Well I banged this chapter out rather sharpish because I'm moving to London this weekend (scary) and I don't know how soon I'll get the chance to update again. So I hope you like it. Let me know if you do/don't/would like some pie. It's all good to know.

Chapter six

...

'Can I come in?'

The question steamed in the cold air.

Naomi watched Emily run her hand up the worn wood of the door. 'I'm not sure you should.'

Naomi's raised eyebrows shifted into sadness. 'It wasn't me you know,' she said. 'I would never do that.'

'Do what?'

'Do that to Katie. It wasn't me. All I did was cut the phones.' Naomi's words all stumbled out very quickly, like each one was in more of a hurry than the last.

Emily sighed. 'Fuck's sake Naomi,' she said half-heartedly, 'You don't fucking learn do you?'

Naomi wanted to launch into a tirade at that moment about how she had learnt. How she tried every day to make the world better. But instead she looked at the ground and shrugged. Emily could always silence her. Drop her to her knees and squeeze all breath out of her body and strip her of anything she ever owned.

The low sun did nothing to warm the freezing air that steadily numbed her nose and ears.

'I just wanted you to know,' Naomi said, finally drawing together the courage to look back up into Emily's searching eyes. The eyes kept searching. Endlessly. As if they knew there was something else there, and they were desperate to find it. Naomi quickly turned before they could. 'That's all,' she said.

'Naomi!' barked an abruptly irritated voice.

Naomi turned back round to be confronted with a suddenly annoyed Emily.

'What the hell?' was the demand.

'Excuse me?' Naomi asked.

'Seriously, you just got me involved in a fucking crime scene ... in an attack against my sister!' even as Emily said it, it sounded ridiculous. 'You can't just turn up here and say 'oo sorry, wasn't me' you know.'

Naomi resisted the urge to ask why the hell not.

'I don't know what the hell you've got yourself mixed up in ... but you need to sort it out because I'm not going to get blamed for this,' Emily assured her.

'Well ... it was your decision to let me go,' Naomi began, 'which I'm very grateful for by the way,' she added very quickly as she saw Emily flare up in front of her. 'But I really can't be held responsible for your actions.'

Emily looked incredulous. 'Then how come I'm suddenly responsible for yours?'

Naomi could hear her heartbeat pound in her ears and throat then. She could hear it because she knew what Emily was going to say next.

'I'm going to have to say something.'

'Emily ... no, please,' Naomi swallowed back the quiver in her voice. She swallowed back the anger in her body. '... Emily.'

'I have to.' The three words stung like cracks of a whip. Emily's sad eyes made her lose all hope.

'Ladies!' A friendly exclamation interrupted the moment, and a hand clapped down intrusively on Naomi's shoulder, making her jump forwards and yelp. She looked up at the owner of the hand. It belonged to a tall clean-cut man with balding hair shaved close. He was dressed up smartly in a grey suit and an offensively pink tie, a briefcase tucked under one of his arms. Behind him she saw a car on the drive emblazoned with the logo 'Angel's Delight.' She rolled her eyes. She wasn't in the mood for a slanging match with a Jehovah's Witness right now.

'Hi I'm Josh,' the man extended a hairy hand out to Emily, who shook it tentatively. 'I'm your event planner, I spoke to Sam earlier this morning.'

'Emily,' she replied. Naomi noticed the uncertain wavering in her smoky voice.

'So you must be Sam,' Josh cheerfully took Naomi's hand and shook it. 'Shall we go inside?'

Emily opened her mouth to correct Josh's innocent mistake, but Naomi quickly seized her chance.

'Yes let's,' she said. 'This way Josh,' and she stepped boldly inside the house, striding past Emily, ignoring the hot feeling of the glare she was casting at her back. The house smelt like clean sheets and bleach. Naomi screwed her nose up.

'Lovely house you've got here,' Josh commented idly as Naomi tried to find the living room.

'Thanks, we like it,' she said sweetly, poking her head round a doorway and into a room on the left, smiling to herself as she found it to contain sofas and a television. She cast a look back at Emily who hadn't moved from the front door. 'Come on Em. Quick sharp.'

She led Josh into the room, hearing Emily shuffle bad-temperedly down the corridor after them. She sat down on the nearest sofa, sinking down gratefully into a reclining position, and putting her feet up on the coffee table. The house wasn't quite to her taste. The curtains had tassels. The cushions on the chairs had buttons. There was a small model of a china dog on the window sill. And everything was just a bit too clean. But it was nice enough, Naomi supposed.

Emily walked into the room with a thunderous look. She pointedly sat on a different sofa to Naomi.

'Right then,' Naomi said, tapping her thighs as if she meant business. 'What are we doing?'

