A Greater Good (girlxgirl)

Greater Good

"I'll see you there then," James said and kissed Everlyn's cheek before walking out the front door.

Everlyn stood in the hallway staring at the spot where he'd just disappeared, the closing of James' ute door in the street startled her and she moved off to her bedroom in a trance. In only a couple of minutes, Jane would be arriving.

She fell heavily onto the end of the bed and stared at the wall. It was staring back at her, taunting her, judging her for what she was doing: telling her fiancé to arrive at the big family lunch alone because she had "lent the dress she wanted to wear to Clarissa who'd drop it over soon", when really she meeting her "mistress". Everlyn knew how it looked on paper, she knew she was in the wrong, but everything in the world was so fucked up anyway, did it really matter if 1 person in 7 billion was adding to the chaos? Yes! How could she justify herself by thinking like that? 

She laid back on the bed and closed her eyes. It did matter because she was hurting people, people that didn't deserve to be hurt like James, and Jane, her own family, the Fairbrough family, friends of both James and her. Hopefully the pain would be over soon, all she could do was hope that one day things would be good again.

She thought about her life before James proposed, it had been good then, she knew what was happening and yes, it may have been kind go boring, but wasn't that what growing old is? Pre-proposal there was always a nagging in Everlyn's mind that kept pulling at her after nights spent on the couch with James watching sport that life wasn't meant to be this dull. She shut the voice down and ignored it, but now - when she was on the verge of tears, avoiding a lunch party and wishing the woman she loved would hurry so she could be wrapped up in her arms - Everlyn was wishing she'd listened to that little voice and taken action before it was too late, maybe then she could have spared the amount of heartbreak she was moments away from inflicting. 

Everlyn sat up groggily, she was beginning to feel her nerves kick in. She couldn't stand to feel nervous about something so serious, she needed a level headed for it, plus, it was just Jane. She groaned and fell back onto the bed. It was Jane. 

As if summoned by some deep connection with Everlyn's thoughts, the doorbell rang and Everlyn stood up, slowly making her way to get it. There were reasons she'd made Jane come right before the lunch, the first being that they only had about twenty minutes to do what they wanted to do, and the second being that they could decide what to do about the lunch.

Everlyn unconsciously checked herself in the mirror beside the door before opening it to reveal Jane standing there smiling her smug smile. She was stunning, effortlessly so in expensive looking black ankle length slacks, a red jumper and a black jacket thrown over the top resting on her shoulders. When she saw Everlyn, her smug smile stretched into a wide, toothy grin with brilliantly straight teeth and red lipstick. Everlyn was weak. Her breath was gone. She had to search for her inhaler. Her wig was snatched. But she didn't let any appreciation of Jane's appearance show on her face, she simply smiled (kind of sadly, Jane thought) and stepped away from the door to let Jane in. 

Jane kissed her on the cheek and stepped in. "Hey."

"Hi." Everlyn wiped the lipstick off her cheek as she led Jane to the bedroom.

Jane was pulling off her jacket rather excitedly when Everlyn turned around to her and shook her head. "We don't have time."

Jane frowned but nodded anyway. "What are we doing then?" she asked.

"Not everything's about sex, Jane," Everlyn snapped as she walked over to her wardrobe and flicked through clothes.

Jane sunk down onto the bed and watched Everlyn furiously sort through potential outfits, she was confused at what was happening, dread was beginning to fill her. She was a fucking detective! How could she not have seen this coming... again?

"I know, Ev, we always talk, we're not fucking nymphos."

"Don't swear!" Everlyn cried out, turning around to face Jane with a wild face.

Jane stared up at her, the room was eerily calm before Everlyn's anger was dissolved into tears. Jane sprang to her feet and grabbed Everlyn in a hug.

"Shh," she cooed into Everlyn's ear as she sobbed onto Jane's $600 jacket. "It's alright, it's ok."

Everlyn broke away and walked to the other side of the bed, she shook her head and looked across at Jane who's stomach was growing heavier and heavier as seconds ticked by. 

"What?" Jane spluttered urgently. "What now!?"

Everlyn shook her head desperately, hoping that some angel from the sky would swoop down and take her away, and perhaps wipe her memories in the process. "I'm about to get married."

Jane scoffed. "This again. Everlyn, I know."

"No, you don't. We're about to go to a lunch with both of our families to celebrate James and I getting married at the end of this week!"

Jane shrugged. "So? I know you're going to go through with it, you couldn't bear to act out of the ordinary and upset your parents."

Everlyn stomped her foot like a child and balled her fists. "Don't be a bitch!"

Jane held her hands up in defence. "I honestly didn't mean it meanly, but it's true, you're going to go through with it."

"So I can't keep doing." She gestured between them. "This."

Jane's last bit of smug attitude faded and her face dropped into something sinister. "What?"

"Jane," Everlyn said sadly, "please, you have to understand."

Jane sat down on the bed slowly and stared at the carpet. "It's kind of a habit of yours to break things up between us right before family gatherings, isn't it?"

"Jane," Everlyn repeated.

"It's fine, Ev," Jane said kindly, she looked up at Everlyn and smiled. "It's really ok."

Everlyn sat down beside her and grabbed her hand. "I really want this, trust me, I do, but I don't want to be an oddity."

Jane smiled at her and squeezed her hand a little too tight in compensation to stop tears from falling. Everlyn gazed into Jane's eyes, she wanted to stare into those eyes for the rest of her life, but some things she couldn't have. Jane reached across and brushed her thumb over the cluster of freckles on Everlyn's cheek, Everlyn leant into her hand and closed her eyes. She was giving up her happiness for James to be happy, for family, for the greater good, but as Jane leant forward slowly and softly brushed her lips on Everlyn's, Everlyn could have said fuck the greater good.