Dared to love

•Chapter 1•

"You what" Carla shrieked

I winced and jerked the phone away from my ear. God I knew I loved Carla like a sister but she had never been able to grasp the concept of an 'inside voice'.

"I said I can't go tonight" I repeated gently and glanced around to see if anyone was listening in on my conversation. Thankfully the nosy girl, daisy, in the cubicle next to me was printing off a few things or she would have been hanging onto my every word.

"Why the hell not?" She demanded. "It's drinks n dares night, remember? We do it every second Tuesday of the month? You, me and Kira all at the bar with little margaritas? What's so special about this night that you can't make it?"

"I just might be busy tonight, that's all." I lied.

In truth I had a meeting with the boss in exactly 5 minutes, and if all went well I'd have a lot of paperwork to sort out... And possibly a new desk to do it behind. I was hoping that finally I could move up from the editing department and into journalism... The job I'd been wanting to do for just, oh, my entire life. But I couldn't actually tell Carla this because A) I might not actually get the promotion and B) I knew Carla wouldn't consider anything short of my new apartment burning down reason for us to not have our monthly Drinks 'n Dares night.

And even then she'd probably insist we had margaritas in the firetruck.

"Claire," she growled. "I happen to be your best friend-" I heard an indignant 'Hey!' In the background" - so if there's anything going on could you at least tell me?"

I sighed. "Carla I swear. Next time I'm texting you".

Not that, that would do much good of course. Carla was the receptionist for News in Nelson, where the three of us worked. All calls went through her and she could of course, call up any of us whenever she pleased. Something she did on a regular basis when business was slow. Not that Carla was lazy; in fact she was extra enthusiastic most of the time. She had a bubbly personality, a joke for every situation and a tongue that could race faster than Usane Bolt. But there were times when I wished she wasn't quite so stubborn. Kira, on the other hand (my other best friend) was much to gentle for her own good. Naturally pretty, with her big brown eyes and Maori blood she was a firm believer in the 'If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all' theory. She worked down in the photography department and we always used her area for emergency gossip sessions because usually everyone was out on scheduled photo shots or other such. Anyway...

On the other end of the phone Carla let out an indignant snort and began some defence that I never did hear the end of. That's because partway through she got cut off by someone in the background - who I was assuming was Kira - telling her to hand over the dang phone. That's how I knew it had to be Kira because, bless her heart, she had the potty mouth of a ninety - year old Methodist grandmother. Still, I heard her snippets of an argument before finally Kira's voice was speaking down the line.

" You okay hon'?" She asked softly. Kira never spoke any other way than softly, honest to god she would be my mum's perfect daughter. "Because if you think your coming down with something we could come over to your place and have a girl's night in. Chocolate, Tom Cruise, the whole shebang".

"I'm fine, Kira, seriously". I answered. But no matter how annoyed I might get with my friends, I knew they were only being nosey because they cared. And so reluctantly (because I didn't want to count my chickens before they'd hatched at all) I told her that I was seeing my boss, Ms Wilshire, about breaking out into the journalism side of the company. Ms Wilshire was the manager of The Gilbourne Press building we worked in. She was the one that co- coordinated all the departments etc, and was consequently in charge of any promotions or department, I knew I would keep it in confidence without telling Carla. After all, if I got the job then I would explain and it'd be all sweet. And if she ignored my pleas once again well... Let's just say that the margaritas would be much needed.