The party at Jackie D’s had only begun at half past six, but by a quarter to eight it was already winding down. That was pretty much the norm for after hour’s parties, especially when thrown by a firm that was only willing to foot the bill for the first two rounds. Once people had to reach into their own pockets, most employees usually decided it was time to call it a night.

Overall, as such functions went, Rebecca Singleton felt that it hadn’t been a bad party, short as it had been, just overly predictable. That on this occasion she’d been the guest of honor really hadn’t made it seem any different. Bill Collins still had too much to drink, until he finally had to be practically poured into a cab for the trip home. Natalie Stuart was her usual flirtatious self, going so far as to disappear for a while into a back room with a co-worker half her age. Lastly, but not least, Tom Wallace made it a point to ask anyone even closely resembling the opposite sex to dance, despite not having the least bit of skill in that area.

“Last call,” Stephanie London said as she came up behind Rebecca and handed her an open bottle of beer, “or at least the last one the company’s paying for.”

Rebecca thanked the twenty-three year old, taking a short drink from the bottle just to be gracious. The twenty-nine year old brunette wasn’t that much of a drinker to begin with, and this bottle would be her third, one more than she usually managed over the course of a night, much less at an abbreviated party such as this.

Originally, Rebecca hadn’t even planned to have a first drink, thinking that since the party was for her, she might want to make sure she remembered all of it. That notion was soon discarded once she realized that little about it was turning out to be memorable at all. In fact, as she took a second drink from the bottle Stephanie had given her, Rebecca wondered how many of the people who had shown up at Jackie D’s had actually done so to wish her luck, and how many had just come for the free booze. Despite her years with the firm, Rebecca had made few friends there, other than the kind you just knew in the office, Stephanie being one of the few exceptions. At the slow rate that the end of the bar where the party was being held was emptying out, it was pretty obvious that most of the attendees had belonged to the latter free-booze category.

Six weeks before, Rebecca had been offered a chance to transfer to the Washington D.C. office of Pennyworth and Wayne, with a bump in both title and salary. The only catch was that the offer, the result of the unexpected passing of her predecessor in the position, had been made on a Friday and she would have to be there the following Monday. It was the kind of promotion she hadn’t really expected to be considered for at the New York office for at least a year.

It hadn’t taken a lot of consideration before she said yes, much to the dismay of her boyfriend, Simon Kirby. Cute, funny and financially secure, she had strong feelings for the thirty-three year old architect she had met at her sister’s wedding some three years before. Yet, despite the fact that she was sharing both his life and his bed, there still wasn’t a ring on her finger. A fact that she clearly pointed out to him when the subject of her transfer came up. If he expected her to pass on this opportunity, that was going to be the price. It turned out to be one Simon was unwilling to pay.

Therefore, off to Washington she had gone, quickly immersing herself in a routine that was both familiar and subtlety different. As weeks passed, she found she enjoyed the change of venue, giving her, as it were, a chance to start her life over.

Rebecca had come back up to Manhattan a few days ago to wrap up some unfinished business, stopping by the office just to say hello. Somehow, and she still wasn’t sure where exactly the suggestion had come from, it was decided that she had left so abruptly that there hadn’t been time to give her a proper sendoff. Then again, if someone could convince the company to pick up the tab, any occasion was a reason to celebrate.

“So are you settled in down in D.C. yet?” Stephanie asked after taking a drink from her own bottle. She was actually at least one ahead of Rebecca, but seemed to be able to hold it better.

“Well, I really haven’t had the time to look for my own place,” Rebecca replied, “but I’ve been sharing a really nice apartment in Alexandria.”

“Sharing?” Stephanie asked curiously.

“Well, there were two other people already living there,” Rebecca explained, “but I have my own room and it’s only a two block walk to the Metro station. The trip on the Orange Line into the city is actually easier than the one I used to make on the F train from Coney Island.”

“Two roommates huh? Well I can identify with that,” Stephanie grinned. It was common knowledge that she shared a house in Flushing with girlfriends from college. “How did you wind up there, an agency or someone you knew?”

