A/N: This is my second Little Bang piece. It's completely AU. The title comes from the song "This Photograph is Proof" by Taking Back Sunday. It's just a oneshot.
I originally started writing this for HyperFitched back when she'd just finished 99 Problems, but clearly I'm a little slow, so this still goes out to her for all her awesomeness, but now in just a kinda general way. Anyway, I hope you like it, hun.
Also thanks to FitchSwitch for her help and cheerleading on this. You're the best brain twin.
Disclaimer: I don't own Skins or the characters.
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She stared at her from behind her mask of fashion and superficiality, her own barriers put in place long ago to keep people at bay. She felt the envy build in her at the ease with which this woman moved, the presence that she seemed to effortlessly carry, the way that people just automatically turned to look at her when she passed.
She turned back to Andrew and forced a smile, the kind that showed all her teeth and accentuated the dimple in her right cheek, distracting people from the fact that it never reached her eyes. She tightened the grip of her arm around his, feeling the hard, muscular upper arm and thinking about just how nice it felt when it was wrapped tightly around her. She attempted to ignore the woman with the camera clicking away. She tried to be completely unaware of when the camera was aimed in her direction. She struggled not to think about what exactly those pictures might be capturing. Instead, she put all her attention into focusing on the conversation before her. It was the kind of mindless babbling that she was good at.
"Oh, I know. Weren't her shoes simply darling? Such a beautiful bride," she interjected.
"Speaking of..." Anne segued, and Katie knew what was coming next, "when are you going to make Katie a beautiful bride, Andy?"
Katie repressed a shudder at the use of her least favourite of Andrew's nicknames. Instead, she forced a small teeter of laughter and put her perfectly manicured hand on Andrew's chest. "Oh, you know Andrew," she said, making a point of using his full name, "not one to be rushed, him."
Truth was, it was a mutual thing for now. As a child she'd always dreamed of the perfect man and the perfect wedding and the perfect life with two adoring children and a husband who doted on her. Her last year of college life had thrown other plans at her. Her boyfriend at the time had died in a car crash (a boy she'd loved in her own way); her twin sister, Emily, had run away from home (with a girl no less); her father had lost his gym; and on top of everything, she'd found out she had premature menopause so those two children in her vision of her future, the little boy and girl with big brown eyes like hers and big smiles, they'd never come into being. When she'd met Andrew her second year of uni, she'd been spiralling for almost a year, and he'd been kind and handsome and everything she'd always dreamed her perfect man would be, but he was also incredibly driven, and that meant that his focus was school (then) and work (now), so he'd always wanted things like marriage on the back burner. For a Katie who was putting her life back together, hiding behind her carefully crafted facade in the meantime, it seemed like the ideal situation.
Now, four years later, they were still in limbo, and apparently, though they were content to live in the limbo, others had them on a time table that they simply weren't living up to. Every time Katie phoned her mum she had to endure the not even remotely subtle hints about marriage and grandchildren. She still hadn't been able to tell her mother the truth regarding the latter issue. Emily had abandoned her, and running off to be gay had in their mother's eyes meant that she would never produce any grandchildren. Given that Emily and their mum hadn't spoken in six years, she didn't know that Emily and her partner, Naomi, were looking for a donor so they could have kids, and Katie wasn't about to be the one to inform their mum of that. Without Emily's support, however, Katie had never quite been able to voice her own issues to her mother. How could she let her mother know that the one daughter who all of her hopes were now vested in couldn't even provide what she wanted. She was a failure as a woman. She knew it. She didn't need her mother to know it, too.
The faint click of a camera brought her back to the present. She turned a glare towards the photographer, dropping Andrew's arm. Okay, so she was just doing her job, but couldn't she fucking do it somewhere else right now? "Do you mind? We're, like, trying to have a conversation here, yeah?" Katie snapped.
A set of stunning blue eyes emerged from behind the large camera, and stopped Katie in her tracks. The woman's long dark brown hair fell forward as she tilted her head a little to one side, a smirk turning up the corners of her lips.
Katie felt like she was suddenly under a microscope with that intense gaze on her. She shook her head and raised her eyebrows. "Well?"
The woman shrugged, smirk still in place.
"She's just doing her job, hon," Andrew's deep voice cut in, a soothing arm wrapping around her shoulders.
The woman's smirk seemed to grow, and then she winked at Katie before disappearing into the crowd in an instant.
Katie blinked a few times in surprise. She had just been winked at, right? What the hell was wrong with that woman? She shook it off and turned back to Andrew. "I know. I just think she had enough pictures of us. I wanted to be able to enjoy our conversation in peace, didn't you?" She snaked a hand around his waist and gave him a little squeeze to encourage him to agree with her in front of their friends.
"You're right," he said, smiling down at her. "We can't be that interesting just standing here talking, after all, can we?" he added a little louder, directed at Anne and Charlie, who both chuckled.
"I don't know about you, but I'm always fascinating," Charlie countered jokingly.
Katie added her small twitter of laughter to the group's. She breathed a small sigh of relief as her eyes picked up the sight of the slender brunette, now a few metres off, her camera aimed in the opposite direction. Now she could focus on her conversation and the image that she was projecting to the people she was with in peace.
