Chapter Text
Shelby: Happy birthday! Finally, the big 3-0! Hope it’s a great one!
Shelby: P.S.: Don’t think I’ve forgotten about our deal. I’m still willing if you are.
Toni sat on her couch, staring at the texts, as she’d been doing for the past half an hour. She had initially been happy to see Shelby’s name on her phone, which really only happened on their birthdays anymore, but once she read the texts her mind started spinning and she wasn’t sure what to think.
She had thought of the agreement they made before Shelby texted her about it, and figured Shelby either forgot or would be completely against the idea by now and not mention anything about it, but here she was, apparently offering to actually follow through with it.
Toni clicked her phone off again and sat it on her coffee table, leaning back and rubbing her temples as she replayed everything in her head, trying to figure out what to say in response.
Sophomore year of college, Toni had harbored a “straight girl” crush on Shelby, who lived on the same floor as her. She dealt with this in the most mature way possible: by being an absolute dick to her at every opportunity.
That is, until she caught Shelby crying in the lounge at 2 in the morning. Toni had approached her cautiously, but when she tried to talk to her, Shelby had simply grabbed her and kissed her.
The next morning, they agreed it was a mistake, but Toni became Shelby’s confidant about the secrets she was harboring regarding her sexuality. From there, their bond was strong.
A few months later, Shelby broke up with Andrew and came out of the closet not long afterward. For a moment there, it seemed like maybe something was going to happen between Shelby and Toni, but nothing ever did. Toni’s feelings hadn’t disappeared, but she refused to risk it.
It was during that sophomore year that the pact was made. They’d taken a drive up the coast, as they loved to do together, blasting music and singing along on the way. Shelby had noticed a small park just off the highway and asked Toni to pull over so they could get out and relax for a bit.
The park was empty, so they raced to the swing set, Shelby beating Toni, but only because she had a head start. They swung together, Toni quickly making a competition of who could swing higher. Of course, both of them insisted they were winning. Toni jumped off, which was a mistake, because even at 19, her knees weren’t what they were when she was 8. Shelby skidded to a stop and fawned over Toni, making sure she was okay, before leading her to sit with her by a small tree while she waited for the pain to subside.
It was as they were sitting there that Shelby sighed and said “Lord, I just hate Tinder. It’s all couples looking for a third, or girls who aren’t even my type…and if I try and have a conversation with anyone, it just never goes anywhere. It’s hard to make a real connection with anyone, like what you and I have.”
Toni wondered for a second if Shelby was suggesting there was a romantic connection between the two of them but quickly pushed the thought from her mind. Shelby was on Tinder for God’s sake, she clearly was not looking to get with her.
“Yeah, I guess you just gotta wait until the right person comes along,” Toni said with a shrug. Her heart panged a little at the thought of seeing Shelby with someone else, but Shelby clearly wanted to be in love, and she deserved it. Toni’s silly little crush didn’t matter.
“What if I’m just alone forever though?” Shelby asked, somewhat sarcastically, but Toni could see it wasn’t a joke at all. She knew the fear, intimately so.
Toni opened her mouth without thinking and said “I won’t let that happen.”
Shelby turned with some strange hope in her eyes that Toni couldn’t understand and asked “What do you mean?”
Toni searched her brain for the answer, what the hell had she meant? Shelby clearly wasn’t into her, so what good would trying to date her do? It would only ruin the friendship. So, she spat out something from some dumb sitcom, “If we’re both single when we’re forty, we should get married.”
Shelby looked confused for a second and then shook her head slightly. “No. I wanna have kids, and I’d prefer to start that process sooner rather than later. So, how about thirty?”
Toni had not, for one second, expected Shelby to respond with what almost seemed like a serious counter-offer. “Can we also be foster parents?” she asked, because why not go for broke in this fantasy land?
“Of course. I think we’d be really good at that. We make a good team, don’t we?” Shelby asked, and Toni wished she meant it in a different way than she did, but she’d be happy with whatever she could get from Shelby.
“We absolutely do.”
“So, it’s a deal then? We get married if we’re both still single at thirty?” Shelby asked, sticking out her hand to Toni.
“It’s a deal,” Toni replied, shaking her hand, holding on just a second too long.
Toni: I’m not sure if you’re being serious. But if you are, call me. Let’s talk about it.
Toni wasn’t sure what was even making her entertain this idea.
