, you know.”

  “OH MY GOD. TELL ME, PLEASE. I AM BEGGING YOU!” Landon laughed.

  “Okay, okay, Jeez! No need to yell. Okay, Kim and Shego,” I said, feeling proud of myself and this costume idea and the fact that Instagram had delivered.

  “Kim and Shego?”

  I sat up in bed. “Kim Possible! And Shego, the hot villain? Honestly, she probably awakened some bi fantasies in me as a child, but who can really say? Her and Li Shang from Mulan. Zuko from Avatar. Fuck, he was, ugh, so yummy. And Jasmine from Aladdin . . . wow,” I thought about how it was funny that I never really thought about my bisexual awakening as a child.

  “Are you done fantasizing about animated characters?” Landon said, chuckling.

  “No, not yet. You gotta tell me yours. Who was your childhood animation crush?” I said, feeling like this was an important conversation to have a month in.

  “Mmm. Maybe Blossom from The Powerpuff Girls or Trixie Tang from Fairly Odd Parents.”

  I laughed. “Amazing. I love it.”

  “Well, then, it’s settled. I will be Shego, and you will be Kim Possible because, obviously, I am the villain energy in this couple dynamic. Deal?” I said, even more excited.

  I was totally going to get some sexy-ass skin-tight suit.

  “Okay, deal. Send me photos of what you end up getting!”