Color Your World | Adult F/F Romance [COMPLETE]

Jamie 2

Jamie opened her bakery-slash-coffee shop like a perfectly rational adult the following morning. Yes, there were birds singing. Yes, the sky was stunning and the clouds fluffy. Yes, she complimented countless people on the color of the patterns on their clothes or their jaw-dropping lipstick (she had a list of products she needed now), but for the most part, she acted like Jamie Lovely as she'd always been. A little bit odd but mostly harmless.

Until her best friend rolled in on four-inch heels, cat-eye sunglasses, and otherwise impeccably styled. Dark hair, dark eyes, petite clothes hanger proportions. Nix Willems had been blessed by the aesthetic gods. She was art in fashion and soul. How could she be anything else but dearly beloved?

Nix whipped off her shades to look Jamie over from head to toe. For once Jamie knew herself not to be a total disaster. Years of practicing matching slightly varying shades of grey weren't enough to make up for a lack of comprehension. All shades of black were not created equal, nor were all patterns and textiles. She knew better now.

"You're making a face," Nix noted, worry coloring her tone of voice.

"I'm not. This is my face."

"Don't be weird. You're being weird. What's the matter with you, you nutter?"

Nix was also beautifully English.

"I got my colors!"

Nix blinked at her, her dark brown eyes bulging out of their sockets.

"Don't make that face at me, say something. I. Got. My. Colors. Are you listening?"

"What color is my skin?"

"It's brown?" Which Jamie had already known because Nix had known, as her parents had made their children aware of the ways in which they differed from others from an early age. This wasn't a revelation; that didn't mean Jamie wasn't tickled to be able to see her friend in all her splendour. Nix Willems was even more striking out of black and white.

"Right, bad example." Nix turned, flicking her gaze back and forth over the shop. She had met her soulmate at thirteen, two days before they'd died in a swimming incident at the public pool. Her ability to see all the colors of the rainbow was a mixed blessing. "That guy's shoes. What color?"

Jamie followed Nix's finger to a pair of dusty combat boots being worn by one of The Bookstop's new regulars. Doc Martens if she had her guess, and the signature thick black soles confirmed it. She compared the shade of grey she remembered to the color wheel app on her phone. This was a learning curve.

"Turquoise, right?"

"That's it. Babe, you're a marvel. You've really done it. I want all the deets. But let me get Doc Martens number and hit the bathroom first, then we'll talk about it."

"I need to find her." The 'her' wasn't an issue; the where on the other hand...

"And we will." At Jamie's sober glare, Nix started to squirm. "But first boys and then bathroom. Also, food. Food right after that."

"Seriously?"

"Jamie, lovely (no pun intended), darling, sweetheart. Some of us have bodily functions to see to, not all of them boy-related. Let me live."

"We're looking for my soulmate, Nica. Now is not the time!" Jamie was going to kill her best friend--later, after she was done pumping her brilliant brain for ideas on how to get Kieran Dillahunt (Kieran Dillahunt!) to care that she existed.

"There's always time for food; let's keep our heads on. I need to pee. Drag your crazy eyes to the counter and hold a seat for me."

"You realize I own all of the seats." Her forty-seat bakery and coffee shop had been a nightclub until she renovated it using the money she'd inherited from her late mother's estate. The only thing left over from its previous identity were the strobe lights that only came out for special occasions and the stained-glass disco ball glittering over their heads.