Graceless (Grace Notes #2)

“Cassidy,” she ordered. “Your sister is a gazillionaire and you’re fucking beautiful. If you love it, it fits, it feels good and you want it? Buy the damn dress.”

Cassidy did. She bought a small pile of dresses, in fact, nothing like the ones she’d packed from home. Short dresses, dresses that highlighted her cleavage, dresses that clung, dresses she’d never have dared run her fingers over, let alone worn in her small town. Then, remembering her life was actually mostly just hanging out around the house at this point, she dragged Coral almost kicking and screaming into more casual stores where she bought jeans, shorts and t-shirts. She bought cute underwear and light summer pajamas, a big cozy hoodie despite the current weather, and three different bathing suits.

They went shoe shopping, Coral laughing her ass off as Cassidy proved her complete inability to walk in heels. They bought heels anyway, Coral giving her lessons and making her strut back and forth across the store until she looked somewhat like a girl who wouldn’t break an ankle. She also bought flats, for safety, and new chucks in three shades. And then Coral took her for lunch.

“I should have made Savannah come with us,” Cassidy said guiltily. “I feel weird spending all her money.”

“She doesn’t care about the money,” Coral told her, spearing salad on her fork. “It’s the time with you she wants.”

Cassidy wasn’t sure how to bite back on that one. Coral was Savannah’s best friend. Couldn’t she see the irony that Savannah had wilfully missed Cassidy’s whole life so far, before suddenly feeling sad her little sister didn’t want to hang out at the mall?

“I’ll hang out with her when I get home.” Cassidy neatly circumnavigated that line of conversation. “She struggles to get off the couch at the moment, so she’s not hard to track down.”

“Oof, it looks uncomfortable, doesn’t it?” Coral scrunched her perfect nose.

“You and Noah don’t want kids?” Cassidy found she hoped not. Coral seemed too classy and gorgeous to imagine her getting crawled all over by a drooling baby.

“You know, we talked about it? Using a surrogate. But in the end, we ruled it out. We like being selfish too much.” She smiled gleefully.

“A surrogate?” Cassidy asked. Honestly, these rich people. She thought about it. “That does sound smart. You’d get to keep your figure.”

Coral put down her fork, amusement sparkling off her features.

“That’s true,” she said, “but somewhat of a secondary consideration in our case. Honey, I’m transgender. You didn’t know?”

Cassidy flushed bright red. The only thing she’d ever really heard about transgender women was that they were looking to assault innocent women in public bathrooms. Looking at Coral, she instantly knew that was a bald and horrible lie. The idea of Coral not being welcome in any women’s spaces was ludicrous.

“I didn’t,” she said quietly. “I didn’t know. Please don’t hate me for being stupid.”

“Hate you?” Coral looked astonished. “Why would I hate you?”

“Because you already know I’m one of Savannah’s backwards redneck family members from down home. Famous in the New York Times for being terrible to all queer people,” she said miserably. “Not that you’re queer. I mean, are you? Sorry, I am ignorant.” She glared down at her fingers.

“Sweetpea.” Coral waited until she looked up. “You’re not representative of anyone but yourself. Are you terrible to queer people?”

“I’ve not been great,” she admitted. “I was shitty to Lane when I first met them. And I told them I thought Savannah got gay-married to be woke.”

A snort of laughter escaped Coral.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Just the way you put that was…” she trailed off, her face getting serious. “Do you still think that?”

“No,” she said, shamefacedly. “I’ve seen them together. If any two people are in love, it’s those two.”

“And Lane?”

“I apologized. I was an asshole. They deserve better. And I’m doing better, even though…I don’t really understand.”

“You don’t have to understand everything about a person to treat them with respect.”

“No,” she looked down. “That’s true.”

“And me?” Coral looked at her directly. “Are we cool here?”

“Yes,” Cassidy breathed. “I mean, if you are with me.”

“Listen honey, you could stand to learn a little bit more about life. Don’t you think?” Cassidy nodded, feeling the truth of that with a little sting. “But you’re alright by me. Now, listen, how do you feel about a little bit of a girls’ day makeover?”

Chapter Ten