SHORTS (gxg): Sapphic Short Stories

One Day I'll Finish That Novel

Valerie Xu often wondered whether people would remain intimidated by Rosa if they found out that she sang to the Mamma Mia (yup, both one and two) soundtrack in the shower. Valerie smiled at the thought, and continued sewing the small tear on Rosa's blazer.

Rosa stepped out of the shower with a thick, white towel wrapped around her gorgeous frame.

"Valerie?" Rosa called out, her soaked hair dripping all over the wooden floors.

Valerie averted her eyes and focused on her needle and thread and fabric and everything but the barely covered woman approaching her. "Yeah?" Valerie asked.

"How's the sewing going?" Rosa sat beside Valerie on the bed. Valerie tried-she really tried-to focus on her work, instead of the nearly bare Rosa on the corner of her eye. Unfortunately, regular bath towels don't cover much on tall women.

"Almost done," Valerie said, stiff needle and thin black thread on her fingertips. "We'll be in class on time."

"You know," Rosa said, the scent of her sweet shampoo filling the air inside their small room, "I really didn't think you'd know how to do use a needle."

Valerie chuckled. "Because I'm a Xu?"

"Yeah," Rosa admitted, ever honest. "I thought you'd be..."

"Too privileged?" Valerie teased.

"No! I mean, even I don't know how to sew, and I'm no bajillionaire like your family."

"My mom taught me. It's a life skill, Rosie. You should learn it sometime," she said. She skillfully knotted the black thread keeping invisible the small tear on the suit, and cut the excess. Satisfied with her work, she smoothed the fabric and tidied up the needle and thread.

Rosa nudged her cool, bare shoulders against Valerie. "I owe you. Really. Thank you."

Valerie passed the blazer to Rosa and shook her head, still avoiding the latter's eyes. "Don't worry about it. You just owe me a case brief."

"For saving me today, I will write five case briefs for you," Rosa said as she stood up and headed to the sofa, where the rest of her formal clothes were laid. "I really don't understand why you hate making them. They're just case summaries."

"You're just a nerd, Rosie. No one actually likes doing them," Valerie said. She turned away when she noticed Rosa beginning to remove her towel to dress up. Valerie sighed. "You're really going naked in the living room?"

Rosa laughed. "You can join. I wouldn't mind."

Valerie felt her ears burn. "We have a restroom for a reason," she argued back. She was facing the cream walls of their shared room, in which Valerie rarely slept for two reasons: first, she had her own place just a few minutes away, and second, she could not bear the thought of sleeping in the same room as Rosa. Partly because Rosa often brought home different women, but mostly because she doubted if she'd get any sleep at all.

"What, Kun's gonna get jealous?" Rosa teased.

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Don't even remind me. I can't believe I'm going to have to marry him," she said. She hated being reminded of her arrangement. Lu Xukun was a 6'5" gym junkie who would put Narcissus to shame, and although he was admittedly not unattractive, Valerie would rather speak with a wall. It would have more substance than him.

"You don't have to marry him, you know. You have, what, six years to find someone else? Mrs. Xu just said you're stuck with him if you're single by thirty. You're too pretty to be single by then."

"I'm really, really not interested in anyone. At least Kun's bearable most of the time."

"You could always marry me," Rosa offered nonchalantly, as she always did.