by Natasha West
Dorothy looked at Susan and back to Jodie. ‘Well, I’m sure she’ll be along in a minute.’
Jodie looked around the lawn at the several hundred people milling around. No Robyn. She looked at the empty entrance. Everyone was already out.
‘She’s not here,’ Jodie muttered to Dorothy.
‘Odd to see you taking an interest,’ Susan said in a jokey tone. ‘I would have thought you’d let us all burn alive if it meant you winning Bake It!’
Jodie gave Susan a chilly look. ‘I think you’re confusing me with yourself.’
Susan harrumphed. Dorothy pursed her lips. ‘Now, girls…’
‘Dorothy, I don’t care if you were born before the fall of Rome, you’re not my gran so, please do not refer to me as a girl. I’m a grown woman. Now, shall we make sure Robyn hasn’t burned to death, or are you two too busy with your WI meeting?’ Jodie asked.
Two shocked faces looked at her aghast. Jodie didn’t have time for this. ‘Forget it.’
She went to the entrance. ‘You ticked off Robyn Vincent?’ she asked the fire marshal.
The guy had a look at his list. ‘Nope. She definitely in the building?’
‘More than likely.’
The guy chewed the inside of his mouth. ‘I better call my boss.’
‘Before you do, can you just tell me…. is there a real fire?’
The guy shrugged. ‘Nah. Fire drill.’
Jodie was glad that Dorothy and Susan weren’t there to see how relieved she was. She composed herself and walked back to the assembly point.
Dorothy and Susan had their arms folded. ‘Well, where is she?’
Jodie shook her head with all the disinterest she could muster. ‘Dunno.’
‘But you just went off looking for her, didn’t you?’ Dorothy demanded. ‘What if she’s stuck in the hotel somewhere?’
‘It’s just a drill, it doesn’t matter.’
‘What doesn’t matter?’ asked a voice, and Jodie turned to see Robyn, eating a Twix.
‘Where have you been?’ Susan asked suspiciously.
‘I just nipped to the shop,’ Robyn said defensively, swallowing. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Fire drill,’ Dorothy said. ‘This one,’ she jerked a thumb at Jodie in a way she didn’t remotely like, ‘thought you might be stuck in a life or death situation.’
‘Did she?’ Robyn asked, looking to Jodie.
Jodie frowned. ‘I only asked where you were.’
‘She was giving us short shrift for not running into a burning building searching for you.’
‘That’s an exaggeration,’ Jodie said quickly. She didn’t like how meek her voice sounded.
Robyn looked at Jodie for a moment, and then licked her lips and looked away. ‘Well, I’m safe and sound.’
‘Right, everyone! We’re missing one guest!’ the fire marshal abruptly yelled, making the four women jump to varying degrees, Robyn the most, Jodie the least. ‘I’m looking for Robyn Vincent!’
‘I’m here!’ Robyn waved.
He jogged over. ‘You’re Robyn?’
‘That’s me.’
The marshal looked at Jodie. ‘You could have told me you found her.’
Jodie wanted to kill someone. Possibly herself.
‘Back in!’ the marshall yelled. ‘Drill is over!’
Jodie, head dipped, shoulders drooped, began to shuffle toward the building as quick as her embarrassed legs would take her. She hoped she could outrun the other women. She didn’t want to speak to anyone right now.
‘Wait, I’ll go up in the elevator with you,’ Robyn said, falling into step with her.
‘Whatever,’ Jodie said.
Twenty-Seven
Robyn walked back in with Susan and Dorothy. Jodie was beating a brisk pace to the hotel, and Robyn said to her ambling companions, ‘I’m just gonna… I want to ask her something about that mirror glaze.’
‘What?’ Susan asked shortly.
Robyn’s mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she was able to spit out, ‘I want to know about whipping…. Her wrist action.’
Susan and Dorothy looked at her blankly. Robyn decided to cut her losses and she jogged to catch up with Jodie. ‘Wait, I’ll go up in the elevator with you,’ Robyn said, falling into step with her.
‘Whatever,’ Jodie snarked.
Robyn wondered if all this was just a misunderstanding. Had Jodie really been concerned, or were people overstating it? The mortified look on Jodie’s face had made her wonder… ‘So, you were trying to make sure I wasn’t stuck in a blaze?’
Jodie glanced at her disinterestedly. ‘Mmm? Oh, I suppose I might have asked where you were.’
‘But you asked the fire marshal too,’ Robyn pressed.
‘For god’s sake, I wasn’t exactly scaling the building with an axe between my teeth,’ Jodie said glibly.
Robyn didn’t know what to say to that. Jodie always had a way of making Robyn feel stupid. Now was no different.
As they got to the lift, Robyn was starting to think she’d gotten a bit carried away with herself. Jodie didn’t care if she burnt to a crisp after all.
‘This fucking thing takes forever,’ Jodie muttered to herself.
