by Natasha West
The gang all bought tickets and began to spread throughout the building. Eden found herself alone, standing in front of a giant canvas depicting a woman with a very long neck and big eyes, apparently the artist’s second wife, Jaqueline. Eden looked at the painting for a long time. She saw a lot of sadness in it.
Someone coughed beside Eden, and she turned to see Natalie at the next painting, the flow of the room bringing her over. ‘Hi,’ Eden said. Natalie spun around, not realising who she was next to. ‘Oh. Hello.’
Eden had nothing to add to that, so she turned back to the long-necked woman. A second later, Natalie shuffled along next to her. ‘Do you mind?’ Natalie asked, gesturing at the painting of Jaqueline.
‘Yeah, I’ll move,’ Eden said, beginning to step along to the next painting.
‘There’s enough room for both of us,’ Natalie said. ‘I mean, I think there’s enough neck to go around.’
Eden stopped moving. ‘It is a lot of neck,’ she agreed. They stood in silence, looking at the woman. ‘So, how was your evening?’ After we got back to the boat, I mean.’
‘The usual,’ Natalie said. ‘Where did you get to?’
‘I went back to my room. I was pretty tired out from… everything.’
Natalie nodded. ‘Hanging out with Maggie?’
Eden didn’t know how to tell Natalie the truth about Maggie. But that didn’t mean she was keeping up the lie. ‘No. Just me.’
They went quiet again, keeping their eyes fixed in front of them. ‘So, lucky Max was looking out for you. God knows how long we’d have been stuck otherwise,’ Eden said eventually, the silence becoming too thick.
Natalie paused. ‘I guess so.’
‘She looked happy to see you.’
‘I think everyone was happy to see both of us,’ Natalie said neutrally.
Eden didn’t quite know what to say to that. This was a weird situation, for sure. They’d had sex last night. It had been intense, surprising, hot. And here they were now, doing this dance again, talking around everything. Eden was sick of it. She began to crave something from Natalie, the one thing she couldn’t seem to get. One real conversation, whatever way it went. ‘Can we talk about last night?’
Natalie didn’t react. Or maybe it was fairer to say she froze. As ever, Eden couldn’t tell. But then she released a breath. ‘That’s what you want? I thought maybe… I thought you might just want to forget it.’
Eden’s heart hurt at that. ‘Why would I want to forget it?’ she managed to ask.
‘Because you’re with Maggie.’
Eden understood now. What she really meant was that she wanted to forget because she was with Max. ‘OK, then,’ she said. ‘We’ll just leave it, shall we?’ Eden had this horrible feeling her voice was going to wobble if she stayed much longer, so she said quickly, ‘See you around.’ And she walked out of the room, up a corridor, into another large room. She was trying to outwalk her hurt, racing away from it. The woman in the painting with the long neck could have the pain, to add to her own. Eden didn’t want it anymore. Natalie had never made it clearer that she didn’t give two shits about her.
Eden found herself in front of more paintings, dozens of them. The room was broken up by a centre display, filled with more art. She stood next to the centre wall, wondering if Picasso ever had a day off when she heard some giggling from around the other side. She hated the sound. The person on the other side of the wall was clearly having a lovely time.
‘Watch it, will you?’ a voice said, and the giggler stopped laughing. ‘Sorry,’ said the woman who’d been laughing and definitely wasn’t anymore. ‘I was just… I can’t keep my hands off you.’
‘Well, try. I’m not a piece of meat.’
‘God, I love that pout,’ said the other woman.
Eden knew those voices, and she walked around the partition wall to see Isabella and Max, snogging.
‘What the hell!?’ Eden exclaimed in shock.
Isabella and Max snapped apart. ‘Can we help you?’ Isabella snarked.
‘I…’ Eden said and trailed off, trying to understand what she was looking at.
‘What’s wrong?’ Max asked, confused. Her features relaxed into comprehension. ‘Oh. I get it. I’ve been meaning to tell you, I know you and I were flirting at the beginning but…’
‘Max, that’s really not why I’m, I don’t, it’s not…’ Eden sputtered, annoyed and confused.
Isabella turned to Max. ‘What’s this?’
‘I told you, I left a trail of broken hearts in my wake when you and I got together,’ Max explained sadly.
Isabella snorted. ‘Together? Max, I think you’re jumping the gun.’
‘What, but we’re… we’re starting something, aren’t we?’ Max said pathetically.
Isabella looked ambivalent. ‘Well…’
‘Hey!’ Eden said, clapping her hands together to grab the attention back, surprisingly furious. ‘What about Natalie?’