Maybe it was the fact that she was thirty with absolutely no romantic prospects in sight, and an unshakeable disdain for all the apps and websites. Maybe it was the fact she really wanted to be a foster parent and start a family, and didn’t feel like taking that step on her own was something she could manage. Or maybe it was Shelby herself. Toni had long since gotten over her silly college crush on her, but she couldn’t deny it—they just worked. The bond they had in college was so special and ran so deep. Toni knew elements of it were still there, below the surface, waiting to be reignited. It was worth a try, at least.
Less than two minutes later, her phone rang. She didn’t hesitate to answer, “Hey, Texas.”
“A deal is a deal, right?” Shelby’s voice was bubbly as ever, her accent not at all lost from her years in California.
“If I remember correctly, we did shake on it,” Toni acknowledged as she began pacing around her apartment.
“We did. And I’m thirty and single, and from what I’ve heard, there aren’t any special ladies in your life?”
“Special ladies? Who are you, my grandma?”
“I’m fairly certain that would make us getting married highly illegal.” Toni’s eyes bugged out a bit at Shelby acknowledging exactly what they were about to talk about—getting married.
She laughed nervously at the joke anyway before answering “But no, I’m totally single. Not a special lady in sight.”
“Well? What do you think? I work remote most days so I wouldn’t mind moving and commuting when I have to.” Shelby said casually, like they were talking about dinner plans and not rest-of-their-fucking lives plans.
“Wait, so are you like… serious? ” Toni asked. She sat down on the couch to brace herself, then immediately stood up, her body deciding pacing was more important.
“I am. I want to move on with my life. I’m ready to have a baby, and I’d love to do foster care too, if you still wanted. I think we’d make a good team.” Toni smiled; Shelby remembered. She wasn’t sure if that was because it meant a lot or just because Shelby had a good memory.
“Then I’m on board, too,” Toni told her. It slipped out of her mouth before she could even really think it out. But there was no turning back now. Well, there was, but she didn’t want to.
Shelby let out a little squeal of excitement before launching into what sounded like a rehearsed speech, “Okay, but if we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do this right. I’m talking a big proposal, big white dress, the best wedding cake you ever tasted. I want a beautiful venue, I want the curtains to match the tablecloths…”
Toni leaned back into the couch as she listened to Shelby list all the things she wanted at their wedding. She’d make fun of her for being a stereotypical trust-fund kid, but she was too damn excited, and it was too cute.
After Shelby listed each and every detail of her dream wedding, they talked logistics. They worked out a rough story to explain their sudden engagement, talked about a timeline, and what married life would look like for them.
“We wouldn’t have to…we’d have separate bedrooms, of course,” Shelby said awkwardly at one point.
“Right, of course!” Toni said quickly, catching the implication behind the statement. Shelby never wanted her that way, she always knew that, and it was fine. They were best friends in college, now they’d be best friends in marriage. Toni loved having her as a best friend.
They spent all afternoon making plans, right up until Toni heard a knock on her door—Martha, done with work and ready to celebrate Toni’s birthday with her.
“I gotta go, Shelbs, Marty’s here. But I’ll text you tonight?” Toni wasn’t sure what made her say that, but she knew she’d be missing Shelby and probably come up with a dozen more questions and things to straighten out.
“Sounds good. Talk to you later, fiancée.” Toni could hear the smile in Shelby’s voice.
“You’re such a cheeseball,” Toni said with a chuckle before she hung up the phone.
A few days later, Toni was driving to a cafe halfway between her and Shelby to meet up and make sure everything was airtight. During the half-hour drive, Toni started to wonder why.
Why hadn’t they met up with each other for so many years? They’d seen each other occasionally, like at Martha’s wedding or Fatin’s 25th birthday, and it had always been so pleasant. Thirty minutes in the car was nothing, so what had kept their friendship from continuing? Work, of course, was part of it. Little things here and there that got in the way.
Then there was the fact that soon after college, Shelby had started dating some woman named Marina that Toni just couldn’t stand. She tried to hide her feelings about it, but one night out at the bars, Toni had gone out for some air and Shelby had followed her, accused her of hating Marina and told Toni she’d stop seeing her if Toni wanted. Something in Toni’s drunk brain had made her angry, and she doesn’t really remember what happened after that, just that they started drifting.
