“Well, well, well. So much for ‘I’ll be running the shop.’”

June had arrived late, and found the inner door to the shop closed. There were cans of beer, open bottles of wine left out in the back room, and discarded clothing left in the stairwell.

June knocked on the bedroom door, and hearing no answer, assumed that her daughter was either out, or out cold. She took a moment to think about how much trouble she’d get into for going into the bedroom, versus how much gossip she’d find out from barging in, anyway.

She compromised, and decided to merely stick her head through the door. As she suspected, her daughter was still in bed, sprawled out. There was yet another bottle of wine on the bedside table, too.

“You dropped these, dear daughter.”

“Ughhh… Mom?” April pushed herself out of bed, revealing that someone else had joined her that evening.

“Oh. I see you have company!” June laughed. “Do you want breakfast? My treat!”

“Mom..ughhh…” April was still half-asleep. “Yeah. Emma’ll want some too. She’s vegetarian.” She waved dismissively at June. “We’ll come down in a bit.”

June nodded and made a quick exit.

By the time she’d fetched food from the coffee shop across the road, Emma and April were downstairs and fully clothed. April looked a little dead inside, still a bit rough from the alcohol, and Emma looked like she wanted to die, completely embarrassed.

June had planned to tease the pair, just a little, but decided that it probably wouldn’t be worth it.

“One Everything Bagel, and One Everything-but-meat Bagel. April said you’re vegetarian, right?” She handed the pair two brown paper bags. “I’ll leave you two to your breakfast.”

“It’s fine, Mom, I don’t mind.”

It wasn’t the first time April had gone through a situation like this. Emma, on the other hand, was a little bit less experienced.

“No, no.” June tried not to smirk. “I don’t mind. Don’t want to interrupt.”

“I … It’s… I … Should..” Emma began to stand up, but April grabbed onto her arm. “It’s cool, stay for breakfast, at least.”

Emma looked to April, then to June, then at her own feet.

“I… I have to get to work in 30 minutes. I don’t want to be late.”

“Really?” April asked.

“Yeah. Sorry.”

April took a pen, and wrote her phone number on Emma’s arm. “There. Now you can go.”

Emma pulled out her phone, “I.. I do have a phone.”

“Yeah but I want everyone to know you pulled last night.” April leaned over and gave Emma a kiss on the cheek. “… and I want to see you later, too.”

Emma nearly melted on the spot. Even June had trouble suppressing a giggle.

A few minutes later, Emma had grabbed her things, gotten April’s number, and promised to drop by the shop after work. Once she was safely out the front door, June let out a giggle.

“What?” April was smiling. “What?”

“Oh, nothing. Just proud of my daughter, that’s all.”

“Ugh. I need breakfast.” April hadn’t touched her bagel.

“Same.” June locked the front door, “Shall we call it a half day? Maybe you can tell me about how your night went?”

“You were there for most of it.” April rolled her eyes.

“I was too busy teasing Eric.” June responded. “Although Jessica needed a bit of motherly advice.”

“From you?” April teased, “Must have been bad.”

“I’ll tell you all about it.” June began unwrapping her breakfast. “After the bagel, and after you tell me about your night.”

“Deal.”

Like her mother, April also loved to gossip.

Emma appeared at the front door of her office, a whole five minutes late. She was hoping to sneak over to her desk and dive into her email without anyone noticing. Unfortunately for her, Rachel saw her arrive, and quickly rushed over to chat.

Rachel was a little worried. Emma usually turned up to work early, left late, never complained. It would take something like a house-fire for her to miss work, and Rachel had assumed something terrible had happened.

Up until she spotted the phone number scrawled across Emma’s arm.

“Emma, you’re late? Did something happen? Are you … Oh!”

“I….” Emma stopped as she realised Rachel was smirking.

“Good night, huh?” Rachel began to grin. “So, who’s number is that? Anna’s? April’s? … June’s?”

“I.. Umm.” Emma realised she wouldn’t be able to dodge the question. Rachel was the sort of person who’d phone the number, just to find out.

“April.” Emma spoke quietly, and looked at her feet. “I stayed at her place.”

“Nice.” Rachel was trying not to giggle. “I suppose you’ll be seeing her later.”

Next to the phone number, April had written ‘Call me.’ in big letters, and then a little heart too.

“Yeah, erm.”

“Good.” Rachel decided that teasing time was over. “You can tell me about it over lunch break.”

Emma nodded back, and scuttered to her desk. She hoped for a quiet day at work, but her prayers went unanswered.

Rachel had posted photos from the tournament to the office chat, and as a result, several people came over to Emma’s desk to congratulate her. Inevitably, the conversation moved onto the phone number on her arm, and Emma tried her best to dodge every question thrown her way.

Especially the questions that went ‘Who’s the lucky guy?’. She didn’t really want to explain to Jeff from accounting about the existence of lesbians. Thankfully, most people got the hint and quickly changed topic.

Meanwhile, Rachel’s morning wasn’t much better.

