Mary didn't even recognize her girlfriend.
The two girls had been talking almost every day for months since the summer ended. Standing there in the dorm hallway, Mary, with her jaw open, didn't even clock her partner until the blonde girl embraced her. Later, upon a moment of increasingly rare self reflection, Mary did find it amusing how quickly she let some assumed stranger pull her into a hug. How quickly her body just leaned into the firm arms of this unfamiliar woman.
"Mai!" the long haired, perfectly made up and perfumed white girl squeaked into Mary's ear.
"E-Emily?" Mary stammered, catching her breath, and felt the blood rush to her face. "Emily? O-M-G!!"
Emily shifted her hands to Mary's shoulder's, positioning her at arm's length and looking her still shocked girlfriend up and down. Mary had a brief moment thinking how hot her cleavage must be with her framed squeezed...
"Mai!" Emily said again, finally seeing the glint of recognition on Mary's wide-eyed face. "I'm so happy you made it, sweetie!"
Mary stood there, unable to process the woman holding her -- almost towering over her. When Emily had left for school four months ago, she had been just at Mary's height, even slightly shorter. Em's hair had been a short, undercut side swept, mousy brown and held up by styler to give her a pseudo-pompadour greaser look. Combined with her wardrobe of baggy shirts and military-style pants, Emily's look had screamed DYKE throughout the Junior and Senior years Mary had dated her -- even going more "out lesbian" as the girls had become more comfortable with their queerness.
"Honey, you look just aghast!" Emily said, leading Mary gently to the couch in the common room. "Have you been eating today? You look in shock, and barely skin and bones."
Some part of Mary's brain was aware how absurd the assertion was. Since moving in with Adam earlier this year, Mary had given up on trying to track her weight around 40 lbs gained. TikTok followers were very exacting about her looks week-to-week, so she'd used some of her graduation money to invest in a fancy scale to keep better track of her figure. After a few stressful weeks of watching her weight and body fat percentage climb unabated, the tracker app tied to the scale had started throwing up errors -- apparently Mary's calculated rates of both muscle and fat had broken some algorithm. The support team had tried to help her calibrate, but all the instructions about phone resetting and firmware had made her eyes glaze over. She should have followed up with them, they seemed so concerned, it was kind of adorable-
"Hey, airhead!" Emily snapped her fingers in front of Mary's face. She refocused from her lost train of thought and reflexively gave her most charming, puppy dog "who-me" eyes to the frustrated blonde still holding her shoulders.