Toni wiped that ancient memory from her mind as she got to the cafe. Shelby had beaten her there, and there was a cup of black coffee already on the table across from Shelby, who was sipping on her own drink.
Toni slid into the chair and took a deep inhale of the coffee. She looked up at Shelby with a smile, “You remembered, huh?”
“I distinctly remember you insisting you’d never drink it any way but black. Like a sociopath,” she winked.
Toni nodded towards Shelby’s own drink. “Let me guess, just an herbal tea for you?”
“Obviously. You don’t want to see me caffeinated,” Shelby said and Toni chuckled.
“I believe you.”
Just like that, it was like no time had passed at all. Shelby was as beautiful as ever, sunshine in human form and peppy without an ounce of caffeine, and somehow it just worked when they got to talking. The conversation flowed and Shelby laughed at all of Toni’s dumb jokes. They talked more about their plans together, how they’d go about it all, and what their desires were, both for the wedding and beyond.
The whole afternoon passed by in an instant, and when they said goodbye, Shelby pulled Toni in for a hug. It was warm, and long and felt insanely overdue.
“Better get used to these hugs,” Shelby said into Toni’s shoulder.
Toni figured she could never get sick of them.
Of course, Shelby wanted the perfect photo-shoot opportunity, so that’s what Toni was going to give her.
She called Shelby, telling her to get her nails done before Saturday, because that’s when she was popping the question, whether she liked it or not. Shelby argued that getting a nail appointment so soon was impossible, and Toni, who had maybe stepped inside a nail salon twice in her entire life, failed the rebuttal. Next Saturday it was.
Up next was navigating her way through every thrift shop and antique store in the county to find a ring that would sit just right on Shelby’s hand. Nothing too gaudy, nothing too dull, and nothing too expensive. Shelby was already shelling out thousands for their wedding, no way was Toni asking for a couple thousand to drop on a ring that Shelby would probably want replaced every ten or so years (ten years with Shelby, wow, what a wild thought).
In retrospect, maybe Toni should’ve called ahead. After searching her eighth store, she just hoped the next one had a good furniture section she could sit down in for an hour or five.
All that hoping wasn’t in vain when she stumbled across a literal diamond in the rough at a pawn shop just outside of city lines. Sure, Toni hadn’t seen a million rings in her life like she knew Shelby had (the blonde had been saving photos on her phone since she was nineteen), but the square diamond cut looked pretty cool, and the ring around it fit around her own finger fine. It was perfect.
“A thousand,” the scruffy man at the front counter had said resolutely.
Toni knew how to argue, though.
“You think anyone coming into this shop has a thousand dollars to throw down?” She raised an eyebrow, toying with the ring in her hand. “I’ll give you five hundred for it.” The man stood silent. Time to go a new route.
“Listen, man,” Toni sighed, letting the irritation in her face fade. “I’ve got a beautiful woman at home, and all I want is to give her something nice. I don’t have much.”
A wobble in his lip. Jackpot.
“You wanna see her?” She pulled out her phone before he could respond, swiping through some of her old college photos still saved in a folder on her photos app. “We were freshly twenty, here,” she held her phone up to a photo of her and Shelby, taken at some party where neither had cared how closely they were wrapped in each other. Toni swallowed and allowed herself to say, “I’ve been in love with her for what feels like my whole life.” She didn’t like the way the lie rolled off her tongue so naturally.
“You held onto her that long?” He asked, leaning forward just an inch to see the screen better.
“No,” Toni answered honestly, tucking her phone back in her pocket. “I lost her for a long time, but we found our way back to each other. I’m never letting her leave again.”
“Clearly.” His eyes floated down to the ring, then back up to Toni. “Six hundred.”
A small grin stretched across Toni’s face.
“You got yourself a deal.”
After that, Shelby took the lead very subtly, by sending dozens upon dozens of photos to Toni of locations like beaches, and white beaches, and beaches at sunset and, okay, Toni got the hint about sixteen beaches ago.
Come Sunday evening, Shelby met Toni at the Golden Coast after work, both dressed for the occasion. Toni wore a half-buttoned, flowing white shirt, while Shelby opted for a light blue skirt with a matching, sleeveless top. They looked every part the kind of couple who would get engaged on a beach, that was for sure.
“You have to show me that ring you’ve been going on and on about,” Shelby smirked, holding out her hand for the box Toni was currently toying with.
