Flirting With Magick (12 page)

“What about you?”

“Well, duh. What do you think? Of course I like it.” I motioned
around me. “Why do you think I’m here, with you?”

“No, the original question, dumb head.”

“
Dumb head? Is that the best you can do? Hang on...” The origin
al
question? This joint was really taking effect now. “What are we talking
about again?”

He put his hands behind his head and lay back. “You know what? I
don’t know.” The
ensuing
silence caused us both to double over in laughter.

“So... what's it like in a threesome?” His threesome admission, and
something about sleeping around, were the only subjects still vaguely
clear in my mind once I stopped cackling. Besides, he had just asked
me a deeply personal question about sex. I only wished I could remember
what it was.

“Busy. And stop hogging the joint.” He kept his answer short by taking a drag.

“Huh? How come?”

“Too much to concentrate on. It's a novelty, but I'm not keen to do
it again.”

“Yeah, right.” I took the final drag and stubbed the butt out.

“No, seriously. It's much easier to concentrate on one girl at a
time. Mind you, when they're both concentrating on me, that's a who
le different matter.”

“Yeah, I bet.” I snorted. “When was it?”

“At Uni... Geez, I'm hungry.”

I was almost relieved at the knowledge that Tanya was not involved
if it had been at university. I licked my lips at the thought of food. “M
mm,
me, too... I know!” I bounced out of the bed, modesty
—
or was it drug
induced paranoia?
—
making me wrap my towel around my nakedness
,
and into the kitchen. In the fridge was the turkey dinner, complete with
potato bake and boiled vegetables, that I had cooked the previous evening
. I wanted to keep things simple for the dinner the following night by
allowing for most of it to just be reheated. I brought a turkey leg bac
k
to the fire, and we started to pick at it, each juicy morsel tasting better
than the last. “Wait. At Uni? Did you go to uni? What did you study
?”

“Um, music.”

“Oh, yeah. Stupid question.”

“Dumb head.”

“You’ve really got to think of a better insult.”

***

“What the FUCK?”

Kate's outburst startled me out of my sleep the next morning. “What?
What
’s wrong?” I wiped my eyes, slowly focusing on Kate and Nathan
sitting on the couch closest to us, as Scott stretched his arms out from where he was holding me close to him on the floor.

“Get the munchies, did we?” Kate held up the stubbed out butt and
the remnants of the roast turkey. Somehow we had managed to devour
the lot.

“Oh, shit. Sorry.” My guilt at prematurely eating the evening meal
was overshadowed by the loud thumping in my head, followed by th
e
hazy memory of getting stoned, and finally realising I was still nak
ed. “Could you please pass me my towel?”

She threw it at me, her mood most likely due to not being invite
d
to take part in last night’s smoking circle, rather than the fact that ha
lf our dinner options now had to be revised.

Scott seemed to sense what was wrong, too. “I’ve got another joint
you guys can have tonight.” He picked it out of his bag and handed it
to her in a peacemaking attempt.

“Thanks.” It did the trick, and she flashed us a smile as she took the
dish into the kitchen. “Shower’s free. We’ll have breakfast ready wh
en you come back down.”

***

“So how’s it all going? Not as scary as you expected, huh?” Kate
and I were sitting on the couch, sipping hot chocolate. Scott and Nathan
had been snowboarding all morning, giving us the opportunity to ta
lk about the two of them.

“No, it’s been good actually,” I admitted. “We’re getting along
really well.”

“So are we,” she smiled smugly. “Nathan asked me out properly last
night.” The look of elation on her face confirmed that, for now at least, sh
e
had succumbed to the idea of a proper, mature, monogamous relationship.

“Oh my God, that’s fantastic.” We put our mugs down so I could
give her an excited hug. I was genuinely happy for Kate. I really liked
Nathan, and they were great together. He had a way of calming her
highly excitable nature. Behind Kate’s bloodshot, exhausted eyes w
as
an excitement I had never seen before. She was happy with som
ething
she never thought she could be happy with; she was in love. I suddenly
understood why our relationships had always seemed so different— because they
were
different.

“Listen, Abs. I want to apologise for the stupid questions I was asking
you and Scott last night in the spa. I was drunk and, as things are going
so well with Nathan and me, I guess…” She paused, biting her lip, “I guess I was hoping something would work out for you, too.”

“That’s okay. They were embarrassing at the time, but I’m over
it now. Scott didn’t seem to mind anyway, and the thing is I’m not
really interested—”

“I just wanted to see what Scott’s reaction would be so I could gaug
e how he felt about you,” she interrupted.

Now I was curious. “So what do you think?” I asked innocently.

“It’s hard to tell. I don’t think he’s pining over anyone. And when
I asked you about Josh, he wasn’t looking at you, but he didn’t look particularly worried either, so he’s not easy to read.” She paused and
seemed to be choosing her next words carefully. “But I
can
read you.”

“What?”

“You just said weren't interested, but I can tell you like him more than you’re letting on.”

I didn’t want to hear any more and got defensive. “No I don’t. Scot
t
and I are just having sex. That’s it. It’s helping me get over Josh, but that’s
all our relationship is. I don’t even know if we’d be friends after this.
He’s great, and he’s hot, but long term? I said it was time for a chan
ge, and that’s what I’m doing.”

“So you
would
like it to be more?” She was seeing straight through
me and ignoring everything I was saying out loud.

“
I’m happy with the way things are,” I said defiantly and avoided
looking at her. “I’m not ready for another relationship yet, besides I kind of lied when you asked about Josh. I didn’t think it was right to say I’m still in love with my ex-boyfriend when the guy I’m bonking is sitting right next to me.”

