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“Jake had an early shift at the café, so he’s gone—sadly. And you should know, after your countless hangover brekky preparations for a certain someone who shall remain nameless, that the best cure is fat and carbs.”
Alice almost retched.
“Strong coffee, at least,” Polly compromised. “You or me in the shower first?”
“You first,” Alice said feebly. “I’m going to get an ice pack.”
By the time she had tucked into her plate of a half serve of the full vego brekky and a soy long mac at the Hole in the Wall café two blocks down from their house, Alice was beginning to feel human again.
Polly sat opposite, drinking black coffee. She’d over-indulged in more ways than one last night, apparently. “I always get the munchies after good sex.” She sighed. “I sent Jake out to buy hot chips from the burger van on East Street.”
“What on earth time was that?”
After Aaron had left, Alice hadn’t been able to face either of their enquiring glances and had gone into her room and thrown herself face-down on the bed, where the choice was howl like a banshee or pass out. She’d chosen the latter.
Polly shrugged. “About 11ish, I guess.”
“How do you do it, Poll?”
“Do what?”
“Get them eating out of your hand like fledgling birds.”
Polly laughed. “I’d hardly call Jake a fledgling. More like a big cuddly bear.”
“Psychologically, I mean; they’re like baby birds pecking up any crumb you graciously throw to them.”
“Not really.” Polly shrugged. “Though I guess it could have something to do with the fact I’m not interested in anything long term. Guys pick up the scent of a woman who’s too needy pretty damn quick. There’s no way I’m going to go all soft over a guy. So yeah, maybe they get that about me and, I dunno, perhaps, perversely it makes them keener.”
Alice sipped miserably at her macchiato. “Clearly, I’ve wrecked it with Aaron on all counts, then.”
Polly’s eyes twinkled. “The rules change when you’re both in as deep as each other. Then everything gets a whole heap more complicated.”
Alice frowned. It still hurt her head, but not quite as fiercely as before. “You’ve lost me as usual.”
“Well, it’s like this, right. Once the emotional connection is already in place and you add sex, it’s like,whoof,light the blue touch paper and stand well back. It’s seriously deep shit. He can’t go back from here. Mind you, he won’t have a clue how to go forward either.” Polly gave a sudden wide grin. “RememberDoctor Dolittle?”
“Yes of course, I read it a hundred times.”
“Me too. And the movie, I loved it. Remember the Push-Me-Pull-You? That’s what it’s like for Aaron right now. He’s pushed and pulled by his feelings, which means he’s stuck until he finally accepts he’s in love with you. And here’s the thing: you’re going to have to give him a bit of help.”
Alice stared miserably into her coffee. The enormity of the task was like scaling Everest in a pair of stilettos.
“I just want to go back to how we were before. I knew where I stood then.”
Polly threw her hands up in the air. “Yeah. Invisible.”
“It was safe. Easy.”
“You’re right; safeiseasy. Safe is boring. Safe is your life slipping through your fingers. Go on, Munchkin, hightail it back to safe before you reallyget tofeellike you’re alive.”
Alice squinted across the table. “Sometimes you are so mean.”
Polly leaned forward and placed a hand on her arm and stared earnestly into her eyes. “Because you’re my best friend and I love you. Which means I want you to grab every opportunity that could make you happy, not live a small, mean little life buried under old books and rescue cats.”
Alice shot upright in her seat. That wasn’t a nice image at all.
“I love you too,” she said, and shovelled in a hasty mouthful of hash brown. “Even if you are a prize cow sometimes.” The food tasted good—really good—and as she ate more, the gnawing feeling in her stomach receded.
