One Woman’s Treasure

by Jean Copeland

  But now as Daphne lay in her arms, loving her back, the drawbridge between Nina’s heart and mind was closing and seemed like it would stay down permanently.

  “Daphne, baby,” she whispered as she gently shook her shoulder. “We have to get up. I have to get Noah at my mom’s.”

  “Okay,” Daphne replied, her voice strained as she stretched.

  “You can borrow something of mine to wear.”

  “I can just wear my same clothes home. No biggie.”

  “Oh.” Nina hesitated. “Well, I thought you might like to hang out with Noah and me today, maybe meet my mother?”

  Daphne propped herself up on her elbow. “Really?”

  Nina nodded. “I mean, if you want. If you think we’re shifting into high gear too fast, just let me know. I’ve never fallen in love with my best friend before, so I’m unfamiliar with the protocol.”

  Daphne giggled as she lay back down in the crook of Nina’s arm. “We’ve had this problem before, but I guess now it isn’t so much of a problem if we’re lying naked together in your bed.”

  Nina melted into Daphne’s tepid eyes. “We are, aren’t we?”

  “We are.” Daphne kissed her shoulder. “But it still feels so unreal.”

  “Last night was amazing,” Nina said. “I’ve never felt like that before.”

  “Like what?”

  “Hmm, how can I describe it?” Nina stroked the side of Daphne’s arm. “I honestly don’t think my mind, heart, and body have ever been so beautifully in sync as they were when your lips and fingertips were exploring me. And your eyes seemed to unlock something in my soul.” A shiver ran through her. “The way you made me feel scares me a little. I’ve never been so vulnerable, but there’s something so pure, so gentle about you that I just let myself go.”

  Daphne was silent. Had she seriously fallen back to sleep while Nina purged her entire heart to her? “Daph?”

  A sniffle and a few droplets of tears on Nina’s chest were her reply.

  “Aww, don’t cry, honey. Why are you always crying?” Nina lifted Daphne’s chin and kissed her sweetly.

  Daphne sniffled again through laughter. “They’re happy tears,” she said, wiping her cheeks. “I’ve never been this happy before.”

  Nina giggled at Daphne’s unbearable cuteness and practically squeezed her into asphyxiation. She glanced at her alarm clock. “You know…we don’t need to jump out of bed this minute.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.” Daphne lightly dragged her fingernails up Nina’s forearm.

  The joking subsided as Nina kissed her and ran her hand down the middle of Daphne’s chest. Even with her hair a mess and last night’s light mascara all smudgy around her eyes, Daphne’s beauty hit her so hard, Nina could barely breathe.

  When Daphne let out a purr of arousal, Nina mounted her and began to grind into her as she nibbled at her neck, hungry as a vampire. And the harder she devoured her, the louder Daphne moaned.

  Nina opened her eyes, not wanting to miss a single second of their ridiculously wild synergy, the way their bodies fit together as if they’d been molded for that precise purpose. As Daphne’s fingers dug into her back, she realized their connection went beyond the physical. It was greater than anything she’d ever known outside of motherhood. She started tearing up at the overwhelming surge of emotion. That is until Daphne grabbed hold of her hips, and they began rocking against each other in rhythmic thrusts until the friction of their harmony carried them away.

  * * *

  On the car ride over to Nina’s mother’s house, Daphne’s stomach was undulating like the tide during a hurricane, even more so than last night when she’d showed up for their first date with a bouquet of roses and a box of gourmet chocolate-covered strawberries. If she thought it was difficult to impress a woman who had it all, how was she supposed to win over a ten-year-old boy? She already had, in a way, but as his mom’s bestie, not her…gulp…lover? Partner? Girlfriend?

  “So,” she said as her leg kept frantic time to a Taylor Swift female-independence anthem Nina had blasting. “What are we going to say to Noah? What should I say?”

  “Well, I suggest you start with ‘hello’ and see where it goes from there.” She smirked, never taking her eyes directly off the road.

  “That’s not funny, Nina. I’m pretty sure it’s easier to win over a teenage girl’s father than someone’s kid.”

