The Quilt Shop – Part 2: The Last Square

They finished the quilt in March.

It took three months of evenings. Ruth learned to piece, to press, to quilt with tiny even stitches. Frankie taught her patiently, holding the fabric steady, guiding the needle. They worked at the long table by the woodstove with a pot of coffee, sewing and talking. About Ruth's old life in Chicago, her loneliness, the office she hadn't missed. About Frankie's family, her grandmother's quilts, the long Iowa winters.

On the last night, they stitched the final square into the middle of the pattern.

Ruth knotted the thread. Frankie snipped it. They held the quilt up together by the corners and let it fall across the table: a glorious spread of blue and orange and green, a thousand small squares in a pattern that glowed like a lit window.

"It's finished," breathed Ruth.

"It's beautiful."

"It's ours."

"It's your aunt's. We just finished it."

Half the town came to see it that night. Neighbours crowded into the little shop with casseroles and pies. The mayor made a speech. An old lady in a floral apron wept openly. The quilt hung in the window, lit by lamplight, glowing against the snow.

At ten, the shop emptied. The lamps burned low. Outside, the snow was melting in long silver drips from the eaves. The first spring wind stirred the sign.

Ruth and Frankie sat on the cutting table, shoulder to shoulder, with the last of a pie.

"I'm not selling," said Ruth.

"I know."

"How did you know?"

"You started ordering fabric."

Ruth laughed. Frankie's eyes were bright and warm.

"Can I ask you something?" said Ruth.

"Yes."

"May I kiss you? In the shop where you've worked for fifteen years?"

"Yes," said Frankie. "And if you say stop, you must start the next quilt."

"I'd start a hundred."

Ruth kissed her, soft and a little sweet with pie, a hand rising to cup the rosy cheek. Frankie kissed her back, slow and sure, her fingers curling in Ruth's black coat. The woodstove ticked. The quilt glowed in the window.

When they parted, both of them were smiling.

"Green?" asked Frankie.

"Green," said Ruth. "Very green."

The shop sign has a new line: Ruth & Frankie. Patterns, fabric and finishing. The window quilt has a small patch, near the middle, sewn with two different threads.

More lesbian romance stories: Tea at the Conservatory · Bookshop at Midnight · Ballroom Rivals