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Florence and Joseph had just moved into their first apartment together. It was a very nice apartment, and they lived near the top, where they shared the floor with only one other group of people. They were 28, and had been out of college for a few years now. The reason they were able to afford an apartment as nice as this was because Joseph’s parents had money they could spend on their son.
Their apartment was on the 32 floor, apartment B. Florence had hired movers to move everything into the apartment a couple weeks back, and the apartment was now finally ready for them to move in.
“Jesus Christ, that was a long ass elevator ride,” Joe commented as they stepped out of the elevator.
Florence lightly shoved him, commenting, “It’s your own fault, you chose to have us live on the 32 floor babe.”
As Flor put the keys into the door and was about to open the door when a group of four women walked out of the apartment on the other side of the floor, giggling. There were two tall ones, a redhead, and one with dyed blonde hair. Florence and Joe glanced at each other, recognizing the redhead as the one who owned the record store downtown, whom they had rented a movie from a week prior.
“Oh hey! You must be our new neighbors,” the tall, dark skinned brunette said, waving at them. “Glad we caught you, my name’s Taissa but call me Tai.”
“It’s nice to meet you, my name’s Florence and this is my fiance, Joseph,” Florence greeted, gesturing towards him.
The other tall woman spoke next, “I’m Lottie, it’s nice to meet you too. I hope we’re not too loud, and if we ever are, please, don’t hesitate to let us know.”
“I’m Natalie,” the blonde stated. “We’ll let the others know you guys are here, we’ve been waiting for you guys to finally move in. We baked some brownies as a welcoming gift, though they may be a little stale by now.”
The redhead elbowed her at that, “Don’t listen to her, they’ve only been sitting in our kitchen for a couple days at most, Nat just wants to eat them. I’m Van, by the way.”
“Well, we certainly won’t turn brownies down. Thank you for being so welcoming,” Joseph chuckled. He wrapped his arm around Florence, pulling her to his side. “We really appreciate it.”
“Don’t mention it,” Van replied. “Anyways, we’re heading out now, so we’ll see you guys whenever. Again, don’t be nervous to ask us to quiet down.”
The group of women made their way to the elevator, jostling each other and whispering to each other. Just as the elevator closed, the couple saw Natalie’s hand slip into Lottie’s, and Tai pulling Van to her. The couple smiled at each other, if a little sad the girls thought they couldn’t be open with them. To be fair to them though, it was 2002 and there were still bigots out there.
As they were settling into their new apartment, a knock sounded on the door. Joe opened it to see two more women. It was a brunette and a blonde, with the blonde standing at a height of 5’3 and the brunette being slightly taller.
“Hey!! You met some of our roommates earlier, I’m Jackie and this is Shauna,” the blonde rattled off, “They might have mentioned the brownies we baked as a welcome gift, here they are!”
She thrust a tray of brownies into his arms, and god did they smell good. “Thank you so much,” he said, mouth watering over the brownies. “It’s nice to meet you two.” He yelled for Florence, before apologizing to the women, “Sorry, I’m just calling over my fiance so that she can meet you guys.”
Said fiance appeared over his shoulder, when she noticed the two. “Oh hello there! I’m Florence.”
Shauna reintroduced them both, “I’m Shauna, and this is Jackie,” before mentioning that there were two other girls they had yet to meet. “Laura Lee and Misty are both sick right now, but I’m sure you’ll meet them before long. Laura Lee will want to properly welcome you two.”
“Well, when they feel better, we hope to meet them then!” said Joe.
The two left, and Florence and Joe decided to try the brownies before falling asleep. To this day, the couple would swear it was the best they had ever tasted.
-
The next time they encountered their floor mates was when they invited them to a party they were throwing in honor of what was the end of some of their sophomore year of college. When asked if they were sure they didn’t want to celebrate with just them, their answer was that it would be the perfect way for them to get to know each other.
When Florence and Joseph crossed the hall to the women’s apartment, the one to open the door was Jackie. She welcomed them in, where the one’s the couple had yet to meet came up to introduce themselves. Misty and Laura Lee seemed nice, both being a lot more open than some of the other girls.
