november 17
361 words/14,049 total
z
Zafira grabbed Megan’s hand and pulled her through the market. It was loud and crowded, and normally Megan would’ve felt overwhelmed, but today the crowds felt like a party. A good party. Not that Megan had ever been to a party she had felt remotely good about, but that’s what the crowds felt like. She and Zafira didn’t say anything to each other as they wound through the market, examining the marketwares, but every time she caught Zafira’s eye, Zafira gave her that small, crooked smile. Megan felt giddy.
At last they came out the far end of the market stalls and wandered up and down the short boardwalk siding the little creek that ran along the side of the parking lot. Megan turned and leaned on the railing, gazing at the tangled greenery across the creek. A breeze picked up and ran through her hair. She laughed, for no other reason than that she was deliriously happy.
“So,” Zafira said, leaning beside her. “That burger was the actual love of your life.”
“Yep,” Megan said. “Tragic it died so young.”
Zafira picked at a splinter in the railing. “I hate to be outdone by a burger. But I take comfort in thinking I was in the running for love of your life until that burger came along.”
“Oh—”
Megan hadn’t even thought about it, when she’d said love of my life back in the room. She’d been too focused on the burger to overthink her words. So she’d said it, and she hadn’t thought about it, and she hadn’t panicked about it afterward.
And miraculously, the world had not shattered around her.
“You’re still in the running, actually,” she said.
A slow smile unfurled across Zafira’s face. Megan blinked at hir. Ze had dimples. Zafira had dimples.
“Good,” ze said, and ze stood on hir tiptoes and wrapped hir arms around Megan’s neck and kissed her. Megan kissed hir back, forgetful of the fact that they were out in public and that anyone walking by could see them. She wouldn’t have cared if she did remember.
At last they pulled apart, sort of, and stood there with their foreheads pressed together, which sort of made Megan’s neck ache, but she didn’t care.
“I think I saw someone selling ice cream back in the market.” Zafira’s fingers twined in her hair. “Do you want to get an ice cream cone?”
Megan smiled so much that tears just barely squeezed from the corners of her eyes.
“I would fucking love some ice cream,” she said.THE END
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