"Frankie, how many times do I have to tell you - they can't hear you!" Grace said, looking up from her book shaking her head at Frankie as Frankie shook her fists at the television.
"Why must you spoil my fun?" Frankie retorted, not sparing a glance away from the heated competition that was the annual spelling bee. "You know, Sol was never like this when we watched together. Why are you so crabby?"
"Because I don't want to be watching this. And I'm not Sol," Grace replied, shooting Frankie a small glare as she returned to her book and flipped to the next page.
"No, you're not gay or my ex-husband. But you are my best friend - and friends support friends in their passion for spelling bees."
Grace rolled her eyes, but sighed, knowing there was some truth to what Frankie was saying. She should be a better friend to Frankie. They shared a home, they shared some of the most important moments of their post-menopausal lives, and to Frankie's delight and Grace's dismay, they shared just about every detail of their lives too. For Frankie to be willing to include her spelling bees in that, she should be grateful, but it was hard to be all that excited over children spelling words on television.
"Which one are you rooting for this time?" She asked, laying down her book and sitting up straight to try to actually pay some attention to the TV.
"Aha! You've seen the light, Grace Hanson! Ok, so there's this kid - Jeremiah - and he's a real genius. He's going places, unlike all these little smarty pants fakers," Frankie said, sitting down next to Grace, but still on the edge of her seat.
"How much is Sol going to owe you if he wins?" Grace chuckled at the animated way Frankie spoke about the "little genius".
"Eh, that old fuddy duddy is out of town with your old fuddy duddy. No bets this time, unfortunately," she sighed, waving off the disappointment.
"Ha. Robert's not my anything anymore," Grace scoffed, then leaned back into the couch. "Maybe if I can sit through this, I'll be your new spelling bee buddy."
Frankie laughed. "I'll believe it when I see it, kid." As she finished speaking, she was taken back by a sudden burst of inspiration. "Wait a second…"
Grace arched an eyebrow at the change in Frankie. "What are you thinking?"
"Maybe my desire to bet will be satisfied after all," Frankie turned to her with a mischievous smile. Grace narrowed her eyes cautiously.
"What are you talking about?"
"I bet you 50 bucks you can't sit here through the whole spelling bee-" Grace huffed, and Frankie raised her hand to keep her from interrupting, "-and actually watch it."
Grace sighed. She didn't know why she should entertain something so ridiculous, but a small part of her was still tempted by the wager. The part of her that revelled in being right.
"Deal. I'll prove you wrong," Grace challenged, holding out her hand. Frankie glanced down at it with a smirk, but chose to wrap Grace in a hug instead.
"Deal," she agreed, turning back to the TV, "now get a load of this Jeremiah kid."
Grace laughed, then took a deep breath to brace herself for the impending hours of spelling bee boredom. She managed to keep herself entertained by watching Frankie's reactions more than the show, arguing with herself that she was still paying attention to the competition - just through Frankie.
"Your word is eudaemonic," the announcer told little Jeremiah, who's slight eye twitch elicited a laugh from Frankie.
"Eudaemonic. Definition?" Jeremiah asked meekly.
"Pertaining to or conducive to happiness."
Jeremiah took a breath, then continued. "Eudaemonic. E-u-d-a-e-m-o-n-i-c."
As Jeremiah was met with applause instead of a buzzer, Frankie cheered. Grace was just about to congratulate her, maybe stick in a joke about missing her bet with Sol, but before she could, Frankie turned around and excitedly grabbed her face, pulling her in for an eager kiss on the lips.
She pulled away as quickly as she had taken hold of Grace, and had moved on from the moment, although Grace hadn't. She certainly hadn't expected that kind of reaction from her friend. She knew Frankie was expressive, and always challenging norms, but to kiss her? That was new, even for Frankie.
"Woohoo!" Frankie cried, throwing her arms in the air and flopping back against the couch. Grace was sitting up straight and stiff, still reeling from what Frankie had done.
"Hey! What's with you? Your mojo is all outta whack. We just won, why are you so out of it?" Frankie said, taking notice of Grace's demeanor and leaning up towards her.
"You, uh, had an interesting way of celebrating that," Grace scoffed, chewing her lip.
Frankie stared at her quite intently for a few moments, then huffed to herself.
