“Do you actually know any other Broadway actresses?” Jules asked as she slid onto a stool.
“Well, no, but you’d still be my favorite, because you named my theater kittens,” Josie said playfully. “Hey, speaking of theater, what happened with that audition you guys had been on the last time you were in here?”
“Jules landed the lead,” Sophie told her.
“No shit?” Josie looked delighted. “Your first starring role?”
Jules nodded. “Sophie’s in it too.”
“Well, this is fantastic news.” Josie slapped her palms against the counter. “When does it open? You know Eve and I will be there to cheer you on.”
“Previews start the first week of January,” Jules said.
Josie took out her phone and looked up It’s in Her Kiss while they talked. “Okay, I’ve got it bookmarked. Now, what can I get you to drink? Actually, do you guys want to be taste testers for something new I’m working on? There’s prosecco in it.” She dangled that last bit with an enticing lift of her eyebrows.
“You had me at prosecco,” Jules told her.
“Sure, I’m game,” Sophie agreed.
“If you like it, maybe I’ll name it after you,” Josie told them as she started mixing their drinks. “Broadway Bubbles or something like that.”
“Love it,” Jules exclaimed. She and Sophie watched as Josie prepared their drinks, adding an orange mixture and a splash of gin before topping it off with prosecco.
“On the house,” she said as she slid them across the bar. “For being my taste testers and in celebration of your new show.”
“Aw, thanks,” Jules told her.
“Just make sure you let me know what you think,” Josie told them. “Honest opinions, please.”
“You got it.” Sophie lifted her drink and sipped. It was sweet and fizzy with a hint of citrus. Josie moved down the bar to check on her other customers, and Sophie caught Jules’s eye, gesturing to an empty table in back. “Want to move over there so we can talk?”
Jules nodded, lifting her drink and following Sophie to the table. “So.”
Sophie settled herself on the bar height stool and looked at Jules. “So.”
Jules dropped her gaze to her glass, trademark confidence missing from her expression. It was a big deal, coming to terms with your sexuality, and Sophie had seen the cross pendant that Jules wore around her neck. She imagined that only complicated matters for her.
“How are you feeling about this afternoon?” she asked carefully.
“Good,” Jules answered quickly. “I mean…confused, I guess, but not in a bad way.”
“Is this a new realization for you?”
Jules took a thoughtful sip of her drink. “In some ways, yes.”
“I don’t mean to pry, but it might help to talk it out with someone who’s been there,” Sophie said. “Whatever you’re comfortable with.”
“I guess…I’ve been attracted to women before, but for a long time, I ignored it. I like men too, and that just seemed easier.” She winced. “I know that sounds terrible.”
“It doesn’t,” Sophie told her.
Jules lifted her drink and took a hearty gulp. “I thought this role might help me figure myself out, like the universe was telling me it was time to kiss a woman.”
“Maybe it was,” Sophie said with a laugh.
“I just didn’t expect it to be so…scary.” There was something vulnerable in her voice.
Sophie had been out for so long, sometimes she forgot what it was like to be where Jules was. “Well, of course it’s scary, and I would think it’s probably more confusing figuring out where you fit when you’re attracted to more than one gender. I knew when I was really young that I liked girls. I had a boyfriend my senior year of high school, just to see what the fuss was about, but it only made me absolutely certain that I was gay.”
Jules’s brows pinched as she took a big swallow of her drink. “See, it wasn’t like that for me. In high school, it had never even crossed my mind that I wasn’t straight.”
“Everyone’s story is different, Jules. It doesn’t make yours any less valid. I have plenty of friends who didn’t come out until much later in life.”
“This is all so surreal.” Jules shook her head. “Everyone in my life assumes I’m straight, including me sometimes. I mean, how do you know for sure?”
“You just have to trust your gut, and it’s okay if it takes you a while to figure it out, or even if you change your mind.”
Jules pressed her fingers against her forehead. “I don’t want to change my mind. That’s not my style.”
“Then maybe just accept that right now, you’re curious. You could try dating a woman and see how it goes, if that feels right for you.”
“Maybe.” Jules polished off her drink and set the glass on the table with a solid thunk. Something in her seemed to have loosened as the alcohol kicked in. She looked up, catching Sophie’s gaze. “It felt right when I kissed you earlier.”
“Oh?” Sophie asked casually, trying to ignore the little ping radiating through her stomach at Jules’s words.
“I mean…not that I…shit.” Jules scrubbed a hand over her face. “I’m not trying to come on to you or anything, but I don’t think I would have enjoyed our kiss as much as I did if I was entirely straight.” A very attractive blush spread over her cheeks.
“Then maybe that’s your answer.” Sophie lifted her own glass and gulped the last of her drink, feeling the warmth of liquor spread through her belly, mixed with the attraction already simmering there.
Jules sighed, resting her elbows on the table. Her gaze dropped to Sophie’s lips, and surely it wasn’t entirely Sophie’s overactive imagination that the table between them seemed to vibrate with sexual tension. “I didn’t enjoy my kiss with Micki nearly as much,” Jules whispered.
Sophie couldn’t seem to get enough oxygen into her lungs. She wished for another drink to distract herself with, anything to keep from staring at Jules, from noticing the swell of her breasts beneath her purple top or the way her plum-colored lips shone beneath the overhead lights. Sophie’s hands tightened around her empty glass.
“What did you think?” Josie asked, appearing at their table and snapping them out of the sexually charged trance they seemed to have fallen into.
Jules startled, glancing at Josie with a slightly guilty look on her face. “It was great, if you couldn’t tell by how quickly I drank it.”
“Yay,” Josie said. “Sophie?”
“It was good,” Sophie said.
“But?” Josie pressed.
“I love the bubbles and the citrus, but I feel like if you gave it a little something extra, it might really sparkle.”
“Hmm,” Josie said, pressing a finger against her lips. “I might know just the thing. Another round?”
“Sure,” Sophie said as Jules nodded eagerly.
“Coming right up.” Josie took their empty glasses and headed back to the bar, pink-tipped hair bouncing over her shoulders.