“Do you realise your voice goes up an octave when you lie?" She
didn’t believe me, which was fair enough considering I wasn’t even
sure I believed myself. "Don’t worry; your secret is safe with me.”

There was no point in pretending then. “Does Nathan know?” I had a horrible vision of Nathan making fun of my little crush as they
trudged the snowy streets outside and Scott shaking his head and
saying “Poor girl, definitely not my type but such an easy lay” as he
eyed off some tall, slim, blonde ski-bunny and thought, “Damn, I wis
h
Abby wasn’t here so I could be with other chicks.” My own head wa
s doing more damage to my self-esteem than real life events.

She scoffed. “Nathan wouldn’t know if his head was on fire. And
don’t worry, Scott’s oblivious, too. It must be a guy thing. The que
stion is, are you going to
do
anything about it?”

That was a good question. At least I was rescued from having to answer it as the front door slammed and heavy footsteps announced the boys’ return. They walked in with a case of beer and another cask of wine, along with a bag of groceries to replenish our, ahem, dinner
supplies. I jumped up and took the bag, which included a small turk
ey
ready roast, from Nathan’s arms and joined Scott in the kitchen where
he was filling the fridge with the bottles of beer. “It must be cold out
there; your cheeks are all red,” I observed, touching the side of his cold
face with the back of my hand. To my surprise, he held my hand there
and kissed it lightly. “Do you want a beer?” he asked, promptly drop
ping my hand and reaching into the fridge.

“Yeah, yeah thanks.” I turned away before he could see my own reddening cheeks and unpacked the bag.

I needed to get this sorted out. Okay, I liked him, I'd admitted that
,
but the whole point was to enjoy myself and just let it be what it is. He
wasn’t looking for a relationship. The best thing was to keep telling
myself ‘this is just some fun,’ get over Josh, and keep looking elsewhere
.

Scott placed a couple of bottles on the bench in front of me and
took a couple more into the living room for Nathan and Kate. “Jesus, get
a room!” I heard him holler before he came into the kitchen again.
“Want a hand with dinner? Those two are about as entertaining as... soft core porn.”

“That might be what you would get if you stayed out there.” I said,
winking. “A hand here would be great.” I picked up the beer meant
for me. “Except to do this properly, I’ll have to wait until later for
this. I need to concentrate. I don’t cook very well when I’m drunk.”

“Okay, I’ll do the same then.” He put the beers back in the fridge and pulled a face as he took the decidedly un-turkey shaped meat out of the box. “I think we got the good one last night.“

***

When dinner was over, Kate leaned back and patted her frustratingly
still flat stomach. “That was sensational. You should cook like that
more often, Abby.” She looked slyly from Scott to me. “You two make
a good team.”

“Thanks.” I ignored her teasing and started clearing the table.

“Just leave it stacked in the kitchen. Kate and I will wash up in the
morning.” Nathan put his arm around his now-girlfriend.

As I stacked the dishes in the sink, I felt Scott’s hands move aroun
d my waist and his soft lips on my neck. “Dinner was beautiful. That’s gonna make my spag bol look pretty amateur.”

“You helped.” I spun around and kissed his mouth. “It wouldn’t have been the same if it was just me.”

“We’re going to hop in the spa,”
Kate yelled out from the dining
table.

“Young love, hey,” Scott mused. “Did you hear about those two? Making it official?”

“Yeah, good on them,” I said casually, letting myself out of Scott
’s embrace and putting on the kettle. “Coffee?”

He pushed me gently towards the living room. “I’ll do the coffee.
You sit and relax.”

“Mmm, I could get used to this.” I stretched out on the couch and
picked up my book, which I had spent most of the day lazily reading
.
Muffled giggles drifted from the downstairs bathroom before they were
drowned out by the water jets. Lucky them, I thought again, discreetly
studying Scott’s muscular arms as he placed the cups on the table in
front of me. I wondered how much longer I would be feeling those arm
s
around me, and more uncomfortably, how many other women they might
have been wrapped around recently. I wasn’t sure I fully believed what
he had said the night before.

“You’re not planning on reading all night, are you?” He looked
at my well-thumbed paperback, which I hastily put aside. “Can you remember what we were talking about last night?

“I can remember the spa, but not a lot since we were smoking.”

We heard giggles from the bathroom again. “Think it’s serious?” He nodded towards the noise.

I shrugged. “Who knows? By all accounts they’re as hopeless as
each other,” I sounded blasé, but their announcement had now changed
the tone of the weekend and made me feel a little uneasy, like we were
intruding on their romantic getaway. Inconsiderate bastards.

Scott walked to the window and switched on the outside light.
“Hey, it’s snowing. Finish up and get your coat on.”

***

“Why are we out here again?” I held out my gloved hands and, by the lamplight, watched the flakes melt on the leather.

“Something different for this time of night.” Scott started rolling up a large ball of snow.

“You don’t say.” I picked up my own ball and rolled it on the ground
. “Your creativity kicks in at odd times.” I gazed wistfully through the
window at the roaring fire, wishing I was there, hardly believing we were
out in the cold, late in the evening, making snow sculptures. “Shouldn’t
you be inside with your guitar, channelling Kurt Cobain or something
?”
He didn’t answer so I stacked a second ball of snow on top of my first
,
then noticed my snowman didn’t have the more common, rounded
build; it had taken on a cylindrical shape. Scott hummed to himself as
he moulded a pair of enormous breasts onto his snow woman. “Do
you feel a bit like we’re intruding now?” I asked, wondering whether
to leave my cylinder as was or round it out.

“Do you mean with Nathan and Kate?”