30. Realigning The Stars
Katie
I was nervous. I bit my lip as I watched the crowds milling about in anticipation, swiftly slipping into my game face if anyone showed an interest. Today was the first Saturday in December, the launch of Naomi's perfume campaign and the first time the ad was going to play on national TV. And of course I had arranged for a 'simply had to be there' party to coincide with the event. It wasn't that I wasn't used to handling big budgets, and co-ordinating high-end events, but it had always been just business, I had had no personal involvement other than professional pride. The past couple of months during the preparations, I had become a lot closer to Naomi, and although I had discovered that she was an astute businesswoman, I also found that she had a genuinely good heart. She had sidelined a percentage of the profits to go to a landmine charity, and another that helped the child victims of war. As well as being extremely focussed, she was also very funny and never too full of herself to have a laugh. In some ways she reminded me of Anna. Neither of them had forgotten their roots, and had somehow managed to retain a strong sense of self amongst the hysteria of the business. I could see how my sister had become so enamoured with her.
Although we had the support of the perfume house, and we had assembled an excellent team to market the product, the fact remained that Naomi had sunk an awful lot of her own money into the venture, and in essence I had been gambling with the assets of a friend, and my sister's girlfriend no less. I had confidence in what we were doing, but there was always the worry that it would somehow all go wrong, and I would have fucked things up for everybody. We had created a buzz about the screening of the ad, using all the social media stuff to get people talking about it even before they had seen it. Naomi had splashed out on a prime time slot right in the middle of the X-factor, and although it had cost her and arm and a leg, it was going to give us maximum impact. We had hired a hotel with large grounds down in Richmond, and put up a big screen, and invited lots of important players to the party.
It was about half an hour before the ad was due to screen, and the party was in full swing. We had DJ's both inside the main function room, and out in the garden, where we had placed a dozen or so beautiful sculptures that Cook had made, containing little bonfires for people to cluster around. I was on my own. Emily had pretty much done her part, and was already stoned, and God knows where Naomi and Effy were – no doubt hiding away from the limelight smoking, as had become a regular habit of theirs. The two of them had become quite the sisters in crime, and only seemed to encourage each other in their anti-social ways. It was ok, Effy had pyro to run, and Naomi was due to make a dramatic entrance just after the ad had been on.
But they had left me lurking, surrounded by the very people who had shunned me after my faux pas in Paris. Much to my surprise, it would appear that time is a great healer after all, as people started coming up to me of their own free will.
"Great party, Katie. You always knew how to throw a proper shindig."
"I heard you were the brains behind this thing, I'm intrigued."
"Fantastic idea, Katie. It's so very Naomi."
"Good to see you, we should do lunch sometime."
"So, Katie, are you seeing anyone at the moment?"
It was nice. To command the kind off attention I used to in the business, but part of me was laughing at the way they had begun to flock around me now that I was a attached to something new and cool. Not one of these arseholes had bothered to get in touch with me during my enforced exile in Bristol, and I had discovered that it was all too easy to live without them. I had reconnected with my family, and discovered a whole new one, and I had a beautiful fiancée who was so disinterested in anyone's fake-arsed bullshit it was almost divine. I excused myself from a young designer who had just broken away from Alessandro's house to set up on his own, and lurked in the doorway to the garden, pretending to look up something important on my iPad.
What I was in fact doing was engaging in my new favourite stress busting pastime – looking at the photos Marie-Claire had shot to go with their interview. The shots were gorgeous, and Effy looked so beautiful, it almost made me weak at the knees just looking at them. There were some of her in her firing suit, which always turned me on, but her hair and make-up had been done by the stylists, and her eyes shone out of the page at me with the intensity of a bomb with seconds left on the countdown. My fingers slid across the screen pulling the next image into view, and an involuntary shudder ran through my body as all my blood rushed zealously to my pussy. Effy, surrounded by pyro gear, a couple of large calibre 50mm candles slung casually over her shoulder, dressed in a vibrant scarlet ball gown, her hair all wild and fabulous, her other hand toying casually with a jewel encrusted zippo lighter.