An hour into the party, everyone was at least a couple drinks in. Florence and Joseph had mingled with all of them to a certain degree. They found out that the party was for everyone except for Van, who forgoed college in order to open the record store on Lottie’s dad’s dime, and Natalie, who was an apprentice for a tattoo artist. Upon further conversation, they discovered that Shauna is a literature major, Tai is a law and politics major, Lottie and Jackie are business majors, Laura Lee is a religion major, and Misty’s in med school.
The couple watch as Natalie turns to whisper something to Van, who lights up at her words. She lets out a hearty laugh before turning to the group as a whole, exclaiming, “Let’s play the game guys! You know, the one where we have them guess.”
Flor and Joe exchanged a confused glance, then looked at everyone else in the room, who had varying degrees of excitement written on their faces. After a couple of the girls asked for confirmation, the excitement turned palpable.
“What game is this?” Flor inquired, still confused. Her head tilted to the side in confusion, earning an affectionate look from her fiance, who was in love with everything she did.
Tai was the first to respond, saying, “We like to play a game with the new people we meet. The goal is for you guys to pair us up into who you think is dating who.”
As Tai spoke these words, the 8 women tensed up, afraid of a negative reaction. They weren’t in the closet any longer and were used to the comments people made, but these were the people who quite literally lived across the hall. If the couple turned out to be homophobic, they were done for.
It wasn’t a problem however, and Joe quickly said, “Oh cool! It’s nice to know there are other queer people around here. I’m bisexual, I don’t really care about what gender my partner is.”
Florence fondly nuzzled into his side, adding in a, “I’m not entirely straight either, though I don’t like labels. Point being, you’re good with us, we have no room to be prejudiced.”
Their words were met with the whole room visibly relaxing, now comfortable in the fact that their neighbors weren’t going to hate crime them. “Okay great- sorry for making things a little tense, we just had to make sure you guys weren’t homophobic or anything like that, and it’s easier to just rip the bandaid off sometimes,” Tai explained.
“Yeah, no, we completely understand. So the objective of the game is to pair you guys up into who we think is dating who?”
“Yeah, which of us is dating who,” Natalie confirmed, with a slight smirk.
Joseph grinned at the prospect- in all honesty he had been waiting for this moment since he first saw them. He and Florence had been itching to ask if any of them were queer and/or dating, but were afraid of accidentally offending someone. When they had first walked into Van’s store, they had immediately clocked her as one of them. And let’s be honest, nobody who dresses the way Nat does is straight.
Not to mention the interactions between all of them. Lottie always seemed to be touching one of them, whether it be sliding her arms over Tai’s shoulders, playing with Misty’s hair, holding Shauna’s hand “discreetly”, and so on.
Jackie’s wearing the flannel Shauna had been wearing when they had both first come to Florence and Joseph’s door to give them brownies. Jackie was always buzzing around the other girls, always checking in to make sure they were comfortable.
Speaking of them wearing the other’s clothes, Laura Lee was wearing the leather jacket Natalie had been wearing earlier. Some of them had fully swapped clothes at the party. Taissa’s hoodie had been passed over Van around an hour ago, and Misty and Lottie had swapped tops early on into the party.
Not to mention all the pet names. They couldn’t count on one hand how many they had heard at this point. “Babe”, “darling”, “sweetheart”, the women used all of them for each other.
All in all, the couple was very eager to be able to guess. Though, being eager to guess did not mean they had any clue as to who was dating who. After all, they were all over each other and there wasn’t any one pair who stood out.
Holding back a giggle, Florence asked, “May we get a bit to confer about this?”
This earned a satisfied grin from half of them, as if they found it entertaining that the couple couldn’t immediately guess. “Yeah of course, take your time,” Jackie answered, laughing.
This concerned, but did not deter, the couple. Joe leaned into Flor, whispering, “So, you got any clues?”
“Well some of them are definitely dating, I’m just not sure of who’s dating who- they’re all very close,” Florence remarked.
“You’re right about that- I thought that Shauna and Jackie were for sure dating, but now I’m not so sure. Did you see Shauna and Lottie holding hands earlier? But then again, Lottie seems very close with Natalie.”