“The second really, well, sort of,” Rebecca replied, seemingly having trouble finding the exact words. “It’s the same apartment my brother used to share when he was going to Georgetown. His roommates kept it after graduation, since they were staying in the D.C. area.”

“Wait a second,” Stephanie said, her eyes lighting up. “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me that you share an apartment with two guys who went to school with your brother.”

“Yes, but?”

“I’ve met your brother,” Stephanie interrupted. “He’s what, two, maybe three years older than me.”

“Yes, he is, but it’s not like it sounds.”

“Rebecca, I’m shocked, truly shocked,” Stephanie exclaimed in mock horror. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

Rebecca smiled; she knew she was being teased.

“Down girl,” Rebecca interjected. “Before you go off imagining wild three-ways and other entertainments, I want to point out that it’s only a two bedroom apartment?”

“Even better,” Stephanie cut in, “You get to take turns. A girl your age needs to conserve her strength,” she added, the smile on her face growing larger.

“Okay, you had your laugh, now let me finish,” Rebecca said after a short pause. “Like I said, it’s only a two bedroom apartment, one at each end. I have mine and they both share the other, the one with the double bed.”

“Oh,” Stephanie noted as understanding set in.

Silence filled the space between them for a few moments as they both took another drink.

“And your brother, Jimmy, was roommates with these guys?”

“Yes, for two years.”

“Did he and they?” Stephanie asked letting the obvious question tail off. “Not that there would’ve been anything wrong with that. I’m just curious.”

Rebecca laughed at how Stephanie was always curious about everyone else’s sex life. Not that the question wasn’t one she herself had wanted to ask back when Jimmy had first told her he was going to be rooming with Pete Tate, whom he’d known from high school, and his boyfriend.

“Well, I asked Jimmy about that once,” Rebecca replied, “and he said no.”

“Did you believe him?” Stephanie further asked, her puritan curiosity aroused.

“Well, if he wasn’t telling the truth,” the older woman answered, “it really wasn’t any of my business, was it?”

“Are the guys at least good looking?”

“Gorgeous.”

They both laughed.

“And you don’t find it kind of awkward living with them?” Stephanie asked further. “Not that they’re gay, or even guys, but that they’re a couple. Isn’t it hard, privacy wise?”

“Not really,” Rebecca said as she took another sip of beer, “I’m not there all that much and, like I said, their bedroom is on the other side of the apartment.”

What Rebecca didn’t mention was the time that she’d come home unexpectedly in the middle of the afternoon and walked in on Pete and Doug on the living room couch, doing something she’d never even seen pictures of. Educational as it had been, she’d learned to call ahead, even if it was supposedly to check if they needed anything from the corner grocery.

“It looks like the party has left without us,” Stephanie said, changing the subject as she looked around them.

Rebecca turned and looked as well, failing to find a familiar face. She dimly remembered a few people coming up to say goodnight and good luck, but that couldn’t have accounted for more than five or six of the two dozen people who had been there at the beginning.

“I guess so,” Rebecca said, feeling a little disappointed, “but at least I got a chance to say goodbye to you a second time.”

“Do you have a hot date to run off to?” Stephanie asked out of the blue.

“No, of course not,” Rebecca answered.

“Then why are you acting like the night’s already over?” the younger girl said. “We’ve still got you and me, what more do we need?”

“I’m sorry,” Rebecca replied, “I guess I somehow thought, and I don’t know why, this would’ve been something more. At least more than the typical Friday night after work. I mean, when you think about it, this is probably my last night in New York and?oh hell, I guess I’m just being silly.”

“No you’re not,” Stephanie answered, flashing a broad smile. “You wanted a memorable night and this was hardly it. You deserved more than a bunch of freeloaders who probably have already forgotten your name, that is, if they ever knew it in the first place.”

Rebecca felt a little embarrassed to hear her friend voice what she had been thinking.

“But, we can fix that easily enough,” the smaller girl said with enthusiasm. “I know some places we can go and have some real fun. A lot nicer than this oldies and not so goodies home.”

“I’m not sure, Stephanie,” Rebecca replied, hesitation coloring her tone as she remembered the last time she’s gone along on one of the black haired girl’s bar hopping expeditions, “I don’t think I’m really in the mood to spend the rest of the night having half drunk guys hit on me.”

