…2012

With one week to go before the kids were back at school, the girls had left their kids with their hapless fathers, Aden and Geoff having double duty with both Ruby and April and headed to the city for a night out on the town.

"Are you sure that is our Georgie over there?" Charlie yells above the music in the nightclub. The music was so loud at times, she felt sure she'd be deaf by the time they got back to their hotel room.

Joey looks over at their friend laughing and dancing with Bianca and Leah. "She looks great, doesn't she," Joey grins, feeling pleased with the result she and Leah had achieved when they'd finally talked their friend into letting them give her a makeover. The three of them had become good friends in the past few weeks, spending a lot of their spare time together and slowly, with some gentle prodding by her friends and encouragement at work from Charlie, Georgie had really started to come out of her shell and tonight, the makeover seemed to have freed her up even more.

"She looks gorgeous and going by the number of guys trying to chat her up, they agree."

"They all have good taste in women." And so did Bianca, she thought, the schoolteacher's eyes never far from their friend tonight. Bianca had done her best to hide her interest in their friend, but she wasn't always successful, like tonight. When it came to conversing with Bianca, Georgie was more like her old self, quiet and sometimes tongue tied, which Bianca seemed to find even more endearing, so Joey had nearly laughed out loud when Bianca had been the one left tongue tied and mouth agape when they'd unveiled the new look Georgie.

Joey hadn't been the only one to notice Bianca's behaviour. Charlie leans over to her wife. "I think Bianca is really into Georgie," her observation bringing a wry smile to Joey's face. "You don't think she'll try anything, do you?"

"No," Joey says with a firm shake of her head.

"You seem sure of that."

"That's because I asked her earlier."

Charlie nearly chokes on her wine. "You just came out and asked her?"

"I'm already out baby," she jokes. "And yes, I asked her what her intentions were for Georgie."

"What did she say?"

"That she respects Georgie's marriage and has never made a move on someone already in a relationship and doesn't intend to start now." Joey shrugs, "I believe her."

Charlie nods in agreement. After the initial sizing up of each other when they'd finally met two weeks ago, she and Bianca had hit it off and one thing she'd found out about her was that she was refreshingly honest, if a little too blunt at times. "Maybe we should find someone for her," suggests Charlie. "Bianca's beautiful, she's intelligent, she's fun, I'm sure we can fix her up with someone."

"In Summer Bay? Lesbians aren't exactly growing on trees there." She squeezes her wife's hand. "It's a nice thought, but matchmaking for your friends isn't a good idea."

"Then why do you always try to set up all our single friends," Charlie asks in a teasing voice.

"That's different," she replies cheekily. "Seriously though, Bianca's fairly new to the area and she's still getting to know people, so I think we should just let her find her own way."

Leah drops into the seat opposite them, breathing heavily. "I have no idea how people can do this every week."

Joey chuckles at her, "You're supposed to take a break occasionally, not dance non-stop from the moment we arrived."

"The last time I went dancing, it was at a wedding two years ago, so I'm making the most of it tonight." She glances at her watch, her son would have been in bed for hours by now. "This is the first night I haven't been there to tuck VJ in."

"He'll be fine and so will Ruby," Charlie says with a look to her wife. "The kids were all looking forward to some time with their respective dads."

"Yeah I know, but I'm more worried about Aden and Geoff surviving having two girls in the house," Joey says with a grin. Always at the back of her mind had been her worry about the person Aden chose to settle down with, because that person would also be a part of her daughter's life but she needn't have worried about Geoff. He was a lovely guy and seemed comfortable with who he now was and didn't have a problem with Aden being a father.

"I'm sure the girls will go easy on them," Charlie replies.

She still wasn't used to the dress, the makeup or the way people had been complimenting her all night, but Georgie had been determined to finally let her hair down, so to speak and she'd been having a wonderful time just relaxing and having fun. That was changing though. She hadn't imagined herself slow dancing with Bianca, yet when the music had changed and Bianca had held her hand out for her, she'd taken it and let Bianca pull her closer. They weren't the only women, or men for that matter, dancing together, so no one was paying too much attention to them, which she was grateful for, because with the way their bodies were gently moving against each other to the music and the way Bianca's arms held her close, she was starting to feel very hot and flushed. When Bianca's hand moved to her hip, it was too much and she backed away from her. "I need another drink, what about you?" she shouts to Bianca over the music.

"Love one, but I think I need to sit down first." She was disappointed Georgie had broken contact but perhaps it had been for the best as she'd come dangerously close to breaking her own rule by making a pass at her and the last thing she wanted to do, was ruin the friendship they'd begun, and possibly damage the friendship she had with Joey and Charlie. While Joey had been understanding about her interest in Georgie, she sensed that understanding wouldn't extend to her making any unwelcome advances on their friend, which meant her feelings would have to stay unrequited.

Joey leans back against Charlie while they waited for the line to the bar to move forward.

"Hey, watch it," Charlie barks when someone bumped into them.

"Easy Charlie," Joey says with a chuckle. Her wife had already scared off a couple of people who'd had the misfortune to bump into them.

"This place is too crowded," she grumbles.

"One more drink, then we'll go somewhere else," Joey promises.

"Why can't we go back to the hotel?"

"Because this may be the last chance we get to have a night on the town like this for a while so I intend to enjoy it." She turns in Charlie's arms. "But don't worry, I also intend to make this night worth your while."

Charlie pulls her closer, "How exactly?"

"By reminding you of my sweet tooth," she says cryptically.

Before Charlie could question her further, she's jostled from behind. "Would you watch what you're doing," she spins to confront the person, staring in shock when she sees who it is.

"Well, well, look who we have here," the woman says.