Josh flipped open the briefcase he had been carrying, lifting out folders and magazine and photos. He spread them out on the coffee table like a messy bouquet. 'Right, so how many guests did you say you were expecting?'

Josh's question was met with silence. He looked expectantly at Naomi.

'Um ...' she said, 'I can't quite remember. Emily?'

''Bout a hundred,' she muttered.

Naomi whistled. 'Big spender.'

'Okay,' Josh said, scribbling something down in a pad. 'And Sam specified it was an open-air reception with marquees for dining on the phone ...' he continued to write before he looked up. 'That should be fine with a wedding in May,' he grinned. 'But I'd keep your fingers crossed for sun just in case.'

Naomi felt like her heart had stopped. 'Wedding?' she asked instantly before she could stop herself.

Josh looked at her quizzically.

She quickly checked herself and cleared her throat. 'Right ... wedding of course.' But she frowned again immediately, unable to process this information. 'Wedding?' she asked again.

Josh gave a slightly awkward chuckle. 'Sure you want to marry this one?' he asked Emily jokingly, jerking his head in Naomi's direction.

Emily smiled vaguely and avoided all eye contact with everyone. 'Yeah ... of course.'

Josh returned to his briefcase. 'I get it,' he assured them, 'It can all be a bit overwhelming. There's so much to plan and organise and pay for.' He looked sympathetically at Naomi. 'But I'm here to make that all a bit easier for you both. You're in good hands.' He winked.

Naomi felt sick.

She looked around the room she was sat in with new eyes. Those fucking horribly kitsch curtain tassels, those nasty cheap looking buttons on the cushions, that ghastly little china dog. And Emily. Sat quietly on the far end of the sofa, gazing studiously at the hands she had folded in her lap. Hands that she was going to run over her fiancé's naked skin, in their cosy little living room full of their tasteless crap, with their little china guard dog keeping watch out into the street.

'Sam?'

Even the name made Naomi's insides twist.

'Sam?'

Naomi shook herself. 'Yeah?' she met Josh's concerned gaze.

'Are you okay?' he asked.

'Yeah ... sorry, just suddenly felt a bit nauseous.' She looked at Emily, who this time stared firmly back at her, as if she had nothing to be ashamed of.

'So before we get onto menu planning, are there any allergies or aversions I should know of?' Josh asked. 'Vegetarians? Vegans? Lactose intolerance?'

Emily cleared her throat, tearing her eyes away from the staring match Naomi had engaged her in. 'Yeah, Sam's allergic to prawns.'

Josh nodded and picked up his pen.

'No I'm not,' Naomi said quickly.

Josh's pen hovered above the page.

'Yes you are, dear,' Emily said, through gritted teeth.

'No I'm not,' Naomi replied firmly. 'Josh? I'm not.'

'She is!' Emily closed her eyes in frustration. Naomi smirked. 'They make her really sick.'

Josh looked over at Naomi.

'Well ... they did. But I've realised that ... they don't.' Naomi told him.

'We'll come back to it,' Josh said, nervously glancing from one girl to the other.

'Would you excuse us for a moment Josh?' Emily asked, standing up.

'By all means,' Josh answered. He sounded grateful.

'Sam?' Emily said, jerking her head in the direction of the corridor.

'Emily.' Naomi mimicked, getting up off the sofa and following her out of the room.

Emily led her swiftly into the kitchen, slamming the door forcefully behind her.

'What the fuck do you think you're doing?' she asked, whipping round to Naomi instantly, her cheeks tinged red and her eyes dark and torrid with anger.

'It was the only way I could get you to fucking talk to me!' Naomi shouted back.

Emily rolled her eyes at Naomi's apparent absurdity. 'Did it occur to you that maybe I didn't want to talk to you?' she said, flailing her arms around at nothing in particular. 'And now look at me. I've got you as my fucking fiancé!'

Naomi pursed her lips.

Emily stared at her.

Naomi felt a peculiar fluttering in her stomach that felt foreign and familiar at the same time. Her tightened lips loosened and twisted upwards into a smile. She began to laugh, spluttering ungainly at first before launching into a fit of giggles. She was followed almost instantly by Emily, who snorted softly before her angry face split sideways into an adorable grin and she too began laughing uncontrollably. Naomi leant on the counter for support as her eyes filled with tears that spilled warmly onto her cheeks. Her stomach muscles began to ache.

She couldn't remember the last time she had laughed until it hurt.

Emily pushed her palms against her eyes, wiping away her own tears. The sound of laughter slowly died away like a tide retreating down a beach, but smiles lingered on their faces.

'Em,' Naomi ventured in the new silence, 'As my future wife ... I don't think you should grass me to the police. Or it's going to be a very lonely honeymoon.'

Emily snorted, 'Yeah ... right.' Her smile twitched as if it was about to grow. 'For richer and for poorer.'

'Amen.'

...