A Lesson of Love

Chapter 6: New Beginnings

Normani pauses. "You okay?"

"Yeah, why?" Zuri puts on her poker face. She manages to hold Normani's gaze until it becomes intimidating.

To distract herself from the palpable tension, she opens her purse and takes out a travel size hand sanitizer. She shakes the plastic bottle before uncapping it and squirting some onto her palms. "Dammit." She sighs at the excess in her hands.

"Are you gonna offer me some?"

Zuri's pointed expression fades as she looks back at Normani, whose eyes have been glued on her the whole time. "Oh, yeah. Sure." She hands it over. Normani does not take it.

She simply smirks. "Nah, I have some." The deadpan "really?" she receives elicits a giggle.

Zuri shakes her head with a small smile. She notes that she feels more relaxed than before. "I figured you did."

"Are you ready for me to continue?" Normani comfortably adjusts herself in her seat.

"I been ready."

Inwardly, Zuri's heart rate picks up again. She is not alone. This is momentous for Normani as well. She is revisiting a truth she buried for years. Nearly a decade. The same truth that caused the demise of their friendship.

Zuri feels she has an idea of what is to be spoken.

"Okay, I'm just gonna come right out and say it." Normani is saying this to Zuri and herself.

The boost of confidence comes from her putting on her executive hat.

"I definitely saw you as more than a friend back then. And when I finally quit being a punk and got the courage to shoot my shot, I basically ran you off. Classic tale of the queer girl scaring off her straight friend. Fast forward years later, and you have a woman. So what is the truth?" Normani tilts her head to the side and furls her eyebrow, tapping her chin as if in thought. "Maybe I wasn't the one. Or maybe you just ain't want me."

When Rachel returns with their orders, she feels like she is intruding. And judging by parts of the conversation, she infers that Normani is not seriously checking for her. She plasters on a mechanical smile and announces their meals before providing them.

"Thank you," Zuri acknowledges her.

"Yeah, thanks," Normani replies distantly.

Rachel gives a stiff smile. "Enjoy."

"You broke her heart," Zuri jokes once Rachel is gone.

Normani looks down at her utensils, rubbing them with a napkin. She waits a few beats before speaking again.

"So...about what I just told you. You wanted to know, right?"

"I...I don't really have the words..."

"You knew I liked you, though..."

Both women tend to their food while engaging the conversation with occasional gazes.

Zuri heaves a sigh. "I did. I was scared, but not...not necessarily how you think. You scared me because I had to confront realities about myself, and I wasn't ready to do that back then."

Normani nods. "Is Coco your first? Woman."

"What do you mean?" Zuri asks after some hesitation.

"Exactly that—"

"No, because I can take that to mean many things. If you're asking if she's my first girlfriend, yes."

"Did you have any experience with other women before her? What?" She faintly laughs when Zuri lightheartedly shakes her head at her inquiry.