Sitting back in her seat, Shona took another sip of her coffee, sucked on her cigarette and returned her attention to her newspaper. Skim reading the pages, her eyes flicked over the lines of text without taking in their content. Lost in a world of her own, she ignored the mass of humanity that buzzed purposefully around her. She absently ground the stub of her cigarette into the ashtray in front of her. Pausing only to take another mouthful of coffee, Shona turned the page then reached for her bag. Seconds later, the filter tip of another cigarette between her lips, she flicked open her lighter and brought the flame towards the end of her cigarette. She inhaled deeply before expelling the smoke from her lungs with a sigh.
A voice intruded itself into her awareness. "Shona?" it said, "Shona Fraser? Is that you?"
Puzzled, Shona looked up. A woman, about the same age as herself, stood at the other side of her table. Her friendly smile and her deep, hazel eyes shone out from an attractive yet strangely familiar face framed with rich, shoulder length auburn hair. "I'm sorry," said Shona, trying to collect her thoughts and figure out where she knew this person from.
"It's me, Audrey," said the woman, "We were at St. Mary's together."
"Audrey, of course," said Shona warmly, "I'm sorry, I didn't recognise you. At school, Audrey Baker and her twin sister Avril had been Shona and Jane's arch rivals. Shona and Audrey had bumped into each other occasionally since school and while she still detested Avril, Shona had found Audrey, once she was away from her sister's influence, to be a totally different person. They weren't close but Shona would no longer go out of her way to avoid her. In fact, being away from home, it was quite nice to come across a familiar face.
Audrey shrugged. "Well, it has been at least six years since we last saw each other so that's understandable, she said. "You haven't changed a bit," she added. "Mind if I join you?"
"Be my guest," replied Shona, folding her newspaper and putting it in her bag. "What brings you here?" she asked.
"Work," replied Audrey with a shrug. "I work for the company that owns this hotel," she said, "I'm here for a couple of days doing an audit. What about you?"
"Much the same, I guess," said Shona, "My boss is advising a local firm on their pension scheme and I'm helping out. This is where I'm staying while I'm in town."
"So where's your boss now?" enquired Audrey.
Shona shrugged. "Out being wined and dined by the company's directors," she replied.
"While you're away from home, alone," said Audrey, smiling sweetly.
"C' est la vie," replied Shona, answering with a smile of her own.
Audrey pulled out a chair and sat down at the table next to Shona. They drank and chatted, filling each other in about the events of the last six years. Shona learnt that Audrey's sister, Avril, had got married to someone she'd met at university and was now living in Glasgow. She told Audrey how she and Jane had shared a flat for a couple of years before she'd moved to America shortly after marrying Geoff.
"So you and Craig never did tie the knot then?" Audrey enquired.
"No," replied Shona, "it finally fizzled out about four years ago. We're still very good friends and our paths still cross a couple of times a year." She smiled, wickedly. "He's still good for a damn good shag now and then."
"Some things never change," laughed Audrey. "I was always slightly envious of you and Jane when we were at school," she added.
"Oh," said Shona, raising an eyebrow enquiringly, "Why?"
"Well, it was just the way that the pair of you never used to give a shit about anything," said Audrey. "You did what you liked with who you liked and didn't give a toss about what other people thought. Your exploits were legendary and I wanted to be more like you." She shrugged ruefully. "I guess that Avril had an inhibiting effect on me," she said.
"It's possible," replied Shona, "although Avril was no angel. I can recall quite a few occasions when it wasn't just her hair she let down."
"I know," replied Audrey with a small laugh, "she really was a total hypocrite. She was just jealous of the fact that Jane and you were more successful than she was. She was especially jealous of Jane and Matt. She fancied him like mad. The fact that Jane had him yet could still manage to screw any guy that took her fancy drove Avril crazy."
Shona laughed. "The ironic thing is that Matt wasn't afraid to play away from home either. He had me on a number of occasions, although Jane always knew about them, and I know I wasn't the only girl he had while he and Jane were together, although I never knew if Jane was aware of that. My guess is that he obviously didn't fancy Avril. If he had she'd have probably got lucky. He was well aware that she fancied him."
"Poor Avril," said Audrey, "she always tried to portray herself as pure and innocent. I don't know what annoyed her more, the fact that you and Jane were able to have your cake and eat it so to speak, or the fact that I really was the goody-goody that she pretended to be. I think her annoyance was the only thing that made my frustration bearable."
"But I thought you and Doug..."
"Yeah well, there was Doug, eventually," Audrey said, cutting Shona off, "but he was the only one and even that wasn't until the very last term. Oh, and at the end of school party, when we all got totally pissed, I did end up having a pretty serious snog with Sandra Moffat," she added.
"Really?" asked Shona, her surprise clearly evident, "she never told me about that."
"Oh yes," replied Audrey, "we even kept it going for about six months until she and Martin got married. It was exciting but it was never really anything more than a bit of fun, especially for Sandra. She was devoted to Martin. She told me once that she liked to turn him on by telling him about what she and I got up to when he wasn't around."
Well that aside," said Shona, grinning, "I guess you were pretty good, especially compared to Jane and me. Sandra had her moments too. She may have been devoted to Martin but I know he wasn't the only guy at school that she screwed. She didn't restrict herself to just guys either. But if you wanted to enjoy yourself more why didn't you? I mean, we were kids. It was hardly anything serious. Jane and I had a lot of fun."
"Dunno," replied Audrey with a shrug, "lack of confidence I guess. Avril was the younger of the two of us but was always the dominating one. Despite that we were always very competitive. I wanted to be like Jane and you but I didn't have the confidence. The only way I could be better than Avril was to be even more of a goody-goody than she wanted people to think she was."
"That doesn't really make a lot of sense," said Shona looking puzzled.
"No, probably not," admitted Audrey, "but it made things more bearable for me."
Shona smiled and put a hand, consolingly on Audrey's shoulder. As they'd talked, Audrey had slowly pulled her chair closer to Shona's and Shona was aware, albeit, distantly, of Audrey's knee brushing occasionally against her own.
Shona yawned. "I'm not boring you am I?" asked Audrey. There was a note of apprehension in her voice.
"No, no! Not at all," replied Shona reassuringly, "It's just been a long day and it's starting to catch up with me a bit."
"Well," began Audrey, enquiringly, "if you wanted too, I could grab a couple of bottles of wine from the bar, then we could head upstairs and carry on chatting?"
The suggestion had been casual, friendly even, yet Shona had to fight back a momentary surge of excitement before answering. "Sure," she said, pleased with herself that her voice sounded normal, "I'd like that."