“That’s wild,” Iris said seriously. “You don’t always have an easy time of it out in the world. I’ve seen your bar, it’s not exactly Queer City. Why do you think that’s been so chill?”

David thought it over. “I think when you just do something, and own it, and take what’s yours and act like it’s natural, it’s harder for someone to push back. Like, then you’re not making it weird; they’re making it weird. You know? You’ve flipped the tables on them. It’s because my co-workers and my boss are good. I think that’s all it comes down to.”

“On a small scale,” she said, “you can do anything you want so long as the others in the room back you up. Anything. I think I really believe that. Doesn’t matter what the world’s about.”

“Huh.”

The buzzer. “That was quick.”

They ate their food watching The Bachelor. They laughed and gossiped and emptied the bottle of doofus’s whisky and called Leah back home and yelled about missing each other, and then all three tried to prank call Ray, but he didn’t pick up. At ten o’clock, the two of them sat cross-legged facing each other, playing Never Have I Ever. (“What the fuck do you mean you’ve never played this?” Iris said.) David won.

When they fell silent for the first time in hours, Iris closed her eyes and leaned forward, and when they kissed and brought their arms together, every old crackling sensation of Iris’s body collided with every beautiful virgin feeling of David liking her own. A sweet scalding feeling of affection bubbled into David’s heart, and it said: I love you. Thank you. Soon, they were on the bed, Iris straddling David and lifting off her shirt, fingering her bra, Iris chuckling to herself and fiddling undoing it. There she was, there she was. David arched her back as Iris ground into her and cupped her head, Iris’s fingers splayed around the girl’s face like Iris was trying to hold her insides in, like David might bubble over and spill and Iris had to keep the girl in her skin, that was how hard Iris held her. She cooed, “I like this new hybrid body, lover. I like,” and that was a little weird, but okay. David gazed up at Iris as her dick slowly, slowly rose, Iris’s heavy-lidded eyes almost closed, her hair spilling in the moonlight. Iris’s body hadn’t changed since they’d last been together. Iris leaned over and put her hands onto the girl’s chest as she pushed herself down onto her. David stretched her body beneath her lover, wrapped her hands around the bed frame, felt the cool of the sheets on her skin. Oh—it was then she realized—this is what it’s actually like to be touched. Iris had always liked to play music, before, but now there was only quiet and rain.

COULDN’T HEAR YOU TALK ANYMORE

I think a lot about the first time we met. You were wearing that tomato paisley dress. Your hair was pulled high and hanging like a hook behind your neck. You were sitting next to me in the bar, which was unusual right away. Other women usually weren’t there alone.