Lydia stood in front of her sink full of dirty dishes. "God I miss a dishwasher." She thought. She was tired and cranky. Hilary had been even more demanding than usual. It was like children have a sixth sense about sensing a bad day and pushing the limits. Lydia had taken all she could then finally decided to send her to bed early. She did the dishes in a trance like state, her mind thinking back to her marriage, the "things" she gave up for a better life. She glanced at the sunflower shaped clock in the kitchen and saw that it was still early; she'd forgotten how early the sun was going down lately.
She rinsed the last pot, stacked it on the other dishes and left the room. She walked up the stairs and into her room. She turned on the computer and saw that Casanova 456 had sent her a message. She clicked on the little envelope and opened it.
Something's come up, I'll get back to you about meeting.
Lydia read it over and over again. Her mind raced "why would he backtrack?" she wondered. "He probably found someone and he's keeping me simmering on the back burner for a just in case."
She picked the phone up and dialed. "Hello Mrs. Smith, I'm sorry for bothering you, may I speak with Sybil?" Her face dropped slightly when Sybil's Mother told her that Sybil had just left with Brent, but could be reached on her cell, and then said good bye.
Lydia got up from her computer chair, and went downstairs. She found her purse on the kitchen table and dug for her cell phone. She hit a few keys on the phone, and dialed the number from her home phone. It was answered on the third ring. "Yo dawg...what's up?" Sybil said.
"Where are you?" Lydia asked.
"We're heading to Biddington, I'm craving junk food, and thinking of fish and chips wanna come?"
"You forget I have a child." Lydia said, "Hey, why don't you come here instead, I've got four bottles of Larry's homemade wine and I sure could use the company."
"I'm famished though." Sybil said.
"I've got stuff here, I'll feed you...I hardly ever ask you for anything, stop being such a tight ass." Lydia said
"We'll be there straight away." Sybil replied and the line went dead.
Lydia opened the fridge and quickly scanned the ingredients for a delicious dish of homemade nachos. She knew Sybil long enough to know what her favourite dishes were, and Sybil liked her foot both hot and spicy. Lydia remembered once dining with Sybil in a Mexican restaurant and commented on the fact that she'd never seen anyone eat as sexy as she did. She envied Sybil's life at times, she had so much freedom. She couldn't remember the last time she'd gone off and just had fun. Hilary was getting to the age where she was out a lot and so Lydia felt an almost "dread factor" when her baby was gone for a sleep-over.
She had a mind of her own and knew that she was ready to fall in love, but with whom? Casanova456 was the most interesting man that she'd encountered in a long time and he'd just announced that "now isn't a good time". "What the fuck was I thinking?" Lydia thought while taking a package of boneless chicken from the fridge, ripping the plastic wrap from it and reaching for a sharp knife. "Hurry up and get here Sybil." She said under her breath.
In no time flat, Lydia had everything ready to cook, and still no Sybil. The doorbell finally decided to ring and Lydia practically ran to the door. She unlocked the dead bolt and Sybil and Brent were there. "Shit I didn't really think that Brent would come in." Lydia thought.
"Come in...come in." Lydia said. She noticed that both were wearing jackets and told them to hang them on her hall tree.
Sybil couldn't believe how much work Lydia had done with the place in three years. "Holy fuck what a great house!" she exclaimed.
"Hey, I have a kid sleeping upstairs." Lydia reminded her.
"Right...well, the house looks amazing, I love the colours that you've picked."
"It was a bit nerve racking, I think I drove the woman at the hardware store absolutely bonkers really...I kept changing my mind and well, I guess this is the result. It's not much but I call it home." Lydia ushered her guests into the kitchen.
"I threw something together, I hope you'll like it but first I'd like to have a glass of wine, I have both red and white." She pointed to the bottles on the butcher block island.
"Brent you pick." Sybil said
"I'm really not a-"
"Pick!" Sybil yelled.
"Red." He snapped.
"You too okay?" Lydia said, "What am I thinking of course you're not okay, it's been a rough go of it for both of you." She opened the wine with her corkscrew and began to pour. "We don't have to have a glass of wine, we can-"
"Pour it." Sybil said "We're both fine, this is exactly what we both needed, which is to get out for a bit and forget about tomorrow."
"Well put sis." Brent added.
Lydia poured the red wine into three glasses, waited for everyone to take the stem. "To Arthur." She said.
"To Arthur." Both Sybil and Brent said in unison. The three glasses clinked. And everyone sipped the wine.
"Hey...not bad." Brent commented while swirling the wine. "For home made wine that is."
"Didn't I tell you? Brent is a wine snob." Sybil laughed "I've seen him send it back just for fun." She added while filling her glass. "He did it on more than one occasion while he was visiting in London." She took a long drink. "Talk about embarrassing, I couldn't show my face there for ages after that."
"Give me a break, you of all people should know that if the presentation isn't perfect it should be sent back." Brent smiled. He loved it when he got Sybil raving about something.
"I suppose that you've sent things back at the Elbow Room?" Lydia jumped into the conversation.
"Are you crazy? I've never stepped foot in that dive." Brent said filling his glass and offering to top Lydia up.
"It's really not that bad, it's better than nothing." Lydia replied watching Brent fill her glass. She knew that the wine wasn't hitting her that fast, there was something very striking about Brent.
"Earth to Lydia..." Sybil said while moving her hand in front of Lydia's staring eyes."
"What?" Lydia said while sipping her wine.
"Where did you go?" Brent asked, "Looked like you were in another world."
"I was, but I'm back...I'll put this in the oven. She slipped on two gigantic oven mitts that were shaped like fish. "Grab the wine and I'll meet you in the living room." Lydia said while getting blasted by the heat escaping from the oven."
Brent and Sybil gathered up the glasses and the bottles and walked into the candle lit living room. Sybil had forgotten how much Lydia loved candles. The room was dotted with photographs of Hilary and like always, everything was in its place.
They both took a seat on the long red couch and put the wine and glasses on the large coffee table that resembled a stack of books. Brent stood up and walked around the room taking in what sort of books Lydia read, mainly fluffy romance stuff, the occasional self-help book. He noticed that she had exceptional taste in art, he noticed a large piece that hung over her mantle.
"This is a fabulous painting, they didn't sign it." Brent noticed.
