Make Room for Love

by Darcy Liao

In her two-plus years of living with Dylan, his apartment had never become hers. All the expensive furniture had been his. She had been just another nice thing that he owned.

She had more than enough reason to be cynical. But she still yearned for someone who would sweep her off her feet and take her seriously at the same time. Someone who would laugh with her, cook with her, talk about books with her, share easy, quiet nights with her.

“And for what it’s worth,” Vivian said, “you can have both. You can have everything. I mean, you can have women as friends who are there for you no matter what, and you can be around women who help you do all the things you want to be brave enough to do, and you can have your little homoerotic crushes, like you did with your professors⁠—” “That’s not⁠—” “—and you can also date women and fuck them and fall in love with them, and get married, live happily ever after, have a bunch of lesbian drama, whatever. You don’t need permission from anyone. Especially not from me. You can have all that, if that’s what you want.”