Natasha excuses herself for a smoke, and she wonders whether Lucia will use this as her chance to make a move. If Natasha were Lucia, she would. But surprisingly, Lucia follows her outside. Natasha finds a space to lean against the fence and takes a long drag of her cigarette, leaning her head back to look at the stars and watching the plume of smoke drift away into the night. Lucia stands next to her, staring straight at Natasha’s face. She doesn’t know what Lucia is thinking.
“Do you want to try and get that girl to have a threesome with us?”
“What the fuck, Lucia?”
“She is obviously into you, she can barely drag her eyes away from you. And I know you, you won’t do anything about it. You act like a monk sometimes. You’ll probably go home and punish yourself for impure thoughts with two hundred press-ups.”
Natasha won’t bite. She says, “Lucia, she’s just a bit shy. Try and smile at her a bit, tell her you like her tattoos. Show her yours.”
“Nah, I think she’ll hold out for you. She won’t say yes to me until she’s sure you’re not interested,” Lucia says. She looks calculating.
“I’ll tell her I’m straight.”
Lucia laughs, “You don’t look straight.”
Natasha concedes the point, “I could tell her I’m in a relationship.”
“You didn’t look like a woman in a relationship when I came back. Your face was about an inch away from hers, your head was all tilted like you were just waiting for the lean in. You looked like a love-struck teenager!”
Natasha shoves her shoulder, “Shut it.”
Lucia taunts further, “Come on. You always such talk a big game about being such a top. Let me see how you work.”
Natasha scoffs, “And I’ll have to sit around and watch you playing Mistress?” She mimes the crack of a whip.
“Well, you wouldn’t have to sit around…” Lucia offers.
Natasha doesn’t want to admit that she’s warming to the idea. But then she thinks of shy, pretty Jacquie with her big lips and tattoos bent over for her, and she knows that she’s going to give in.
“If,” Natasha pauses to stress the word, “if we did this, you have to be sober-ish. I want you to stop drinking now, and the blunt in your purse stays there.”
Lucia nods, her almond eyes gleaming. The corners of her heart shaped mouth curve slowly upwards.
“And I don’t think we should do anything together either,” Natasha says. “I mean, I’m older than you, we work together…” Natasha trails off. Natasha might have initially been a mentor for Lucia, but these days it feels like Lucia gives equal support to Natasha. Natasha isn’t sure where she’d be without Lucia’s positive influence, and she’d be furious with herself if she fucked it up.
“I’ve fooled around with friends before. It’s not a big deal. But fine, if that’s what you want,” Lucia shrugs nonchalantly.
They head back inside, and Jacquie’s no longer at the bar. The club is small enough that it doesn’t take them too long to find her. She’s in the middle of the dance floor with her friends from the band. They’re head-banging, jumping on the floor with stompy boots, shoving each other with their shoulders. Their wild dancing doesn’t fit the mood of the music and Natasha wonders if they’re reliving some teenage glory days. Jacquie takes a break and runs her hands through her purple hair, pushing it out of her sweaty face. She throws her head back and laughs, her hand on a friend’s shoulder.
Natasha looks at Lucia, and Lucia looks back. Natasha feels profoundly uncomfortable with approaching the whole group. She gives Lucia a sharp prod in the small of the back.
Lucia stalks through the other people on the dance floor, swinging one foot directly in front of the other with Naomi Campbell levels of precision.
Natasha can see Lucia lean down to speak to Jacquie. Jacquie’s smiling, tucking her hair shyly behind her ear. She brings her foot off the floor, lets it swing behind her knee as Lucia whispers into her ear. Jacquie nods. Lucia turns and walks back to Natasha, swaying her hips. Jacquie follows meekly behind her.
They meet Natasha at the edge of the dance floor and Natasha gives Jacquie a reassuring smile.
“I can’t believe this,” Jacquie says, “Came back to see my uncle interred and ended up having a threesome with two fucking hotties.”
Natasha loops her index finger through the O-ring on Jacquie’s collar and pulls hard. Jacquie grins goofily at Natasha and Natasha returns it. Fuck, thinks Natasha, she could really like this girl.
Lucia interrupts her thoughts, “Nat. Nat! We’ll go to mine, yeah? I want my stuff and yours is always a mess.”
Jacquie keeps looking into Natasha’s eyes, “I wanted to see Natasha’s paintings.”
Lucia steps behind Jacquie and takes hold of her hips. She leans down and murmurs in Jacquie’s ear, “You’ll like what I’ve got to show you even more.”
Lucia wants to call a cab to spare her feet in her heels, but Natasha wants to walk off some energy. She insists that they walk the twenty minutes through JP to get to Lucia’s apartment. Lucia shares her space with another young queer artist but luckily, she has had her shipped off for the weekend. Her apartment is much tidier and cleaner than Natasha’s but
