by Jackson Lear
Daniel leaned back in his chair and dropped his hands from the keyboard. “Shit.”
The automated voice from the game sounded out: “You’re dead.”
Ian was still clicking as fast as he could.
“Make it a save point,” said Daniel.
“You said there was a flamethrower.”
“We might as well wait for Warrick,” said Daniel. “Do it quickly before one of them bites me.”
Ian fired off a few blasts from his shotgun, taking out several cans of corn. Somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered why there would be a flamethrower hidden in a food store.
“Just make it a save point,” Daniel said again.
“Do you have a medipack on you?”
“Probably, but I want to save that for later.”
“You’re dead. There is no later.”
“Saaaaaave point.”
Ian sighed, dropped his shoulders, and clicked escape. “Fine. Saving.” He looked back to Daniel. “What do we do now?”
Daniel checked the time. “Want to say we’re going over to Warrick’s for a bit?”
“And do what?”
“Go to the Den?”
“It’s kinda far from here,” said Ian.
“I can get some beer. Drink it when we get there.”
It seemed reasonable enough.
11
Claire
Claire threw open the front door and beamed at the woman striding along the pathway. “Amanda!”
“Claire!”
They both trotted forward, hugged, kissed each other on the cheek, and broke away so Amanda could hand over a bottle of cab-sav.
“Come in, come in!” said Claire. “How is it being back home?”
“Great. Fine. Mum sends her love.”
Claire arched an eyebrow. “Does she?”
“Let’s say yes and move on,” said Amanda. She stepped inside Claire’s three bedroom home and caught sight of Josh in the doorway leading to the lounge.
“Hello stranger,” said Josh, with an over the top New York accent. He bounded forward and gave Amanda a sweeping hug, lifting her off her feet. “Long time no see.”
“How are you, sweetie?” Amanda asked, making sure that her lipstick was smeared all over Josh’s cheek.
“Doing okay,” said Josh. His eyes dropped down to her feet and then back up again. “Are you taller than I remember?”
Amanda angled one foot out, showing him a pair of black boots. “These add a few inches. Do these things scream ‘Amanda’ or what?”
Josh feigned a gasp and clapped both hands to his cheeks. “I’ve never seen them before but I’ve always wanted them!”
Amanda glanced around and smiled at Anthony, who stood under the archway and raised a martini to welcome her.
“We’re all having a drink inside,” said Anthony.
“And we still have a bottle of red to finish off,” said Claire. “And then yours.”
“Not to mention the ones we each brought,” said Josh.
“Which is a challenge we’ve accepted,” said Anthony.
Claire closed the front door and waved her hand around the walls. “So this is where I still live.”
A set of arches led into the central rooms downstairs. The floorboards were teak and ran throughout the house. The furniture was a mash of bright colours and fluffy cushions. Almost every inch of the corridor wall was covered in photos of herself and Ian.
“It hasn’t changed at all,” said Amanda.
“Not down here, no, but the upstairs bathroom has been expanded and refurbished.”
“By ...” said Anthony.
“By my very expensive brother,” said Claire.
Anthony tipped his glass towards her. “If I do the bedrooms I might be able to send the kids to Cambridge.”
“I think I’ll have to get in line behind Gemma, because she’s still talking about your kitchen,” said Claire. She spun back towards Amanda, completely missing the grimace on Anthony’s face. “So come in, join the party, pop yourself down, and get comfy. How long has it been since you last saw Ian?”
Amanda fell into the plush blue sofa, leaned back on the red cushions, and quickly crossed her legs. “Just before his eleventh birthday.”
“God, really? He’s thirteen, now.”
“Is he here?”
“He’s away at a friend’s house tonight.”
“So, just the four irresponsible adults?” Amanda asked.
“Exactly,” said Claire, as she poured the last of a bottle of wine into Amanda’s empty glass.
“Do I also get one of the best martinis in Luxford?”
“You would if Lady Klutz hadn’t left us with only one glass ten minutes ago,” said Josh.
“Yeah,” groaned Claire. “The drinking bit is fine, it’s just the stem that’s broken off.”
Anthony handed over his drink. “You can take this one if you like. Two olives and just the right amount of vermouth.”
Amanda smiled and glanced down at her hands, one with a half-drunk martini and the other with a Claire-sized guzzle of wine. “We’re having that kind of evening, are we?”
“I wish I could say we all waited for you before starting, but let’s face it; you’ve known us long enough to know that just wasn’t going to happen,” said Claire.
“I’ll try my best to catch up, then.” Amanda looked over to Josh and smiled at him. “How are you, stranger?”
“I’m doing okay,” Josh said, beaming with a smile.
“Just okay?”
Josh tapped his stomach. “As soon as I lose this I’ll be better.”
“You actually look good,” said Amanda. “My mum warned me you might be the size of a hippo.”
“Well, your mum ...”
“Yeah, yeah, my mum can go and do many things,” said Amanda.
By nine o’clock they were onto their third bottle of wine.
“You could try online dating,” said Amanda.
