Mikaela’s caption reads, “Beautiful work.”
Two days later Lucia sends Natasha a selfie. She’s sat on her hip on Mikaela's sofa eating a fat slice of pizza. There's a red smear of grease on her chin, and her hair is loosely bundled above her head. The light hits the strong bridge of her nose straight on. Around her legs Sawyer can see piles of material, spools of thread and faux pearl beading.
Underneath she’s written, “Tell Sawyer she’s right, the pizza is better here.”
On the sixth day of Lucia's visit, Lucia sends a full-length photo of her in one of Mikaela's gowns onto Instagram. She's sneering into the lens, but there's something soft around her eyes.
Natasha asks her some more questions about how they’re getting on, but Lucia only replies to remind Natasha that she promised to contact the bakery that BWAC uses and ask them if they can send any more of the vegan flap-jacks.
Sawyer and Natasha hear more from Lucia on the second week that she is in Chicago. Mostly daily affirmations that Florence is a bitch who is impossible to work with, and one final admission that the show is coming along well.
By the time Lucia flies home Sawyer is on production week. After a run of eighteen-hour days, she’s ready to drop. She fills their bath with the hottest water their creaking apartment can provide and adds a vibrant pink bath bomb with gold glitter.
Natasha brings her college work into the bathroom, sitting cross-legged on the toilet with her textbook on her knees. Sawyer was looking forward to an hour by herself to cry, or get herself off, or both. But she likes Natasha’s quiet company too.
Sawyer is too tall to lie full length in their bath. Either she can submerge her shoulders and neck, or she can submerge all the length of her legs. She decides to rest her sore feet in the water and lets her head rest back on the smooth ceramic lip of the bath. She hopes that Natasha might massage her head when she’s finished her reading. Maybe Natasha will get her off. She decides that once the muscles in her back have warmed up she’ll soap up her boobs and see where that leads.
"How has Lucia been?" Sawyer asks. She feels guilty that she's not checked in with her since she’s been back, but it’s just been an impossible week. There was a point on Wednesday where she thought she might never eat a hot meal again or get the grit out from underneath her fingernails. There was a point on Thursday morning where she thought that she might have forgotten her own name.
"Really funny, actually," says Natasha with a smirk. "Do you remember the bit in The Little Mermaid when Ariel comes in with that big flower and she's stroking her face with it? It's been like that."
Sawyer laughs, "What do you mean? I can't quite imagine her wafting about with a flower.”
“She is, I promise! Today she was humming as she worked! She tried to braid a bit of lavender into my hair.”
"Do you think it's because she's had a good fortnight? Or is there something else going on, do you think? Is she slacking off at work?"
“No, the opposite! She’s more of a virago than ever. She said the trip really inspired her.”
When Sawyer's out of the bath and drying her hair, she reads back over her chat with Kimberly and Mikaela for clues.
Sawyer is in a cafe downtown working on her laptop, fine tuning a design on a lighting simulator, when Natasha texts her breathlessly to say that Lucia has booked some time off and has asked Gillian to find someone to cover for her.
Apparently, she’s flying back to Chicago.
Sawyer texts Mikaela, “Why didn’t you tell me you were fucking Lucia? Cradle snatcher!”
Mikaela replies immediately, “Back up I never asked for your input.”
There’s a short gap followed by a second message, “We’re closer in age than you and Natasha. You just forget because you patronize her as much as Natasha does. Sorry but true.”
.
.
.
Lucia flies to Chicago at the end of summer. She texts Sawyer a picture from the side of Lake Michigan and writes underneath it, “Hey boo. Just learnt that you lot named Lake Michigan from your words for ‘great water.’ Come through!”
Both Lucia and Mikaela seem determined to document their whole trip on Instagram. There are shots of them at every tourist spot Sawyer can think of, plus a trip for pancakes with Kimberly.
Sawyer arrives to the club late, straight from the theatre. She drops her car off at the house and assembles her costume before hurrying to meet Natasha at the club. Assembling her costume takes no time. She’s a slutty mouse, for the third year running. She dabs a spot of black eyeliner on her nose and three black lines on each cheek. Her felt ears are stowed away from last year in her desk, and she pours herself into a black latex dress she originally bought for Natasha’s eyes only.
When she arrives at the club, she catches up with the general level of drunkenness quickly. Natasha is sober, although you wouldn’t guess it from her Wuthering Heights inspired dancing. She’s come as Kate Bush, has put a henna wash on her hair and is wearing a long, wafting robe. Every so often Natasha twirls past Sawyer, flapping her arms, fabric streaming around
