Forcing her feet to start moving again, Joey reaches the table just as Charlie takes her seat, their eyes carefully avoiding each other. Leah jumps up, greeting Joey enthusiastically and then turns to introduce her to the others. "You know Martha of course, this is Rachel and this is Georgie and Charlie."
"I met Georgie and Charlie the other night with my husband." She sits in the empty chair near Martha.
Martha leans over, whispering to her, "Sorry, if I'd known you were coming, I would have warned you who else was going to be here."
"It's ok, I can't keep avoiding her."
"This is going to be like watching a train wreck," mutters Georgie, before she's shushed by her girlfriend.
"So Joey, I hear you're going to be working for Martha," Rachel starts off after a moment of uncomfortable silence. Charlie looks up sharply, glaring at Martha who was finding her glass extremely interesting.
"Ah yes, I um, start tomorrow."
"You can relax Joey," Leah assures her, "We don't eat our guests."
Joey smiles wryly. "I guess I'm a little nervous."
"Hopefully after tonight you will know us better and consider us friends."
"She already knows Charlie better than she should," Watson murmurs under her breath, rubbing her side when Martha gently prods her with her elbow.
"I'd like that Leah."
After some time getting to know each other, Rachel asks her how long she'd been married. "Six months, but I've known Angelo all my life."
"And you fell in love after all that time, that is so romantic."
Georgie rolls her eyes at Rachel. "God Rachel, you think everything is romantic."
She shrugs, grinning. "It's better than thinking doom and gloom all the time." She turns her attention back to Joey. "I hope you and your husband enjoy living here Joey."
"It's certainly very beautiful and the people I've met have been very friendly."
Martha shoots her girlfriend a warning glance before she could make one of her usual comments on that.
"It's a great place to raise a family. Do you plan to have kids?"
Leah's question has Charlie feeling ill and downing her entire glass of wine.
"Steady on Charlie, you have to work tomorrow," Martha warns her.
"I'll have one more then I'll go onto the soft stuff," she says when she really wanted something far stronger.
Trying to ignore Charlie's reaction, Joey turns to Leah. "Angelo and I don't have any plans to start a family just yet." She takes a sip of her drink. "So you all went to school together?" she asks, wanting to change the subject.
Leah nods. "Rachel was a couple of years ahead of us at school, but we've known each other all our lives, so except for Georgie, we've pretty much been friends since toddlerhood."
"I'm a few years younger and lived in Mangrove River for about eight years as a kid so I really had little to do with any of them, even after I came back here as a teen," explains Georgie.
"Where's Mangrove River?"
"Not far from here. We're kind of like the poor, shady sister of Summer Bay."
"It's not that bad Georgie," says Martha.
"Said by someone who has never lived there." She shrugs. "I suppose it wasn't all that bad, it just seemed like that most of the time." Martha squeezes her hand, having a fair idea of the memories going through her head.
"Time for another round," Leah gets to her feet and takes their orders.
"I'll go help Leah," Rachel says, rushing after her. "What do you think is up with them?" she asks Leah, who shrugs. "Charlie's just acting so weird and she can barely keep her eyes off Joey."
"Rachel, in case you haven't noticed, Joey's gorgeous and Charlie's a lesbian, why wouldn't she be admiring her?"
Rachel nods, not really convinced it was so simple, especially when she'd seen the way Joey's eyes drifted toward Charlie whenever she thought no one was watching.
Once they were alone, Martha leans forward, keeping her voice low. "I realise this is kind of awkward, but Charlie, could you try to be a little less obvious and Georgie, quit with the little comments." Charlie flicks a glance at Joey who was sitting there looking very uncomfortable. "Joey, you and Charlie really do need to learn how to act around each other."
"I know that Martha, it's just," she shrugs. "I had no idea Charlie would be here."
"Would it have made a difference if you'd known?" Georgie asks rudely.
"Don't mind Georgie, she takes some time to warm up to people," Martha tells her.
"She's right though, I probably shouldn't be here."
"You can't avoid each other and Leah's already decided you're a friend, which means you'll be getting more invites, so you and Charlie are just going to have to learn to deal with each other." She glares at the both of them until they nod.
"Leah's decided that already, has she?" Joey says in half-amusement.
"Leah likes everyone," Charlie mutters, wincing when she realised how that sounded. "All I meant was, that Leah's a very friendly person and she loves making people feel relaxed and welcome."
"Unlike some," Martha stares pointedly at her girlfriend and friend. Georgie shrugs while Charlie looks contrite. Martha shakes her head at them. "Sometimes I don't know what to do with you two."
"You can show me later," Georgie says, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
Chuckling, Martha brushes her lips over hers. "Behave for the rest of the night and I just might do that."
"That's blackmail."
"Then arrest me."
"Don't tempt me," she smirks at her.
"There are others present, you two," Charlie reminds them.
When Rachel and Leah return, things become a little easier as they all start to relax more.