Stephanie hesitated for a few long moments before replying to that, the expression on her face reflecting a long drawn out thought. Then her eyes lit up as she came to a decision.

“I know where we can go, it’s this little place downtown,” she said excitedly. “Trust me, it’ll be a night you’ll never forget and I can promise that you won’t have any guys hitting on you.”

Rebecca couldn’t help but still have a look of suspicion on her face.

“Oh come on,” Stephanie insisted, “What have you got to lose?

She had a point there, Rebecca thought. Right now her only options were to stay at Jackie D’s, which seemed unappealing, to say the least, or take the long train ride back to Brooklyn. Neither one seemed very inviting.

For the briefest of moments, she’d even considered giving Simon a call to see how he was doing. That lasted only a minute as she realized that it wasn’t so much a desire to see him again as the fact that it had been two months since they’d done that which they were so good at together. A fact she was also reminded of sometimes at night while lying in bed alone. Despite what she told Stephanie about the apartment layout, the distance between the boys’ and her bedrooms wasn’t really that great and sounds, especially loud ones, carried quite easily.

Busy as she had been settling in at work, there hadn’t been time to meet anyone to replace Simon on a long-term basis, and one-night stands really weren’t her norm. Not to say that she wouldn’t if she met the right guy, but that hadn’t happened either. The more she thought about it, maybe that was what she actually needed right now. Sure, Stephanie claimed that she knew a place where she wouldn’t get hit on, but that had to be just talk to get her to say yes.

“Oh, what the hell,” Rebecca finally said. “Let’s go.”

“Great,” Stephanie said, a touch of the mischievous in her eyes. “And trust me, you’re not going to regret it.”

Rebecca had heard that before, but right now, it didn’t seem very important.

The place Stephanie knew wasn’t that far away, but in the Friday night traffic, the cab trip took the better part of an hour. From the outside it looked nondescript, much like a half dozen other bars that Rebecca could easily call to mind. There was a short rope line on the outside, which was a good sign of the place’s popularity, but the younger girl didn’t seem that concerned about the two dozen people in line ahead of them, waiting to get in.

Stephanie turned out to have good reason to act that way as she walked right to the front of the line and engaged the tall figure in black running the door in brief conversation. The figure, who Rebecca assumed was a guy but turned out to be a quite muscular woman, also seemed to know Stephanie. In fact, she obviously knew her well enough to pull aside the gate and let the two of them go ahead of everyone else.

“What did you tell her?” Rebecca asked in a low voice once they were out of earshot of the door.

“Oh nothing really,” Stephanie replied in the same hushed tone, keeping her eyes straight ahead as they navigated their way through the long dimly lit hallway. “I just said I had a friend with me on her last night in New York and she couldn’t leave the city without being able to say she’d been to Eve’s Garden at least once.”

“That’s all?” Rebecca said in surprise, automatically filing away that the place now had a name.

“Well, I might have mentioned something about that you also desperately needed to get laid,” she grinned.

“Stephanie!”

“Well, it got us in, didn’t it?”

Rebecca just shook her head. Sometimes, Stephanie was just too much. Yet, in her heart, she knew that her company that was the one thing from New York that she had truly missed.

Exiting the corridor into the main club, Rebecca saw that it was just as dimly lit. A tightly packed bar that stretched from one end of the room to the other dominated the far wall, behind which stood an oversized mirror that made it all seem larger than it was. The rest of the place was divided into a dance floor which was equally crowded, and a few private booths, also filled. The music that blared from the wall-mounted speakers appeared to be prerecorded, as there was no sign of a band or even a DJ.

“Awesome, isn’t it?” Stephanie asked as, holding her hand, she led Rebecca toward the bar.

“Well it’s something all right,” Rebecca replied, trying to be heard over the music.

Reaching the bar, Stephanie used hand signals to be understood over the din, ordering two beers, one of which she handed back to Rebecca, now standing back from the crowd by the wall.

“I really don’t think I should,” the brunette said, remembering the drinks she’d already had at Jackie D’s.