“But Natalie gave her jacket to Laura Lee- you saw her wearing it when we first met them. And Lottie switched tops with Misty- that seems very couple-y. But then again, I’m pretty sure I saw Lottie and Laura Lee kiss when they thought we weren’t looking.”
“Good lord we’re never going to get this,” Joe said, frustrated. He turned to the 8, asking, “Do you mind if we ask you some questions?”
Van raised an eyebrow, before agreeing to his request. “Sure, though we get to refuse to answer if it makes things too easy.”
Joseph pumped his fist at this, jumping up excitedly, causing his fiancee to giggle at his antics. “First question then- when/where did you guys meet?”
Some of their faces fell at this, causing Joe to feel bad, feeling as if he shouldn’t have asked the question. The women recovered quickly though, with Jackie being the first to answer.
“Wellll, Shauna and I have been bffs since preschool. Isn’t that right babe?” Shauna nods at this, pulling Jackie into her front, wrapping her arms around Jackie’s waist.
Florence is half convinced the two are just fucking with them at this point, with how close they were being, it was like they wanted the couple to guess them.
The next person to speak up was surprisingly Lottie, who had been quiet most of the night, prefering to watch and listen rather than to talk. “Most of us met on the soccer team. We all played together in high school, minus Misty who was our student coach.”
The couple raised their eyebrows at this, but before they could speak Nat butt in with a, “Yeah I know, pretty gay huh?”
This earned a laugh out of everyone, as it was true. If you wanted to find a queer woman, you could just ask if they played a sport on a girls team and you had a 50% chance of finding one. A little stereotypical, but nonetheless true.
“Anyways,” Lottie continued, “most of us weren’t really close until our last year. Sure, we were surface friends- we were on the same team for 4 years, we had to be, but we weren’t as close as we are.”
This led to some of the girls snickering, and Florence swore she heard a “close is one word for it” from either Van or Tai. Speaking of the two, they were currently wrapped around each other. A point to those two being together.
“What happened to make you guys closer?” Joe inquired, wrapping his arms around Florence’s waist and pulling her to him.
The couple noticed how everyone else in the room stiffened, which in turn made them stiffen. They had really fucked up this time, they thought.
Laura Lee was the one to answer this time. “Well, in our senior year we won states, meaning we went to nationals.”
Florence brightened at this, and asked, “Oh really? Did you guys win?”
Natalie grimaced and said, “Yeah well, we never got to find out. Our plane fucking went down and we spent 19 months in the shithole that is the wilderness of Canada.”
At this, the room went dead silent. Florence and Joe vaguely remembered hearing about them a few years ago, a team of girls who were finally rescued 19 months after their plane had crashed. They remember thinking it was a tragedy, but not much else.
Florence and Joseph quickly apologized for their questions and if they had brought any bad memories up, but they were waved off by Van, who said, “Not your fault, it would’ve been a normal question had you asked anyone else.”
With that, they moved on. Neither the group of 8 nor the couple wanted to continue that conversation. Florence steered the conversation back to the game, saying, “Okay so, I’m just going to go for it.” Her words were met with a “hey!” from Joe, who seemed offended at being “left out” from the decision making.
Florence rolled her eyes at him, “Babe, you know we have the same answers anyway. The most obvious picks are Jackie and Shauna, and Tai and Van.”
“Agreed!” Joe piped in. “You four are harder,” he said, referring to the one’s left, “but I’m gonna go with Lottie and Laura Lee, and Natalie and Misty.”
Florence was nodding in agreement, and the two seemed pretty content with themselves. If it turned out that they weren’t correct (which they honestly had no clue, it was 50/50 at this point), they could at least say that they had their reasoning.
The couple looked around to the faces of the women around them, who looked as if they were desperately trying not to make any sign of them being right or wrong.
Jackie laughed before stating, “Well, before we reveal whether you were right or not, would you mind telling us why you thought so?”
Florence and Joe exchanged a glance before grinning, if they were wrong then this way they could prove that they weren’t complete idiots. They nudged each other before communicating with their eyes as to who they wanted to start with. They decided that they were going to go in order based on how they named them.
“Starting off with Jackie and Shauna,” Joe proclaimed, “you two are all over each other. Also! You’ve been best friends forever, and I don’t know a single lesbian who has not been in love with their best friend at some point in their lifetime.”
