Wildwood Flowers by Julia Watts

Author:Julia Watts [Watts, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gay & Lesbian
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2013-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Bev thought Andie was definitely acting funny. All through dinner she had been extra-solicitous of Bev, jumping up to refill her water glass, almost knocking her chair over in her haste to fetch her the pepper. When Bev had told a slightly amusing story about something Teresa had done at work, Andie laughed like it was the funniest damned thing she’d ever heard. And now that they had retired to the living room and were watching an old episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show (or “The Penis Van Lesbian Show,” as Bev liked to call it), Andie laughed extra loud at the parts Bev seemed to find funny. It was weird. Andie didn’t even like the show. Something was wrong. She seemed so eager to please…and so jumpy.

Finally Bev could stand it no longer. During a commercial that Andie was pretending to pay a great deal of attention to, Bev turned quickly to her and shouted, “Boo!”

Andie jumped straight off the sofa, her hand flying to her heart. When she sat back down, she said, “Why did you do that?”

“I did it because you’re so jumpy you’re starting to make me nervous.” Bev picked up the remote and clicked off the TV. “Is there something you want to talk about?”

“No, I’m fine. It was just kind of a stressful day at work.”

“Did something in particular happen that stressed you out?”

“No, no, not really. Just tons of papers to grade, and Hill has a project he wants me to work on. Garden-variety work stress.”

The quaver in Andie’s voice told Bev that what was bothering her was more than the pressures of academia. “Come on, hon, I’ve seen you stressed out about school a million times before, and it’s never been this bad.”

Andie picked at her cuticles nervously. “This is different. I’ve never had a full-time job before, and it’s just so conservative there, I’m always afraid of losing it.”

Bev thought she had heard at least a grain of truth. “Did something happen today that made you think you’re going to lose your job?”

“Look, I just don’t feel like talking anymore. Can’t we turn the TV back on?”

“Sure, that way we can sit in the same room and never have to talk to each other or think about our problems. That’s the way my family handled things, and you can tell by how often I visit them how well that worked.”

“Bev, this is different. I don’t want to talk right now, okay? What do you mean ‘don’t have to think about our problems’? Jesus, what problems?”

Bev felt her jaw clenching. “Oh, that’s right. We don’t have any problems. Sure, we don’t talk like we used to, and we can’t have friends like we used to, and about the only thing we do more than we used to is fight. But you’re right. We don’t have any problems. Our relationship is abso-goddamn-lutely perfect.”

“Okay, okay,” Andie said, starting to cry. “You wanna know what’s bothering me, I’ll tell you what’s bothering me. There’s this guy at work—”

“Oh, Jesus.

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