Susan X. Meagher Knihy

When you're a single lesbian who'd prefer to be partnered, it pays to keep your eyes peeled--even at work. Kelsey Maliar blew into Summer Hayes' shop on a frosty cold morning, and within a few minutes things had warmed up significantly. By the end of the week they were having a great first date, followed by another, and still another. Everything seemed perfect, something neither of them had a lot of experience with. But they were bothready to put in the work this time, having learned that the end result was well worth the effort. Nearly every couple reaches a few forks in the road when they're starting out, but things sailed along verysmoothly--until they didn't. What do you do when a woman who's remarkably close to perfect struggles with an issue that wouldn't bother the vast majority of people--but is a hot-button for you? Is it a positive grown experience to work through an emotional challenge together? Or is self-protection the wise choice? They've both tried to understand the path to love, but the manual's really hard to comprehend. If they can stick to their resolve, they should be able to hurdle this roadblock. But can they?

After a sudden, dramatic, devastating breakup, Dex and Tracy tried their best to continue being good moms to their daughter Kendall. But they accomplished that in an interesting way. Family members served as go-betweens, allowing Dex to have frequent visits with their daughter, while not interacting with Tracy at all. No visits, no calls, no emails, no texts. They have spoken not a single word since the night that Dex was banished from their home.Surprisingly, Kendall handled the split remarkably well. Her parents' lives ran on parallel tracks with no drama whatsoever. Both parents were deeply involved with Kendall's life, just not each other's.Now she's about to graduate from college, and her fondest desire is to have both Dex and Tracy attend her celebration. But since she learned early on that her moms would never choose to share space, she's had to get creative.Their forced meeting careens from anger to tears to slap-stick to tender reminiscences. And that's just in the first hour.Kendall's thrilled to be getting exactly what she wanted, and now that the wall of silence has been broken, there might be space for more. Maybe much more?