This rockstar life

3.3 Birds of a feather

Jess orders two straight vodkas and two vodka tonics. She downs her shot the minute the glass hits the bar and motions Alice to do the same.

"Come on, I've only got two hours before I have to be back for the babysitter."

Alice screws up her nose but does as she's told, while Jess scouts out a table.

The minute they sit down Jess demands "Right, enough of the polite small talk, tell me about your man! How's it going? Are you desperately in love?"

Alice puts both hands over her face, from behind which comes an 'eeeeeeeeee' noise.

"So, that's a yes then?"

Alice lowers her hands until just her eyes are showing and nods vigorously. "Yes, so very much yes. It's... oh god..." She flaps her hands, fanning her face, "I've never... loved anyone with such... abandonment... before. It's kind of scary." Noticing her cousin's smirk and raised eyebrows she adds, "Oh I don't mean... you know... well, maybe a bit... no I mean... without restraint. Oh god, that sounds dirty too!"

Jess is still grinning, quite enjoying Alice's flustered attempts to avoid double entendres.

"I mean not being careful with it, not hiding what I feel, not playing any of those stupid games. Feeling all the feelings. You know that cliche 'he has my whole heart'? Well he does, pathetic shrivelled thing that it is. I just... tied a bow round it and pushed it into his hands. Basically on our first date. It's ridiculous. I'm ridiculous."

"No, you're happy."

Alice smiles down at the table "I am happy. I'm... dizzy with it. But not crazy like I used to get. Dizzy but... tethered."

"And does this heart-stealing boy feel the same about you?"

"I hope so. I think so. Maybe not so... dippy... as me, but he seems really... certain. He was pretty fast-forward from the start, no hesitation, even when I was still cautious. He gave me his house keys on our third date, and said he loved me on the fourth."

"That is quite full-on."

"Well, all of those dates were two or three days long, so it probably counts as a couple of months in normal romance land."

Jess doesn't look entirely convinced, and when she says 'and now you live together' it is almost a question (even though obviously, having initiated this get-together with a letter sent to the newly-shared home, she knows it to be true).

"Yup. I guess... six weeks? Officially. But really I went for the weekend after Christmas and never left, so it seems like longer."

"Well I suppose it's good that you've got something stable."

Alice gives a wry smile, "Oh we're very unstable. Individually and as a pair! But it feels... strangely safe. I trust him with my heart."

"Very poetic."

"I am a poet."

"But do you really know him well enough, for that trust? In such a short amount of time?"

"I hope so. The way we started... in the hospital... I heard all the bad stuff right off." Jess is leaning in looking extremely curious, but Alice knows those are not her secrets to tell. "If there was something worse that he was hiding from me, it would have to be that he killed someone! But I've seen all the good stuff too. He's so gentle and funny and sweet, but not, like, too sweet. Not soppy."

"Sticky sweet?"

Alice gives her A Look.

"What? I've been playing the album."