Chapter Ten

Joey walked back to the counter, feeling a little bit shaky on her legs. Being so close to Charlie had always had a habit of making her go weak in the knees, and today was no exception. Still she felt a strange sense of her own power - she realised with a jolt that she wasn't intimidated by Charlie anymore. She had always thought of Charlie as being high above her - she was a little bit older, and definitely more settled in her career. Now she realised that somewhere along the line they had become equals.

She smiled to herself, her dimples showing. She felt Charlie's eyes on her from the table. There was nothing wrong with a little harmless flirting, was there?

** ** **

Aden looked past her, a sly grin on his face.

"What?" she asked. She turned her head to see what he was staring at, and whipped it back when he told her not to look.

"Don't look now, but there's a chick at the bar who keeps looking at you."

"How do you know it's me she likes? It's probably you she's after. Nine times out of ten, a girl is straight, it's a statistical likelihood," she said mock condescendingly. After he had asked her about the mechanics of lesbian sex after a few too many beers, she liked to tease him by acting like the expert on all things gay.

"Nope, it's definitely you. I'm going to ask her to join us for a drink," he stood up to go.

"Aden, don't!" she tugged at his arm, trying to make him sit back down.

"I'm going." He put his hand to his chest. "I'm your wing man." He charged off to the bar and Joey couldn't look behind her. She hoped he wasn't being too embarrassing. She chanced a look, trying to see out of the corner of her eye so it wouldn't be too obvious. All she could see was that it was a taller girl with blonde hair.

Aden returned with the woman in tow. "Joey, this is Emily. She's here by herself so I asked her if she wanted to have a drink with us."

"Hi," the girl said. "I hope you don't mind me crashing."

"No, of course not," Joey smiled. She was definitely not looking for anything, but she had to admit that Emily was stunning. She had shoulder-length dark blonde hair, and soft brown eyes.

Emily sat down. A few beers and a lot of chatting later, Joey was surprised at how much she was enjoying herself. Emily was funny and sweet, and she was almost relieved to discover that Emily wasn't single – she could definitely see herself developing a crush. She was gay though, Aden had been right about that. It turned out she hadn't really been checking Joey out, just saw a couple of people her age and was hoping to hang out. Emily was in town visiting her parents, and had a girlfriend back home in Queensland. She explained that she'd been bored – she hadn't been able to find much to do in Summer Bay.

After talking about herself, Emily looked at them expectantly. "So what's your story, you two? Are you married? I see you're wearing a ring, Aden."

Aden looked sadly down at his ring finger. "Yeah. My wife – she passed away."

Emily's eyes filled with compassion. "God, I'm so sorry to hear that."

"Thanks." Aden said. He took a swig of beer, not meeting anyone's eyes. He motioned towards Joey. "Your turn, Jo."

"Anyone on the scene?" Emily said tactfully. She suspected Joey was gay but didn't want to be presumptuous.

"Oh no, I'm very single," Joey said.

"Very single eh, sounds like there's a story behind that," Emily replied.

"She plays for your team," Aden said helpfully. He could read the subtext enough to know that Emily had been trying to figure that out. Joey frowned at him.

Emily slapped her palm to her forehead. "Thank god for that! I was starting to think I was the only gay person in Summer Bay!"

Joey laughed – she certainly knew what that felt like. "You pretty much are I think – it's just you and me. Well not literally, but close enough."

"And I thought rural Queensland had a quiet gay scene. Must make dating hard?"

"Ooooh yeah," Joey confirmed. "I was seeing someone for a little while a few months back, but it didn't work out. Straight girl."

Emily winced. "Ouch. We've all been there." Emily and Joey clinked glasses, both smiling at finding common ground. Aden was looking back and forth between them, fascinated.

"Hold on, hold on. Charlie's isn't straight is she?" Aden asked, confused. They had talked about Charlie a little bit, but they hadn't exactly gone into identity politics. It was different hearing two gay women talk about it. It was like they were speaking a secret language.

Joey scoffed. "She's got a boyfriend hasn't she? And I seem to recall her cheating on me with a guy? Sounds pretty straight to me."

"Yeah I know, but she was with you. Doesn't that make her bisexual?" he asked.

Joey shrugged. "That's what I thought for a while. But I don't know. She was never really comfortable with being with a woman. I was the first girl she was with," she explained for Emily's benefit.

Emily was intrigued. "Well that could just be the coming out jitters. Wait a minute, what does she say she is?"

"She never wanted to label herself," Joey said. It hadn't been an issue at the time that they were together – it hadn't seemed important. It was only after they'd broken up that Joey started to think differently. After that it had seemed like the only thing that mattered. In retrospect sexuality had been their biggest problem from the very start, when Charlie had declared that she had never thought of herself as gay and couldn't go there.

"Okay, that's fair enough . . . but you think she was genuine with you? Like she wasn't just trying it on?" Emily prodded.

Joey looked down at her drink. Images flashed through her mind, of Charlie. Saying she loved me for the first time . . . making love for hours . . . waking up next to each other and playing in bed . . . holding each other on the couch, her stroking my hair. In her heart of hearts, she knew all of that was real.

"No, I think she was serious about it," Joey said.

"Hmm," Emily said. She wanted to ask more, but they were clearly touching a nerve. Joey was starting to look upset at the turn the conversation had taken – it was obvious that whatever had happened had been very painful.

"Who wants drinks?" Aden asked, clapping his hands together.

Emily watched as Joey leaned back against the couch, with a far away look in her eyes.