She’d also spent the morning answering questions, and she’d also spent a lot of time explaining that yes, she was a gamer, and yes, she had really won the tournament. A few coworkers had tried their best to challenge her on trivia and had failed miserably.

Rachel sent Emma a message demanding an early lunch, and Emma quickly agreed. On her way outside, Rachel got a message from Jessica asking about lunch plans.

A minute later, Jessica arrived.

“Hey Rach, is Emma here too?”

“Yeah but she might be dying of embarrassment.” Rachel laughed. “Or stuck in a meeting.”

“At least it’s not a hangover.” Jessica was still feeling a little rough. “Oh, there she is! Hey Emma, I… oh…. Good night huh?”

Emma still hadn’t washed the number off. She quickly folded her arms, in a desperate attempt to hide her shame.

“April.” Rachel explained. “Our Emma here spent the night at April’s.”

“Gods.” Jessica sighed. “Did everyone hit it off last night?”

“Everyone?” Rachel asked.

“Anna and you know who did the you know what last night.” Jessica began. “About time, if you ask me. Those two…. anyway. Emma? April? Really?”

Emma nodded back.

“You can tell me everything, over lunch. Your treat, Emma.” Jessica laughed. “As you had the best night.”

Emma figured it would be best to spill everything now, rather than have things dragged out over the whole lunch hour, and began to explain what had happened. Truthfully, there wasn’t much detail to give. April had introduced herself, the pair began talking, and had quickly hit it off.

“I mentioned I’d asked Anna on a Date, She mentioned she’d asked Eric on a date, and we bonded over our mutual failure.” Emma laughed. “Then she asked if i’d like to come back to hers, and … well…”

“Well?” “Go on.” Both Rachel and Jessica wanted more gossip.

“June brought me breakfast. Then April wrote her number on my arm. Then I went to work. Then I went to lunch. The end.”

“That’s it?” “That’s it.”

Rachel pouted. She’d hoped for a far more lurid tale.

“What about you, Jessica?” Emma tried to change the topic. “I didn’t expect to see Eric carrying you home.”

“I skipped lunch, and energy drinks weren’t enough. I ended up yelling at Eric to stop being a fool and ask Anna out.” It was Jessica’s turn to be embarrassed.

“You did say they ended up together… but I always thought you two had a thing? You know?” Rachel asked.

“We… we don’t… well… he’s my sorta older brother.. you know?” Jessica began.

“… and you told him to date your real sister.” Rachel replied. “How does that work?”

Jessica scowled back.

“Fine. He’s my best friend and he’s very much smitten with Anna,” Jessica explained. “and, Anna? Well, she does like him, but, she’s just not ready to get serious with anyone, but, well…”

“Well?” Rachel shot Jessica a glare. “Go on. Use your words.”

Jessica wanted to explain the truth. Anna was a demon from another world, Eric had been the first act of kindness in a hostile place, the two had been sleeping in the same bed for a month, and both of them were too awkward to actually push things along.

“I think they’re just both afraid of hurting each other, or disappointing each other. They just needed a good kick up the arse.”

“Awwwww.” Rachel began to tease. “She sets up her long lost sister with her best friend. Awwwww.”

“Someone had to.” Jessica sighed. “… and um, sorry Emma.”

“Sorry? Why?”

“I know you kinda had a thing for Anna.” Jessica began.

“Who doesn’t?” Rachel laughed. “I was a little jealous, I didn’t have the confidence to ask, and yet, timid Emma here was the one…”

Emma began to hunch up in embarrassment.

“Anyway. Here’s to us. The Minions.” Jessica decided to move on. “Have you decided what you’ll be doing with the prize money? Or did you take the laptop?”

“Laptop.” “Laptop.” The other two answered in unison.

“… and well, I wanted to ask. Do you want to, y’know, keep going? I had a lot of fun, and, well….” Jessica didn’t know how to break the news.

“Well?”

“I think Anna is going pro.” Jessica explained. “Someone from the energy drink company offered her a job. There was a long phone call this morning, I only heard one side of it, but…. it looks like Anna won’t be able to join us for the next tournament.”

“Ah well.” “I’m still up for it.”

“So, Emma… Does April play computer games?” Jessica laughed.

When the clock hit five, Emma immediately logged out. Work could wait. She wanted to go home, she wanted to avoid any more questioning, and she didn’t want to have to think about things for several hours.

The moment she stepped out her front door, her phone rang.

“Um. Hi?” She didn’t recognize the number.

“Hey.” It was April. “I see you haven’t added my number yet.”

“April!”

“So… you left some stuff here… Do you want to come by and pick it up, or…”

“I’ll text you my address. Come meet me in fifteen minutes.” Emma made a snap decision. “Bring wine.”

“Perfect.”

“…oh and… If Jessica asks, you don’t play computer games.” Emma added.

“I won’t ask why. See you soon.” “You too.”

She was pretty certain that April was lying about having left something, but she didn’t mind one bit. Emma almost skipped home.

As promised, April was waiting by her front door.

“So, what did I forget to bring?”

April leaned forwards and kissed her on the head.

“Me.”