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"How long have you been with him?" A smooth voice made her look up from where she was leaning against the bar, waiting to be served.
The photographer was leaning against the wall, an air of nonchalance oozing off of her as she flicked through the pictures on her camera.
"Excuse me?" Katie asked, doing her best to repress her annoyance and sound polite. There was something about this woman that threw her off, though. Something about her made Katie feel off kilter, and she didn't like that feeling at all.
The woman held up the camera to show a picture of Katie hanging off of Andrew's arm.
It's a gorgeous picture, was Katie's first thought, followed immediately by a cringe when she realised that even though she was looking straight at Andrew in the picture, it was rather obvious that she wasn't seeing him at all.
"Oh," she said, waving her hand dismissively. "A few years."
The woman nodded. "Love not for you, then?"
"Excuse you?" Katie demanded, feeling herself getting riled up. She glanced around self-consciously when she remembered her surroundings. "Not that it's any of your business, but I love him very much," Katie hissed at the woman.
Curious blue eyes twinkled at her as the woman raised an eyebrow, that infuriating smirk from earlier back tugging on pale pink lips.
She could have at least put on lipstick for the wedding, Katie thought pettily to herself.
"You do realise I'm a wedding photographer, right? I earn money taking and editing pictures of people who believe they're in love?" the woman asked.
Katie rolled her eyes. Of course she fucking knew that. And what did she mean "believe they're in love"? "I am in love," Katie replied.
"What would you like?" the barman interrupted, indicating the other people who had appeared at the bar while Katie had been distracted in an attempt to get her order quickly.
Katie shook her head, feeling flustered. She'd had an order in mind when she'd gone to the bar and now, because of that infuriating woman, she'd forgotten it. "Fuck, umm...Jack and Coke, please," she replied, saying the first drink that came to mind.
The barman nodded and hurried away to fix it for her.
"You struck me as more of a sour apple martini kind of girl," the woman said, and Katie realised that she was suddenly much closer, just at her elbow.
For someone that everyone seemed to follow with their eyes she was good at moving like a ghost, Katie thought. She didn't want to admit that a sour apple martini actually sounded really fucking tasty now that the woman had suggested it. "Yeah, well, you don't know me, obviously. You can't even tell I love Andrew."
The woman shrugged. "Whatever you want to believe," she murmured, leaning in close, her breath falling hotly on Katie's ear.
Katie felt a shudder run through her. Before she could come up with a response, the woman was gone and the barman was setting her drink down in front of her with a polite smile.
Fucking weddings, she thought. There are just so many people, you never know what kind of freaks you'll meet.
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"Fuck," she muttered when she wandered out to the smoking area only to find her new least favourite wedding photographer leaning against the railing, cigarette dangling idly from long fingers as she blew effortless smoke rings from her mouth.
Damn this fucking nicotine addiction, she thought.
"Does the boyfriend know that you smoke?" the woman asked without looking around.
"Don't you have a wedding reception to go take pictures of?" Katie retorted. Andrew did know that she smoked, but he didn't approve, so she did her best to keep it away from him.
"I get breaks. I've got another fifteen minutes before the bride throws the bouquet," the woman replied.
Katie hesitated, glancing back inside to where her friends and her boyfriend were chatting and dancing and enjoying themselves, then turning back to where the strange woman was still leaning against the railing. As inviting as the inside looked, she really needed a nicotine fix.
"Were you going to smoke?" the brunette asked.
Katie glared at the back of her head. "I don't know. Why don't you tell me if I strike you as the type," she shot back bitterly, recalling the woman's forward assumptions from earlier.
A low chuckle filtered to Katie's ears, and it was a remarkably more pleasant noise than she'd thought it would be. Almost...melodic.
Without another word, the woman lifted up a pack and offered it to Katie.
Katie sighed, and figured what the hell. With the way that the price of cigarettes was going up, she'd be foolish to turn down a free one. She stepped forward and pulled one from the pack, taking the lighter that was wordlessly offered to her a moment later.
As she inhaled the first drag, she felt the tension in her body start to drain away a little. She leaned on the railing beside the woman who seemed to be filling up far too much of her night despite the fact that she didn't so much as know her name. Rather than ask that, however, she asked something that had been bugging her since their brief conversation at the bar. "What did you mean by 'people who believe they're in love', then?"
"You're one of them. You wouldn't understand," the woman replied out of the side of her mouth before exhaling the smoke away from Katie.
Katie let out a small huff at the condescension in the other woman's tone. "Try me."
The woman finally turned her body so that she was angled towards Katie and actually looking at her. "First, tell me if you really believe that you're in love with...what was his name? Andrew? Or is that just a story you tell yourself and others."
"Fuck you," Katie spat out, contemplating just stubbing out the remains of her cigarette and saving the rest for later when the woman was back working inside. She was enjoying the cigarette, though, even if not the company.
"That's what I thought," the woman replied.
"What?" Katie demanded, feeling like she'd missed part of the conversation.
"If you really believed you loved him, you'd have said so without hesitation. You wouldn't have got all defensive."
"Who are you, my fucking shrink?" Katie asked, rolling her eyes as she inhaled deeply on her cigarette, willing her hand to stop shaking at just how spot on this woman's accusations felt. She did love him, she knew, but she'd stopped being in love with him well over a year ago, if she ever truly had been. Being with him was easy and convenient and safe. He was a good man, though. A kind man. And they cared for each other deeply, no doubt.
