The sun shone brightly in the sky with the backdrop of the mountains and a few birds could be seen flying about. The view could make anyone looking at it take a deep sigh of contentment but not for the woman standing in front of her office window. In fact, the sigh that she gave was one of sadness. Not the deep heart wrenching kind she used to have six months before but sad just the same. Toni asked herself when she would start not to have that twinge whenever she would think about her. At least now she could say her name in her mind without having the waterworks start.
'Has it really been six months?' Toni thought. Well time flies when you are busy especially when you are trying to forget and she has been at that. In the past six months she has up and left Los Angeles to set herself up in Denver with a new job, new house, and a new small business on the side. She even has a new look her raven hair used to have a bob hairstyle but it was now past her shoulders bringing out their natural waves with her hazel eyes making her appearance more alluring. She worried about her chest size going down from C cup when she loss weight from a size 14 to a size 10 but that remained the same. On the light side it kind of felt like being in the witness protection program except for her name being changed. She was still Toni Stevens, daughter, sister, aunt, and ex-lover. Another twinge at that last role. The only bright spot of her transferring to Denver was being close to her sister and her family.
Lost in her thoughts, her intercom buzzed loudly in the room. "Toni, your sister Liz is on line two. Do I tell her to call you back?" Ems, her secretary asked.
"Thanks Ems. I'll take the call." Toni punched the line. "Hey Liz! Is there something I can do for you that you can't do for yourself?"
"Oh Goody! I see some of your humor is coming back!" Liz threw back. "For a while there I was worried you were getting too old and join the land of the fun loving and living, sister."
"Hey! May I remind you that I am 31 years old and you are 35 which makes you the older one." Toni quipped. "Besides, don't I join the land of the living whenever I am with you at the bar every weekend?"
"Honey! Helping out bartending every Friday and Saturday nights at a bar that you partly own with me is not what I would call having fun. Especially since you totally ignore all the flirting going your way by our customers both from the men and women species." Liz sighed. "It's been six months, Sis. You have to move on. Anyway, the reason I called is to remind you that you are having dinner at my house tonight. No excuses! Gotta go I have to pick up Ward from preschool . Love ya Sis!" then hung up.
Putting the phone down Toni thought back to six months ago when her world was torn apart by Laurel, the woman she fell in love with. Well, she was the first woman she fell for since she has always dated guys. There was just something about Laurel that Toni could not explain when she first saw Laurel. They met accidentally in a lesbian bar that she and her friends went to as a dare. And when I say accidentally it meant just that. When she and her friends entered the bar the place was so packed that they were separated from each other. In trying to locate her friends Toni backed up on Laurel when a tall & dark butch was trying to the put moves on her.
10 months before....
"Come on guys! Hurry up and let's get in there already." Deidre hissed at Toni and Jen as they dawdled outside of the bar.
"Do we really have to do this? Couldn't we just lie to Jeff and the others at the office and tell them that we did enter?" Jen pleaded while holding on to Toni's arm with a death grip as she saw some butch type coming in the place with one of them giving her the once over.
"No way! I am not going to lose out on the $100 cash that we will each be getting once we get this over and done with. Besides, we have to show them pictures from our cellphones and receipt that we were inside that was the deal. So get in there and let's party!" Deidre ordered pushing the two girls ahead of her. As soon as they entered they were literally separated from each other since the place was packed.
The next thing Toni knows she is already by the dance floor. She tries in vain to look around the crowded place looking for either one of her friends. That is when she notices a tall and dark butch come up to her really close. "Hey baby cakes! I haven't seen you here before. How about you and me getting to know each other better?" the butch flirtingly says as she touches Toni's hair.
Toni was so shocked with what has happening that she backed up on somebody. She turns around to apologize. It is upon seeing the person she hit that she feels for the very first time in her adult life a sense of rightness as she gazes at the face of the blonde that looked to be in her early to mid thirties. The deep azure of her eyes pulling her in like a magnet.
"Are you alright?" asked the beautiful stranger as it took Toni a few seconds to get her bearing especially when two arms were holding her waist to steady her.