  “I’m going to assume you’re speculating and have no recent frame of reference.”

  “Stop joking. I’m really nervous.”

  Nina reached over and quelled her hyperactive leg. “Listen to me. Noah already likes you. He once told me he liked hanging out with you better than Lacey. If that’s not a seal of approval, I don’t know what is.”

  “That does make me feel a little better. But do we have to tell him today that we’ve changed the nature of our relationship? That might be too much for him.”

  “No, we don’t,” Nina said. “I was going to suggest that we let his discovery happen naturally. The more time we spend together, the more comfortable he’ll feel having you around.”

  “Would he just reach the conclusion that we’re a couple on his own?”

  “Probably. He knows I identify as a lesbian now, thanks to Lacey. She sort of forced me to have a discussion with Noah early on that I wasn’t sure was necessary. He’s very inquisitive. When he wants to know something, he’s not the least bit shy about asking. And I’m honest with him. So if it’s okay with you, we can just take things at a pace we’re all comfortable with.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Daphne smiled in relief, watching the trees whip by as they drove down the country road heading to Nina’s mother’s house. She cracked the window to smell the freshness of budding trees and woodsy greens. Spring was her favorite season, as it always promised new beginnings.

  When Nina braked at the stop sign before an old wooden bridge crossing a river, Daphne threw the gearshift into park. “C’mon. Let’s get out and take a quick selfie.”

  Nina hesitated—but only for a moment. “It’s quite a backdrop, isn’t it?”

  “Gorgeous. But it’s got nothing on you,” Daphne said, surprising herself with her elevated flirt game.

  They bolted from the SUV and converged at the beginning of the bridge. After turning to accommodate the glare of the midday sun, they posed for a few selfies.

  As the river churned and splashed behind them, Daphne drank in another sip of Nina’s beauty, and smiled. “So does this mean we’re like…official?”

  Nina smiled back as she brushed away wisps of Daphne’s hair tousled by an interloping breeze. “Daphne, my heart knows what it wants. For the first time in my life, I have no doubts.”

  She stretched her arms around Nina’s waist and tugged her close. “I have no doubts either, Nina. I love you.”

  Nina cooed with apparent delight. “I love you, too, baby. And it’s officially official because we’re both fully sober.”

  They attacked each other with kisses as they giggled, and Daphne nearly raised her off the ground as she wrapped her in the tightest of hugs.

  * * *

  When they arrived at her mother’s house, Nina was pumped full of excitement. Daphne was meeting her mother for the first time, and she couldn’t wait. She shuddered a little at how the whole thing might go down. She’d come out to her mother when she’d decided to divorce Zack, but after all that, she’d never got around to introducing Lacey to her.

  She thought about Zack and Lacey and how much both of those relationships had shaped who she’d become. For someone so confident in her abilities and decisions, they’d both given her pause to reexamine that confidence and realize it bordered on the edge of arrogance. She was humbler now, a characteristic she’d learned about from Daphne, who’d modeled it in so many ways.

  After all the emotional upheaval she’d experienced to get here, she realized Daphne was a much bigger player in her epiphany than she’d realized.

  She shut
off the ignition and turned to Daphne, who looked semi-paralyzed with fear. “If you don’t relax, my mother will think I kidnapped you and dragged you here against your will.” She slipped her hand under Daphne’s hair and gave her neck a squeeze and tickle.

  Daphne looked around in an apparent attempt to take in the entire property. “Your mother’s house looks like a country club. Does she rent it out for destination weddings?”

  Nina sighed playfully. “Well, my dirty secret’s out now. I hope it doesn’t color your impression of me.”

  Daphne laughed. “If being raised filthy rich is the only secret you kept from me, that’s a fabulous place to start.”

  Nina swiveled toward her and took her hand. “I’m not cashing that check you gave me, Daphne. I won’t cash any check you give me for that loan, so you might as well save yourself the time writing them. That money came from a trust fund my father left me when he passed. Whether we end up together down the road or not, I don’t want you to repay me.”