“Feel like this is the wrong order.”
“I’m not saying yes until I see what it looks like.”
Toni rolled her eyes, but her smile stayed put. She handed the box over, watching as Shelby opened it under the glow of golden hour. “Oh, Toni,” Shelby breathed out, rubbing her thumb over the diamond. “It’s beautiful.”
Shelby tilted her head back up to look into Toni’s eyes, unshed tears welling up in Shelby’s own. In the glow of golden hour, Shelby’s tears created a kaleidoscope in her eyes, the green more vibrant, a burning fire sparkling within the pupil.
“Of course,” Toni murmured back. “Only the best for someone like you.”
She carefully plucked the box out of Shelby’s hands, closing it to prepare for the countless number of photos Shelby was about to subject her to. Surely she knew this was a part of the plan, as Shelby was ready to plaster their engagement over every social media outlet, but Toni never really got used to the cameras.
Still, this was a part of their agreement, so Toni let Shelby skip ten feet over so she could begin stacking rocks to act as a makeshift base for her phone.
And honestly, Toni didn’t really mind being ordered around for thirty-five minutes while Shelby set up shots and arranged them.
“A bit more to the left, Toni.”
“Toni! Your eyes were closed!”
“Are you flipping off the camera? Really?”
With every more ridiculous idea Shelby came up with came an even more ridiculous problem Toni had caused, leaving them with more unusable pictures than Shelby knew what to do with.
After nearly an hour had passed, Shelby called it a night, as the sun was far past set.
“You think that’s enough photos? Or do we need more?” Toni smirked, watching Shelby scroll through hundreds of photos.
“This is impossible with the 10-second timer, Toni, you should’ve brought a tripod.”
“It’s your phone!”
“Well, I just wanted this to be perfect.”
“Look, I’ll just- Wait! Wait, stop, go up a few photos,” Toni reached for the phone, picking it out of Shelby’s hand. “This one, look at it.”
The sun was just barely set in the photo, so the two were painted in a mid-evening glow, which Shelby fawned over. What Toni loved more, though, was that they were both grinning from ear to ear, no doubt laughing at a joke Toni had said.
“It’s perfect,” Shelby whispered. Toni watched her eyes continue to flicker over the screen again and again, until they met Toni’s own.
“Yeah, it is,” Toni said, her eyes never leaving Shelby’s.
Maybe making it Facebook, Instagram, and even TikTok official wasn’t the greatest idea.
Toni’s phone had been blowing up for hours after the first photos went live, with questions of “How did this happen?” and “Who paid for that ring?” and “Shelby settled for you ?” (which frankly, Toni found pretty rude, so she told Fatin off for disrespecting her and her future wife).
At first, Toni felt like all this lying and pretending wasn’t going to end well. If all those television shows and movies that she heavily consumed had taught her anything, it was that no one gets away with something of this proportion ever.
But, if she really thought about it, it wasn’t exactly a lie, was it? Shelby and Toni were engaged, and they were getting married, and they were very excited about it.
At least, that’s what everyone surmised from Shelby’s Instagram caption.
Soon enough, after a grueling day at work, Toni opened up the group chat she shared with her friends to over a thousand missed messages.
“Fuck me.”
Toni scrolled through two hundred before she realized ninety percent of the texts were just Fatin spamming the group to get her attention. Great.
Fatin: You’re not getting out of this, Shalifoe. Or is it Goodkind, now?
Toni: Shut up. Getting out of what?
Fatin: 😏
And that was how Toni ended up with six of her friends and Shelby crammed into her small apartment.
At first, Toni thought her head was going to explode with all of the questions and stories being thrown around, about how Shelby and Toni met back in college, the time Toni fell down a flight of stairs and pretended that she “stuck the landing” by finishing off the fall will a spin that threw her directly into a metal pole, and the barrage of parties Fatin forced Shelby and Toni to attend that “totally played a huge part in all this holy matrimony shit” as Fatin put it.
But as it turned out, Toni didn’t have to say much. Shelby fielded each question like a pro, until the group calmed down.
Toni just sat back, nursed a beer, and watched Shelby flitter around, catching up with Martha and Fatin, while getting to know the women Toni met in those years between college and now. She marveled at how comfortable Shelby was, and how she fit in so well with the group Toni’s come to consider home.
How maybe, just maybe , Shelby could be a part of that home again.
