October 10, 2002
With her eyes closed, Stevie was able to pick out the songs of three different birds in the trees which surrounded the garden. The English sun was surprisingly warm on her face for the time of year, but the breeze from the gently swaying swing made her pull the blanket more tightly around her shoulders.
A year ago tonight.
She opened her eyes as she felt the swing stop moving and someone sit next to her. Christine smiled warmly and held out a protective arm which Stevie gratefully tucked herself under, resting against Chris's shoulder. The two of them sat in silence for a moment as Chris used her feet to propel the swing back into its light motion.
Stevie had used the excuse that the stress of being in the studio was overwhelming her and she needed a break for a few days. Despite her band mate leaving Fleetwood Mac, they had been in regular contact and Stevie was always promising to visit as soon as she had chance.
Something had drawn her to Chris now - she instinctively called her before anyone else. They had been through so much together. Christine understood her better than most, understood her relationship with Lindsey better than most, and had watched them without comment and listened to Stevie without judgement throughout the years.
She had been at Christine's for 3 days now, ostensibly to get a break from the rampant testosterone in the studio. Chris understood, but she also knew there was something else going on Stevie was keeping to herself. She'd waited patiently for it to come out as she knew it always did, but nothing yet. Maybe she needed a nudge.
"Are you and Lindsey shagging again?"
Chris was never one for sugarcoating. Stevie sprung upright and the swing jolted as she stared at her in speechless shock.
"Well look, something's going on isn't it? I've been waiting for you to tell me but it's not happened so I thought if I just put it out there -"
"Why is that always what everyone thinks?"
"History?"
A pause.
"Ok but it's not...that's not the main thing. We did - once, back in June - but it was stupid and it shouldn't have happened."
"What else is new?"
"Christine."
"Sorry. Go on."
"There's someone else. Don't roll your eyes, I know you're desperate to." She took a deep breath. Her heart was pounding - for the first time, she was about to tell someone. "Someone I really didn't want to hurt. I know a say this a lot, but I've truly never felt about anyone the way I feel about her."
"Her?"
Stevie clapped her hands to her mouth. She hadn't meant to announce it quite like that. She searched Christine's face for clues about how she felt, but after a moment of confusion whilst she processed it, Chris just looked at her, waiting for her to continue.
"Y-yes. Well?"
"Well what?"
"Don't you have any thoughts about it?"
"Well, I can't say I'm greatly surprised. I thought it would have happened before now. For all your properness, I know you're very...open minded in that department. But the fact it's happened, well, what do you want me to say? If you're both happy, I'm happy -"
She couldn't say anything more if she'd wanted to, as Stevie had thrown her arms tight around her and she was now contending with a mouth full of blanket. She returned the hug, gently soothing Stevie who was sobbing tears of both relief and regret into her shoulder.
After a while Stevie broke away, taking a few shuddering breaths as she prepared herself to tell the story. Chris silently dried her friend's cheeks, as she had done so many times before, and tucked a loose lock of blonde hair behind Stevie's ear.
"It started last April..."
~
The phone sounded muffled and distant. Stevie sat up groggily, aching from the position on the sofa she'd fallen asleep in. Her head pounded as she tried to place the sound and find her bearings. Through bleary eyes she made out Christine's sleeping form on the other sofa, illuminated by the flickering tv, an unfinished glass of red balanced precariously in the crook of her arm.
Three empty wine bottles were scattered on the floor. It all came flooding painfully back to Stevie. The revelation, the suggestion of a glass of wine before dinner, the glass becoming a bottle, the dinner forgotten, the second bottle, the third...what was that incessant ringing?
She stumbled to her feet in the darkness, the bottles clinking as she knocked one into another. Fumbling her way into the dark hallway, she saw a glow and realized it was her phone, forgotten in the bottom of her purse. The ringing stopped and she was plunged back into darkness for a second before it started again. Someone was desperately trying to reach her. Pulling it from her purse, she squinted at the buttons, answering it and putting it to her ear without reading the name on the screen.
"Mmm? Hello?"
"Stevie?"
The voice was a distant and strangled croak but she sobered up with a shock as she recognized it.
"What's happened? Are you ok? Where are you?"
"I need you."