Even now, I had to catch my breath every time I saw that photo. She didn't need that lighter. She was so fucking hot, she could have set off all that gear just by looking at it. For someone who often remained so stoic in the face of other human beings, her ability to hold a dialogue with the camera was unbelievable. I remembered thinking she was a model the first time I had seen her, and she had certainly shown the ability to captivate a lens. I'd caught up with the photographer later that day as she was reviewing some of her shots on her laptop.
"God she's stunning," she said, gazing at the screen. "And yet so fucking powerful with it. I'd go gay for a girl like her, like seriously."
"I believe you," I smiled and nudged her cheekily. "I did."
She immediately went bright red.
"Oh God, are you together?" she said in alarm. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to… but fuck, your girlfriend is gorgeous."
"Fiancee, actually," I smirked.
I never grew tired of saying that.
They had pitched the interview around the 'woman in a man's world' thing, and had presented Effy as a mysterious and enigmatic artist, which is just as well really, because she was a shocking interviewee and gave them virtually nothing to work with. Luckily I was there to fill in the gaps for my reluctant superstar. Poor Effy, she was just going to have to get used to a bit of time in the public eye, if I was to have my way. I knew what it took to get ahead in the glare of the spotlight, and although I would do my best to protect her from too much bullshit, it was a fact of life that her looks were not going to do us any harm at all.
I shut the image down before I became a drooling mess in front of everybody, and did a time check. Ten minutes to go. Just like Effy before she fired; when a show was about to launch was when I was at my finest. I flitted round checking with everyone who needed to be ready for the go, the DJ's and the VJ who would switch the big screen over to the live feed, and of course Effy and Naomi. I had flatscreens up in the room for anybody who was too fragile to face the cold, but a grabbed a mic from the DJ and made an announcement.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please make your way out into the garden, where our advert will be playing in just a couple of minutes."
I smiled at the buzz that went round the crowd, as people topped up their drinks and made their way outside. This was it, the moment of truth. The big screen flipped on to catch the dying moments of some wannabe hopeful, murdering a classic tune in that special reality tv way, before the presenter announced that they were going to a break. I watched the colours of the programme logo dance across the screen, and held my breath.
It would seem I wasn't the only one as an attentive silence fell across the crowd as they were drawn into the mysterious world that Emily had created. Just as I had hoped, there were a few gasps as Naomi pulled off her mask to reveal herself on screen. This mutated into murmurs of approval as she began to make her pyrotechnic progress across the site.
"Oh, that's the firework girl," a man behind me said excitedly, as my beloved made her appearance through the door, and I allowed myself a self-satisfied grin. I love it when a plan comes together, and Effy's face was becoming known. As the ad began to come to its climax, there were several oohs and ahhs. It would seem that pyro never failed to drag our inner children out of hiding. The big screen was a fucking fantastic idea, as Emily's stunning final shot of the reflections in Naomi's eyes held every single person mesmerised. The VJ froze the shot of the bottle of perfume, and Effy ran a candle chase round the edges of the frame of the screen before the whole thing erupted in a fizzing shower of golden gerb sparks. Mines crackled into life in the garden, and just as a bunch of aerial material exploded in the night sky, Naomi appeared through a curtain beneath the screen wearing the same red dress from the ad. She strode forward with the same powerful purpose, as Effy pulled off her usual trick of making it appear the blonde was controlling the pyro by her very presence. Naomi performed perfectly, keeping her cool as it appeared the world was exploding in perilous proximity to her. When she stopped at the appointed place, the sky was filled with a massive burst of light as she raised her arms above her head. As the final stars faded out from their beautiful but brief existence, the DJ replayed our tagline.