At the end of the evening, as they all sat in a semi-circle in Toni’s living room on old couches and chairs, Leah bit the bullet and directly asked, “So how did this happen?”
Toni and Shelby shared a look, Toni gesturing her head for Shelby to go first. Of course, they had discussed what they were going to tell their friends, the only issue was they didn’t exactly agree .
“We ran into each other one day at the store,” Shelby started, but Toni cut her off before she could continue.
“Literally. I rammed my cart right into hers.”
Shelby sent her a look, one that clearly read Toni, don’t.
“Right… And Toni was so damn sweet about it, asked me to dinner to catch up, and I just knew she was the one from that moment.”
“Yeah, and when we went to dinner, there was this mix-up with the food, and Shelby’s got contaminated, her throat swelled up from the seafood residue.”
“Oh my God, Shelby, that sounds so scary!”
“Toni,” Shelby hissed under her breath, before laughing tensely. “She’s exaggerating.”
“Nah, her face looked like a pufferfish, ironically. I had to pull out her EpiPen and stab her with it before the ambulance arrived.” Acting out the scene, Toni proceeded to mime jamming said Epipen into Shelby’s leg.
Shelby reached under the table to slap Toni’s leg. “Toni!”
“And then I was like, wow, Shelby almost died,” Toni’s face grew somber, her hands stilling on the tale. “And I knew then that life was too short to risk it waiting.”
“Wow,” Fatin looked between them, a huge, shit-eating grin on her face. “Fascinating.”
Toni nodded, stuffing her face with the hors d'oeuvres Shelby had carefully plated. “So I went out to get a ring, and I didn’t have a huge budget, ‘cause I’m not trustfund-rich, but I think I did an alright job.”
The other women marveled at the ring Shelby had on her finger. Toni looked up from it, seeing Shelby’s shy smile as she too stared down at the jewelry. Toni couldn’t stop her own smile from growing.
“Toni took me down to the beach,” Shelby’s voice was soft as she continued to stare at her fingers. “And she waited until I was laughing at one of her stupid jokes to get down on one knee, right at sunset. She told me she had loved me since the day we met, and that she would love nothing more than to love me for the rest of her life, too.”
Toni watched as Shelby spoke in a dreamy voice, painting the photo they had posted of the two of them in a completely different light.
“I said ‘yes’ before she even finished the question.”
The room grew quiet, but Toni swore they could all hear her heart thumping against her chest. Shelby looked so happy, so in love with the ring and the story she had just come up with, and when Shelby’s eyes met Toni’s own, it was almost as if she looked in love with Toni. The version of Toni she had created in her head, at least.
Before she could finish letting out a shaky breath, Martha spoke up. “That’s beautiful, Shelby. You two deserve each other.”
Martha turned to Toni, the look in her eyes making Toni swallow her words.
“Well,” Fatin interrupted their moment, slapping her hands against her thighs to stand up. “I’ll be damned, you really did it, Shalifoe. I’m surprised.”
“Thank you?” Toni tilted her head.
“Any time.” Fatin flashed her one of her special, sincere smiles, which almost made Toni feel better about the back-handed compliment.
The rest of the night went as smooth as it could, with only one glass of wine spilling on her rug and two fights over the remote (“Who the fuck watches television at a sort-of-engagement party?” Rachel had asked, ripping the remote from Dot’s hand before she could turn on the Discovery Channel).
Toni couldn’t believe it when she finally checked her phone and found out it was almost one in the morning. Sure, back in their college days, Fatin would force her to go out and party for hours and hours until the sun rose, but she was thirty now, and her idea of a good night was to be in bed before ten.
Soon enough, the other women came to the same consensus, pushing themselves off of their seats and hugging Toni and Shelby, congratulating them on the engagement, and making their way to the door, grabbing their shoes and coats as they went.
And for just a moment, even though every muscle in her body was begging her to lay down and get some shut-eye, Toni wished this night could go on a little longer, if only to see Shelby continue to light up the room. Instead, she bit her cheek, holding Shelby for just a moment longer than anyone else when she came in for a hug.
As soon as Toni closed the door on the last of her friends and her fiance, after accepting a kiss from Shelby that she could still feel burning on her cheek, she turned to see only Martha left, standing between her kitchen and living room (which was only about thirteen total inches).
She had avoided Martha the entire night, pretending she didn’t notice her questioning glances or attempts to pull Toni away into another room.