"Just the wedding photographer," came the reply. The woman twisted out the remains of her cigarette on the railing, then flicked the butt away. "And, since you were wondering, the name's Effy," she said, brushing past her just close enough that Katie felt her arm grazing lightly against her own.
"I wasn't fucking wondering," Katie replied, after a moment, turning after Effy, but she was already gone back inside, swallowed by the crowd. "I wasn't," she repeated stubbornly to herself, taking another deep drag and wondering when exactly the goose bumps had appeared on her arm. It wasn't even that fucking cold out, she thought to herself, brows furrowed as she finished off her cigarette.
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It took her almost half an hour to realise that Effy, mysterious, elusive, and, above all, frustrating Effy, hadn't even answered her question. Except by that point, she was standing in a crowd full of all the unmarried women, all of them jostling for the best position to try to heighten their odds of catching the bouquet. They'd been standing there for ten minutes already, and Katie, for one, couldn't understand what the fucking hold up was. She was trying to stay on the outskirts, especially since she wasn't all that bothered about catching the bouquet. It wasn't like doing so really meant that you'd get married next. It was just stupid superstition (one that she'd bought into at one point, she knew, recalling when she was seventeen at her cousin Marie's wedding where she'd elbowed a woman in the side so that she could catch the bouquet...it hadn't panned out for her then and it probably wouldn't pan out for whoever caught this one today).
She narrowed her eyes at the woman hiding behind the camera. She was tricky. Katie made a mental note to go outside the next time she saw Effy slip out for a smoke.
The bouquet was finally thrown, and Katie made very little effort to actually catch it, so naturally, it came right towards her. She felt herself tense, then relax as a hand reached in front of her and grabbed it just before it reached her.
Behind the camera Effy straightened, and, maybe it was just Katie's imagination, but she would have sworn that a wink was thrown in her direction. She decided she didn't want to know what Effy thought she'd seen or noticed or whatever this time, though.
Instead she moved to the side, watching with mild disdain as the bride's garter was pulled off by the groom's teeth and then thrown to a group full of unmarried men (though she shot a smile and a wave in Andrew's direction as he grinned back at her). She'd always found the practice a bit tacky. Who knew what the groom was really doing under there, after all, and she, for one, wouldn't want to get felt up in a room full of friends and family. She wasn't especially surprised that Mini opted to have it happen at her reception, though. And her husband at least made an entertaining show of it.
She was hoping that Effy would get to take a break and would slip outside for another cigarette once a tall, lanky boy with ginger hair and trousers that were a bit too short enthusiastically dove for the garter and beamed a goofy smile at everyone, holding it proudly above his head even before he was standing again. Effy seemed to have to take more pictures, however.
Andrew came over with a thin wiry boy with messy brown hair that he'd been chatting to a moment later, anyway, and suddenly Katie found herself in the midst of a polite conversation with him and his sister (who were both apparently old friends of the groom, and Katie couldn't help but judge a little at the fact that they came to a wedding with their sibling...much as she loved Emily, she wouldn't bring her as a date to a wedding, for fuck's sake).
A short boy with even messier hair that Katie desperately wanted to just cut and style properly to the point where she couldn't pay attention to anything that was coming out of his mouth joined the conversation soon afterwards.
An hour passed before Katie even realised it and when she looked around there was neither hide nor hair of Effy. "Fuck," she muttered to herself, earning herself a reproachful look from Andrew and a surprised look from the rest of the people in her immediate company. She made a polite apology and a quick (if a little lame) excuse, and headed off towards the loos. She sidled her way out to the balcony, however, as soon as she was sure that Andrew wasn't looking in her direction any more - not because she was lying to him, obviously, but she really had no idea how to explain that she seemed to have just suddenly randomly become obsessed with getting answers from a woman who only seemed to like to ask questions.
The balcony was more crowded than the last time she'd been out there, in that it had three other occupants: a rather put out looking man with hair that was too long sticking out from under a wool hat that did not go at all with the suit he was wearing, a rather attractive blonde who was staring off at the view as if she was seeing a different one entirely even as she mumbled something about pretty lights to no one in particular, and a second man with short brown hair and kind eyes who looked rather stoned as he giggled and said, "Aww, come on, Sid...Fuck it. Fuck all of it!"
Katie almost missed Effy, ensconced in darkness down at the far end, the orange glow from the end of her cigarette the only sign of her presence as she lurked in the shadows. Katie slid past the threesome near the door and scooted down the balcony, realising a little too late that she'd left her pack of fags buried in her purse inside, therefore had no legitimate excuse to be out there.
"Fag?" Effy 's voice broke through, just as Katie was contemplating going back inside.
Katie sighed and finished approaching her, noticing the pack of cigarettes once again thrust in her direction. "Thanks," she muttered, fighting an annoying blush that seemed to want to form on her cheeks all of a sudden.
Effy nodded, and, as Katie's eyes adjusted to the darkness, she noted the way that Effy was picking absently at the cuticles of one hand as she stared off into the distance.
Katie opened her mouth to ask the question that she came out here to ask, but another one slipped out instead, "So how'd you get this gig?"