  Daphne’s eyes floated in a lake of vulnerability as she placed her other hand over their clasped fingers. “Nina, I know all this is new between us, but I don’t want to talk about not being with you down the road.”

  “I don’t either. I just said that so you wouldn’t feel obligated to me.”

  “Since I met you, all I’ve felt is my love for you growing bigger than I could handle at times. I can’t even imagine what could happen to reverse the course. And I don’t want to.”

  “Mom.” Noah bounded out the front door and ran toward the car, holding something inside his coat.

  “Hey, buddy.” She jerked her head toward the house, and she and Daphne got out of the car. “Before I ask what you’re hiding from me, can you say hi to Daphne?”

  “Hi.” He offered Daphne a charming grin, then resumed working on Nina. “Mom, Mrs. DeVito was over for coffee before.”

  The mention of Nina’s mother’s cat-lady widow friend from the country club seized Nina’s heart in a momentary panic. “Noah, what’s in your jacket?”

  “Mom. Please,” he said, solemn as a judge. “I swear I’ll take care of him and clean his litter box.”

  When he produced a tiny orange kitten from inside his coat, Daphne squealed and lunged toward him, her fingers like mechanical claws angling for a prize.

  “Oh, my God,” she said as she smothered the poor thing’s head in kisses.

  “Two against one,” Nina mumbled to herself as she rubbed her palm against her forehead in resignation. “I assumed you’ve already named him.”

  “Mike Wazowski,” Noah replied with the brightest of smiles.

  Daphne cracked up laughing, clearly up on her Monsters, Inc. characters.

  Nina arched an eyebrow. “I was hoping that having to watch that movie three hundred times would have some redeeming outcome.”

  “I’m so jealous,” Daphne said, cuddling the kitten against her face.

  “Can I have my cat back?” Noah said.

  “Hold on. One more kiss.”

  “Can we go inside now?” Nina said, darting her gaze between the both of them.

  * * *

  Daphne sat rapt in the closed-in sunporch overlooking the expansive backyard bordered by a lake. As Nina’s mother carried a dish of watercress-and-lobster-salad finger sandwiches to go with the other gourmet hors de’ourves on the table, Daphne half expected Ina Garten to walk in with her, trailed by a camera crew.

  When she finally joined them at the table, Daphne immediately noticed where Nina’s stunning good looks came from. But when Nina squeezed her thigh beneath the tablecloth, Daphne snapped out of her googly-eyed stare.

  “So, Daphne,” her mother said. “I’m so delighted to finally meet you after hearing Nina speak about you so often.”

  Daphne smiled, her mouth full of finger sandwich.

  “I love the story of how you met,” she said. “My mother’s lamp could’ve been lost from our family forever were you not so honest.”

  “Well, it’s not so difficult choosing honesty when you see your car and half of your license plate splashed across the TV screen.” She nearly choked on the wad of sandwich in her mouth when she noticed both mother and daughter looking slightly aghast at her quip. “I meant I never would’ve taken it in the first place had I known it wasn’t spring-cleaning junk.”

  Nina’s mother looked only partially relieved.

  “Daphne’s into antique salvaging, Mom,” Nina said. “She’s opening her store soon.”

  “Oh, that’s right. Nina told me all about that. I’m looking forward to browsing around when it opens.”

  “The grand opening is a week from Saturday,” Daphne said. “If you’re free, please come. I’m making sort of an event out of it.”

  “Mom, I have to get the recipe for your lobster salad,” Nina said. “I’ve volunteered for refreshment duty.”

  “Lobster?” Daphne said. “I was thinking doughnuts and coffee.”

  “Not when my mother makes all these killer apps.”

  Nina’s mother smiled. “Aren’t you the sweetest friend.”

  Nina’s face blanched as white as the hand-embroidered lace tablecloth. “Uh, Ma, remember our phone call the other day?”

  Her mother smiled as she seemed to puzzle it out in her head. Then suddenly, “Oh, yes. I do recall. You two are lovers now.”

