It was lovely to see Hannah was already seated outside on the restaurant's patio when Joyce arrived.
Hannah stood and Joyce moved around to sit 90 degrees to her, and they kissed each other's cheeks in greeting. In comparison to Joyce's knee length skirt, blouse and jacket, Hannah was dressed much more comfortably, wearing what seemed to be a very graphic bodysuit with ruffles under a similarly graphic maxi dress. Unsurprisingly, they both wore similar espadrilles, as that style of shoe had featured in one of their more recent conversations.
"Oh my god, it's so good to have you back"
"Have me back? You are the one who has been gone on a months-long tour of talks, signings, and conferences Ms Successful Published Mystery Author and Television Writer"
After a long, and thoroughly delightful embrace, they sat for lunch and contemplated the menus before them.
"Have you been waiting for long babe?" Joyce asked, indicating the menu.
"No, no. I only got here a few minutes ahead of you. But I already know what I'm going to have." Hannah grinned. She'd been messaging Joyce for weeks about the specials menu, asking for frequent updates.
"The sausage roll and fries?" Joyce grinned back.
"What can I say? I love pork, pastry and fruit. And salty fries and Hotel food is so entirely lame, especially when you're being rushed from city to city. And then doing even more things from your hotel room or whatever business suite they have"
The slightly younger woman looked tired, and Joyce sympathised.
While their several joint tenures on academic committees the past few years had not resulted in any joint academic publications (given that they were in very different fields and with different academic interests) their extracurricular writing interests overlapped much more entirely. They had together written a series of erotic stories which had made their way into a number of edited collections. And which were apparently well received. Hannah had also, somehow, also found time to write a mystery novel, published online as well. It had not only been picked up by a publisher, it had been featured on a celebrity's book club, and things had exploded from there. Joyce figured that somehow it made up for Hannah's decision to leave academia. She seemed happy, if exhausted.
However, that didn't last long as soon their conversation turned to their favourite topics: sex, and everything sex-adjacent. Joyce loved these conversations. Sometimes, with the application of wine, they ended with something approaching making out. A shame that this public forum and time of day would preclude the wine.
The wonders of the internet and chat programs meant the conversations hadn't needed to entirely stop while Hannah had been away, but they had certainly shifted as she had become more and more frustrated, and Joyce had been increasingly busy since Simon had moved in at the beginning of the summer.
Joyce still held Hannah's hand gently on her knee, and was leaning comfortably on her palm, elbow on the table with the occasional gesture to emphasise her points.
"You know, prior to the summer, I think- I spent a lot of time thinking about my ex husband"
"Oh?" Hannah seemed surprised. "But it's been a while, yes?"
"Oh, decades now. Not mourning, really just, thinking about missed possibilities?'
"Ah, that. I'm.. familiar with that, in my own way" Hannah grimaced, considering her own relatively recently ended marriage, although in completely different circumstances.
Joyce moved swiftly on, not wanting to loiter on that sore spot.
"It's your fault, I guess, I wouldn't be thinking about it without that porn subscription you pointed me towards."
Ah, there was a grin again, and Joyce relaxed. She hoped the slight rise in anxiety hadn't been too evident in her grip.
"Oh? Have you been a bad girl, and watched a lot of porn?"
"I don't know how you define a lot, but, I've been conducting a systematic review of the possibilities."
Joyce's eyes glinted, naughtily but also with appreciation. "Several repeated tests, for a lot of it."
"And?" Hannah interrupted, not to spur Joyce to the point but a good sign of her own enthusiasm.
"I think" Joyce released Hannah's hand, but left it on her thigh. Hannah did not pull back, but leaned in closer.
"I think, before, you know, it was never an issue of quantity of sex drive. I've definitely never had a problem there." Joyce paused, trying to figure out how to put what she was thinking into words. Hannah's fingers lightly stroked Joyce's leg through her skirt from thigh to knee.
"I think, it's the way that I've been able to systematically, categorise things and go through the possibilities, and eliminating things that I've realised I'm not actually interested in.. and how that's allowed my fantasies and interests to gallop ahead and expand in the areas that really do turn me on. It's been head-spinning." Joyce took a sip of her water. "It's been really head-spinning, especially since Simon moved in."
At last Joyce locked in on Hannah's eye, "it's just been such a change, amongst changes and different opportunities that I couldn't have predicted. I'm glad you're home now though. It's much easier to talk you in person than it is over the phone"
The two women smiled at each other as the waiter approached with their selections.
The conversation turned to Hannah's experiences with publishing while they were eating.
"Oh, it's been a couple of different things," Hannah gestured with her fork, annoyed, stabbing the fries still on her plate.
"Oh God" Joyce stopped with a forkful of salad halfway to her mouth. "So what happened this time?" The forkful continued its voyage. After all, it was a very good salad.
"Well, now that my first book is done they're pressuring me to really work on the second and third one. One of the editors suggested I should use AI to sort out most of the text of the next few novels, so I could dedicate my time to writing around the edges so they sound like my voice,"