"Detonate by Diamond – Explode Your Potential"
The crowd burst into a riotous round of applause, and Naomi stepped forward ready to grace them with her presence, but Emily got there first, claiming her lover with a kiss, and the flash bulbs that surrounded them set off another kind of fireworks. I left them, knowing that they would both do what was necessary, charming the life out of everyone there, and went backstage to find my woman.
Effy was shutting down her firing system when I found her, and I hesitated for a moment, revelling in the simple pleasure of watching her work. It didn't last of course. Effy, being Effy, already knew that I was there. She looked up and smiled at me.
"How was it for you?" she asked, with a wicked look in her eye.
"Breathtaking, as usual," I replied.
She looked me up and down appreciatively as I stood there in the middle of her site in a shockingly expensive dress Naomi had nabbed for me from her last job.
"I was about to say the same thing," said Effy. "I'd kiss you, but I don't want to get pyro muck on that dress."
"I don't mind," I said hoarsely. I would have given anything to have her kiss me right then.
"Soon," she replied in a voice that made me melt. "I'll come and find you when we've cleared up the site."
"I could help you," I said, not wanting to be parted from her for a second.
"Don't be daft," she smiled warmly. "Go and do what your best at. Go and schmooze the pants off everyone."
"I'd rather charm the pants off you," I said.
"Well I sure we can arrange that at a later point," she smirked. "Doesn't Katie Fucking Fitch always get what she wants?"
"I want you," I gushed. "I want you forever."
"Go," urged Effy gently. "And I promise that later you can have me any way you want."
"Any chance of filming that?" said Cook, appearing from behind me with a handful of live. I rolled my eyes at him, but secretly I was glad. I don't think I would have made it out of there if he hadn't broken the spell.
I had barely been back in the room for ten minutes before Naomi grabbed me and dragged me off to the private hotel room we had been using as her dressing room.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again, you're a fucking genius, Katie Fitch," she said reaching into a drawer and extracting and enormous bag of coke. "People fucking love it."
"They love you, Naomi," I laughed.
"Yeah, but you all," she said racking out a pair of rather generous lines. "You all just made me look awesome."
"Not hard, babes," I said to her. "You're beautiful."
"It's my job," she shrugged. "And I won't be beautiful forever. You've helped me start investing in my future. And this way I can always look after Ems."
"You know, underneath all this badass image, you're really as soppy as shit," I giggled.
"Says the girl who got proposed to in fucking flames," she scoffed. "Besides, she's my Emily, what else am I to do?"
She held out the mirror with the drugs on.
"Ladies first," she grinned.
After we had both partaken, she dropped the drugs back into the drawer.
"You've got the spare key to this room," she said. "So you and Effy and the boys, you just come and help yourself whenever you want."
My mind flicked back to my friends and how they loved to party.
"It's a good job that's a fucking big bag," I said.
After Naomi's little pick me up, the party suddenly became a whole lot more fun. Of course I was still working the room, but I found myself really enjoying it. When you're high like this your arsehole filter drops right off the scale, and suddenly everybody is fascinating. All the people I had dismissed so easily earlier in the evening were now my best of friends. I believed them when they told me they had missed me, and I was flattered when they asked me when I was coming back. Suddenly, I saw my old life opening back out in front of me, the power, the money, the attention. And with every trip back into Naomi's dressing room I was becoming increasingly seduced.
