Hi! This is just a little light hearted story to help me when I'm stuck with Blue Room. Chapters will be short but I intend to update as much as possible. Enjoy.
Love
N xxx
"You can stop here tonight. Have a drink, I think we both need it."
Rachel fakes considering it then smiles. "Okay then," she says. "I'll have red."
Janet stands up and goes to fetch their drinks. Rachel sighs. Today had been stressful. Some bright spark had decided he was going to blow up a department store in the city centre. So they had been out negotiating since 6:30am that morning until 2:15 in the afternoon, only for him to blow himself up anyway. They were there another 5 hours before returning to the station to fill out the paperwork and didn't get to leave until 11:45. It had been a long day.
Janet returns with a bottle of wine and two glasses. She pours one and hands it to Rachel.
"Cheers," she clinks her glass with Rachel's. They sip their wine in silence, both thinking.
"Are you sure you don't mind me staying?" Rachel says. "It's the fourth time this week!"
"It's fine, honestly! I like having you around, especially when the girls are away. And half your stuff's here. Any outsider would think we were married!"
"Or just living together," Rachel points out. "You don't have to be married to live together anymore. Those days are gone." She takes another sip of her wine. "Christ, imagine if we were married!"
"You'd have been under the kitchen floorboards months ago," Janet laughs.
"It'd be difficult. Firstly, you love me to much to do anything like that and secondly," She turns to look at Janet. "Your kitchen floor's tiled."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," she smiles. "Though, I can see the positives of being married. Despite my previous experience."
"Like what?" Rachel quizzes.
"Like we're both skint, so we could share bills and a house. A good excuse for a party, and we get a holiday after."
"You seem to be forgetting the shared bank accounts."
"Rach, I would never share a bank account with you."
"Why not!"
"You'd spend every penny we owned!"
"No I wouldn't!"
"Of course," Janet says sarcastically. They are quiet again, both staring down into their empty glasses.
"We should get married."
"What!?" Janet splutters.
"I think it would work."
"What?" Janet repeats incredulously.
"Come on, I'm proposing to you Jan. Will you marry me?"
"I'm straight."
"So am I."
"Well there's your answer then."
"We don't have to be in love to get married. It can just be a covenience thing."
"But marriage is meant to be based on love. People would disapprove."
"We don't have to tell the we're not in love."
"It'd all be a bit out of the blue though, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah, but we could say we've been seeing each other in secret."
"I suppose so."
They are silent for a minute.
"Say we did want to get married. We would never be able to afford it." Janet is trying to hide from herself that she is warming to the idea.
Rachel sighs. "I guess not. Unless we did it on the cheap."
"The lads would never shut up about it. We'd be the talk of the station."
"Couldn't we rise above that?" Rachel asks. Janet doesn't say a word. Rachel stares down at her glass and refills it.
"Ok," Janet says.
"What?"
"Let's do it."
"What?" Rachel asks again, but she is grinning now.
"You know what," Janet smirks at her best friend.
"But… what about all the gossip? And people?"
"The station's been so miserable lately, it'd do them good to have something to talk about. And people would just have to deal with it."
"Are you being serious Jan? We are getting married?"
"Yeah," she nods and smiles to herself. She feels fear and excitement at the same time, but its a good feeling. "No one must know that it's just for convenience though. And you're not allowed to jilt me."
"I wouldn't do that."
"You jilted Sean."
"Yeah but that was because I didn't love him."
"You don't love me!"
"I do love you. I'm just not in love with you."
Janet looks at her watch. "It's late, we should go to bed."
Rachel drains her glass, they say goodnight then both go to bed.
Rachel lies awake in bed, her stomach doing backflips. She was getting married. Though she was sure Janet would change her mind in the morning, she was still excited. She was definitely getting an "I knew it" from her sister, but she didn't mind. Her sister questioned her sexuality regularly as she was in her 30s and still unmarried.
She gets out of bed to use the bathroom. As she walked back to the spare room she heard a voice.
"Rach?"
"Yeah?" She whispers back. God knows why they were whispering, there were the only ones in the house. Janet appears at the door.
"Can't you sleep?"
"No," Rachel grimaces.
"Me neither. Do you want a hot chocolate?"
"I'm not six."
"Is that a yes or a no?"
Rachel shrugs. "Ok then. I'll wait here." She sits down on the landing while Janet goes downstairs and returns with two steaming mugs.
"Ta," Rachel says as Janet sits down next to her. She takes a sip.
"Christ! What have you put in it?"
"Bailey's," Janet replies. "Always gets me to sleep."
"In hot chocolate?"
"Are you complaining about recieving alcohol? I think hell just froze over."
"I'm not complaining, I've just never heard of them together before."
They drink their chocolate in silence for a few minutes.
"Are we really getting married?" Rachel asks.
Janet pauses then nods. "I think so. If you want to."
"You know me Jan, I'm game for anything."
"But no telling the we're not in love. We have to be convincing too."
"Sure. It'll be our secret."
Reviews are always welcome and help keep me motivated :)