This is Part 3 of the series, 'Four plus one'. Part 1 is in the First Time category: it will make more sense if you start there. Or just start where you like - thats the idea. Please vote or comment if you like it.
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The day was lousy. A hundred little things, at work and at college, had gone wrong. Atlantia told herself each one was small and shouldn't upset her, but together the effect had mounted up. She now swung between rage and self-pity as she stood uncomfortably on the smelly train home.
At the house she banged through the front door, past the lounge and up the stairs. She had planned to go straight to her room, but four steps up she remembered the cream she'd bought. She cursed. She stomped back down.
She put the cream in the fridge and took out the old cordial bottle that was used as a water chiller. She needed a cool drink.
There was barely half a cup of water in it.
At the sink she crossly splashed tap water into a glass and drank it down. The wet glass slipped from her hand and fell, knocking a cup off the bench. Both smashed on the floor.
One little irritation after another. The last one was the cup: it was an old one of hers. Normally she was not sentimental towards her things but, today... it was the last straw. A sob escaped her and she felt hot, angry tears on her cheeks.
"Hey Lanny. I like your washing up. Tell you what, I'll dry for you-" Andrea swung brightly into the kitchen, took one look at Atlantia's teary face and eased her away from the wreckage on the floor.
"Oh, Lanny lady love, I'm sorry. That was insensitive. I'm guessing you have not had the best day possible. You didn't need my wisecracks." Andrea hugged her warmly. She put her down at the kitchen table and brought her another glass of water. Atlantia smiled weakly.
"Thanks. Thanks. It was as they say, a crap day. Just a thousand little things. You came in just at the wrong moment."
Andrea got out the dustpan and bent down to sweep up the pieces. "I hope I can make things get a bit better for you. Let me fix this up and make you a cup of tea. The biscuits were new yesterday so they can't be finished off already - I hope."
Wearily Atlantia watched Andrea's efficient movements. It's good to get home and be a bit looked after, she she thought appreciatively. She recalled their first night all together. She remembered the eating, the laughing, the drinking. She could sense the community they had already started to make - she vividly remembered Danny's declaration and Mel's amazing response. She felt herself calming, the anger and tension of outside starting to ebb.
Hot tea in hand, the last three biscuits on a plate, Atlantia started to feel safe in their little world.
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The house, their house, had a sense of expectancy. Something startling would happen, you could feel it; and Atlantia wondered if she was ready for it. She also wondered at herself: the scenarios in her head seemed completely mad at one level (and beyond considering), but mad seemed almost normal now, or at least worth thinking about. She and Danny, she and Mel, she and Phoebe, Andrea...
"Is this me? Am I going crazy?" Atlantia realised she had said it aloud. She shook her head and gave up trying to work it out. She thanked Andrea sincerely and mumbled excuses to go upstairs.
In her room she flicked off her shoes and sat heavily on the bed. She had not quite got the second shoe off when she landed, the bounce and the wriggle tipped her over and she flopped backwards onto the bed. The memory of the last time that happened flooded over her...
Danny had picked her up as easily as a child and tossed her onto his hotel bed. Naked, they had romped up and down the bed, and over each other's bodies. She relived the feel of his hard hands against her skin. Lying back on the bed, she let her own hands roam up her middle, over her sides and across her breasts. They crossed and went down each bare arm. They stole into the warmth between her thighs. She hummed to herself as her fingers cupped her mound and felt the lines of her labia.