I sensed her before I even saw her. A strange instinctive tingling in the back of my neck. It made me turn away from the DJ I'd been watching, and drew my gaze in her direction. She was waiting for me, her eyes blazing into mine. Oh those eyes had always been the fucking death of me. She was the headlights and I was the poor fucking bunny rabbit. I could do nothing but stare at her with my jaw half open, as she stalked across the room towards me. The way that she moved turned my legs to jelly, and the filthy intent in her eyes had robbed me of my senses. The dress she wore clung to her every curve and shimmered chameleon-like in the ever-changing light show. So beautiful and so dangerous, I was as helpless as I had ever been since the first time I kissed her. With the heightened awareness of the drugs, I could feel my heart hammering violently against my rib cage as she approached. My skin practically sizzled when she put her hand on my arm, and I offered no resistance as she gently pushed me back against the wall. I knew she was going to kiss me and my rebellious lips were parted to receive her before I could stop and think. The taste of her unleashed its usual deadly combination of cocktails in my brain, and her tongue possessed me with a knowing calm. It was all so beautiful and so familiar, and my hands flew up instinctively to tangle in her gorgeous hair. I moaned into her mouth as she pressed her body more firmly against mine, and I knew this was a lust that could be the end of me. She shifted her thigh against me and started a fire in my cunt that would have had me willingly spreading my legs for her had she not pulled back and stared into my eyes as if I was the most precious thing in the world.
"I love you," she said, and though the throaty drawl of her voice was nothing but pure seduction, I believed her. I could fucking feel it coming off her in waves. There was little I could do but plaintively call her name.
"Anna," I said.
"My love, my Katie," she whispered. "How I have ached for you night after night. I have been only half woman without you in my arms. I have died and lived again as nothing but zombie. Only you can make me breathe again."
She kissed me again, and shockingly, I just fucking let her. I was lost in the moment, and the way her hands felt on my body felt all too fucking right. She was my Anna, the woman who had stolen my reluctant heart. We had given everything to each other, and the physical memory of our passion was ruling me right now. Even the sound of her voice was like the music of a song I had learned in childhood the melody of which would never leave me. I couldn't help but think of how it had felt when she had been inside me, and it made my pussy clench and I cried out into our kiss. Anna took this as a sign of encouragement and slid her hands around my arse to pull me tighter. But as she did so I suddenly felt as if I had been torn in two. I didn't belong to Anna any more. I belonged to someone else. My hands were heavy as I tried to raise them to push her away, my mind had shattered in confusion, and I was left with only my traitorous physicality to help me find my way. I knew that I loved Effy, but I had been shocked at how easily I had fallen back under Anna's spell. And falling I was, if I didn't put a stop to it I would be broken on impact. I had to give myself time to think. Eventually I found a strength from somewhere, and withdrew my consent.
"Anna, no," I said, pulling her head back with one hand, and placing the other on her heart. "I can't do this."
"Well I'm glad you decided to come up for air," came a heartwrenchingly familiar voice.
I turned my head to find Effy staring at the pair of us leaning diffidently against the wall.
"I thought I was going to have to set the dogs on you," she smirked. "Or maybe Jenna…."
"Effy," I said somewhat uselessly, there was no denying that she had seen me in a passionate clinch with Anna.
Just as I had when Freddie had revealed my secret, I searched her eyes for anger but found none. If anything, it was Anna who was the more agitated of the two.
"Please fuck off," she glowered at Effy. "We are in middle of something important."
"I can see that," said Effy. "But it's kind of important for me too. I need to stick around to see what happens."
God, she was cool. It seemed that when the world around her was at its most volatile and dangerous, Effy was at her calmest. I could feel myself beginning to sweat. I was coked up to my eyeballs, and my heart was still pounding. Both of them were staring at me and I felt crushed beneath their gazes. Poor little fucking bunny rabbit.
"Please, Katie," said Anna. "Let's get out of here. We need to talk, we need to make sensational love."
"Interesting," said Effy smoothly, cocking her head to one side.
Anna pushed herself off me in a dramatic fashion.
"Who the fuck is this woman?" she frowned.
For a moment I was speechless. How do you explain Effy?
"She's Effy Stonem," I said, as if that would tell her everything.
"Whatever," said Anna throwing up her hands. "Tell her to go away. I need you, Katie. I need to be with you. I need you to forgive me."
There were a thousand and one things confusing me right now, but suddenly for the first time ever, one thing became perfectly clear, and it was something of as revelation.
"I do," I said to Anna. "I do forgive you."
