"SWEETIE DARLING!"
Saffron and Tony both jumped, tensing at the racket.
"Oh, God… No!" Saffy groaned, her voice a horrified whisper. "Not her! Not now!"
Tony could barely speak but managed to croak out a barely audible "Who's that?"
"My mother!" Saff whispered back.
She and Tony quickly got up from the rug. He fumbled to zip his jeans as Saffron, in a bit of a panic, pointed towards her bedroom door. Tony hurried, as best he could under the circumstances, into the room, shutting the door behind him.
When he was out of sight, Saff went to let her mother in. Her plan was to get rid of her as quickly as she could by saying she was exhausted from the cleanup project and was immediately headed to bed.
"SWEETIE DARLING, LET ME IN!"
Saffy yanked open the door. Then she yanked her mother inside.
"For God's sake, Mum, SHUT UP! You'll wake the whole building!"
"Well, a bloody CHEERY HELLO to you, too, DARLING!" Edina shot back, sneering at her daughter. "That's how you greet your dear, sweet MUM, is it, SWEETIE?!"
"It is when she shows up screaming like a banshee at my door at 10 o'clock at night!" Saff retorted. "What do you want, Mum?!"
Eddy frowned.
"What do I want, hmmm? What do I WANT, SWEETIE?!"
Then Edina stopped cold. She looked confused.
"What do I want?"
Saffron, completely exasperated now, sighed and shot daggers at her mother.
But Eddy remembered suddenly, playing it off as cool as she knew how — which meant that she looked anything but nonchalant.
"What I want, Saffy, is to see your face 'round the house more than every bloody fortnight! That is what I want, Darling!"
Immediately, her mother's tone went from angry and petulant to dramatically pathetic.
"Mamaaa misses you, Sweeeeetie!"
Eddy held out her arms for a hug. Glancing over her shoulder towards the bedroom, Saff gave her mum a quick embrace, patting her on the back briskly.
"I miss you, too, Mum," she said in a rather curt tone. "I'm just so tired from this cleaning project, that's all. I'll pop in … tomorrow! I'll come by then, all right?"
Now Edina had the sense her daughter was trying to get rid of her and she reckoned she'd let Saffron twist in the wind a bit.
"Tired, hmmm? From your 'project,' then, is that it?"
Saffron tried playing up a massive fake yawn.
"Yes," she said, stretching mightily in hopes of driving the point home. "I've been putting in lots of overtime."
Edina's eyes hit on the red flannel shirt cast in a heap on the rug in front of the fireplace. The knowing smirk on her face said it all.
"Oh, I'll just BET you have, baby!" Eddy snarked, nodding towards the shirt.
Saff, taken completely off guard, flushed redder than the shirt itself as she hurried to pick it up.
"It's … It's mine, Mum! My, um… The shirt I sleep in." Rubbing her arms as if she were trying to get warm, Saffron added, with a nervous grin, "Don't want to catch cold!"
Edina snickered, that damn know-it-all look plastered on her face. She wasn't buying Saffy's act and her daughter knew this meant her mother would play the ongoing scenario up to the hilt before letting things go.
Saff now opted to try diverting her mother's attention, which usually wasn't difficult. But Eddy had a laser focus on things at present and was enjoying the chance to play mind games.
"Mum, I was just about to go to bed so…"
Eddy practically cackled as she started towards Saffron's bedroom door.
"To bed, Sweetie? TO THE BED?! About to hit the ol' hay, Darling?!"
Saff moved to block her mother's path.
"Mum, no!" she said, panic rising in her voice.
Eddy tried going around Saffron, who again cut her off.
"Mum, stop!"
Edina moved the other way; Saff did, too. But then Eddy head-faked her daughter and, finally making it past her, went straight for the bedroom door.
"Mum, DON'T!"
Flinging it open, Eddy pointed an accusing index finger inside, nodding furiously. Saffron's breath came in gulps now. She felt sick to her stomach, knowing her mother would go on and on about finding a half-naked Tony in the room.
