Chapter 16

I sat with Liz as we silently sipped our coffee. Neither of us spoke, though I also suspect neither of us felt the need to. The room was quiet except for the creak of the distant furnace and the knocking of the pipes as someone in another apartment took a shower. I was enjoying the warmth of the mug in my hand and the flavor of the deep roast coffee in my mouth. This was far, far better than what we got in the dorm.

“So when do you need to be back?” Liz asked, breaking the silence.

“Before lunch. I’ve got D&D this afternoon.”

“Is that fun?”

“Yeah.” I told her a little about it, both the game and the players. She was amused at some of Carmen’s antics.

“It sounds like she’s a lot of fun.”

“She certainly lives with gusto,” I said.

Liz chuckled.

“I don’t think she holds back at anything.”

“Must be nice.” There was a winsome note in Liz’s voice.

I paused for a moment before deciding to ask.

“What do you mean?”

“Not having to hold back.”

“You don’t hold back.” I leaned back against the couch cushion.

“Oh, I do.” Liz smiled over the rim of her mug.

“You didn’t last night.”

She chuckled. “But that was among friends.”

I nodded and thought back a bit. I remembered something from earlier in the semester.

“What about the strip Trivial Pursuit game?”

“That?”

“Yeah. You had no trouble going topless and we weren’t friends then. And you certainly weren’t friends with the others.”

Liz laughed. “That was the beer!”

“Really?” I cocked an eyebrow and took a sip of coffee. “If I remember right, you weren’t that drunk.”

She blushed. She actually blushed. “I ... I was.”

“Mmm.” I shook my head. I wasn’t letting her out of this one. “I don’t think so.”

She let out a deep breath.

“It’s okay,” I said. “Just trying to understand.”

“Well ... I was ... oh, God.” She washed her face with one hand. “I was ... I thought Kathy might be interested. You know. In me.”

My eyebrows shot up. That was the night Kathy had gotten together with Matt. I’d seen them around the dorm since, almost always with their arms around each other.

“I was wrong,” Liz continued. “Obviously. I’d heard some of the things she’d said earlier completely wrong. And it’s not like, you know, I can just ask.”

I nodded. One advantage of being a straight male—I could. It might be terrifying as hell on occasion, but I wasn’t going to get outed for it.

“That’s why I love it here in Fort Collins.” Liz nodded toward the bedrooms. “Terri’s great, but ... it’s more than that. It’s the gang. It’s Lori. It’s even Carrie. I don’t have to ... hide.”

I let out a long, sympathetic breath. How hard had it been for Liz, all her life? I didn’t know when she’d figured out she was a lesbian, but it must’ve been hard, really, really hard when gays were so hated.

“Well...” I reached over and put a hand on her knee. “You don’t have to hide with me.”

She put her hand on top of mine. “Thank you.”

She gave me a squeeze and then let me go. I withdrew my hand as well.

We continued to sip our coffee in companionable silence.

Liz and I finished our coffee and briefly discussed breakfast plans. The fact that both of our hosts were still dead to the world was not lost on us, but we decided to cook. We found some bacon, eggs, and a little cheese in the fridge. Liz said she’d make cheesy scrambled eggs if I fried the bacon.

“I don’t want any splatters on my robe,” she said, with a tug on the fabric. It didn’t close it enough to keep her cleavage from view.

“You could cook naked,” I joked.

She laughed. “You’d like that.”

I shrugged good-naturedly.

“But it would defeat the point. The grease would hurt.”

“I’m sure there’s an apron somewhere.” I glanced around the kitchenette. It had to be in a drawer, but which one I wasn’t sure.

“Nope,” she said. “You just do it.”

I grinned and got to work.

I had the first batch of bacon merrily cooking along when Lori shuffled out of her bedroom. She wore a thin light blue robe that came to her mid-thigh. I smiled at her and my eyes dropped to her cleavage. The robe was only loosely tied. She sleepily came over.

“You’re fixing breakfast! How wonderful!”

“Liz made coffee,” I said.

Lori’s face brightened. She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and opened the cabinet for a mug. Once she had filled her mug, she leaned against the counter as she sipped it.

“We’re making eggs and bacon,” Liz said to her. “What do you think about toast?”

“Good idea.” Lori perked up. “I’ll take care of it.”

The three of us had the food ready pretty quickly after that. Liz had me take over the eggs while she went to wake up Terri. A few minutes later, all four of us were seated around the table.