Claire lazily shook her head as a giggle slipped out. “Never again. Even if Luxford was ten times the size, no.”
Josh peered at their host. “Didn’t you go on a date with our old civics teacher?”
Claire dropped into a dead serious glare. “How did you know about that?” She quickly shot a look over to her brother.
“What?”
Claire groaned and covered her face with one hand. “Oh, Jesus.”
“If it’s any help, Anthony wasn’t the first to tell me,” said Josh.
“What? What do you mean he wasn’t the first? Who was?”
‘Hannah’ was on the tip of his tongue. “I can’t remember, only that I already knew when I officially found out.”
Claire sighed and stared into her glass of wine. “Which is why I’m never doing online dating again.”
“It’s not like he was sixty,” said Josh.
“Yeah, he couldn’t have been more than ten years older than us.”
“The beard, though …”
“No, he shaved that off,” said Claire. “I didn’t recognise him until he spoke, then it hit me in a bad, bad way.”
Amanda shook her head in confusion. “What’s the problem in dating an old teacher?”
“Dating a teacher is fine, but dating someone who once gave me detention–” she caught Josh heading into a full blown grin. “–No!”
“Can’t help it.”
“And for making me stay back after class …”
Josh pulled his lips in as tightly as possible as he focussed with all his will to keep his breathing steady.
“When I was begging for an A …”
Josh slammed his eyes shut to help regain his composure.
“And you know what those uniforms were like. Plunging neckline and all. So; no more teachers. And no more online dating.”
Josh opened his eyes and took a shaky breath to settle his nerves. “That I understand. I mean, in a few years you might find one of Ian’s friends on there, sending you messages late
at night.” He was met with one extreme shudder and gag, one mild wide-eyed look of surprise, and one amused glare. A devilish grin crossed Josh’s face, allowing him to nod with a deep sense of satisfaction. “Good, good. My work here is done for the night. Carry on.”
Claire shot a hand up to her face. “Oh God, that really is going to happen one day, isn’t it?”
“Let’s hope they’re eighteen first.”
“And I’ll be forty!”
The other three held their tongues as their math skills kicked in.
“Forty one! I don’t want to date an eighteen year old.”
“He would be very appreciative,” said Josh.
“He’d be crap,” said Amanda.
“He might not have even graduated school by then,” said Anthony.
Claire forced back another gag. “Let’s … no, just … please.”
Josh drew in a deep breath.
“No,” said Claire. “We’re moving on. To Amanda.”
Josh raised his glass into the air. “To Amanda!”
Suddenly more people were raising their glasses in her honour. “What are we doing?”
“Raising our drinks.”
“Why?”
“Because Claire said so.”
Claire rolled her eyes at Josh. “I was actually hoping to find out how New York is going.”
All eyes turned to the blushing woman. “Uh … not all that great, actually. Scott and I broke up.”
“Whaaat?”
Amanda glanced to Anthony. “You didn’t tell her?”
“It wasn’t my story to tell.”
“What happened?” asked Claire.
Amanda shrugged it off as best she could. “Nothing really. We were always having these weird weeks where nothing happened and yet we were always ridiculously busy. Monday rolls along and there’s always some last minute crap from work because this venue is double booked or that group we’ve hired have had some kind of crisis or other that prevents them from making it to a sound check so it’s all hands on deck. Come Tuesday and we’re trying to find a way of coordinating a spectacular holiday that we can both afford, then what starts off as a six week European bonanza turns into a four week campervan trip through the mid-west, then a one week campervan trip and one week of motel hopping before pushing our luck and seeing if any of our friends in Tennessee, Texas, or Oregon might be able to put us up for a few days. All of a sudden it’s eleven o’clock and even our ten day holiday is now too expensive and not all that appealing. On Wednesdays we’d hit up the supermarket and deal with the crowds and parking only to forget half of the things on the list. Thursday swings by and one of us has to work late while the other cooks a thirty minute meal that somehow takes an hour. Friday we’re both wrecked and agree on laptop time for twenty minutes while a movie plays in the background, then all of a sudden it’s midnight. So we’re lying in bed, not having seen each other for days despite both being home, telling each other that it’s been another weird week, until you figure out that it’s been a week without sex and all of this weirdness is more common than not. We’d fallen into a funk where everything got pushed to the weekend, then when it came to Saturday all we wanted to do was lie in bed and recover, answer a few emails, find something interesting to watch online, then before we knew what has happening it was eleven o’clock again and we should’ve gone to bed an hour ago. It became month after month of just being in a holding pattern.”
“That’s why you have date night,” said Anthony. “Make it at least once a week and always put in the effort. Maybe even rendezvous somewhere new like in a bar, where you pretend you don’t know each other and it’s your very first date. Wear something nice, pay for their drinks, take them home.”
“Home is where the fantasy stops,” mumbled Claire. “There’s always a load of laundry waiting to be done, dishes in the sink.”
“Then make sure it gets done first,” said Josh.
Both Anthony and Claire laughed and shook their heads.