"My brother is a friend of the groom. How'd you get invited?" she replied, and Katie couldn't be sure, but she thought she caught a twinkle in her eyes as they finally turned to look at her.
"We're friends with Mini," Katie explained. She wasn't exactly close with her, but they'd met at a pub when she'd come home for Christmas her first year of uni, and Mini had been having an especially rough year at Roundview, which had been Katie's alma matter, and Katie had seen hints of elements of herself, so had taken pity on her. A friendship of sorts had developed, so when Mini had insisted that she and Andrew just had to meet her new boyfriend, Katie had known it was serious. She had to admit that she hadn't thought much of James (who insisted on being called Cook for reasons beyond her, though she never thought of him as that) when she'd first met him, but now, a year and a half later she could see what Mini liked about him. She understood them as a couple, more than anything, and she could see this marriage lasting.
"Interesting," Effy commented after a second.
"What?" Katie scowled at her, feeling like she'd missed something, yet again.
"You said 'we'," Effy replied.
"That's because Andrew and I are a 'we'," Katie pointed out a bit snidely. Truth was, she'd been a 'we' since birth, really, with someone or another. She'd always been a twin, after all.
"So you've emphatically insisted upon," Effy agreed in a tone that was infuriating in its lack of condescension because Katie wasn't sure exactly how offended to be by the statement.
"Well, what would you call us?" Katie snapped.
Effy shrugged. "I just know that you practically stepped out of the way of the bouquet when it was thrown, and somehow you keep talking to me at a wedding you're at with him."
Katie scowled and glared.
"For the record, he made no effort to go for the garter, so it's clearly mutual," Effy added.
"What?" Katie asked, annoyed at her own curiosity. Why couldn't this woman fucking say something straight? Did she get her degree in being cryptic or something?
"Whatever is holding you back from taking whatever next big step there is to take," Effy replied nonchalantly, flicking the end of the cigarette she'd been smoking over the railing of the balcony before lighting up another.
"Chain smoker, much?" Katie commented snidely, at a loss for anything better to say after Effy's last far too intuitive statement.
Effy smirked, but didn't reply; instead her eyes strayed back to the view.
Katie realised that she was still holding the unlit cigarette she'd taken from Effy. "Lighter?" she suggested.
Effy held out hers, without turning or looking at her, and Katie took it and lit up, placing it back into a hand with long, slender fingers that were also remarkably cold given that it wasn't even that chilly out tonight. She pulled her own hand away quickly and leaned forward on the railing, surveying the lights of the city.
"Aren't you going to ask?" Effy inquired after they'd both smoked for a bit in a surprisingly comfortable silence.
"What?" Katie asked, having forgotten her initial reason for coming out here anyway. Somewhere along the way in growing up, she'd learned to just enjoy simple things like a gorgeous view, and she'd got lost in it for a bit.
Effy just shook her head.
Katie frowned, glancing down at her cigarette and realising that she really needed to ash it, she gave it a little tap as she racked her brain for what Effy might be referring to. A moment later, the thought clicked into place. "So what'd you mean by 'people who believe they're in love'? Don't you think that that's why people get married? Because they're in love, I mean."
Effy chuckled softly. "People get married for all sorts of reasons, Katie, and you don't strike me as nearly naive enough to believe otherwise."
"Well, obviously, but you made it sound like – Wait, how did you know my name?" Katie said.
Effy smiled mysteriously. "I listen."
Katie frowned again. "What, are you like stalking me or something?"
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" Effy replied, her smile turning into a smirk. "You're the one who followed me out here."
Katie shot Effy a quick glare. She was right, obviously, but it wasn't like she was stalking her. She just wanted a fucking answer. One she still hadn't got, she realised. "It's not like people never get married for love," she said, ignoring Effy's teasing and getting back to the subject at hand.
Effy shrugged, eyes fixed at some point on the horizon. "I'm sure they think they do."
"So, what? You don't believe in love at all?"
Effy shrugged again. "I thought I did, once. It was a facade, though. It's so often a facade."
"But real love exists," Katie insisted. She knew that it was true. It was really the only explanation for the way that Emily could consistently overlook the way that Naomi insisted on dressing like a fucking homeless person who fell into a flower garden and couldn't shake the flowers afterwards. Beyond that, she'd seen the love between them, the little caring nuances in their touches. It was something that she'd long envied. Sure, she and Andrew had elements of it. He'd care for her when she got sick (but then again, he was a doctor), and she always made a point of fixing a nice meal when she knew he had a long day, and both were appreciated, but she knew that there was something missing. She wasn't delusional. "So you've never been in love?"
"Have you?" Effy shot back, looking at her out of the corner of her eye, but Katie felt like she was being scrutinised under a microscope nonetheless.
Katie opened her mouth to say yes, but somehow couldn't get the word out. Truth was that she wasn't sure. She'd thought so once, but she'd been young and foolish at the time. She loved Andrew, but it wasn't the same.
"Exactly," Effy said, before Katie could formulate a proper response.
"Are you telling me that you don't think a single couple you've photographed as a wedding photographer has actually been in love?"
"No. I'm just saying that real love is far rarer than everyone else seems to make it out to be," Effy replied.