"Oh, that? You know me, my emotions come out in the heat of the moment," she shrugged.
Grace opened her mouth to reply, but she was at a loss for words. Her emotions? What emotions? What emotions of Frankie's had come out in the heat of that moment?
"What emotions?" Grace asked flatly. Frankie raised an eyebrow at her question, and wrung her hands nervously. After a moment, she stood up and tried to leave the room - a classic Frankie Bergstein evasion tactic - but Grace wasn't having it. She grabbed Frankie's wrist and pulled her back down on the couch.
"Frankie, why did you kiss me?" She asked, still holding her friend captive.
Frankie swallowed. "What's a kiss between friends?"
"Frankie."
"Fine!" Frankie threw her arms in the air, throwing off Grace's grip. "I dig you, Grace Hanson. Is that so hard to believe?"
"Huh," Grace replied, stunned by the revelation.
"We share everything, Grace, so I'm sharing this with you. I feel closer to you than anyone else - even closer than I felt to Sol."
Grace couldn't deny that she felt similarly, but she was sure as hell going to deny herself this conversation.
"But I'm not Sol! I'm not gay," she said.
"I will admit I thought it was mutual, but it doesn't have to be," Frankie said, taking a deep breath. "Also, sexuality is a fluid concept. It's not so rigid, you don't have to be gay."
"Frankie…"
"Grace."
"This is just… how can I… I need to process this," Grace said, running her hands through her hair and shaking her head.
"Process what?" Frankie asked, leaning closer and placing her hand on Grace's arm. Grace glanced down at it, then up at Frankie's face. She didn't know if she could put words to the answer she felt, so she decided to just act on the feeling instead.
Frankie wasn't expecting Grace to kiss her. She thought this conversation was headed in a completely different direction, but she was pleasantly surprised, to say the least. After the initial surprise wore off, she raised her palm to hold Grace's cheek and kissed her back. Her face felt warm under Frankie's hand. When Grace pulled away, she dropped her gaze to her lap.
"Was that your processing?" Frankie asked, leaning down to try to regain eye contact with Grace.
"Is this okay, Frankie? Is this," Grace said, motioning between them as she looked up, "...is this okay?"
"It is if you want it to be," Frankie shrugged and flashed a cautious grin at her. Grace laughed, and collapsed back into the couch.
"Who would've thought that we'd be here, like this, doing this? Maybe Robert and Sol should've been married the whole time, and we should've just married each other instead," Grace sighed.
"Grace… is that your way of saying you love me too?" Frankie reclined back to mirror Grace, looking at her in the corner of her eye as her head leaned into the couch cushion.
"Well of course I love you, Frankie! After all we've been through… but this part is new," she paused and looked over at Frankie. "Well maybe not that new. I don't know."
"You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that," Frankie smiled wider. "Happier than Jeremiah kicking serious ass in the spelling bee. That's big."
Frankie reached for Grace's hand and slid her fingers between hers and gave a light squeeze. Grace's hand stiffened at the contact, but relaxed after a moment.
"Where do we go from here?" Grace asked.
"I don't know, upstairs?" Frankie shrugged, smirking as she watched Grace's eyes go wide beside her.
"F-Frankie!"
"I was kidding! Unless-"
"No!" Grace insisted, followed by a deep breath as she realized how that might have come across. "No, it's too soon for that. Hell, Frankie, we just confessed our love for each other. Do you want to be married by breakfast?" She added, loosening her grip on Frankie's hand to gently elbow her in the arm.
"Fine, fine," Frankie smiled and glanced up at the TV. "I suppose you would lose your bet if we left now anyways."
Grace looked up too, following Frankie's gaze, to see little Jeremiah standing there, waiting for his next word. She smiled, and Frankie settled in next to her, head resting on her shoulder and hand returning to hand. This was nice.
"Hey," Grace said, stealing Frankie's attention away from the spelling bee once more.
"Yes?"
"Frankie, you're simply eudaemonic," Grace bit her lip, hoping she was using the previous competition word correctly. Frankie threw her head back and laughed.
"Pertaining to or conducive to happiness. G-r-a-c-e," she replied, leaning back into Grace and placing a gentle little kiss on her cheek. Grace beamed and they stayed together like that on the couch for the rest of the night.