Jodie has drawn closer to her boss, Kym in the last day or so but with her upcoming date with Elaine just around the corner, Jodie finds herself increasingly wracked with self doubt. Is this a good idea and does Kym have other motivations for helping her? When Kym invites her around for a session with her hair stylist it certainly seems that way and she's not the only experiencing doubt. Elaine is also questioning the logic of her decision and turns to Julie for advice as she gets ready for her date. This is the last story in this series but it's not the last we'll see of the characters. I've plucked a character from this one, Ellen for an upcoming series, so we'll get to check in on the characters soon enough.
Jodie had never had much to do with Julie although that had more to do with her own personal history than fear or jealousy, but these two factors had some bearing because Frankie had been a jealous partner who was certainly captive to her own fears. That history had been very much in the forefront of her mind recently, ever since renewing her friendship with a woman she'd once had a crush on in high school. It felt almost fake just sitting on the sofa with Ilona and Julie.
Did Julie know she'd had a crush on Ilona?
Jodie glanced briefly at Julie when she walked to the front window as a car pulled into the driveway and Julie glanced over her shoulder.
"Does Kym drive a white Commodore?"
"Um, yeah, she does," Jodie leaned forward on her elbows.
"Cool," she let the curtain fall back.
"I'll put the kettle on then," Ilona also stood up, "does she drink coffee or tea?"
"Um, coffee," she replied, "white and two."
Julie walked to the front door and Jodie stared up at the staircase. Imogen was up there with Paula and Keira. Elaine had gone out with her girlfriends for the night, leaving her sister to babysit Keira. She could hear voices upstairs that were coming from the television set and then she heard Keira's voice followed by Paula's giggling. Her phone beeped and she picked it up to look at the screen, it was a post from Elaine, showing her with three other women, she looked tipsy and then she read the message.
Elaine: Drinks with my BFFs, looks like I'm not driving tonight!
She liked the post just as Kym stepped into the room followed by Julie. She had a white dress in a plastic shroud slung over her arm and she nodded at her.
"Long time no see," she looked at the couch, "wow, can I take your couch home?"
"Ha ha, nice try," Julie chuckled, "you'll have to get past two women and a dog," she indicated her Samoyed, Max, "and Max has sharper teeth, especially fond of couch potatoes although he's never met someone who wants to steal the couch."
Julie nodded at the couch.
"Take a seat, my other half is making coffee, it's white and two isn't it?"
"She told you," Kym glanced at Jodie as she stepped over to the couch, Max wagged his tail and then yawned.
"Aren't you a beautiful boy?" Kym sat down on the other side of the dog.
"Yes he is."
"How is he with kids?"
"He's a big soft lump," Julie perched on the edge of the couch, "so this is the dress?"
"Yeah," she glanced down at it, "it did fit me when I walked down the aisle but I've put on weight around my hips so I'm not confident but if you can do something with it then it would be good, it's the only pleasant memory of my wedding," she ran a hand over the shroud.
Julie chuckled at that as Kym elaborated.
"He fell asleep on the hotel bed while I was getting ready in the bathroom and that should have been a warning but I stayed with him for three years before pulling the pin."
"You're not going to pass it onto one of your kids?"
"Not unless my son gets a sex change," she smiled crookedly.
"How old?"
"David is twenty, Jon is fifteen and Debbie is thirteen, David is from my first marriage. He's working in Vietnam at the moment."
"What does he do?" Julie looked up as Ilona stepped into the room.
"He works with an international organisation that finds unexploded ordinance and defuses them."
"Wow," Jodie stared at her, "I had no idea."
"I thought you knew," Kym raised an eyebrow, "mind you, it's not like I talk about it a lot. It's dangerous work, he calls me every Sunday night come rain, hail or sunshine but the organisation is run by ex army engineers."
"What made him decide to do that?" Jodie ran a hand through Max's coat.
"His father is a Vietnam veteran, we weren't together that long. David was only two and a half when the marriage broke up but Harry and I kept in contact, he wasn't a bad guy just messed up from the war and I was his third wife. Harry came over just after his eighteenth birthday with an offer to travel with him to Vietnam for a reunion tour of the old battlefields. David went with him and one thing led to another and he was back nine months later with this group."
"Well that certainly put a sober tone on the conversation," Ilona folded her arms, "we've gone from wedding dresses to bomb defusing."
"There is a certain twisted logic to it," Kym replied as Julie stood up, "this bomb has been hanging in my wardrobe for years, I didn't wear it for my second marriage to Jim and that dress is being kept for Debbie, even though she's only thirteen, assuming she actually wants to get married at some point in the distant future," she smiled.
"I'll be in the room," she nodded at Ilona, "we'll have a look at it while you make coffee."
They left the room and more out of a desire to clear her head, Jodie joined Ilona in the kitchen to make coffee and cut some fruitcake. Her friend seemed almost serene as she spooned coffee into cups.
"She seems nice," she spoke up, "is she?"
"Maybe curious, well, she is curious but it wouldn't happen I don't think."
"It could get complicated for you," Ilona smirked, "although it would be exciting."
Jodie didn't reply for a few moments.
"Can I ask you something?"
"It all depends on what you want to know," their eyes met, "sorry, I had to slip that one in."
Jodie blushed and Ilona smiled.
"Jesus, is it that embarrassing?"