"Katie," Andrew's deep voice broke into Katie's conscious. Out of habit, she moved the hand holding the almost done cigarette behind her, although obviously she'd already been caught.
She noticed Effy raising a curious eyebrow out of the corner of her eye as she turned a smile on Andrew who was frowning ever so slightly at her.
"Mini was looking for you, love. She wanted to get in her 'thanks for coming' in person."
"Oh, Okay. I'll be right in," Katie said, glancing back at Effy who seemed to not be paying any attention to them at all anymore as she'd picked up her camera and appeared to be thumbing through some of the shots she'd taken so far tonight.
"Soon," Andrew urged. The tone of his voice overall was pleasant and cheerful, but Katie knew him well enough to hear the disapproval in his voice.
"Yeah! I'm coming now," she assured him.
He nodded at her, then nodded at Effy as well, a polite smile on his face, before turning and heading back inside.
Katie sighed and took one last drag on her cigarette before stubbing it out on the railing and letting it drop. She wasn't sure if she should say some sort of 'goodbye' or 'see you later' to Effy or if she should just leave, as Effy's head was still down, eyes still on the screen of her camera.
She ran her hands down the front of her dress as if smoothing it down. In truth, she was stalling. She didn't really know why, but something made her want to stay on this balcony with Effy, as infuriatingly all-knowing and cryptic as she seemed. Something in Katie was intrigued. She wasn't used to being challenged much these days and it was surprisingly refreshing, if simultaneously annoying.
"So this is love?" Effy's voice said just as Katie was turning away, stopping her in her tracks.
Katie looked back to find Effy holding up the camera so that she could see the image on the screen. It was a picture of her and Andrew. She was smiling up at him in the picture, but her eyes were empty, devoid of the smile on her face. Katie swallowed hard.
"I doubt Mini will be thrilled with that picture. You should probably delete it," Katie said rather than answer the question.
"Why? You look stunning in it," Effy replied. Her tone sounded sincere, but when Katie brought her eyes up to meet her gaze, she saw a glint in Effy's eyes that said that there was plenty she wasn't saying.
Katie opened her mouth to say "I look unhappy," but she stopped herself. She couldn't help feeling that that would be admitting too much.
"You'd better get inside," Effy prompted after a moment in which Katie simply opened and shut her mouth a few more times, trying to come up with a suitable response.
Katie pursed her lips, hating the way she suddenly felt a little nauseous. "Yeah. Right. Bye, then." She emphasised her goodbye, telling herself it would be just that. She'd got her answer. There was no need to seek out this infuriating woman again. She turned and marched back towards the party, not turning around or glancing back.
"See you around, Katie," Effy called after her as she slipped through the door.
She wasn't sure if it sounded more like a promise or a threat.
.
.
She'd called her stunning. Okay, maybe she'd been being mocked at the same time, but not about her looks, just about her relationship with Andrew. She didn't know why she was so sure about that, but she was, and for some reason the thought made her stomach tie in knots.
She wasn't stunning. Sure, she was hot, but not stunning. Effy was stunning, with her tall, thin frame, her piercing blue eyes, her whole fucking cool-as-can-be, "I don't give a fuck" attitude. Effy was the kind of woman that all the men fell in love with. Katie had no doubt about it.
"Where's your head tonight, Kate," Andrew murmured in her ear, wrapping a warm arm around her from behind.
She felt comfortable in his embrace. Safe. Too safe, perhaps, a part of her brain nagged. Effy was infuriating, but there was also an element of...not danger, per se, but adventure in talking to her that Katie hadn't felt in ages.
"Nowhere. Sorry," she lied, turning into his chest and smiling up at him. She did love him. She knew that. Even if it was just as her best friend. He'd been with her through a lot.
He raised an eyebrow and stared back at her, face displaying his scepticism.
She shrugged. "Just all this wedding craziness, you know? Not really my thing. Makes me think about my stupid mum and her unreasonableness."
Andrew nodded knowingly, buying her excuse.
She did feel a little bad lying to him, but she had no idea how to explain what was really going on with her head just then. She wasn't sure she knew, really. Her mind was racing, but it wasn't necessarily making any sense.
"Come dance with me. Take your mind of things," Andrew invited, slipping his hand into hers and coaxing her towards the dance floor.
She grinned to herself, noting Andrew's cheeky smile as he started to wiggle his hips from side to side. She giggled softly as he grandly spun her, then captured her in his arms.
"My lady," he said, beaming down at her.
"Good sir," she replied, positioning herself formally in his arms. They danced stiffly together, attempting to look formal and stylised before dissolving into laughter and breaking their form, giving in to the gentle beat of the music instead.
They moved together seamlessly. They were comfortable with each other and had been together so long that they just knew how the other moved and effortlessly filled the space that the other had just vacated as they twirled around the dance floor.
Just dancing and having fun with Andrew gave Katie's brain a chance to relax for which she was infinitely grateful.
The music changed and grew slower, and Katie laid her head on Andrew's broad, muscular chest, breathing in the familiar scent of his cologne. She closed her eyes, just allowing herself to feel him for a moment. Was comfortable really such a bad thing? What was wrong with two people with common interests and common goals being together, even if they never got married? That Effy woman was just making her paranoid.