An hour later, Joey stares at Georgie and Martha a little jealously as they kissed and cuddled on a couch in the corner, completely oblivious to everyone else.
"Sickening, aren't they," Rachel says with amused fondness.
"All couples should be so in love."
"They've been like this ever since they finally realised they were in love." She smiles at Joey, "They were a lot like you and Angelo, I suppose."
"How do you mean?"
"Friends who became lovers."
"Oh right."
"Hey, are you ok?" she asks, sensing a sadness in her.
"I just have a lot on my mind at the moment. Martha mentioned earlier today that she was married," she says, trying to take her mind off other things.
"To my stepson."
"You were Martha's mother-in-law!" she blurts out.
"I look great for my age, don't I?" she jokes. "Obviously I'm a little younger than my husband, but not by too much."
"My stepmother is half my father's age."
"Tony will feel so much better about cradle snatching now. You don't approve of the marriage?"
"Aside from her being my husband's ex-girlfriend, May has a reputation for going after people with money."
"I take it your father has money, then?"
Joey nods. "I've tried to be fair to May, but I've always felt she's only with him because of that."
"Is your father happy?"
"Yeah, he is," she concedes reluctantly.
"Then there's not a lot you can do."
Knowing Rachel was right, she nods. "What was Martha's husband like?"
"Curious about the boss, are we?"
Joey grins, "I want all the dirt so I know what I'm getting into."
Rachel chuckles. "Then you're out of luck, because Martha's as straight as they come." She glances over at Martha who was nearly sitting in Georgie's lap now. "Well, you know what I mean by straight." She takes a moment, before continuing. "Jack was a kind and wonderful man, everyone believed they'd grow old together, but then he was taken from us."
"And now she's with Georgie."
"Yeah, no one saw that one coming, not even them." She glances at the loving couple again. "Jack was Georgie's best friend and through him, she became good friends with Martha, so it was no surprise that they turned to each other for support when Jack died, especially while Georgie was recovering and Martha was in the later stages of pregnancy, but it certainly came as a surprise when they fell in love."
"Love certainly strikes unexpectedly at times," Joey says wistfully.
"A bit of an old romantic as well, are we?"
"Not really." Rachel frowns, finding the younger woman rather confusing. "What about Charlie, what's she like?"
"A lot like Georgie in a way, though without the rough edges and attitude."
"The other night when I met them, I thought they were close, but there have been times tonight that I felt there was this distance between them."
"That's just Georgie and Charlie, they kind of run hot and cold. I love them both, but they can take a bit of getting used to."
Despite wanting to know more about Charlie, Joey doesn't want to seem too obvious, so she excuses herself to go to the bathroom. Rachel watches her walk away, her eyebrows rising when Joey bumps into Charlie and Charlie catches her before she stumbles over, her hands staying on Joey's hips.
Her heart beating faster at being so close to Charlie, Joey looks up, losing herself in the blue of Charlie's eyes.
"Public place with lots of eyes," Georgie murmurs loud enough for only them to hear as she and Martha walk past them.
Charlie drops her hands to her sides. "Sorry."
"God, this is going to be impossible," Georgie complains. "They couldn't be any more obvious if they dropped to the floor and had ravenous sex."
"You're exaggerating Georgie. No one is even paying attention to them."
Joey steps back from Charlie, her heart still beating fast. "It's kind of crowded in here, easy to run into someone."
"Very easy," Charlie agrees, still staring into Joey's eyes.
Shaking her head to break the spell, Joey mutters about needing to go to the bathroom.
Missing her presence the moment she was gone, Charlie follows after her.
"I don't believe this."
Martha grabs her girlfriend's arm to stop her going after them. "I think this is something they need to do."
"Charlie's just going to get hurt."
Martha smiles at her concern, still finding it both frustrating and wonderful how the cousins could be at each other's throats and still worry about each other. "Maybe Charlie needs to get hurt to force her to move on."
Georgie sighs, nodding her head. "If there's bloodshed, I'm not the one who's going to clean up the mess."
"Are you going to keep following me into the toilets all the time?"
"If needs be." Charlie checks to make sure they were alone. "We need to talk."
"There's nothing to talk about."
Charlie flinches at the coldness in her voice. "There is something between us," she presses on. "I felt it stronger than ever when I had you in my arms just then."
"All you are sensing is confusion between two people who shared an intimate moment and suddenly find themselves in each others company again."
"Moment!" she winces at her own raised voice. "Joey, we made love for hours."
"It was just sex Charlie."
"Stop lying to yourself Joey."
"I'm not lying. Charlie, it was just a night of sex, if not with you, I could have spent it with someone else, male or female," she says bluntly. "You need to get over this Charlie and forget that anything ever happened between us."
"Can you do that?"
"I already have," she replies. "I'm a happily married woman."
"So you feel nothing between us?" She steps closer, her hand gently caressing Joey's face as she leans in. "Nothing at all?"
Joey swallows hard, Charlie's lips now so close Joey could feel the warmth of her breath against her lips.
Will Joey give in or push Charlie away?