“Why, are you planning on operating heavy machinery sometime tonight?” the smaller girl replied as she took a drink from her bottle.

Not having a good retort, Rebecca thought it easier just to give in and take a taste, which turned out to be a lot better than what they’d been drinking uptown.

With her eyes now better adjusted to the low light, Rebecca looked out on the dance floor and surveyed the broad mix of people on it. It was hard to make out individual faces, but from the assortment of dress, it was obvious this place attracted all types. She herself was dressed casually in a simple blue skirt and white short-sleeved top, while Stephanie had on tan slacks and a dark blue blouse, an outfit that Rebecca admired each time she’d seen her wear it. The combination put them somewhere in the middle, the extremes ranging from jeans and a t-shirt to business suits.

“Want to dance?” Stephanie asked, leaning in close enough to be heard.

“Sure,” Rebecca answered, glad for an excuse to put the drink aside. One of the iron-clad rules of safe clubbing was that once you put down a drink somewhere, you never picked it back up in case anything had been added to it in your absence.

Out on the dance floor, it was easy to lose yourself in the music and Rebecca certainly did so with enthusiasm. She and Stephanie had danced many times before so they were quite familiar with each other’s moves. In fact, thinking about it, Rebecca figured she’d spent more time on the dance floor with the woman in front of her than she had with Simon over the last two years.

As their bodies moved together to the music, Rebecca thought back for a moment to the office Christmas party last year when, forgetting where they were, the two of them put on an dance exhibition that really wasn’t exactly appropriate for an office party. When the music finally stopped, they realized they were the only two still on the floor and everyone else was just standing there with their mouths open, especially the guys.

Glancing to her right, Rebecca saw that they weren’t the only girls dancing together, which wasn’t unusual in most clubs or bars. However, when she looked to the left, all she saw was more of the same. In fact, now that she was looking, she realized that the dancers that she initially took to be men, based on their dress if nothing else, were also women.

“Oh shit!” she said loud enough to be heard over the song as it hit her.

“What?” her dance partner said.

Rebecca said something but couldn’t make herself understood. Finally, she took her friend’s arm and led her off the floor to a more relatively quiet corner of the club.

“I said, this is a lesbian bar,” she repeated, now being able to hear herself.

“Is it?” Stephanie asked in turn, a look of innocence on her face as she looked around, acting as if it was the first time she actually took note of all the women around her. “Oh my God,” she finally replied, “I think you’re right.”

“You took me to a lesbian bar?” Rebecca asked. “All of these women are gay?”

“No they’re not,” Stephanie said, not taking the matter as seriously as Rebecca seemed to be, “a lot of them are bisexual.”

“Very funny,” Rebecca said.

“Come on, don’t be so uptight, I know you better than that,” Stephanie said. “There are a lot of straight girls here too,” she added. “They come here for the same reason you said you wanted to. To have a little fun without being hit on by guys all night long.”

“And which one are you?” Rebecca asked.

“Does it matter?”

“No, I guess it doesn’t,” Rebecca’s replied.

A silent paused filled the air, blocking out even the ear shattering music still blasting from the speakers. As soon as she’d said the words, Rebecca already knew the answer, or at least which one didn’t apply to Stephanie.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” she asked the younger girl.

“I wasn’t sure how you’d react,” Stephanie confessed. “You’re really important to me and I didn’t want to lose your friendship.”

“You could never lose that,” Rebecca said. “But why tell me now?”

“I’ve wanted to tell you for the longest time,” Stephanie said, “and when you told me that you’re living with two gay guys, it seemed the perfect time.”

“I can see your point.”

“There’s one other thing that I need to tell you,” Stephanie said, closing the small distance between them even more.

“Well this seems to be the moment for revelations,” Rebecca suggested.

“I love you,” she said, her voice filled with more sincerity than Rebecca had ever heard her use.

That revelation wasn’t exactly the sort of thing Rebecca felt ready to handle. If it had been something simple, say the fact that Stephanie had been screwing Simon every night since she’d left, that she could’ve handled.

