Chapter 13

Margaret felt Jennifer’s toes touching the top of her foot. “Why?”

“Cuz you and Sammy were so close and...” Jennifer trailed off.

“You thought we were together, lovers?”

“How could I not? Even for the limited amount of time I was there while you were working, I never saw one of you without the other. You looked like a couple.”

Margaret remembered how much they felt like a couple until one of them was fucking some guy. Mostly Sammy, and it always hurt Margaret, but she did it too. Why wouldn’t she? The person she had known she loved since the day she was crying in that parking lot, just wanted to have fun.

Margaret had bitten her tongue thousands of times because telling Sammy she was in love with her and being rejected eliminated any chance Sammy might finally say, Maggie May I love you. That hadn’t happened, and along came Andre, a charming rich man. Margaret dated him for a year while still stripping, giving Sammy a chance to talk her out of leaving her.

Sammy dropped subtle hints, tried guilt tripping her about breaking up the best dance team in LA, made sarcastic jabs about being arm candy, and taking the stripper out of the club but never taking the stripper out of Maggie May, and Sammy seduced Margaret at her bachelorette party, but Sammy never came right out and said, I love you, and I don’t want to lose you.

Not until Margaret’s wedding day after they shared an incredibly passionate kiss, Sammy said, “I love you, Maggie, don’t leave me.”

“We were a couple.” Margaret turned on her side, facing Jennifer, and put a hand on her waist. Their feet came together, but neither pulled back. “I didn’t know until it was too late. My wedding day was the saddest happy day of my life. I loved Andre, I did, and I didn’t think I was influenced by the lifestyle. I was sure of it. I couldn’t bail out on his wedding day. I was embarrassed. It wasn’t his fault we were too stupid to admit how we felt. The rest is history.”

Their faces were only a foot apart. Margaret could see the moisture in Jennifer’s eyes and where tears had already streaked her face. “You’re beautiful, so beautiful.” Margaret heard her words play back in her head, and she couldn’t believe she’d said them in that tone.

Jennifer’s hand moved to the forearm bridge between them and followed it to Margaret’s elbow and up her arm. “It’s weird, but sometimes I feel like I’m looking in a mirror.” Her fingers were under the edge of Margaret’s sleeve, gently stroking side to side.