“I don’t have shoes for this,” Miriam said, smoothing what there was of the dress over her thighs, exhilarated at how it felt against her skin. She was going to look hotter than she’d ever looked in her life.

If she could find the right shoes.

“I have shoes!” Marisol exclaimed. “So many shoes!”

“I hate to throw a wrench in your perfectly planned and color-coded schedule for the day,” Miriam said to Hannah, “but I also need your help with a surprise.”

“What are you cooking up?” Hannah asked skeptically.

Miriam grinned. “I hereby officially declare a Shenanigan.”

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Noelle

The ceiling of the work shed needed to be powerwashed. Noelle knew this because she was lying upside down in her chair, feet on the back and head hanging off the seat, as she stared up at the ceiling. She was thinking about her conversation with Ziva, about everything she knew about Miriam’s past and about trauma triggers in general. Mostly Noelle was thinking about how profoundly poorly she had treated the girl she loved.

A long dark blonde braid swung into her vision, haloing a face bathed in late winter light.

“You’re taking this ‘too gay to sit in a chair correctly’ thing a bridge too far,” her best friend said.

“How did you find me?” Noelle sounded petulant even to herself.

“Well, (a) I know you, and (b) Mr. Matthews ratted you out.”

“I’m going to get him. Meddling old man trying to fix my life,” Noelle grumbled, knowing Hannah understood that Mr. Matthews trying to fix her life was maybe her favorite thing.

“Why aren’t you dressed yet?” Hannah asked. “Everyone else is ready, and it takes you one actual thousand years to do your hair.”

“I think I fucked up,” Noelle said instead of answering, swinging her legs off the chair and rearranging herself so she was upright. “With Miriam, I mean.”

Hannah squatted down, her hands on Noelle’s knees. “Oh, I knew what you meant. And I am absolutely certain that you fucked up. Big big.”

She’d been hoping Hannah would tell her she’d been entirely right and justified and had not, as Noelle feared, possibly thrown away the only person she’d ever wanted to spend the rest of her life with. But Hannah never lied to her.

“I super unfairly accused her of something really shitty. I got mad at her for a completely natural reaction to the abuse she suffered all her life. She was standing there telling me all the reasons she is the way she is, and I couldn’t even see how much courage that took. What did I expect, she would magically overcome twenty-five years of abuse because she tried hard enough?”