Claudia Joy had heard a quote once, that most people went through life seeing things in black and white with various shades of grey in between. There would be a rare occassion or two where someone would come along and touch you - touch your life - like others didn't. With them your world would be a brilliant flash of color and things would never be the same.
She'd been lucky enough to encounter two such people in her lifetime.
Her husband, Michael, and Denise Sherwood.
Denise and her had quickly bonded and become the best of friends. They watched their husbands go off to war together. They raised their children and watched their husbands come home together.
They'd been through good, they'd been through bad, but they'd taken it all in stride and always been the good, dutiful army wives.
She'd realized she loved Denise about three years into their relationship. She'd realized that if she had ever had a sibling she couldn't have wanted anyone else. Denise was family. If not through genetics than through simple social structure. She'd always pushed off any feelings of something more, thoughts like that just weren't acceptable.
Lately things had changed though. Their circle of friends had grown, and with that growth they were finding out all sorts of new and interesting things about each other. They were pushing the lines, testing the limits. And those feelings that she'd brushed off or excused away for years were becoming more insistent.
The wine induced haze gave her the Dutch-courage that she needed to make the first move, and as the kiss ended and Denise blinked repeatedly, her brain obviously trying to process what the hell had just happened, Claudia Joy wondered why she hadn't admitted to herself years ago that she was in love with her best friend.