Florence backed him up by saying, “And the way that you told us that, with Shauna pulling Jackie into her? You can’t tell me that wasn’t gay.”
The two in question started laughing at this, but made no comment on whether the couple was right or not.
“Then there’s Tai and Van,” said Flor, “you two are quite literally wrapped around each other. And back when we first met you guys, we saw Tai pull Van into her inside the elevator.”
Taissa flushed at this, embarrassed at having been caught. Van was blushing too, although less so. The comment earned “oooooh”s and “that’s gay”s from around the room from the other girls. This caused Tai and Van to slap the arms of whoever’s closest to them.
Joe had the next one. “Misty is wearing the leather jacket that we saw Natalie wearing. It doesn’t even go with her outfit!”
This led to both Misty and Natalie letting out noises of disagreement, with Misty saying “Of course it goes with my outfit” and Nat saying “Excuse you, my jacket goes with everything.”
This didn’t help their case, and Florence followed her fiance up by saying, “See! They didn’t even deny the fact that it is Natalie’s jacket.”
At this point, the couple were on a roll. “Last but not least, Laura Lee and Lottie! Come on guys, we literally saw you kissing earlier when you thought we weren’t paying attention. There’s no way you aren’t together.”
Laura Lee turned a brilliant shade of red at this (she didn’t even attempt to deny it). Lottie let out a full bodied laugh, saying, “Well I guess you caught us there.”
“Soooo does this mean we got it right?” Joe eagerly asked, not unlike a puppy. Florence giggled at him, but couldn’t deny that she was also curious about the answer.
Misty matched Florence’s giggle, and went on to say, “Well, you didn’t get it wrong, but you also didn’t get it completely right.”
Her words caused the couple to become confusing, both tilting their heads as if to solve a puzzle. The women could see the gears turning in their heads, but didn’t see the pieces fall into place. After a minute of contemplating, Joe threw his arms up and said, “I give up! I’m stumped.”
“Truth is, we’re basically all dating each other. I don’t even know where one of us ends and the other begins anymore,” Shauna answered. “I know it’s a little unconventional, but we can’t help what we feel.”
The couple was surprised, although not negatively so, and it was apparent on their faces. “Oh!” exclaimed Florence, before she collapsed with laughter. “Sorry, sorry, I’m not laughing at you guys, I’m just surprised. Though I suppose I shouldn’t be, we really should have known Joe.”
Joe joined his fiance in laughing, and said, “With the way you guys were acting? Florence is right we really should have known you guys were all together. Man, you got us- but hey, at least we were partly right.”
After the “big reveal”, everyone loosened up a bit more, celebrating until it was almost 2 in the morning. At this point, the couple was exhausted, and the owners of the apartment seemed to be getting there as well. They said their goodbyes, and crossed the hall to get back to their own apartment.
“Well, that was interesting,” Flor commented the second they closed the door.
“Yeah it sure was. They were lovely though, I’m glad our floor mates are that nice,” Joe responded, before entering the bathroom to get ready for bed.
Florence followed after him, and soon they were both climbing into their bed to sleep. That night, they had dreams about a group of 8 women in the wilderness, trying their best to survive. They weren’t necessarily bad dreams, in fact they were almost pleasant, as if the wilderness was trying to thank them for their kindness towards the girls.
-
A couple years later, Florence and Joseph had gotten closer to their neighbors, and eventually ended up inviting the group to their wedding. It was September 18th, the anniversary of them getting together. The women were now done with college, and were able to come to the wedding.
It was held outdoors, and Florence's siblings were there (her parents weren’t the most accepting of Joe, after he let it slip one night that he was also into guys) along with Joe’s entire family. The 8 women sat near the back, unsure of how close they were to the bride and groom in relation to the rest of the guests.
After the marriage, during the reception, the newly married couple had come up to the women to thank them for coming, and to thank them for being amazing neighbors. Joe had cracked a joke about them bringing them brownies as good as the one’s the women had first given to the couple when Natalie reached into a bag and brought out a tray of brownies.
The couple's eyes widened, before grabbing the tray and immediately going to get utensils to eat it. Sure enough, when they dug in, it tasted just as good as it first did.