I practised doing normal, casual faces in the mirror. ‘Hey!’ I said to my reflection, smiling and waving. ‘Welcome back! How was your date?’
It looked and sounded neither normal nor casual.
I sighed, pulled my singlet strap back up my shoulder, and started polishing the taps. At least I’d hit a new break-up milestone. This was the first sexual fantasy I’d had in a very long time that wasn’t about Jac breaking down the door at Mum’s place and begging me to take her back.
It was late when Dylan and co finally came traipsing back from the group date. They looked bone tired, and they were all covered in mud and – blood?
‘Oh my God,’ I said, rushing up to Dylan, my angst momentarily forgotten as the splatters of blood on her shirt performed an emergency full system override on my brain. ‘What happened? Are you okay?’
‘It’s not my blood,’ she said wearily. ‘It’s Belinda’s.’
I’d gone straight to Dylan, but Parisa, Kumiko, Jess D and Heather were all clustered around Belinda. ‘Holy shit,’ Jess D said. ‘Belinda, you need to go to a dentist.’
‘I can’t,’ Belinda said. ‘If I leave, I can’t come back.’
Dylan sagged back against the kitchen island, fingers digging into her temples.
I immediately activated Mummy Mandie mode. ‘Sit down,’ I told her, nudging her towards one of the bar stools. ‘I’ll make you a cup of tea.’
‘Are you making tea, Amanda?’ Naya said. ‘I’d love one, if that’s all right.’
‘Sure.’
‘Me too,’ Jess K said.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Almond milk for you, right? Regular for you, Naya?’
They both nodded.
‘Anyone else?’ I asked.
‘I’m having the first shower,’ Lily announced, and waltzed away.
‘You should have a shower too,’ Parisa told Belinda. ‘You might feel better if you clean up.’
Belinda nodded. As she left the room, escorted by Parisa and Jess D, I noticed that her lip had a big cut in it and one of her front teeth was badly chipped.
It was her week to clean her bathroom. I made a mental note to take that task over for her.
I busied myself making tea for everyone. Dylan was sitting on the bar stool I’d nudged her towards, slumped over the island, head resting on her forearms. There was dried mud in her hair.
‘Hey,’ I said, touching her hand gently and putting her mug down on a coaster next to her. ‘Tea.’
She made a noise of acknowledgement, but didn’t look up.
People slowly started to drift away. It was a nice night outside, so Naya and Jess K took their tea out there. Lily came back down a while later, clean and dressed in a dramatic satin robe (she had an apparently endless collection of them, I had no idea how she’d managed to pack them all) and went outside too. The women from the other bedroom headed upstairs, probably so they could fuss over Belinda, which left Dylan and I alone in the kitchen.
‘Hey,’ I said. ‘Tell me what happened.’
She made a noise which could have been a moan, a groan, or the word ‘no’.
‘Your tea’s getting cold.’
Another noise, much the same as the first one.
‘Dylan, talk to me,’ I said. ‘Don’t shut me out. Please.’
She looked up. Her eyes met my eyes.
