Friday was the best day in the work week, mostly because it was followed by Saturday.
“To three successful women!” Kat, Ashley and Bella chorused. Their champagne flutes collided.
Ashley brought the edge of the glass to her lips. The sparkling drink bubbled down her throat, tickling her food pipe with its fizziness. She wasn’t a champagne lover, but it sedated her.
She plucked out a masala prawn from the takeaway container. It went badly with champagne, but she’d been dying to taste one since she’d seen them on the website of Tandoori Nights restaurant.
“Aaah.” Bella stuck out her tongue. “Do we have any movies in mind, girls?”
“None.” Kat looked miles away from her normal self, wearing PJs with no makeup. Her brown hair was a messy cloud.
“I’m trying to find something.” she said.
“This naan bread’s divine.” Kat dunked a piece of bread into the sauce of the chicken tikka masala they’d ordered. Her sharp reporter’s eye settled on Ashley’s new ballerinas. “I haven’t seen those shoes before. Did you buy them recently? Miu Miu too.”
Ashley’s feet were on the armrest of the couch on which Kat was sitting. She fingered the bow on the white ballerinas that Andrew had bought.
“Splurging these days, aren’t we?” Bella commented in reference to the designer label.
“Kinda.” Ashley hesitated. She shouldn’t have. Because now Bella wanted to know the story behind those shoes. From the beginning.
“I’m waiting.” She wiggled her toes.
“Andrew bought them—”
Before she could complete the sentence, Kat spoke. “You shouldn’t have accepted them.”
“Wait for me to finish. My skirt tore and my heels gave out on Tuesday during a book launch party. He bought it to save me from having to walk home with my ass on show.”
“Since when did Andrew start being so nice to you?” Kat scoffed. She poured some more champagne for herself.
Ashley threw her head back over the backrest of the couch. “Since I became his editor.”
“He must have a motive. He is not straightforward enough to be kind because he wants to.”
“Maybe he wants her attention.” Bella flipped channels, hunting for some decent movie airing on cable TV. “Or he still likes her.”
Kat snorted. “As if. How much did these things cost, by the way?”
A long, hot kiss, a drive to his apartment, foreplay on the couch and three hours of mulling over it. That’s how much they’d cost her.
But she gave them a figure. “One thousand four hundred and forty-five dollars.”
“No man spends that kind of money on his editor.” Kat eyed Bella.
“Don’t look at me. I have no explanation for it. You should be careful, Ash,” Bella cautioned. “Andrew’s acting strange.”
Bella nudged the basket of bread on the table in front of the couch with her toe.
“So what happened after he bought you the skirt and shoes? He took them off, I assume.” Sometimes, Kat’s insightfulness bordered on psychic.
“What? No way. That didn’t happen, right, Ashley?” Bella was so sure.
She hated disappointing Bella.
“We didn’t go all the way…”
“What? You slept with him?” Bella was shocked. “How? What’s happening?”
“They’ve always had quick chemistry,” Kat explained. “Remember they dated after one night and married within six months.”
“But this is a bit too quick. And she is supposed to be dating Joe now. She can’t two-time him. How did your date with Joe go by the way?”
“Andrew showed up… with the panties I left at his apartment yesterday. I was so humiliated.” Ashley touched her forehead to the wooden table. “I think Joe got the message that I was still tangled up with my ex-husband.”
“Andrew is jealous of you seeing other men. Typical reaction,” Kat surmised.
“Poor Joe, you were his thirteenth failed date this year.” Bella took a swipe at the chicken korma with a piece of bread.
“Joe was really nice. I hope he finds someone,” Ashley said, preventing Bella and Kat’s verbal spar from escalating. Nodding, Kat turned to the television, pausing on teleshopping.
“His problem is he’s too nice. Women these days don’t want nice. They want difficult. Look at us. Ashley fell for a cold-hearted jerk, I fell for a two-timing bastard, and Kat… I guess she’s safe, since she’s dating herself.”
Kat was glued onto a commercial for a juicer on TV, so she didn’t listen to Bella rant about her non-existent love life.
“I should buy this juicer. I can make myself healthy smoothies every day. It’s only eighty-nine dollars. Can I use your phone, Bella?”
“Be my guest.” Bella hurled her phone towards Kat. “Nice catch.”
“How’s work?” Ashley asked Bella, while Kat tried to get her order placed.
“Tiring right now since I have to grade midterms. Having to mark assignments is the worst part of this job.” So that was what the mountain of papers on Bella’s kitchen table was. “I have been putting those off.”
“Don’t you have teaching assistants to do the marking?” Ashley asked.
“Not for the midterms.”
“The juicer will be delivered in a week. I’ll make you guys kale juice when I get it,” Kat announced after she had ended the phone call. She did a twirl and raised her arms in triumph.
“Yuck. No, thanks.” Bella said.
“Kale juice is good for you.” Kat informed, then shot off some statistics to back it up. Being a reporter, Kat didn’t believe in anything that wasn’t supported by logic and scientific studies.
“So is sex. But I’m not getting enough of it.” Bella complained.
Bella had broken up with her last serious boyfriend more than four years ago. Bryan was a pop star, and like every fangirl, Bella had believed that she would be the one to make him settle down. In the end, she had become another dumped girlfriend. And he hadn’t just dumped her, he had cheated on her even while they were together. Ashley still remembered the article on Bryan’s new girlfriend on the front page. He hadn’t even bothered to tell Bella that he was moving on. If it was her, she’d have been crushed, but Bella had moped for a week, then moved on. Her ability to forget the past was admirable, really.
“Haven’t you met anyone?” Ashley asked.
“It’s not easy for a woman over thirty to meet eligible bachelors. Look at Kat, she’s been single forever.” Bella cast Kat a pitiful glance.
“I’m not looking for anyone.” Kat seized the newspaper lying under the couch and turned to a page where her article had been printed. Kat was notorious for seeking comfort in her professional achievements when she wanted to avoid talking about her love life.
“By the way, there’s something I want to tell you both. It’s about Andrew.” Ashley dove into the narration of the recent phone call she had received from Mr. Smith, all the way to her argument with Andrew at the café.
“So do you think I should give him another chance? I want to, but I’m afraid it’ll turn out like last time.”
“Don’t ask us. We weren’t the ones who got hurt the first time.” Kat was still reading the newspaper.
“Maybe you should talk to your therapist about this,” Bella suggested.
“Maybe I should,” Ashley agreed.
“Take your time and think about it.” Bella cuddled up to her. “We are always there for you.”
“Thanks.”
“Here is my bit of unwanted advice based on what I’ve observed. Based on your actions and his, I believe this relationship can still be salvaged. Doing it is the only way you will know the outcome for sure, though,” Kat shot, lying on the couch.
“Are you telling her to date Andrew?” Bella asked.
“If that is what she wants. Isn’t that what you want, Ashley?”
Ashley threw another prawn into her mouth. “What I want is to not get hurt again.”
“You underestimate yourself. You are stronger now. You can handle the hurt. But can you handle thinking, ‘I could have done that, but I didn’t?’ Can you handle the emptiness that comes from withdrawing?”
“She gives bad advice, as expected of someone who’s been single most of her adult life,” Bella commented.
“I had a steady boyfriend for five years,” Kat argued. “Fear never leads anywhere but down, Ash.”
Ashley stared at the teleshopping commercial.
Kat could be right.
She had been afraid all her life—afraid of being unemployed, afraid of being nobody in a world of somebodies, afraid of living, then afraid of dying, now afraid of loving.
Maybe the time had come to let go of her fears once and for all.