  Nina groaned, apparently as mortified as Daphne felt. After they’d kicked each other black and blue under the table, Nina finally spoke. “Yeah, we usually say partner or significant other, or, heck, even girlfriend will suffice.”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Her mother daintily bit into a small asparagus puffed pastry that Daphne reasoned could’ve easily fit into her mouth whole. “Well, you people can get married now, so maybe I’ll just call her Daphne until I can refer to her as my daughter-in-law.”

  “Mom,” Nina exclaimed as an adorable blush apple-glazed her cheeks.

  “I’m teasing,” her mother said. “I know you just started dating. But judging by the way you’re practically sitting in each other’s lap, I suppose it won’t be too much longer.”

  “Mother. Since when are you so chatty? Don’t you usually like to sit and look regal and refined in the company of new guests?”

  She picked up the cocktail sitting by her hand. “This is my second old-fashioned of the day.” She sipped it and barely swallowed before adding, “You two weren’t the only ones nervous about this impromptu luncheon.”

  After that, Daphne relaxed and reveled in a beautiful afternoon with Nina’s immediate family, feeling as enthusiastic to be part of it as the new kitten must have.

  * * *

  The Friday before Nina’s vacation, her boss requested a one-on-one conference call. The request was odd for many reasons, not the least of which was that it was a gorgeous spring afternoon, ideal for hitting the links. Also, Nina had always been so efficient at her job, the boss had the luxury of never having to contact her directly.

  Nina sprang up from her reclined position in her chair when Spencer Lancaster’s video conference call came through on her laptop.

  “Spencer, so great to see you. Hope all’s well down in Charleston.”

  “Good to see you, Nina,” he said, barely cracking a smile. “Listen. I won’t keep you because nobody likes Friday-afternoon conferences, but I just wanted to get to the bottom of something I noticed happening in the New England region.”

  “Oh? What’s that?” Nina pinched her chin between her thumb and forefinger, feigning curiosity.

  “Breast-ultrasound claims are going through as preventative care. Did you authorize that change?”

  He was being cagey for some reason. If anyone was going to authorize a change in procedure claim status, it would be Nina.

  “Well, since it’s Friday and nobody likes late-afternoon conferences, I’m going to go ahead and say yes, it was me.”

  He laughed a little as he scratched at his goatee, clearly indulging Nina’s sardonic tone. “I can unde
rstand a few appealed claims here and there, but the latest quarterly report indicates that all claims submitted for ultrasounds accompanying mammograms have been paid out. Why is that, when our national policy designates them as diagnostic, not preventative?”

  “Based on my understanding of preventative care, Spencer, these specific ultrasounds serve the same function as mammograms, so not covering them has been an oversight on Global’s part.”

  “Nina, you’re a highly regarded member of Global Health Insurance’s upper management, but you do not have the authority to change policy on procedure designations. This has to stop.”

  “Spencer, do you know anything about the purpose of mammograms?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “Well, it seems that your full understanding stops there. Women with dense breast tissue, and who’ve had prior biopsies, require more than just a mammogram to ensure they don’t have early stage breast cancer. They need the ultrasounds to ensure the mammogram didn’t miss any irregularities, as they’re known to do on occasion. You can’t pay for one and not the other. They’re two procedures toward the same goal.”

  “Nina, our policy stands. Mammograms are covered under preventative care. Ultrasounds are not. That’s that. I trust I’ll see a substantially lower number of claim payouts next quarter. Yes?”

  “But they’re both a means to the same end, Spencer. How do you cover one and not the other?”

  “Ultrasounds are coded as diagnostic. You can’t pick and choose when they should be considered preventative.”

  “But in this instance, they absolutely should be.”

  “That’s not something you or I can arbitrarily decide. It has to be taken up with the board as well.”

  “Okay. Well, I’m going to do that.”

  “Fine. Go ahead, but in the interim, they’re not covered, and I need you to make sure the New England division stops paying the claims.”

  Nina gnawed on her bottom lip a moment to prevent herself from saying something to Spencer she’d regret. The bureaucracy and the red tape were becoming untenable. She was an executive at a Fortune 500 company, but the weight of the realization that her success and standing in the corporate world was predicated on how well she denied others reimbursement for medical care was becoming a burden too heavy to shoulder.