Saff burst in then and saw… no one.
Her eyes went wide. Eddy then made a beeline for the only hiding place: Saffron's closet.
"Mum!"
But there was nothing inside except clothes and shoes. Edina next looked under the bed, which was a bit ridiculous since there was absolutely no room for anyone to hide there.
Now Saffy was just hacked off.
"Satisfied?" she asked her mother, glaring at Eddy.
Eddy sneered, knowing something was going on but unable to find the evidence.
"I'll let ya get on with your little SNOGGING session, Sweetie!" she yelled, mainly for the benefit of whatever invisible man Saffron had in the room. "I'll leave ya to the SNOGGIN'!"
Saffron pointed at the front door, fed up with her mother's antics.
"Thank you," she sniped, her tone flat. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to work in some sleep around all this 'snogging' I'm not doing!"
Practically pushing Edina through the living room, Saffy let out an exasperated sigh when her mum turned just before they got to the door.
"WHAT?!" Saff snarled, finally at her wit's end.
Eddy fingered the flannel shirt. Saffron had been so distracted dealing with her mother that she'd forgotten she was carrying it.
"It's good to see you wearing color, Darling," Eddy purred. "They've got a sale on down at Harvey Nicks right now! I can get you a discount and…"
"OUT!" Saffy commanded, forcing her mum out the door before slamming it shut and triple-locking it against her.
"I CAN TAKE A HINT, YA KNOW, SWEETIE!" her mother yelled, getting in one final high-decibel swipe.
Saffron sighed deeply, resting her head against the closed door for a minute or so. And then, remembering that Tony should be somewhere in her bedroom, she rushed to figure out where he could have gotten to.
In all the hullabaloo with her mother, Saff hadn't noticed that the bedroom itself was now freezing cold.
The window!
Rushing over to part the curtains, Saffron found that the bedroom window was, indeed, open.
"Tony?" she called in a loud stage whisper. "Tony! Where are you?"
She looked around the adjoining fire escape but didn't see him. Crestfallen, she reckoned he was gone.
"I'm-I'm-I'm… up h-h-here…"
Looking up to the fire escape landing one floor above, Saffron was aghast to see a shivering Tony, teeth chattering as he huddled against the biting wind in nothing but his jeans and socks.
"Come down NOW!" Saff hissed, beckoning to him.
Slowly, he made his way back down the small iron ladder. Saffron helped him in through the window, quickly closing it when he was back inside. He was obviously freezing.
"Take your pants off," Saffy told Tony. His brown eyes went wide.
"Not-Not-Not… su-sure I'm still-still in th-th-the m-m-mood…" he stammered, teeth chattering.
Saffron cast a withering look his way.
"Oh, for God's SAKE!" she snapped, albeit in more of an exhausted tone than anything, "Get your pants off and GET into that BED so you don't FREEZE TO DEATH!"
Men.
Or at least certain parts of them.
With that, she stalked out of the room and went to snuff out the blaze in the living room fireplace. When Saffron returned, Tony was burrowed under the covers in bed, still shivering visibly. Finding a somewhat thick quilt in her closet, she unfurled it and placed it over the other blankets.
Shutting off the lights, Saffron undressed on the side of the bed nearest the window. In a moment of modesty that, given the night's earlier events, seemed a bit silly even to her, she turned her back to where Tony lay and silently stripped down to her panties, pulling on his red flannel shirt as quickly as she could.
Climbing into the bed, she immediately pressed her body against his. When she felt just how cold his skin was, she did her best to wrap herself around Tony in order to warm him. In a few minutes, his teeth had stopped chattering and he seemed more comfortable.
After a while, Tony was no longer shivering and his skin was warm to the touch. His voice quietly broke the stillness in the room.
"Saffy?" he whispered.
"Yes?"
He waited a beat before continuing.
"I might be back in the mood now, y'know…"
Dead silence.
And then Saffron answered.
"Oh, give me a break!"