Page 101 of Semantics

“So? I love fried chicken.”

“I can save you two legs and some sides. Do you want my biscuit? I’m not a fan.”

“You’re not a fan of your biscuit?”

“What in the world are you two even talking about?” Jen asked.

“I realize now how that sounded,” Violet replied with a little laugh. “Very tired.”

“For what it’s worth, I’m a big fan of your biscuit.”

“Put it on speaker,” Jen said and leaned over the table, suddenly very interested in their discussion.

“Stop it,” Stella told her with a little laugh.

“Oh, sorry,” Violet said and stopped laughing.

“No, not you. Jen. Jen is being annoying.”

“Do you want to invite her, too? She can come.”

“Nope,” Stella said, staring at Jen. “Even if I did want to invite her, I can’t because when she’s done here, she’s going to have FaceTime sex with her girlfriend, who’s on a work trip right now.”

“Stella!” Jen said.

“What? You are, aren’t you?” Stella teased.

“We’re going to have a call. That’s it.”

“Sure,” she said and then covered the phone and added, “Turnabout is fair play, you ass.”

She uncovered the phone to speak to Violet.

“Hey, Stella, do you want me to send you those profile links now or later?” Jen asked with a lifted eyebrow.

“Profile links?”

“Yeah, the LezConnect profiles I was going to send you. I have at least five who I think you’ll want to meet.”

Stella ran her tongue over her teeth, covered the phone again, and asked, “What are you doing?”

“Just wait. Trust me,” Jen said, pointing to the phone.

“Isn’t LezConnect that dating app?” Violet asked.

“Um… Yeah. Jen met her girlfriend on it, but she’s just being–”

“Hey, stop. Just trust me,” Jen interrupted her softly so that only Stella would hear and then added loudly, “I’ll send them over tonight. You can check them out whenever.”

“She’s sending you…” Violet faded out.

“Vi, just let me pay here, and I’ll be right over, okay?”

“You don’t have to, Stella. Sounds like you’ve got some pretty big plans for the night, after all,” Violet said, and her voice sounded different now.

It was more forceful and less fun than it had been only a moment ago.

“I have no plans, Violet. This dinner was Jen’s idea. My initial plan was to go home and cook a TV dinner. Exciting stuff.”