Pretence. Short Story

No one wears heels anymore, Blair thought. Wide, baggy jeans — all you have. Lipstick? Forget about it. High heels clicking on hot asphalt, empty roads. Right, lunchtime, she thought. She hoped she hadn’t forgotten her cigarettes — the only acceptable pairing for a midday glass of champagne.

Her skin was soaked in peach-scented powder; otherwise, it would be glimmering under such a hot sun. A cold car interior wouldn’t be a help either. Blair has always gotten a cold from the air conditioning.

Blair began crossing the road, always making sure to look both ways. As she had managed to step safely onto a crosswalk, Blair felt a light tap on her shoulder.

“Morning!” a high-pitched female voice said.

“It’s almost noon, Angelica.” Blair gave the woman a smile, not taking off her sunglasses.

“This is what brunch is for!” Angelica laughed and started walking towards a restaurant in front of them.

The restaurant was filled with beaming sunlight. A few people were enjoying their meals inside, but Blair kept walking past the tables to the door named “G Lodge”. They couldn’t get more creative with the name.

“It’s so nice they planted trees all over here! Finally, it’s not so hot.” Angelica truly hated the sun. Yet she kept living in one of the sunniest cities in the US. She thought it was the status. But it clearly was her husband, twice her age, with a thick wallet.

Several bottles of champagne in iced buckets and five glasses filled with sparkling wine already decorated the table. Something between the cheapest one and Prosecco. She hated brut. Near the ice buckets were strawberries in sugar; Blair never understood it. Strawberries were already sweet.

“Oh, finally! Daizy has some amazing news!”

Blair smiled and sat in her usual seat, while Daizy, the youngest among them, announced her wedding in a month.

“So soon,” Blair said, biting ‌a strawberry coated in sugar. Daizy only laughed and leaned in to hug Blair.

“Ah, Blair-the-nun!” Stacy waved her hand dismissively. “You haven’t had more than two boyfriends! What do you know?”

Blair laughed with them. It didn’t touch her, nor did it hurt. She simply got the evidence of how shallow champagne bottles lay in the slightly melted ice cubes. Blair thought her head was spinning from the sparkles that got to her nose, or the sunrays beaming at her dark brown hair. Turned out it was endless conversations about kisses, sex, and cheating.

“I’m telling you she’s sleeping with her boss!”

The boss’s name is—

“I’ve seen Josh with her at the Grand Re-Opening!”

He’s married, has two kids, and cheats on his wife with his secretary. They’ve been over it a thousand times.

Blair tried not to blurt out ‘finally’ at the end of the brunch, tightly squeezing Angelica’s hand in hers. Her palm was cold and about to slip away. Unlike hers.

The smoking area is too small, with too many people huddled inside the glass booth. The sun was setting, so Blair didn’t feel like being in a sauna. A delicate wave of one’s hand pulled Blair out of her thoughts. The cigarette was put down, heels clicking on the pavement quickly. She stopped awkwardly, barely bumping into her.

“Smoking again?” Her voice was soft, without any mockery.

“I haven’t quit, Alice.” The same remark from anyone else would make Blair frown and snap something bitter and striking. Yet here she was, smiling, mesmerised by the blue eyes in front of her, which were absorbing the warm sunset colors.

“How was the G-spot?” Alice asked without a second thought. Or with it.

Blair felt a tingling sensation on her cheeks. “As usual…”

“They gotta rename it.”

“Name’s weird…”

“I like it.” Alice looked right into Blair’s eyes, and she could swear she saw little devils in the blue eyes.

Blair felt a sudden fever creeping to her face and neck again. The golden hour painted everything in a deeper orange color. Blair rarely liked blonde hair, but Alice’s, now shaded into the flame of the setting sun, was soft. Too soft. Her baggy jeans were low, scraping the pavement and covering her retro Nikes as Alice moved. Blair’s heels sank into the warm sand, and Alice’s gentle touch on her upper arm didn’t help Blair at all.

She hated the feeling of sand everywhere under her clothes, especially when she was wearing skirts or dresses. But she finally felt at ease in a conversation where no one mentioned someone’s husband.

Tiny grains were sticking to her open back. She was gripping her dress to keep it from rolling up, burying her bare feet in the sand.

“This beach is perfect for my upcoming wedding,” Alice announced and gently tugged Blair’s dress lower.

Waves from a distant boat reached the shore, wetting Blair’s feet. She looked up into the blue eyes. Her lips twitched in a fake smile, mimicking those in the ‘G Lodge’. The small ring on Alice’s hand was gleaming now as she moved her hand to Blair’s knee, letting the hem of the dress roll up a bit.

“He proposed this morning with ‌rose petals in a heart shape.”

Blair’s body suddenly felt limp and pinned under the blonde’s gaze.

“I thought you hated roses.”

“It’s romantic.” Alice shrugged. Her hand was cold. And yet, Blair smiled.