Robyn didn’t say anything. She didn’t want to feel dumb again.
‘Fuck this. I’m going to the bar for a drink,’ Jodie said. Robyn still didn’t say anything. She just kept her eyes on the floor number.
Jodie began to walk away and then, as though it was an afterthought, turned back to Robyn. ‘Are you coming or not?’
Robyn’s neck twisted almost a full one hundred and eighty degrees. ‘Who? Me?’
‘Who else?’ Jodie asked, already walking away.
***
Jodie sat with a glass of OJ. Robyn was having wine. Not a word had been spoken between them in a minute and a half. Robyn was feeling the pressure of the silence quite strongly. She didn’t know what she was doing here. Why would Jodie want to do this, sit across from each other, imbibing in this dense silence? Surely she’d rather have been alone?
‘I hated my cake today,’ Jodie said abruptly.
‘But it won,’ Robyn said, surprised.
‘Yeah. But only on spectacle.’
‘Susan’s cake had spectacle. And it came last.’
‘Yeah, cos it was a dry mess. My cake was fine.’
‘Right.’
‘Fine. Not great, though. It was style over substance.’ She took a thoughtful swig of her drink. ‘My dad wouldn’t have thought much of it.’
Robyn was foxed. What was happening right now? ‘I tasted your cake, you know. After.’
‘Yeah?’ Jodie said with disinterest. Robyn didn’t really think she was disinterested, though.
‘Yeah. I thought it was good.’
Jodie shrugged. ‘Yours was better.’
‘It came third.’
‘They were wrong.’ She looked at her nailbeds. ‘It was better than mine.’
Robyn frowned. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Eh?’ Jodie asked surprised.
‘You’re being nice to me. You’re never nice to me. We agreed not to be, remember?’
‘That’s when we were sleeping together,’ Jodie said matter-of-factly.
‘So now we're not doing that, you’re buying me drinks and complimenting my baking?’ Robyn asked, confused.
‘For god’s sake, why are you dissecting me? Just let shit happen,’ Jodie said irritably.
‘What shit am I letting happen, pray tell?’ Robyn demanded.
‘Nothing. A drink. Cake talk. I don’t know!’ Jodie snapped.
Robyn’s eyes widened. Jodie was always pissy. But there was more to this.
Jodie was trying to talk to her.
She wasn’t very good at it. She seemed angry at herself. But it was what she was doing. Robyn wasn’t sure what to do with it. Did it mean anything? Or did Robyn simply want it to mean something?
‘Your dad taught you to bake, did I hear that
the other day?’
‘Mmm hmmm,’ Jodie said.
‘But he’s… He’s not around?’ Robyn said.
‘Nope. Died when I was sixteen.’
‘So, baking is in your blood.’
‘I guess. I’ve never really been sure if I even care about it that much, though.’
‘But you’re here.’
‘I… I didn’t really want to do this,’ Jodie hesitantly admitted. ‘I’m just trying to start a business, and it seemed like a good way to get it off the ground.’
‘You’re starting a business doing something you don’t like doing?’
‘Sometimes it’s not about what you want to do, but what you can do,’ Jodie told her.
‘You think?’
‘So why are you on the show?’ Jodie diverted.
‘It was… an accident,’ Robyn confessed.
‘How do you accidentally apply for Bake It!? It was kind of a lengthy process,’ Jodie asked.
‘I was… I guess I was trying to avoid Alex.’
Jodie smiled. The smile became a soft chuckle. ‘Ahh. So I didn’t exactly bust up the love of a lifetime.’
‘I was never really sure, but…’ Robyn didn’t know what the end of that sentence was.
But Jodie thought she did. ‘You didn’t want to be alone.’
‘I didn’t say that,’ Robyn said defensively. But when she thought about it, Jodie had a point. ‘Maybe that’s the truth.’ She sighed. ‘That’s pathetic.’
She half thought Jodie would agree on her wretchedness. But Jodie came to her defence instead. ‘She was kind of sexy. You know, in that half-arsed kind of way.’
‘That was her appeal. She didn’t try. To someone like me, that’s very attractive.’
‘Someone like you?’
‘A prissy little madam whose scared to death to admit what she actually wants?’
Jodie paused. ‘I wouldn’t call you that.’
‘You did. Remember? When we...’
Jodie’s mouth slipped down at one side. ‘Did I?’
Robyn waved her hand dismissively. ‘Don’t worry about it. It’s true.’
‘Whether it is or not, maybe I shouldn’t keep telling you who you are,’ Jodie said with a frown.
Robyn’s head was spinning. ‘Did you look someone in the eye and say, ‘I wish I was you’ while touching a cursed object recently, by any chance?’
