“Go shower. You stink.” And it was that easy. Sometimes I wished I was a guy. They could go from sweet and serious to playful in the blink of an eye, where I’d be weighing up and rehashing every word for the next four hours.
After doing everything that I could to avoid it, including cleaning out the fridge which I’m pretty sure had never actually been done before, I sat down at the kitchen bench and fired up my laptop. Not only did I have job hunting to do but I also had a date to plan. If it was a date. Was it a date? Fuck! I had no idea. I guess it was. I mean, I’d said it was a date so I guess that included activates and food. Shit! What had I gotten myself into? I was in way over my head. Not only had I never been on an actual date, but now I was unemployed and had no idea where the next injection into my bank account would come from, or when. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Seth wasn’t even some normal guy I’d met down at the pub. He was some soccer prodigy on a multi-million-dollar contract. I couldn’t very well serve him a vegemite sandwich and call it gourmet.
Grabbing my phone, I picked it up and text the only person I knew could talk me down from this ledge, my girlfriend, Carly. She was a couple of years older than me and married to the town vet, but she was the one who’d encouraged me to chase my dreams and do what I want. We’d met one night when my appaloosa mare, Alice, had gotten caught in a barbed-wire fence and torn her leg to shreds. Mum and Dad were away at some show, and I was home by myself. I’d rung the clinic in a panic having no clue what to do. All I knew was there was a lot of blood and I couldn’t get her free from the wire. When Gage had arrived, trusty black vet bag in hand, Carly had bounced out of the front seat and come straight for me, wrapping me in the hug I didn’t even know I needed. While Gage saved my horse, Carly saved me from worrying myself into an early grave. From that moment on, she’d become my confidant.
Carly was everything I wanted to be. She’d grown up in the city and had travelled the world taking some of the most stunning wedding photos you could imagine before finding her happily ever after in the same small town I was desperate to escape. Where she found it comforting, I found it stifling. I guess perspective, time, and experience really were everything.
Claire:SOS!!!
Claire:I have a date
Claire:I think
Claire:And I’m planning it
Claire:WTF do people do on a date
Claire:Help!!!
I was one of those people who sent seven messages when one would do. It drove Carly nuts, but thankfully she ignored my quirks and just went along with it.
When she didn’t reply straight away, I knew I’d go insane sitting there staring at my phone waiting for her to talk me off the cliff, so I focused on the other problem at hand. A job. I needed one, and I needed one quick smart. It wasn’t just the money I wanted, it was something to do. I was the world’s worst bored person and I would bet money on it, well I would if I had any, that the boys wouldn’t kick me out cause I couldn’t pay my share of the rent or food, no they’d kick me out because I’d be as annoying as a pimple on your butt.