She had assumed Martha had left with the others.
Martha, with her soft, sympathetic eyes and eyebrows knitted together, took a step towards her.
“Toni…”
“Don’t, Martha,” Toni held up a hand, closing her eyes. “Don’t give me that tone, or that look, or that entire vibe you’re giving off.”
“We tell each other everything.” Martha took another step forward, wrapping her fingers around Toni’s wrist to pull her hand down. “I’m just surprised you managed to hide this from me for so long.”
Martha’s stare never wavered. With her heart beating against her chest, Toni’s eyes flickered around Martha’s face, past her, around her apartment, until finally coming back to rest on Martha’s hand, still on her wrist.
Her eyes closed again, and she sighed, wondering where to start.
Before she could even begin to explain the situation she landed herself in, Martha spoke up again. “It doesn’t surprise me, though. Even when you guys were apart, it felt like you only had eyes for her.”
Toni’s eyes popped open immediately, going on the defensive and ripping her hand away from Martha’s to take a step back. “No? What? This is a recent development.”
“Toni,” Martha tilted her head, giving her one of her famous ‘you’re an idiot’ smiles that radiated warmth and pity. “You were totally in love with her in college.”
Toni’s knee-jerk response was to deny it, but something about the conviction in Martha’s voice forced Toni to swallow her words and think for a moment.
She knew she had a crush on Shelby that had ebbed and flowed throughout college, but love ?
It was one of those times where everything slowed down and her life played out in front of her eyes like the split second before an accident.
She saw Shelby, interlacing their fingers while walking through campus, and could feel the disappointment when the blonde would let go to greet another friend.
She remembered the nights they spent at gay bars, pointing out other women they thought would be perfect fits, and Shelby forcing her towards every non-blonde in the vicinity.
She choked down that all-encompassing feeling: the one that caused their drift, the one that Toni refused to act on, the one that always ended in Shelby going home with someone else.
But that feeling was long gone. Right?
“No…” Toni muttered, squinting her eyes at the wall past Martha’s head. “No, no, no,” she began shaking her head, lifting a hand up to rub down her face.
“Isn’t that a good thing?” Martha asked. “That you’re marrying the woman you’ve been in love with since forever?”
“It’s not real,” Toni said, beginning to pace around the room. “You know it’s not real. It’s not fucking real, and I’m not in love with her.”
“Toni-”
“Stop ‘Toni-ing’ me!” Toni swung back around to face Martha. “It’s for convenience, alright? She’s alone, I’m alone, and we’re going to be not-alone together, with a couple of kids.”
Her breaths became more erratic, her hands dragging down her face and running through her hair. Everything felt like too much at the moment, until her eyes finally fell on Martha’s again.
The grimace the other woman gave her was enough to make Toni sigh and drop her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Marty. I’m just not up for this shit right now, it’s late.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not. You were just asking.” Toni moved over to the kitchen, reaching for the last bottle of wine that wasn’t quite finished. “And now you know. It was a promise we made to each other.”
Martha moved with her, hopping onto a seat at the kitchen table. Toni poured herself and Martha a glass, staring at her own to avoid Martha’s gaze. She picked it up and swished it around, waiting for Martha to say anything, to try and talk her out of it, or tell her maybe this won’t be such a bad idea after all.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” was all Martha had to say on the matter.
And maybe Toni was foolish for needing Martha’s reassurance on her own wedding, but Martha had never steered her wrong before.
Maybe forcing Toni to make her own decisions was the right idea, after all.
“When do I ever?” Toni smirked, letting the tension dissolve from her body at the sound of Martha’s stifled laugh. “Nah, Marty, I’m alright. This’ll be fun.”
“Fun.” Toni laughed at Martha’s poor attempt to wiggle her eyebrows.
“Yeah, Marty, did you know we get to taste like, a million cakes? For free ?”
“That’s how wedding planning works, yeah.”
After a moment, their laughs subsided until the only sounds were the ambiance of Toni’s apartment and the cars below them. Martha reached her hand out and placed it over Toni’s own. “Really, Toni. If this makes you happy, then I’m on board, one hundred percent.”
Toni nodded, swallowing her wine. “Yeah.” Toni mulled over her next words, continuing to nod. “She makes me happy.”
Martha nodded with her, squeezing her hand twice. “That’s all that matters.”