Andrew kissed the top of Katie's head and she smiled into his chest.
"You two are so adorable," Mini's sharp voice and Scottish accent cut into her consciousness, and when Katie opened her eyes and straightened a bit, she saw Mini and Cook dancing beside them.
She had to admit that they were the picture of blissful happiness with massive grins plastered on their faces. Mini did look truly stunning in her wedding dress, the ruffles and the lace on it surprisingly tasteful given Mini's usual sense of fashion (or lack thereof, not that Katie was judging).
"They should be the next to get married, don't you think, babes?" Mini asked, looking up into Cook's face with so much adoration that Katie had to fight the urge to flinch away from it.
"Definitely. Could always use another big party," Cook agreed, grinning back at her with matching adoration.
An image flashed in her mind of herself standing at an altar in a flowing white dress, complete with a long train and a veil over her perfectly done up hair. She pursed her lips as she realised that she just couldn't really see Andrew standing beside her. She forced a strained smile at Mini and Cook and relaxed slightly as she heard Andrew's deep voice reply with an easy, "Not for a while yet, I think," accompanied by a small chuckle that she felt rumble through his chest.
The music changed again and Andrew spun them both around as the tempo increased, settling still next to Mini and Cook, but facing a different direction. Katie caught sight of Effy off to their left, camera aimed directly at them.
The camera lowered slightly and piercing blue eyes stared back at Katie for a moment before an enigmatic smirk graced her features.
Katie turned her head away, not wanting to see the pointed look directed at her. She knew Effy was close enough to have overheard the brief conversation that had just occurred, and the woman's words from earlier were already lingering in her head. She didn't need Effy knowing that she was starting to consider that maybe she was right. Katie couldn't help being under the impression that Effy was right far too much of the time as it was, and she probably knew it.
Effy had moved by the next time she spotted her, and she almost breathed a small sigh of relief. Almost. Except then Effy glanced in her direction and winked.
She didn't know if the way her heart sped up (a reaction, she was sure, to the excitement the mysterious woman represented) or the way her eyes specifically sought her out the next time Andrew spun her around made her more annoyed.
.
.
"So he's the love of your life, but the prospect of marrying him sends you into a panic attack?"
Katie looked up into the mirror from washing her hands to find Effy's reflection staring back at her. Katie rolled her eyes. "Fuck off," she muttered with an exaggerated sigh.
Her heart rate picked up as Effy took a step closer. It was weird, but she felt a thrill run through her purely because she didn't know what Effy was up to, what she wanted, or what she'd do next. She read Andrew so well that there was no surprise anymore, and the unpredictability of Effy excited her a bit, even as the woman continued to exasperate her.
"I wasn't panic –"
"I've got pictures, and you know they say a picture's worth a thousand words," Effy cut her off.
Katie glowered, not having a suitable response. If there was one thing she knew, it was that cameras didn't lie, and Effy seemed rather skilled at capturing the essence of a moment on camera.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure those don't make the final cut," Effy added, reaching out a slender arm and picking something from Katie's hair.
Katie repressed a small shudder and pulled out of the girl's reach, grabbing a paper towel (some posh type that felt more like cloth than paper) and rubbing the water harshly off her hands as she rounded on Effy. "They fucking better not," she said.
Effy raised an eyebrow as she lowered her arm, her bright eyes gleaming. "I'm good at my job, you know."
Katie did know. Even if she'd only seen two pictures that the woman had taken, she knew that Effy was good. She glanced down to find the camera absent from around Effy's neck. "Speaking of your job, shouldn't you be doing it? Aren't you missing something?"
Effy smirked. "I entrusted my camera to my brother for a little bit. He's taller. He'll get some shots I couldn't from above."
"Shouldn't you like supervise or something?" Katie prompted.
She held Katie's gaze as she leaned in close, and Katie didn't know why her feet didn't just move her away, but for some reason she was trapped there, held in place by Effy's piercing blue eyes. "I think he'll manage," she murmured softly, her hot breath hitting Katie's ear.
Katie's heart began to race, and she couldn't even react as Effy reached out and took hold of her wrist, pulling towards one of the cubicles.
Effy clicked the door, looked behind them, and Katie found herself feeling suddenly claustrophobic , closed in the small cubicle, which was really more a mini room than anything else. The place was so fucking swanky that the doors were solid, and the walls between cubicles went all the way to the ceiling. And now she was locked in one of these mini rooms with a virtual stranger.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Katie hissed at Effy, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Tell me you're in love with him. Look me in the eye and tell me that he's the person you want to spend the rest of your life with," Effy murmured, voice low, and they were so close that Katie could practically feel the hum of vibration in the air between them as she spoke.
"Get off me," she growled, wrenching her wrist out of Effy's hand, but making no effort to open or even unlock the door, much to her own surprise.
Effy leaned back against the opposite wall, fucking infuriating smirk spreading across her pale pink lips. "You can't say it. Can you?"
God, she's so fucking smug! Katie wanted to slap her or shake her or something. Who was this woman to fucking pass judgement on her like this? To assume these things after a few conversations and one fucking night?
She clenched her hands at her sides, feeling her fake nails digging into her palm painfully. Back in the day, Katie would have hit Effy without a second thought, but she'd learned to control her temper. Partially thanks to Andrew, she reminded herself.
