"I'll just trot down to the bakery on the corner. I've just remembered I haven't got any milk left in the fridge for tea and coffee," Julie said as she unlocked the front door of her unit. Ushering Amelia in before her, the beautiful young lawyer jiggled her keys in the hallway almost absent-mindedly, trying to get a clear head in the midst of the tiredness they both felt coming on.
"Let's see, it's Good Friday and just after eight o'clock," Julie went on. "The baker said he'd be opening today in the morning if my memory's right but only till from 7 to 10. I'd love a croissant for breakfast before we crash. Grab one for you too?"
"Lovely. Thanks," Amelia had shyly responded. The young primary school teacher smiled nervously at Julie then gazed about the unfamiliar spotless white kitchen of her husband's workmate.
They had only met face to face for the first time yesterday afternoon at the Easter Party thrown by Roger's boss at his home. Before then all she knew about Julie was her name and that she was the firm's legal counsel, facts that Roger had dropped now and again in after their work conversations. Amelia's first reaction on meeting Julie had been one of instant jealousy; she was immediately suspicious of Roger and this amazingly attractive, intelligent and congenial young woman flirting with one another given they were in such close proximity all day. But the more she and Roger had socialised with Julie in the early part of last night, the more she had come to really like her.
"If you put the kettle on, I should be back in five minutes tops," Julie said still managing to flash one of those devastating smiles of hers. Amelia watched her start back towards the front door only to pause at the small hallway table. Picking up the hand bag she'd left there, she took out her purse then a mobile phone which she switched on.
A series of beeps began. "Oh blast!" Julie despaired, walking the phone back to the kitchen. "I'm away for just one night and sure enough a thousand messages start rolling in." Putting it on the kitchen bench she half-turned back towards the front door once more then looked back. "Amelia, would you do me a favour and write down my messages while I'm away? I exaggerated a bit. There are probably only a hundred, all non-urgent, and one at least is sure to be from my mum in Brisbane. There's a pad and pen over there. I'm off again. God, I am so looking forward to hitting the sack!"
Through the front panes beside the door, Amelia giggled as she watched Julie in her formal red dress striding down the street in high heels on Good Friday just to get milk and croissants. Similarly over-dressed but at least indoors, Amelia could feel the fatigue from staying up all last night building inside. Julie's invitation for Amelia to grab some sleep at her place before driving all the way back home had been most timely, she reflected.
Ignoring the phone for the moment she slipped off her heels and padded over to the kitchen bench. A quick shake of the large kettle told her it was already full, so she arranged it back on its base and flicked the switch. Taking two mugs dangling from pegs on the small wooden tree beside it, she stood them side by side on the bench, then picked up the phone and inspected it.
It was a different model from hers. The onscreen display said there were only three messages. Whew! Even so, she felt tentative about being privy to them as she managed to get them up on screen and opened the first. It was indeed a brief request from Julie's mum just after 7 last night asking for Julie to call back whenever convenient.
'1. Ring your mum. Not urgent,' Amelia carefully printed, yawning as she wrote a 2 on the next line and listened to the following message after noticing it was barely twenty minutes old.
'Hi Jules,' she heard. She recognised the voice as that of Megan. The young woman had come to the party an hour or two after she and Roger had arrived, obviously acting as Julie's partner. 'My eyes are drooping a bit so I'm grabbing a coffee at a servo. If I don't get a second wind, I may just turn around and come back to your place. The reason for the call though is that I've been having this most amazing set of thoughts while I've been driving. Tell you more about them when you ring back. Try around 11. One way or the other I should be awake then. Or in the next ten minutes if you can.'
'Ring Megan at 11,' she decided to jot down beside the 2. On the next line she wrote a neat 3.
Looking at the phone she realised she had now been 17 hours without sleep just since she and her husband Roger had turned up to the party at 4 yesterday afternoon. There at his boss's home, she had enjoyed the early autumn evening by Roger's side, sipping only soft drinks right up until 8. Then, as agreed, she had driven him off to the nearby airport to fly interstate where he would spend the next five days with his parents and family. She was too busy planning her primary school lessons for next term to go and knew they'd catch up again in 3 months anyway.
From the airport, she had originally intended to drive straight home but she was still feeling reasonably fresh when she got behind the wheel. So she had acted on Julie's suggestion to come back to the party, having been promised that that she would have both her and Megan as company at least.
She had really enjoyed spending time into the wee hours eating, talking and mixing with them. Amelia kept on drinking soft drinks noting Megan didn't appear to drink alcohol at all. She couldn't stop thinking how strikingly but individually attractive both girls were as the three took turns dancing in pairs or as a trio when their tireless host put on some music on the patio around 1am. Instinctively she guessed knew from their vibes that Julie and Megan were not only partners for the night but possibly lovers. The thought didn't worry her nor make her wary. But she made a mental note to make a subtle remark to Roger on his return and see whether he knew anything.
It hadn't seemed to be as late as 4am when she had sat on a couch with Megan while Julie chatted outside with some of her fellow workers. Amelia soon found she really liked Megan a lot too. For an hour the pair chatted animatedly or danced, Amelia learning that Megan had come down from her cottage in the country the night before and that she was a portrait painter. Art was something Amelia loved so they had spent most of that time talking about painters they liked and exhibitions currently on.
On Julie's return, the three girls continued to dance and mingle as a trio further into the early hours of dawn. Megan announced she really had to go, then suggested to Julie that she bring Amelia along when she came up to her cottage tomorrow night and spend the rest of the Easter long weekend on her farmlet there. Eyes raised, Julie had nodded and they both turned to her. Shyly, Amelia said maybe. Megan insisted, saying she would love to spend an hour taking photographs of Amelia for a portrait. Despite blushing when Julie chipped in to say that Megan only did nudes, Amelia laughed feeling really pleased that she had met two such vivacious and attractive new friends tonight. Deciding her lesson preparations could wait two days, she was tempted to say yes.
Looking at her watch, Megan had whistled and announced it was 8.30. A few all-night die-hards were still partying in a group with Roger's boss but Megan repeated it was time she began the long drive back to her home. In vain Julie kept pleading with her to have a nap first at her one-bedroom flat for a couple of hours first.