"Oh thank the gods," said Anna, pulling me into a warm embrace, and clinging onto me tightly. "I couldn't stand it, my angel. I just couldn't stand it."
It was a struggle to see over her shoulder given how tall she was, but I fought to do it seeing as there was no way out of her vice-like grip. I found Effy's deep blue gaze still raining down on me.
"Sweet," she said, with that cocky little half smile of hers.
I couldn't understand it. When was she going to start fighting for me? Surely she wasn't just going to let me go?
"I want to make love to you, Katie Fitch," Anna murmured in my ear, and pulled away, grabbing my hand as if to take me off somewhere. But I stayed where I was until our arms reached full stretch and she was halted in her tracks. I didn't understand. When you're in love, you're not supposed to want anyone else like this, are you? My body was quite prepared to sleep with her. I couldn't just know the right thing to do. I had to decide.
"Katie, what is problem?" Anna asked me gently.
In her eyes, forgiveness clearly meant that I would take her back.
"I think that might be me," said Effy, pulling out a fag and sparking up despite the fact that we were inside. She offered one to Anna, who seemed to come undone at this small act of kindness.
"Effy Stonem," she said, accepting the gift, all irritation ebbing away. "I understand. Of course you want Katie, she is… well she is goddess in human form. Small tiny fuckable goddess. And, I can see why, she might want you back. You are beautiful girl. But what you don't understand is that Katie and I, we are written in stars. She is the love of my life."
"And therein lies our problem," countered Effy. "The thing about the universe is that it is constantly shifting. Stars realign, they grow, they collapse, they die. New stars are born every day. The cosmos is not something to be relied on. She can rewrite her story, and Katie is the love of my life too."
"Is that so?" said Anna, drawing herself up to her full and not inconsiderable height. "Katie?"
"It's true," I conceded. "I love her."
"No it cannot be," said Anna, refusing to accept it. "I fought for you, I wooed you, I won you. What did she do?"
"All of that and more," I said.
"But she cannot love you as much as I do," protested Anna. "Remember, Katie. Remember what we had. You cannot love her as much as you love me."
I had forgotten just how fucking persistent Anna could be.
"I'd like to test that theory," grinned Effy.
"What is it you people say?" said Anna, her tigress rising with every word. "Be careful what you wish for? So be it."
She pulled upon my hand, which was still somehow inexplicably tangled with hers, and drew me towards her. And then she kissed me. Soft, delicate and full of love. Again it sent my senses spinning. There had been a time when being kissed by Anna Markova was the pinnacle of my existence. She wrapped her hand around my neck and pulled me closer, and once more I did nothing to stop her. I felt my life spinning out of control. Was everything I had been through with Effy worth so little, it could be ripped apart as easily as this? But Anna was an honourable woman, and having accepted Effy's challenge she was prepared to give her rival her shot. She stepped away from me, but fixed me with a deeply emotional stare. I couldn't pretend that she didn't still have a hold on me. If it hadn't been for Effy, I would have been in her arms and in her bed in seconds.
"Now you," she said turning to Effy defiantly.
Seriously? She was going to turn this into some kind of macho kiss off between her and Effy? I turned to Effy in alarm, silently begging her not to let it come to this. The look of amusement on her face did nothing to placate me. She had her head cocked to the side again in that way of hers, and she looked like she was weighing up the pros and cons of the offer. The thing was, I genuinely had no idea what she would do. For all that I knew her, and all that we had shared, Effy was still in essence a woman of mystery. Her smile grew from quizzical to downright evil, and for the first time since the start of the encounter, she pushed herself off the wall.
"Effy don't," I warned her.
But Effy wasn't coming for me.