Needing a more congenial atmosphere than the club could possibly provide, Rebecca took Stephanie in hand and led her back out onto the street. She barely noted that the waiting line now stretched around the block as she looked up and down the avenue until she found what she was searching for. Still not having said a word since the younger woman’s admission, she led the two of them to a coffee shop on the far corner.

Once they were situated in a booth far in the back, far away from the other few customers already there, Rebecca asked Stephanie to repeat what she’d said back in the club.

“You know what I said,” Stephanie said, her tone now changed, “and it’s already becoming apparent that I shouldn’t have said it.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s obvious that it’s upset you.”

“I wouldn’t say upset,” Rebecca replied. “More like taken me totally by surprise. I mean, it’s not like I was expecting anything like that.”

The conversation was interrupted by the appearance of the waitress who stayed only long enough for Rebecca to order coffee for the two of them. The blonde haired woman, who was about ten years older than Rebecca and whose nametag identified her as Mary, quickly wrote down what they wanted.

“But now that I have said it,” Stephanie said once she was gone, “how do you feel about it?”

“Honestly,” Rebecca replied, drawing a deep breath to give her another moment to think, “I really have no idea. I mean I love you, Stephanie, but do I love you like that? I mean, I really don’t know.”

“But you’re not dismissing the idea out of hand,” Stephanie said, more a statement than question, her tone now hopeful.

“No,” Rebecca simply said, anything more cut off by the reappearance of the waitress with their coffee.

Stephanie waited a few moments as they poured the various accouterments into the hot beverage, then went right to the point and asked Rebecca if she’d ever considered a relationship with another woman?

“No, I haven’t,” she answered, “but that’s not to say I’ve never been curious about the idea. But whether that’s curiosity about simply being with another woman, or something more, that I don’t know.”

“Well, that’s something, at least,” Stephanie said.

“All in all, though,” Rebecca countered, “the timing of all this could’ve been better. Like before I packed up and moved two hundred miles away.”

“Yeah, I probably should’ve said something before that,” the dark haired girl admitted, “but I didn’t. The question remains, what do we do, now that I have said it?”

“I’m not sure,” Rebecca said, pondering it for a few seconds then adding, “I guess the idea of just making believe we both had a few too many drinks isn’t really an option, is it?”

The expression on Stephanie’s face said it wasn’t.

“You realize that whatever happens, I’m back in D.C. come Monday morning,” Rebecca said.

“I know that,” Stephanie assured her.

“Part of me, the logical part, says I should just say, sorry, Steph, but I don’t love you in that way, and leave it at that,” Rebecca said, “but the emotional part of me says what if that’s not the answer I should be giving.”

Rebecca paused for a moment, raising her coffee cup to take a sip and collect her thoughts. Then she continued.

“Also, and most importantly, I don’t want to be making a decision for the wrong reason. Back at the club door, you joked about my needing to get laid in the worst way, and I’d be dishonest if I didn’t say there wasn’t some truth in that. I haven’t been with anyone since Simon and I broke up, and I’m sure that’s affecting my judgment as well. It has in the past when I went to bed with someone for no other reason than that I was incredibly horny. I’m not saying that happened a lot, but it happened. The only up side to it was that those guys never meant anything to me, so it didn’t bother me that it had only been sex. You on the other hand are my dearest friend and I wouldn’t want to use you like that.”

“What if I didn’t mind being used?” Stephanie asked.

“Do you really feel that way?” Rebecca asked.

“Honestly,” she said, echoing Rebecca’s words from before, “I’d really rather have more. But, if all I could ever have you for is a single night, then I think that would be a night worth having.”

“Even if this was something we decided to do,” Rebecca said, not saying it was something that had decided, “it would leave us with the where of it all.”

Stephanie had to agree, also ignoring the fact that no decision had been made. Neither of them lived in Manhattan and it was at least an hour’s train ride to her house in Queens or Rebecca’s parents’ home in Brooklyn. Not that either location would afford them the privacy they would need.

“Do you know what we sound like?” Rebecca laughed, “Two high school kids looking for a place to fool around where they won’t get caught.”