Effy's smirk widened and her eyes seemed to fucking glow with this unearthly brightness in the soft light of the toilet. "Do you want me to leave you alone?" she asked, pushing off of the wall and taking a small step, all that the space required for her to be standing toe to toe with Katie. "Say the word and I won't bother you again tonight. It's not like we've exchanged numbers. You'll never hear from me again."
Katie's stomach dropped at that prospect. All of this excitement, this newness that had thrilled her so much would disappear. The challenge that Andrew didn't provide for her in her life was staring her in the face, but if she said one little word it would disappear.
Her boyfriend, loving, sweet, stable, secure Andrew, was just outside the toilets, probably waiting for her, or charming someone with that laid back, mild-mannered way of his. He had a good sense of humour. He cared about her. He was safe and comforting. He'd been a constant presence in her life for years.
So why didn't she just push past Effy and walk out of the door? Why was she hesitating at the prospect of never seeing this woman whom she'd barely known for four hours again?
Effy's smirk changed, growing slightly, reaching her eyes, morphing into something kinder, more genuine. It was a real smile, Katie realised.
Her jaw practically dropped at the beauty before her as she watched a mask that she hadn't even been aware was in place drop off of Effy's face to be replaced by genuine emotion.
"In that case," Effy murmured, reaching up a hand and brushing a stray strand of hair out of Katie's face. "I'm going to kiss you now."
Before Katie could respond in any way, Effy's hand cupped the back of her neck and she felt herself being pulled smoothly forward.
Effy's lips were soft and a little damp when they met hers.
She must have licked her lips, Katie's mind thought as her heart raced faster in her chest.
A moment later her brain snapped into focus and realised what exactly was going on. She was kissing someone. She was kissing a girl, no less. Most importantly, she was kissing someone who wasn't Andrew.
She brought her hands up to Effy's chest and pushed. Effy moved back easily, her blue eyes shining brightly back at her.
Katie's lips tingled and her mouth went dry, as her heart continued to race, pounding so loudly in her ears it was almost deafening. She took a deep breath as she tried to process everything that she was thinking and feeling.
It felt good, she realised. It felt so much more than anything she'd felt in years with Andrew.
What was more was that she wanted to do it again.
She slid her hands that were still pressed firmly against Effy's chest around her arms and pulled her back in.
Effy's lips tasted sweet, she noted as her tongue flicked ever-so-slightly against them. And, God, they were so fucking soft.
She wasn't the gay twin. She'd never been the gay twin. That was Emily. In this moment, though, she found it didn't matter.
The fact that Effy was a woman seemed like the least important factor. Effy was just a person, and right now that person was making Katie feel things she hadn't felt in years. Parts of her were awakening that she'd forgotten existed as her stomach flipped and she felt a tickle down lower. It wasn't that sex with Andrew was bad. Far from it, really, but it had become a little boring and predictable. Simply kissing Effy was causing far more of a reaction in her body, setting her skin on fire as Effy's tongue swiped into her mouth.
She clutched tightly at Effy's shoulders, feeling her press in closer. All of the tension she'd felt between them all night, all of the annoyance and frustration she'd had with the other woman, drained away as lust took over.
Effy's left hand grazed down her side as her right cupped her face. Effy pushed her back against the wall, and Katie wrapped her arms tighter around her.
She let go, in that moment. She let the Katie Fitch that she'd been clinging to, that had come to Mini's wedding today, dissolve away, as they continued to kiss and her body buzzed with excitement.
When Effy finally pulled away, they were both gasping for air, but despite that, Katie's chest felt light. Her head did as well.
She looked up into a pair of stunning blue eyes that felt like they were peering into her very soul and suddenly they seemed both familiar and exciting.
She swallowed hard as she struggled to get her breathing under control. She ran her tongue across her lower lip, tasting the sweetness of Effy's own mouth there, as she patted down her hair to make sure it was still okay. She looked down at her slightly wrinkled dress and pressed her hands down it, trying to flatten it out again, and when her gaze raised to meet Effy's once more, she couldn't stop the giggle that escaped her lips.
Effy grinned back at her, a genuine, bright grin that twinkled in her eyes, and she started to laugh too.
"Well, that was unexpected," Katie panted, still chuckling along with Effy.
"I can't say I actually expected to pull tonight when I agreed to take the job," Effy said, the air of mystery from earlier apparently discarded in favour of a bit of honesty.
"Oh, please. You so haven't pulled me," Katie replied, but there was no malice in her voice and a smile on her face.
"Yet," Effy responded, quirking an eyebrow up as a clear challenge.
Katie closed her eyes and shook her head as she smiled to herself. "Has anyone ever told you that you're rather infuriating?"
Effy shrugged. "A few people might have."
Katie let out another laugh and leaned heavily back against the cool cubicle wall. "You've fucking unravelled my world in a night. Do you realise that?"
"That wasn't me. It was unravelling when we met," Effy countered.
Katie looked at her sharply, feeling her hackles rise as her brain sought for a defensive retort, but then she sighed heavily. "You're probably right."
"I'm always right," Effy replied smugly.
"Shut up," Katie growled, but she felt light and happy. There was no menace in her voice.
"You could make me," Effy suggested.
