All or Nothing

Chapter 12

Aimee crossed the cobbled Main Street that ran through the centre of the village, November started next week but the weather was mild enough that she didn't need a coat. She was late. Again. She'd had to pop to the shop for milk, thinking would only take a minute, but there was something wrong with the till and she got stuck at the back of a long queue. When she finally made it to the salon, five minutes after her appointment should have started, she found Chloe behind the reception desk looking at something on the computer.

"I didn't think you'd come," Chloe got to her feet as the door closed behind Aimee.

"Why not?"

"You're not talking to me," Chloe said plainly. "In case you forgot."

"Hoes over bros?" Aimee smiled sheepishly back at Chloe.

It had been horrible not speaking. John had become so many things to her, but he couldn't take the place of her best friend. She missed their in-jokes. She missed their Googlebox-like viewings of a week's worth of Hollyoaks episodes. She missed being doubled over laughing at something in the girls' group chat; Katie and Emma obviously knew that something had gone down, and the chat had been all but silent this week. She even missed seeing what Chloe and Jamie were having for their tea.

"Always," Chloe nodded. She had spoken to Jamie about what had happened with Aimee, and he had wisely told her that you had let people make their own mistakes in life. That's what she was going to do and if it meant she had to be there to help Aimee pick up the pieces afterwards then she would be there for her, just as Aimee had been for her in the past.

"I'm sorry Chlo," Aimee said as she sat down, gowned up and ready to have her hair washed. She knew Chloe was only looking out for her and Rosie. She knew she had lost her mind over John. But she didn't care. She just wanted to soak in every second she had with him and not think about after.

"So, how is John?" Chloe asked as she wet Aimee's hair. Chloe's distaste for John was clear by the way she said his name, as though it almost sickened her to say it, she'd elongated the O and the N was hard.

"Be nice Chlo," Aimee pleaded. 

"I'm trying babe" Chloe promised. "Have you seen him since Sunday?"

"Kind of," Aimee thought that a stolen moment when he brought Rosie home and then a video call couldn't really count. Was it wrong to look forward to a funeral because she would see him?!

 "Are you guys a thing now?" Chloe asked, she was trying so hard to be passive and not show any judgement in her tone or her face. She had never met John's girlfriend, but she hated to think of her sitting somewhere with her bestie pouring her heart out because something wasn't right with John. She would not sit here and condone whatever Aimee and John were doing, she wouldn't be responsible for them hurting someone.

"No," Aimee said quickly. "Kind of. Oh, I don't know Chlo," she sighed. "It's a mess. We made a deal, and it seemed a good idea at the time and but now... Now I don't know."

"A deal?" Chloe paused lathering Aimee's hair.

"It was actually you that made me think of it," Aimee replied. 

Chloe screwed her nose up, "Don't be bringing me into your sordid activities."

"You only regret the things you don't do," Aimee said it like it was a mantra.

"Sky dives Aimee! Or buying a dress, or going out on a weeknight... Those are the kind of things that applies to. Not shagging a footballer. Anyway, what's the deal?"

"We do it once," Aimee said as this was the most reasonable thing in the world. "Just to get it out our systems."

Chloe's mouth gaped open; this was genuinely the most ridiculous thing Aimee had ever said, even worse than the time she admitted she often thought about how she could get away with murder.