She assumed a stalker's prowl every bit as effective as the one Anna had used on me, disarming her prey with an overt sexuality, and I saw how easily she must have gobbled up the victims of her youth. Anna was certainly caught in her trance as Effy manoeuvred her back against the wall and kissed her with every ounce of the passion that made her such an irresistible lover. I looked on in morbid fascination as the two women I had loved most in my life engaged in a lip lock of spectacular proportions. Was I angry, jealous, uncomfortable? No. Instead my drug-addled body was engulfed in a shameful wave of desire. It was hot, ridiculously hot and all I wanted to do was watch, my so-called morals but a distant memory from when I thought I knew it all. I saw Anna's body capitulate to Effy's force of will, and I knew exactly how it felt to be kissed by her like that. So it was no surprise when her hands moved up to wrap around Effy's back and into her hair. She was just as lost as any of the poor weak souls who were subjected to Effy's charms. It was only when Effy pulled away that Anna seemed to regain her senses.
"What the fuck?" she said, her eyes wide with a mixture of desire and disbelief.
"So now you know," said Effy trailing her hand down between Anna's breasts. "Imagine that with love behind it, and you'll know exactly what I can give to Katie."
I burst out laughing. What else could I do? There was no road map for this kind of situation. No simplistic set of instructions with a list of do's and don't's. My moral compass had been demagnetised and the needle was spinning in all directions. But when Effy smiled at me, I knew I could find my path even in the dark. I already knew my way back to her heart.
"Je t'aime," I told her.
"I know," she said. "I trusted you."
"Then what was all that about?" I asked, but without any hint of malice.
"Well, I had to watch you kissing the face off her," she shrugged. "Although it was kinda hot."
Her eyes cut into me like she knew exactly what I had been thinking.
"So now we're even," she grinned.
"Anna," she said, turning her attention back to the Russian. "I get it, I really do. If I had lost Katie I wouldn't want to give her up either. You are a seriously gorgeous woman, and there was a time before I opened my heart to her that she was already considering coming back to you. She loved you, and a good part of her clearly still does, but I'm prepared to live with that. But I'm not going to let you take her away from me."
"How will you stop me?" said Anna, pulling herself together for the next round of the fight.
"I won't have to," replied Effy, and I knew that she was right.
She didn't have to scream at me. She didn't have to punch Anna's lights out. She didn't have to prove herself in any way. She just had to carry on being her usual unconventional, unpredictable self. When you are loved by someone who will not abide by the rules of the game, you know you are truly loved.
"You know if it was just a sexual thing," she continued. "I'd say fuck it, let's all get a room and get stuck in together. God knows, I've fancied you since I was a girl."
Even I was shocked at the images that flashed salaciously through my head at her words. Katie Fitch, you are a very, very, very bad girl. I couldn't help but glance across at Anna, and for the first time in my life a saw a shadow of guilt work it's way across her features. It seems I wasn't the only one whose brain was splashing about in the gutter right then.
"But sadly, it's not," said Effy. "We both love her, and it would not end well. So I'm standing up and staking my claim. If you'll have me Katie, I'm still yours."
"Acknowledged," said Anna. "You will be worthy opponent. All is fair in love and war, no?"
"Not quite," said Effy. "I do have a somewhat unfair advantage."
"You do?" said Anna.
I could tell she was trying not to let Effy rattle her, but it was a struggle.
"I liked it," smirked Effy. "So I put a ring on it."
I never in all my days thought I would hear Effy quoting Beyoncé, but it was hysterically funny. I burst out into a frighteningly manic laugh once more, more out of relief that there wasn't going to be some violent cat fight over my honour than anything else. But my laughter was short-lived. Anna recoiled in horror at Effy's words, and she looked like the brunette had just sunk a machete into her chest.
"You're married?" she said with a devastated look on her face.
"Engaged," conceded Effy. "But that's not going to change anytime soon."
"You said yes?" Anna asked me, looking like her entire world was about to implode.
"I did," I said.
My Anna was tough and proud. In all the time I had known her I had never once seen her cry, but as she stared at the two of us I could see her eyes beginning to mist up. She said nothing as a single tear escaped and formed its tracks across her cheek.
