Page 4 of She’ll Steal Your Heart
And here she was a year later, a single woman who owned a cat café. She was in a room full of people she’d met online, strangers brought together by their love for a TV show. It was as confusing as it was thrilling. Despite her lingering feeling that she didn’t quite belong, Mia was excited to watch the new season ofIn Her Defensewith these women who shared her excitement for the show instead of sitting home alone with her cat.
Now that everyone was here, there were more hugs and greetings, women moving around the room to put down bags and pour drinks as they got to know each other. Eventually, they gathered around the kitchen table, where Ashleigh led a rather exuberant toast.
“To Sam Whitaker,” she concluded, lifting her glass.
“And to Piper Sheridan for bringing her to life,” Fatima added.
They tapped their glasses together, and Mia sipped her wine.
“I made something new to celebrate our weekend,” Quinn told them as she set down her glass and walked to her bag. She pulled out her laptop and set it in the middle of the kitchen table.
“Oh my God, did you make a new fan video?” Lauren asked.
“I did,” Quinn said with a proud smile. She worked in digital media at her day job and used her talent to make these really amazing videos where she paired clips from the show with music. Her videos always made Sam and Claire’s relationship look more romantic than it actually was, which Mia supposed was the point.
She was surprised to find herself cheering along with the others as Quinn shared her newest video, set to a hauntingly beautiful song Mia had never heard before with lots of angsty shots of Sam and Claire gazing longingly at each other. Actually, it seemed like Sam was doing most of the gazing, and since she was played by a bisexual actress, Mia sometimes wondered if the way Sam looked at women was more Piper than Sam, but maybe that was just the cynic in her.
This led to a marathon viewing of various Clairantha fan videos. Eventually, they moved to the couch with the laptop on the table in front of them, all six women crammed together, laughing and sharing their favorite moments from the show. The new season didn’t release until midnight, so this evening was a chance for them to get to know each other.
“Group selfie!” Sarah announced, holding up her phone.
“Wait. Mia, where’s your Clairantha shirt?” Fatima gestured to Mia’s gray button-down. “You’re the only one not wearing it.”
“Oh.” Mia looked around and realized it was true. Earlier today, she’d felt self-conscious about working at her café wearing the shirt, and now, she felt embarrassed for being the only onenotwearing it. “I was going to change once I got here.”
“Then go change.” Quinn made a shooing motion with her hands, gesturing toward the bathroom on the far side of the room.
So Mia took the T-shirt out of her bag and went into the bathroom to change, eyeing herself for a moment in the mirror. She frowned at her reflection, feeling ridiculous in a shirt that had #Clairantha printed in big red letters across the front and a sketch of Sam and Claire kissing below it. She’d never been a fan of branded tees.
But when in Rome…
After carefully folding her blouse, she went back to the living room, where she posed for a series of selfies with the other women. They ordered pizza, sharing plenty of laughs as Sarah dramatically read Clairantha fanfic to them while they ate.
“Who wants to go out for a drink before the new season drops?” Ashleigh asked after the pizza boxes had been cleared away.
“Me!” Sarah said, and the rest of the women quickly agreed.
“Mia, you’re our local,” Quinn said. “Know a good place?”
“There’s a great little gay bar near here that has amazing drinks,” Mia suggested. “The owner also runs a kitten rescue and helped me get set up with a rescue for my new cat café.”
“Rescue kittens!” Fatima exclaimed. “Do we get to play with them?”
“No,” Mia told her, smiling. “Josie’s rescue is separate from the bar, but you can play with the rescue cats at my café if you want to visit.”
“Oh please,” Fatima said, nodding. “We definitely need to visit your café while we’re in town.”
“I agree, and the gay bar sounds perfect for a drink tonight,” Sarah said, and a murmur of assent went around the room.
“Perfect,” Mia said. “Let’s go to Dragonfly.”
“No!” Lauren said, a bit too loudly, and when Mia looked at her in surprise, Lauren was sitting rigidly on the couch, hands clenched on her knees. “I, um, I can’t go there. Sorry.”
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“You can’t go to Dragonfly?” Mia asked. “Why on earth not?”
Lauren opened her mouth and shut it, fighting the urge to fidget beneath Mia’s intense stare. Of all the bars in Brooklyn, Mia had to suggest the one that had been the scene of Lauren’s fall from grace. Worse, apparently Mia and Josie were friends. What a small-world moment, and not in a good way.
