Catching Waves

Part Fifteen

The party went down in history as the One Where Doug Cut Loose. The pressures that came with being in charge of the Unit had eaten dramatically into his half term which he'd spent, at the behest of the governors, assessing the effectiveness of the current behaviour policy and drafting a new approach to numeracy. He'd somehow got to Thursday night without having once stopped thinking about, dreaming about, speaking about work and he was determined right now, this very evening to have some Fucking Fun. Having triumphed in the DJ-off with Simon (Heidi's crowd weren't ready for Si's experiemental jungle sounds that he'd been dropping into Donna Summer classics, preferring instead Doug's more mainstream approach which consisted of gradually blending The Spice Girls into Girls Aloud before rocking out with some unadulterated Dolly) he'd gone on to challenge Josh, Austin and Caitlin to a drinking competition ("What are the rules, Doug?" "You have to drink shots" "Yeah, but what are the ..." "JUST DRINK ALL THE SHOTS!") and finished off by hand jiving to Heidi's Ibiza Chill Out album that had been playing on repeat since 2am in a half-hearted bid to encourage everyone to sod off.  

Caitlin and Heidi watched him from the sofa, they had decided some time ago that his jive face (eyes closed, nose scrunched, front teeth clutching lower lip) was probably very similar to his sex face and the subsequent hysterics had left them teary eyed. Simon and Josh were attempting to teach Rose how to play poker and Austin ... where was Austin? Struggling to sit upright, Caitlin realised that Astrid was nowhere to be seen either. Could they possibly be ...? She shared her thoughts with Heidi who immediately leapt into action, showering the jiving Doug with the walnut shells she'd been cracking into the lap of her dress. She turned and dragged Caitlin up with her, "Caitlin, if there is action happening in MY party with the hot man MY friend invited, then I insist on knowing exactly what's going on" and, heedless to Caitlin's mumblings that Austin wasn't her hot man, just a hot man she happened to know, pushed her towards the garden - "I'll go upstairs, you check out round here" she whispered slurrily. "If you find action, give the secret signal" and in case Caitlin had forgotten it, Heidi performed it again, an eerily accurate owl hoot made with puffed cheeks and clasped hands. Caitlin had as much hope of recreating it as finding a real owl to do the job for her, but didn't bother telling her friend, figuring that once Heidi was out of sight, she could slope back to the sofa and resume Doug Watching. 

It was breezy outside and Caitlin rubbed her arms vigorously, a reminder that she needed to find Margot's cardigan before leaving. The wind brought with it, along with goose bumps, what sounded like voices; a giggle and a mutter. Her intentions to sneak back to the sofa were blown away. Instead Caitlin glanced to the right towards where the voices were coming from, a round wicker sofa surrounded by miniature conifer trees from Christmases past. She moved closer, avoiding the crunchy gravel of the path and using the very edges of the porch to keep her sheltered. She listened again, definitely voices and definitely Astrid, she'd recognise those flirty, breathy tones anywhere. Angling her head ever so slightly to the left, she found she could see between two particularly weedy trees, straight onto the cream cushions where Astrid was sitting with Austin. The two were holding hands and Caitlin's eyes widened, but before she could even begin to put her owl's hoot together, she realised that whilst Astrid was most definitely holding Austin's hand, Austin seemed to be doing his best to disentangle himself, not that the flirty Swede seemed to mind. "Oh, Austeen" shuffling closer still, "Austeen, it's the most correct evening for sweet kisses and perfect strangers, mmm ..." Shuffle, shuffle. Caitlin bit her lip at the sight of a disconcerted Austin trying to move away but realising he was already crammed as tightly as he could possibly be into the furthest corner of the sofa. He gave his hand another polite wrench but Astrid hung on tightly, clasping it to the layers of chiffon that were just barely shrouding her creamy bosom. Caitlin couldn't help but smile. "Really, Astrid - it's very kind of you to be so welcoming ... I'm afraid I'll have to take a rain check on the kisses though, ahem." 

Astrid shuffle shuffled again and began nuzzling Austin's neck. He tried, politely, to escape and news of his struggle finally filtered through to Astrid who eventually murmured "Oh, you're so right, we must not shop lift the virginity of this night ... but oh, you must hold me as we watch the stars make love above us ..." and with that she threw her arms around him, thrust her heaving chest up against his chest and swung a tanned leg over his knee, placing her face just inches from his. Austin swallowed visibly, seemingly finding it difficult to tear his eyes from the boobs or the stickily glossed lips that pouted in front of him. Caitlin had to remind herself to draw breath, did Astrid have no shame? What would Austin do? And how long before watching became plain ol' perving? 

With an almighty effort that seemed worthy of HeMan, Austin stood up, leaving Astrid sprawled wantonly behind him. Pulling her chiffon together, she forced out a burst of laughter that sounded more tinkled-on than tinkling. "Ha ha ha, Austeen! Relax. We Scandi women are always such touchy touchy creatures. You must not be taking the snuggling so seriously!" She ground out another laugh before asking, curiously "You are with another woman, perhaps? You came with Cait - you are attracted to her perhaps, you don't wish her to find us here, alone?" 

"Cait ...? Oh, you mean Kitcat." 

Caitlin scanned his face as he considered the question. Half hidden in shadow, it was impossible to read and she rather found that she was anticipating the answer as eagerly as the rebuffed Astrid. He cleared his throat before, finally, "No. No, I'm not with Caitlin. She's ... a nice girl. But not for me."  

Astrid leapt to her feet as Caitlin scowled at the porch frame. She watched as Astrid flamboyantly gave Austin one, two, three - FOUR kisses on his cheeks before she swept up the side of the house and through the back door. Austin walked towards the front gate and afterwards, Caitlin could only blame the cocktails, the whiskey, the Prosecco ... 

"A nice girl?" 

He stopped and turned, looked at her, all lit up with fairy lights and indignation. 

"Kitkat. What are you doing out here?" 

Not one to be distracted by irrelevant questions, she merely folded her arms and raised an eyebrow before repeating, "Nice?" 

He paused for a second before holding her gaze as he walked slowly, hands in his pockets, all the way up the short path, back to the porch. Coming to a halt just at the foot of the steps where his eyes were level with hers.  

"What, you don't want to be nice?" he questioned, quietly. 

Now that he was in front of her, right in front of her actually, her objection seemed ill founded; who wouldn't want to be nice? Being nice was ... nice. Nothing wrong with nice. Lost for words now, she simply managed an "I ..." 

He spoke again, "How should I think of you instead?" 

She saw that his dark blue eyes contained the tiniest spangles of silver that twinkled at her, she wondered if Astrid had noticed them. The coconut smell from the neighbour's gorse bush mingled pleasantly with his aquatic tang, she breathed deeply and found herself taking a glance at his lips that seemed close, close, closer. She blinked hard and came to her senses. Smiled, dived into the rippling pause with a reckless "I guess I should just be happy that I've been upgraded from 'manstealingtramp ...'" In the silence that followed, Brain berated Mouth for speaking without consultation, screaming "It's too SOON to JOKE about it!" Eventually however, Austin smiled crookedly "Yes, you've been upgraded." She stood very still as he bent his head towards her and slowly brushed soft lips against the very most corner of her mouth before turning towards the gate again, throwing a laconic "See you Monday, Kitkat" behind him. 

"Yeah, Monday." And then, "Wait! Tomorrow's my last shift, I'm back at the Unit on Monday!" But it was too late, he was gone.