A clearing of a throat made them away of the unnoticed presence of their waitress, who had come back to see if they wanted anything else. The same thought occurred to both girls, how long had she been standing there? Assuming it hadn’t been long, they said they didn’t need anything else. Mary jotted something on her pad, then ripped off the check and put it down on the table. She started to leave, then paused as if she was deciding to say something.

“Excuse me,” she said, “I know this is really none of my business, but you two seem like really nice girls and I couldn’t help but overhear most of your conversation. Now I know what kind of club that is down the block?”

“Oh Christ,” Rebecca said under her breath, thinking the last thing they needed right now was a lecture from some know it all moralist about the sins of lesbianism.

“In fact, I even went there one night, just out of curiosity you understand,” she continued, that admission instantly changing Rebecca’s assumption. “I guess what I wanted to tell you was that if you were looking for a place to spend the night in the city, there’s a really nice little hotel about three blocks over on Third called the Riverside Arms. It’s nothing special really, but it’s both clean and inexpensive and a lot more private than the back room over in the club. Lord, the things I saw going on in there, it certainly was an eye opener.”

Having said what she wanted to say, Mary went back to the front counter.

“Back room?” Rebecca asked, looking at Stephanie for an explanation.

The only one she got was a “what can I say” look.

“So I guess if we want it, we now have a where,” Rebecca said.

“Which brings us back to the if,” Stephanie said, stating the obvious.

They looked at each other for what seemed the longest time, until finally Rebecca said, “One night, no matter what tomorrow brings.”

“One night,” Stephanie agreed, her face unable to hide how much she’d wanted to hear those words.

Paying the bill at the counter, they both flashed Mary a smile, knowing that they’d left her a tip back on the table that was five times what the two cups of coffee had cost.

As they walked down the street towards Third Ave, a thought suddenly occurred to Rebecca.

“I wonder,” she said to Stephanie, “if Mary was in that back room, and it was as wild as she made it sound, how much further did her curiosity take her?

Having been there a time or two herself, Stephanie could only smile.

The Holiday Inn it wasn’t, but like Mary had said, the room was clean and while inexpensive was a matter of opinion, it wasn’t as bad as it might have been, especially split between the two of them. In most places, even in Manhattan, two women checking in together, with no luggage might have at least raised an eyebrow or two. At far as the middle-aged woman behind the front desk was concerned; all that mattered was that a guest had cash up front, or at least a valid credit card.

“Be it ever so humble,” Stephanie laughed as, after closing the door behind them, the two women looked about the small room, “and I do mean humble.”

“Oh it’s not so bad,” Rebecca replied after finishing her quick inspection, thinking as she did that she’d up wound in worse places at the end of a date, most of which had charged by the hour. “It’s clean, private, and had all the necessary accouterments,” she added, glancing at the double bed on the right, even as she mentioned the bathroom to their left.

“Speaking of which,” Stephanie said as she excused herself, suggesting that Rebecca make herself comfortable while she was gone.

Rebecca watched Stephanie disappear into the bathroom, noting that she didn’t close the door behind her, an invitation to continue their conversation.

Slipping off her shoes, Rebecca sat down on the center of the bed, her legs curled up beneath her. There was a question on her mind, and this seemed as good a time as any to ask it.

“Stephanie,” she called out, pausing a moment in order for her friend to reply before going on, “when did you know?I mean when were you sure that you were attracted to girls?”

“August 10th, 1999,” the younger woman replied without the slightest pause, her voice loud enough to be heard over the sound of running water in the sink.

The exactness of her answer took Rebecca by surprise. She had expected something a lot more generalized, maybe a particular age, but hardly a specific date.

“That was the night of Sarah Burton’s fourteenth birthday party,” Stephanie clarified as Rebecca heard the water shut off. “It was a pretty big affair at her house, after which a few of her closest friends had been invited to stay for a sleepover.”

Stephanie paused a moment as she dried her hands on one of the towels, then continued.

“There were four of us, Sarah of course, myself, Ginger Lee, and Mary Lou Spencer, and like most sleepovers, sleep was the last thing on any of our minds. I remember us all staying awake until the early morning, talking about the boys that had been at the party, well, at least most of us were, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself.”