“You can spot the person who doesn’t have kids,” said Anthony.
Amanda cast a quick eye towards Josh. “Maybe I just needed to do something a little dangerous and let Scott be none the wiser.”
Anthony purposely kept his attention on Claire, ignoring the glare coming from Josh to his side. Claire missed it all as she was busy staring into her glass of wine, until the room fell silent. “Sorry, what?”
“Nothing,” said Josh.
“I mean I’m thirty four,” said Amanda. “I’m in the peak of my life and god how I miss flirting. I work with practically all women, went to classes at the gym that were ninety percent soccer moms, and all of our socialising was with parents or couples. This is the first sexy dress I’ve had a chance to wear in over a year.” She held her hands out, ready to receive the compliments.
“Looks good,” said Claire.
“Yeah,” said Anthony.
“You make me want to speak foreign languages and do things that if I told my girlfriend about she wouldn’t be my girlfriend anymore,” said Josh.
Amanda nodded in appreciation. “Thank you, sweetie.”
Anthony poured himself another drink. “If you want to be flirted with why don’t you go to one of those New York cocktail bars?”
“Because I want flirting, not to be hit on. And I don’t want the kind where these guys have had a few drinks already and they slobber, ‘I like your hair, you’re really pretty.’”
Josh nodded slowly, taking his time in stepping through the minefield. “So you really had no other flirting while you were with Scott?”
“There was some in the beginning but that was because we used to go out and do things. Then we became hermits.”
“What about more than just flirting?”
“Never,” blurted out Claire.
Josh kept his eyes on Amanda.
“Are you asking me if I’ve ever cheated on someone?” Amanda asked, with a raised eyebrow.
Josh paused as he reconsidered the topic of conversation. “I wasn’t, but now that you mention it …”
Amanda found herself at the centre of some very awkward attention. “Has anyone else here cheated?”
“No.”
“No.”
“No.”
Amanda held herself as steady as possible. She was there the night Anthony made a move on Rose while supposedly dating Lisa, though Rose apparently pushed him away before they even locked lips. And she certainly heard about Josh’s dalliance in Prague. She refused to let her eyes drift over towards Claire, in fear that she might be the reason for their denials.
“I wasn’t talking about getting into someone’s pants,” said Josh. “Just a little banter on the side.”
“That quickly becomes cheating,” said Claire.
“Not always.”
“If you start toying with people’s emotions for your own amusement it’s going to blow up in your face and potentially tear your marriage apart.”
Amanda held her breath as Josh warmed himself up to his big reveal. He just needed a little prodding. “Is it really just banter?”
“We’re talking about you and Scott,” said Josh, with a serene look on his face.
“Well, I’ve had a couple of drinks and my life is a shambles, so what would you like to know?”
“I want to know if you’re okay,” said Josh.
A smile crept over her. “My head’s been spun around so many times in the last couple of weeks that I barely know what’s happening, but I’m getting there. How are you?”
Josh shot his eyes over to see if Claire’s attention was somewhere else. “Couldn’t be better.”
“I’m not that drunk,” said Claire. “And if you think I’m going to be the odd one out in my own house you’ve got another thing coming.”
“Fine,” said Josh. “But first I need you all to adhere to a Cone of Secrecy.”
“Pfft,” spluttered Claire. “What are we, fourteen?”
“Yes. For all intents and purpose
s we are all fourteen. Do I have a Cone of Secrecy or not?”
Amanda and Anthony nodded. Claire shrugged. “Sure. But this better be good.”
“Thank you. No drumroll necessary, but … I’ve been reconsidering this whole ‘no marriage’ thing.”
“WHAT!?” cried Amanda.
Stunned silence fell among them as all eyes focussed on Josh’s forced smile and accompanying nod.
“Yeah, I wasn’t ready for that,” said Claire.
“You and me both,” said Anthony, wide-eyed and bordering on a nervous groan.
“I just thought I’d test the waters a little,” said Josh.
“With what, a cannonball?” asked Amanda.
“It doesn’t mean that I’m going to get married. It’s just my stance might be shifting a little.”
“Jesus H. Christ, buddy,” said Anthony, as he shook his head.
“Thank you. Like I said, it’s not a definite. Maybe I’m just mellowing now that I’m in my mid thirties.”
“Wait, you’re not talking about our deal, are you?” asked Amanda.
“I am not. Because you are still in a vulnerable position and I don’t want to take advantage of you.”
Claire squinted at Josh. “What about our deal?”
Anthony turned quickly to face his sister. “The fuck?”
Claire shrugged. “He makes me laugh.”
Anthony shot a jagged point at Josh. “What did you do to my sister?”
“Cone of Secrecy, remember?”
“And what do you mean you had a deal with her?” asked Amanda.
“I feel like I’m being unfairly ganged up upon here,” said Josh.
Anthony didn’t bother to lower his finger. “If I find out after all this time that Ian is your–”
“No, no, no …” said Josh. “We just 69’d a little, that’s all.”
