EPILOGUE
***
Ashley could tell that Jeanie was in a filthy mood before the brunette even flung open the door. She could hear the younger woman's footsteps stomping down the hallway outside the apartment.
The blonde pursed her lips grimly on the cream couch. Having a younger girlfriend had its challenges. Jeanie was impulsive, unsettled, and woefully bad at controlling her emotions.
The sounds of the brunette making her big entrance into Ashley's apartment with Ashley's spare key sounded throughout the lounge room.
"Ashie!" Jeanie appeared, flinging her handbag onto the couch. "Fuck my life. My boss is a stupid fat doughball, I hate him!" She moved straight to the kitchen.
Ashley suppressed a snort. "Your boss is a what?"
The noises of Jeanie rummaging through Ashley's fridge floated from the next room. "A doughball. A big fat ball of dough."
Ashley took a sip of black tea to keep from laughing, legs curled beneath her, the newspaper's crossword sitting forgotten on her knees. Meanwhile there was a fizzing as Jeanie cracked the top off a beer. The brunette had tipped a quarter of it straight down her throat by the time she reappeared.
"I hate my life," she announced from the doorframe.
"No, you don't." Ashley corrected gently. "What happened, hun?"
"He's fat, that's what happened."
Ashley made her voice stern. "Jeanie."
Jeanie hissed in annoyance. "He is! A fucking bitchy fat doughball. He looks like the marshmallow man from
Ghostbusters
."
Ashley groaned. "Jeanie, you can't just attack someone for their weight."
"Yes I can. Watch me."
"Clay isn't even fat. He's just solid and nuggetty."
Jeanie narrowed her eyes. "Why are you defending him to me? He's fucked."
Ashley rolled her eyes. "Okay Jeanie, I'm just trying to ... it doesn't matter. Just tell me what happened."
"I cut some dickhead off, right?" After the Tasha-glassing incident two months earlier, Jeanie had left Bolton's. Her new job was at a dirty little fly-in-the-wall straight pub.
Now, dressed in black, with her matching eyes and hair, the brunette radiated darkness from the doorway. "He disappeared and Ophelia, you know, the short girl studying nursing? I told her to check to make sure he'd gone."
Ashley raised her eyebrows. "Let me guess: he hadn't?"
Jeanie swigged her beer. "Fucking lurker. So Ophelia went up to him and was like, mate, you need to go. And the guy went troppo and got all aggressive like, up in Ophi's face and stuff. He was twice the size of her."
Ashley frowned. "Was she okay?"
"Well, yeah. I went charging out of the bar and got between them and said 'mate, I'm the one who cut you off, not her, so if you want to yell at someone you can yell at me. I'm your height'." She tossed her head, eyes flashing arrogantly.
Ashley winced. "Jeanie, that doesn't sound very safe. Then what happened?"
"The Fat Controller doughball kicked the dickhead out - then dressed
me
down for it! He said that my behaviour was unacceptable and that I made the situation worse by firing the guy up even more, or something." Jeanie drained the last of her beer, in the midst of a full-blown temper, turned and bowled it underarm into the recycling bin.
Ashley closed her eyes in annoyance as she heard the smash in the kitchen. "Jeanie, we need to talk about your habit of lobbing objects halfway across rooms."
Jeanie shot her a nasty look. "Ash, I'm not in the mood to talk about house rules."
Ashley retorted. "I'm not in the mood for broken glass."
Jeanie shrugged out of her jacket, balling it into her fist. "It landed in the fucking bin. Anyway, I didn't want Ophi to get yelled at by a drunken dipstick for something I'd done, so I stand by my fucking decision!" She threw her scrunched jacket, hard, into the corner.
Ashley blinked at the girl's rage. "Whoa, Jeanie, calm down. You're being over the top." She compelled the younger girl to behave with her cool green eyes. "It's not a big deal. Just smile and nod. You'll be out of there as soon as you get your degree."
"I fucking hate my stupid job!"
Ashley stood, the newspaper sliding to the floor, and crossed the room. "I know you do, sweetie, but it's a means to an ends."
Jeanie leant to one side, letting Ashley through to the kitchen, and continued to rant. "I mean I'm intellectually slumming it. Last night some guy made cat noises at me over the bar. Like, seriously? I swear to god I lose about six IQ points every time I go in there. It's beneath me."
"It is." Ashley took two beers from the fridge and grimly handed one to Jeanie. The blonde hadn't planned on drinking that afternoon, but the brunette's frenetic energy and wild temper was stressing the older woman out. "Let's cheers to you not being there for very much longer?"
All she got was an "Eurgh" from Jeanie, who sourly clinked her bottle against Ashley's before gulping from it.
Ashley sighed. "Baby just let it go, it's over now. What can I do to make you feel better?"