Katie felt her cheeks flush. She wanted to. She really did. She shouldn't right now, though. "I've got a boyfriend," she said, cutting straight to the point.
"For how much longer?" Effy inquired.
"I'm not breaking up with him tonight, at a wedding, for a woman I've just met," Katie replied firmly.
Effy nodded. "Fair enough."
"Don't you have a job to get back to?" Katie asked, not trying to get rid of Effy for once, but not wanting her to get into trouble, either.
Effy shrugged. "Probably should." She reached a hand out to the side and unlocked the door, putting her hand on the handle to open it.
"Don't I even get your number?" Katie said, effectively freezing Effy in place.
Effy smiled, big and broad.
She's really beautiful when she does that, Katie thought immediately.
Effy took her by the wrist, opened the door, and led her out of the cubicle, then out of the bathroom without a word.
Katie's eyes swept the large room, automatically searching out Andrew, who was laughing near the bar with a pretty brunette with a nose ring that Katie recognised as a friend of Mini's that she'd met a few times, but she couldn't remember her name. Not a trace of jealousy hit her. Perhaps more telling, she realised, there was not a trace of guilt to be found either.
She let Effy lead her to a far corner, where Effy apparently was keeping the bag for her camera. Effy let go of Katie's wrist to rummage in it for a second before producing a business card. She pulled a pen out of the bag as well, turned the business card over and scribbled something on the back.
She handed it over with a small smile and a nod of her head.
"Making friends?" a strong, male voice that Katie didn't recognise said nearby, and when she turned, she found a slender, but muscular young man with an amused smirk and bright blue eyes examining her and Effy.
"Something like that," Effy replied coolly with a glance at Katie that made her heart flutter.
"I got some good shots," the man said, pulling Effy's camera from around his neck and handing it over.
So this was the brother. There was no denying the resemblance. Especially when his curious eyes turned back to her and her raised an eyebrow as if to say, "I know something's going on here."
"Guess, I better get back to work," Effy sighed, putting the camera strap back around her own neck. "If you'll both excuse me."
Katie nodded and Effy's brother stepped to the side to let her past.
Katie watched her leave, without a goodbye, then looked back up to her brother, who was watching her thoughtfully.
"I'll see you around," he said with a knowing smile.
Katie blushed as he too turned and walked away. She took a deep breath and remembered the card in her hand.
For whenever you're ready.
It was scrawled in a slanted, but neat handwriting, with a mobile number written underneath. Katie felt her stomach flip.
Soon, she mused. I think it will be soon.
.
.
"Kind of a crazy night," Andrew said with a smile as he closed the door to their flat behind them.
"Yeah. I'd agree with that." Katie's heart raced as she replayed some of the evening's more memorable events in her mind.
"You seemed to get on well with that photographer," he commented, as he turned down the hallway.
Katie hummed her agreement as she trailed after him to the bedroom.
"Mini and Cook looked happy, didn't they?" Andrew asked, tugging his tie loose and pulling it over his head, only to toss it carelessly at the chair in the corner of the room and miss.
She rolled her eyes, but decided she'd pick it up in the morning.
"They really did," she said. "I think they're really going to last."
"Me too," Andrew agreed, sitting down on his side of the bed and kicking off his shoes.
Katie crossed over next to him and turned around, holding up her hair and letting him unzip her dress without her having to ask. "Thanks," she mumbled, sliding the straps off of her shoulders and letting it slide to the floor. There was no self consciousness as she crossed to the little makeup mirror in just her underwear. She grabbed a makeup removing towelette out of the packet on her dresser and started to scrub at her face. "Hey, Andrew?" she asked, looking in the mirror to see him working on unbuttoning his shirt.
"Mmm?"
"Can we talk tomorrow?"
Andrew looked up and his eyes met hers in the mirror. There was no surprise in his expression, Katie noted. "Sure, Kate. I think that would be a good idea."
She nodded and refocused on her own reflection. She was smiling, she realised. She'd been completely unaware of it, but nonetheless a contented smile graced her features. She looked happy overall, actually, smear of mascara and eyeliner under the eye she was currently working on not withstanding.
They finished getting ready for bed quickly, moving around each other in the bathroom with practised ease. Katie automatically snuggled into Andrew's side, laying her head on his broad, muscular chest.
He kissed the top of her head lightly and ran his fingers slowly through her hair in a soothing rhythm that soon had Katie's eyes drooping.
"It's time, isn't it, Kate."
Katie turned her head slightly and placed a tender kiss on his chest. "Yeah."
"We'll talk tomorrow," he said, with a slight chuckle as her response turned into a yawn.
She nodded against his chest.
"Good night, Katie."
"Night, Andrew. Love you."
"You too," he whispered into her hair just before she drifted off.
.
.
It was only a week before Katie called Effy, but it felt like years as far as the changes that had gone on in her life and her mind.
When Effy answered with a cool, "I knew you'd call," despite it being impossible for her to have known for sure that it was Katie calling her as Katie'd never given her her number, Katie felt her heart flutter and her stomach flip.
"Know it all," she muttered with a laugh. "Want to get coffee?"
At the word, "yes," Katie's heart soared in a way she'd thought it didn't need until recently.
She knew in that moment that she'd made the right decision.