"I'm sorry," I said with feeling. I wasn't used to seeing Anna vulnerable.
"I'm sorry too," said Effy. "That's two hearts I have broken for Katie, but I can't help it. I'm going to marry this girl."
She touched me for the first time during the whole encounter, her fingers discreetly reaching for mine as she stood next to me, and tangling with me in a subtle gesture of reassurance. Anna just looked lost. Her tears were flowing more freely now, but still she remained silent. I was fighting the urge to reach out and wipe her tears away. She had spent the last two years believing she could win me back, just as she had won my heart in the first place. Now that belief was gone. Effy had been right about one thing, I did still love her in some way, but I couldn't give her what she needed. She shook her head, and slowly started to back away.
"Anna," I called out after her.
"Don't Katie," she said. "Not now. Maybe some day, but not now."
I had to watch her walk away. It felt terrible not to be able to say a proper goodbye. In my rage of two years ago, I had wanted nothing more to do with her, but now I felt a little empty without her. I finally understood how hard it must have been for Effy to give up her friendship with Freddie for me, but she was as ever, right. The stars had written a new story, and that story was ours.
"Are you ok?" said Effy softly.
"I will be," I said, pulling her in for a hug. "What about you? That can't have been easy for you."
"Like I said," she whispered. "I trusted you. I believe in us. Besides, I did get to kiss Anna Markova. That's one major teenage fantasy ticked off the list."
She slid her hands around my bum.
"Cook's going to be so jealous," I could feel her grinning into my shoulder. "I mean these hands have been on those tits…"
"You copped a feel?" I said in outrage, pushing her away from me.
"Tu sais que je suis vilaine," she winked at me.
"Et je t'aime precisement comme ça…," I replied.
"Well, now that we've sorted that out, I bumped into Naomi just now, and she mentioned something about a monster stash of coke…"
Naomi fucking Campbell. The thought of her jolted me out of my shock and suddenly I saw red. I stalked furiously off across the party, with Effy trailing in my wake. It was Emily who spotted me first as I approached, and her features fell as she spotted all the signs of a full on Katie rage. She instinctively stepped forward to form a tiny Fitch-sized barrier between me and her lover.
"What the fuck do you think you were playing at?" I exploded towards Naomi.
"What have I done now?" she responded with her usual diffidence.
"Anna," I spat at her.
"Oh," said Naomi guiltily.
"What the fuck did you invite her for?"
"She's my friend," replied Naomi honestly. "Quite a fucking good friend actually since I got to know her properly. I wasn't going to not invite her to my party."
"But you knew she'd try and get me back," I yelled. "Didn't you even think about Effy?"
"I was thinking about Effy," argued Naomi. "And Anna. No-one else had the balls to tell her you were seeing someone else, and it was about time she knew. And I knew it had to come from you before she'd believe it."
"Well I think you better go and find your friend," I told her. "She might be a little upset right now."
"What did you say to her?" said Naomi accusatorily.
"I think it was more me," interjected Effy.
"What did you say to her?" repeated Naomi.
"I think I broke her heart," said Effy. "Well shattered it really."
I didn't see Anna or Naomi again that night. I hoped that she had found her, and was able to provide some form of comfort. Effy and I didn't talk much either. Our hotel room had a balcony so we took the duvet out there, and just drank and smoked and did lines until we could barely focus. I didn't really know what to say to her, but I clung on tightly when she shivered into my side. It was a cold clear night, and you could see the stars, even through the light pollution from the city. I caught Effy gazing up at the constellations as if she was receiving wisdom from them.
"Babes, are we going to be alright?" I asked her.
"We will be," she said, without looking down at me. "We will be."
.
.
.
"Tu sais que je suis vilaine," she winked at me.
"Et je t'aime precisement comme ça…," I replied.
"You know that I'm bad," she winked at me.
"And I love you all the same…" I replied.