Page 34 of Be With Us: An Urban Foursome Love Story

‘But I like them.’

‘You’re going to have to unlike them. There’s a saying some pretentious asshole once told me; you can make swingers into friends, but you can’t make friends into swingers. Now I’m the pretentious asshole; it’s like a gift that keeps on giving. You made the mistake of making friends first.’

Emilia nodded as Alice continued.

‘It’s like dating. You don’t go up to someone and say, Hey, can I be your friend? Maybe later I’ll want to fuck you, and by then it might be confusing and inappropriate, but let's start off by just being supportive of one another in a platonic way,’ said Alice.

Emilia laughed now, wiping her wet cheek with the back of one hand.

‘But I’ve never dated anyone except Cass,’ she said.

‘Oh shit, this is my fault,’ said Alice. ‘I didn’t even think about the fact that you don’t have the first fucking clue about dating.’

Emilia had texted Alice and asked her to come round as soon as she could. Her sister had responded by saying Why? Is The Greek finally up for some ass? Xx

An hour later she had pulled into the driveway with a bottle of milk, some of Emilia’s favourite chocolates and a loving hug. Now they were sat in the conservatory, which Alice had once described as fucking pointless, it’s either too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter, and full of fucking spiders the rest of the time. Now they were sat next to each other, on a couple of rattan chairs that Emilia had arranged around a glass table, the doors open to the outside, with a pleasant breeze and a spot of sunshine, and even Alice couldn’t deny that it was rather nice.

‘It’s just common sense, sweetie.’

‘I know,’ said Emilia, huffing and rubbing her temple. ‘Would you like another cup of tea?’

‘There’s not much tea can’t fix, so yes,’ said Alice, holding out her cup.

Emilia went through to the kitchen, and called through the hatch.

‘Did you go to the ball? I didn’t see you there.’

‘That’s the idea.’

‘I know but I thought I would’ve noticed you, or heard you.’

‘I kept my distance, well, from you at least. Cass has a seriously tight ass though.’

Emilia dropped the spoon she was using to stir the tea.

‘That was you?’

‘He mentioned me did he?’ said Alice, laughing.

Emilia brought the tea through.

‘It came up, yes.’ Emilia said, smiling at last. ‘Thank you. I’m sorry I’ve brought you into my mess. I don’t know what I’m doing,’ she sat down again. ‘I’m so confused and it feels really weird talking to you about this, but I really like them.’

‘Does Cass feel the same way?’

‘I think so, but he’s better at emotions than me. He can handle this, he’s rational and calm and he doesn’t get overwhelmed and anxious.’

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

Alice leaned forward and took her sisters hand, squeezing it. ‘Hey, it’s gonna be okay.’

‘I just feel sad.’

‘It’s normal. You’re experiencing all the shitty, depressing feelings that everybody else around you went through when they were between thirteen and twenty three. Except you’re experiencing it ten years too late. You never got a handle on rejection. This is the first time someone you fancied said no.’

Emilia nodded. ‘There was Peter in year five,’ she smiled through a glaze of tears.

‘That doesn’t count,’ said Alice. ‘Peter thought you were going to give him kissing disease if he said yes. The point is, this is new to you. It’s going to take a little time to get over and you need to give yourself that time. Heal, then make sure your relationship is okay, and then start again if that’s what you want.’

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