Jodie laughed. Not just her usual dry chuckle. A belly laugh. Robyn didn’t know whether to be pleased or terrified by it. She was in completely unknown territory. Just as Jodie had said to her, Robyn thought she knew who she was dealing with, and now she wasn’t so sure. She’d gotten a taste of it before, and she’d had her suspicions about what lay under Jodie’s cool façade. But now she was stepping a little deeper into this end of the pool, and she wasn’t sure how to stay afloat.
‘You’re funny,’ Jodie said.
‘Funny Haha, or funny Let's call someone?’
Jodie laughed again. ‘Yep. The first one. I don’t know how I missed it before.’
‘I don’t really do my stand-up routine when I’m sitting on someone’s face,’ Robyn said with a rueful smile. ‘Tends to break the moment.’
Jodie pondered that. ‘I think of all the time we’ve been together, only about three percent of it was spent on my face.’
‘And the other ninety-seven was baking. I don’t joke then, either.’
‘No?’
‘I take it seriously.’
‘But you don’t wanna do it for a living?’
Robyn took a deep breath, preparing herself to say something real to Jodie. ‘Well, I always said it was my release. But I guess I’ve wondered, deep down, if… it was something I could do for real.’ She waited to see if Jodie would laugh at her.
But Jodie wasn’t laughing anymore. ‘You already do it for real. That cake today… that was real.’
Robyn was embarrassed, but she tried to swerve away from it. ‘For monetary compensation, then.’
‘You could do that,’ Jodie said easily.
‘You reckon?’
‘Yeah. Fuck, if you win, you might even get your own show.’
Robyn shook her head. ‘Now you’re just messing with me.’
‘Look, if you tell anyone I said this, I’ll deny it. But you’re the best baker. Not to mention, a relatively hot piece of ass,’ Jodie said casually. ‘You could pick up where Nigella left off.’
Robyn was agog. ‘Jodie, I’m sorry, but I can’t take any more of this.’
‘Any more of what?’ Jodie asked.
‘You. Being like this. I don’t know what to do with it. It’s too big a transition, too quickly. My head’s spinning.’
Jodie sighed. ‘Yeah. Fair enough. I guess I was just trying something.’
‘What?’
‘I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure that out,’ Jodie said, frowning.
Robyn bit her lip. ‘Do you want to…’
Jodie looked at Robyn. ‘What?’
‘I mean, talking’s never really been our thing, has it?’
Jodie raised an eyebrow. ‘You make an interesting point.’
‘I mean, I know you said…’
Jodie coughed. ‘Yeah, I did say that.’
‘But I’m just saying, if you changed your mind, I’d be… alright with that,’ Robyn said, trying not to blush.
Jodie licked her lips. ‘Would you?’
***
Jodie pushed Robyn into her room. They were already kissing, not able to get the door open quick enough. Robyn pulled Jodie in closer, biting her bottom lip.
‘Oww!’ Jodie cried, pulling back.
‘What?’ Robyn asked, shocked.
‘I think you drew blood,’ Jodie said, touching her lip.
‘Don’t be silly,’ Robyn tutted, batting Jodie’s hand away and pulling Jodie back to her. Jodie allowed it. She slid her hand up into Robyn’s hair, grabbing a handful. Robyn drew in a shocked breath.
‘What?’ Jodie asked.
‘That just hurt a bit.’
Jodie looked at Robyn, perplexed. ‘What’s… This is how we are. Why isn’t it working?’
Robyn sighed and leaned against the wall. ‘Maybe it’s like you said. We have to be nasty out there…’ she gestured beyond the door, ‘to be nasty in here.’
Jodie sat on the bed and folded her arms. ‘Shit.’
Robyn went to join her. ‘Yeah.’
Robyn put a hand on Jodie’s. Jodie clasped it softly, and they sat for a moment, not speaking, not looking at each other. Jodie seemed suddenly, dare she say, delicate.
Jodie looked at Robyn sideways. ‘You don’t have to stay if you don’t want.’
Robyn thought about it. But not for long. ‘What if I stay and… we just try being gentle with each other.’
‘Gentle?’ Jodie asked. Robyn thought she didn’t look too keen. But then she sighed. ‘I don’t know, that’s pretty kinky. But… I guess I could give it a go.’
Twenty-Eight
Jodie was rudely ripped from her sleep by a smashing sound on the door. She sat up and yelled, ‘Where’s your warrant?!’
‘What?’ asked someone beside her. She looked over and realised several facts all at once. Firstly, she was in a hotel room with, second fact, Robyn. Third, it was morning. Gone eight in fact.
‘Oh, fuck. That’ll be the driver,’ Jodie moaned.
Robyn rubbed her eyes and sat up, coming around, noticing the time on her watch. ‘Oh my god, we’re supposed to be on the bus!’
The knock came again. Faster, angrier. ‘Jodie, you in there?’
‘Shit. Get dressed,’ Jodie commanded, slipping out of bed. ‘We’re coming. I mean, I’m coming!’ she called to the person at the door.
‘How long will you be? We’re running fifteen minutes late as it is.’