Jenny smirked. “Of course.”
Emily knew better, but she didn’t say anything as she turned the knob, knowing exactly what she was going to find on the other side of the door. But it was far worse than anything she and Alexis had talked about, or even that she had imagined.
“Eve!?” Jenny called out her roommate and lover’s name, as if she didn’t quite recognize her, but there was no mistaking her long, tawny limbs and the blonde, tumbled mass of hair in Alexis’s bed. She was draped over Alexis’s sleeping form, and both girls were stark naked, belly to belly. Emily saw two empty vodka bottles on her desk, but she could already tell from the smell that they were very drunk.
“Hmmm?” Eve lifted her head, rolling groggily to the side, giving them a full view of their bodies, Eve’s long and slender torso and tiny breasts, Alexis’s more full and voluptuous form. Eve blinked, not registering where she was or what she’d been doing for a moment, clearly still in an alcohol haze. Emily saw her realization happen, like a light bulb had gone off over Eve’s head. “Oh. Ohhh god. Jenny. Oh. I…”
“Eve, what are you doing!?” Jenny screeched. “What in the fuck are you doing with her?!”
Alexis groaned softly, opening her eyes. She gave Emily a dreamy half-smile, and then looked at Jenny. Alexis’s words were slurred, but her message was clear. “Sorry, Jenny, but Eve doesn’t want to be your roommate anymore.”
“That’s fine with me, you stupid cow!” Jenny hissed, narrowing her eyes at all of them. She snarled at Eve and Alexis. “You’re both disgusting perverts. You deserve each other.”
Alexis had pulled the blanket up around them and Eve huddled with her underneath it as they hid from Jenny’s seething anger.
Then Jenny turned her attention to Emily, standing at the doorway, just a foot or so away. “You are going to pay for this. I’m telling everyone your little secret now, believe me. The whole school is going to know what you did.”
“You can’t tell,” Alexis piped up. “Because then we’ll tell them about you.”
“What about me?” Jenny sneered, turning to go.
“That you like girls.”
That stopped her, and she turned, surveying them coldly. “Who’s going to believe you? What proof do you have?”
“Well… what proof do you have about Emily and… and…?” Alexis couldn’t even say his name.
“Camera, hello!” Jenny pulled out her iPhone, waving it around. Then she did something none of them had expected. She snapped a photo of Eve and Jenny wrapped in each other’s arms. “There. Now I have proof that you’re both disgusting perverts. Wait until Bishop Avery sees this!”
“Get the phone!” Eve cried and Emily lunged for it, but she missed. Jenny side-stepped her easily and skipped out the door. “Go! Get it! Get it!”
Emily tried, but Jenny’s years of soccer gave her a distinct advantage, and she was in her room, with the door locked, before Emily had made it halfway down the hall. Back in her room, Eve and Alexis were up and getting dressed, pulling on panties and t-shirts.
“She’s got pictures,” Emily said miserably, sinking down onto her own bed. Eve had warned her, of course, but she hadn’t quite believed it was true until she’d glimpsed a picture on Jenny’s iPhone-a heated embrace she remembered quite well in front of the chapel. “She’s going to tell.”
“Maybe she won’t.” Eve sat on Alexis’s bed, pulling a sheet over her bare legs. “She’s pretty afraid of her mom and dad finding out she’s gay.”
“I feel kind of bad for her.” Alexis sat next to Eve, who nudged her angrily with her hip. “I said kind of!”
“Think they’ll let us all stay in this room for the year?” Alexis slid back under the covers, putting her head down on her pillow.
“Don’t worry, you two will make great roommates.” Emily sighed. “I won’t be here much longer to be roommates with anybody. They’re going to expel me.”
“Don’t be so fatalistic.” Eve yawned, slipping back into bed with Alexis. “I still have a key to Jenny’s room, remember?”
Emily had a brief, fleeting moment of hope as she watched Alexis and Eve fall back asleep. They were both obviously still pretty intoxicated, and they were probably going to regret their high level of alcohol consumption in the morning. Although, looking at the way they twined together, she doubted they would regret whatever else had happened tonight.
She got dressed for bed and turned out the light, listening for Jenny, sure she would come storming back down the hall with Sister Francine, ready to take names and start expelling students, but the dorm remained eerily quiet. Maybe it’s an omen, she told herself, as she started to drift off to sleep.
Maybe there was a small chance it would be okay after all.
* * * *
“Wow, deja vu.” Emily squeezed Father Mark’s hand as they stepped into the chapel’s side door.
“I want to show you something.”
“Again?” she teased as he led her toward the front of the church. “I don’t think I can handle any more surprises this week. Did you hear that Jenny left school? Her parents came to pick her up yesterday.”
“I heard.”
“Poor Eve. She’s all by herself now.” Emily didn’t mention how often Eve had slept in her room this week, in Alexis’s bed. Who was she to squash a budding love affair? She was glad they were happy. Someone should be.
“Eve will be fine.” He led her to the front of the chapel, so different now in the light of day. He’d cleaned up the pillows and blankets and all the candles-and the wax drip, she imagined. There was no evidence they’d been there, right here, making love all night long. The thought made Emily blush, but it didn’t keep her knees from getting weak at the memory, and it definitely didn’t stop the ache between her legs when she glanced at him, reaching into his jacket pocket.
“She and Alexis will be rooming together before long, I’m sure,” he said, and she watched, puzzled, as he pulled something from his pocket.
“But Alexis is my roommate…” She frowned at him as he sank down to one knee before her. “What are you doing?”
He smiled. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Whatever you’re doing, don’t.” She nudged his shoulder with her knee. He was wearing jeans and a regular shirt again, and it was far easier to think naughty thoughts about him when he wasn’t in his priest’s uniform. “Get up. It looks like you’re proposing.”
Father Mark unpalmed a blue velvet box. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“What?” Now her knees felt truly weak.
“Emily, will you marry me?” He opened the box to reveal a white gold band containing a single diamond. It wasn’t big and fancy, but it was beautiful.
She tried to catch her breath. “But… but priests can’t get married.”
“I’m not a priest anymore.” His hand found hers, squeezing gently.
“You’re… not?” His words hadn’t really sunk in.
“I’m yours, Emily. If you’ll have me.”
“But you can’t not be a priest!” she protested, her voice hoarse, barely above a whisper. “What are you going to do if you’re not a priest?”
“Besides, hopefully, marrying you?” He grinned. “Well, my grandfather was a Baptist preacher. Maybe I’ll start my own church. And you, if you say yes… you’re going to art school, like you always wanted.”
She blinked at him, trying to force the words past her ears, into her actual brain. “What?”
“We’ll be fine, Emily.” He cupped her palm against his cheek, turning to kiss it softly as he spoke. “I’ll take care of you. I promise. I’ll find my way, whatever path I need to travel. Honestly, I don’t think God will care what I’m doing as long as I’m still talking to him.”
“Speaking of talking to your father…” Emily smiled, rubbing her thumb over his cheek, at the very spot she’d painted a cross. Had that been just a week and a half ago? It felt like a lifetime.