Max looked confused but before she could respond, Isabella said, ‘That was a non-starter. I’m allowed to move on.’
Max’s head swivelled. ‘Wait, what? You and Natalie!’
‘That’s what I’m saying, she wasn’t into it. Hang on, are you trying to tell me you and Natalie-’
‘Kind of. I mean, it was one kiss. Then she knocked me back… We both decided it wasn’t going forward. And I told her I liked you, anyway.’
Isabella rolled her eyes. ‘This is fucking ridiculous. I knew this boat was a bad idea.’ She turned to Eden. ‘Aren’t you in the Natalie club as well? Should we start a Facebook group?’
Eden was stumped. She started to back away, her brain feeling like it was leaking out of her ears. What the hell was going on?
She walked down the steps, trying to break down the information she’d just learned. As she moved down the stairwell, she heard a fracas, not unlike the one she’d just left. Three women’s voices, in an argument.
She moved toward it, and voices came into focus. One of them was Maggie, one of them was Rebonka. The last one was Natalie. Eden almost walked smack into them at the bottom of the stairwell. Eden was just in time to hear Natalie say to Maggie, ‘You and Eden. You’re…’
‘Me and Eden, what?’ Maggie said, perplexed. Then she spotted Eden behind them. ‘Eden, thank god. Can you please clear this up?’
‘Right!’ said an angry Spanish voice, and everyone turned around to see a stout woman in a guard uniform escorting Max and Isabella by the scruffs of their necks down the stairs. ‘All of you! You’re out. Kissing and arguing all over the museum. The English really know how to bring the tone down.’
They were shooed from the building by the guard, Eden, Natalie, Maggie, Rebonka, Isabella, and Max, all spilling out onto the steps of the Picasso Museum.
‘Maggie, what the hell is going on?’ Rebonka asked her new love. ‘I thought older women weren’t about drama!?’
Eden and Natalie locked eyes. ‘Maybe we should try that talk now?’ Natalie asked sheepishly.
Thirty-One
Natalie and Eden sat across from each other in a café around the corner from the Picasso Museum, sipping lattes mutely. Natalie thought she’d have to break the silence in a minute. But her head was still spinning.
When Eden had asked if she wanted to talk it through in front of the painting, part of Natalie had wanted to have the chat, be the bigger person, let Eden off the hook, make everything easier on both of them. But she could see how it would go. Natalie would say something she didn’t mean to, giving the game away, and Eden would let her down gently. So she just tried to move around the whole topic.
After Eden had left, she’d decided to leave the museum. On the way out, she’d gone into the gift shop to get something for her sister, a thank you for the trip that Natalie wished she hadn’t made her go on. Natalie bought a coffee table book full of Picassos, something Sally could leave on a shelf and never look at. But as she left the shop, she’d walked right past Maggie holding hands with
that girl with the funny name. She’d stopped short.
‘Hey, how’s it going?’ Maggie asked.
‘Oh,’ Natalie muttered. ‘Umm, fine.’
Maggie raised an eyebrow. ‘Something wrong?’
‘I just… Does Eden know about this?’ Natalie said, gesturing at the linked hands.
Maggie’s brow creased. ‘I guess so.’
Natalie was shocked by Maggie’s cavalier attitude to the cheating. Sure, she’d been cheating with Eden less than twenty-four hours ago, but at least they’d had the decency to do it in the privacy of a deserted island. Maggie didn’t seem to care who saw her and Rebonka. ‘You don’t think she might be a bit hurt?’ Natalie had to ask.
‘Should she be?’ Maggie asked.
‘Which one’s Eden?’ asked the girl.
‘Jesus, you don’t even know whose girlfriend you’re taking?’ Natalie said, shocked.
The girl looked at Maggie. ‘Girlfriend?’
‘Girlfriend?!’ Maggie repeated, much louder.
‘You and Eden,’ Natalie said. ‘You’re…’
‘Me and Eden, what?’ Maggie said.
Eden had shown up around then. But before Natalie could deal with that, they’d all been chucked out, including Max and Isabella, who’d apparently been caught getting physical. So that was that. Eden knew. Natalie was embarrassed. She was going to have to confess.
And now they were sitting across from each other and Natalie had to start talking. ‘So I guess you know that me and Max aren’t actually together or anything,’ she said. It felt good to be honest.
Eden took a sip. ‘I had figured that out, yes. And you know…’ Natalie waited an eternity, and Eden finally completed the sentence, ‘…That me and Maggie aren’t together.’
‘Right,’ Natalie said slowly, trying to pretend she’d already got the situation figured out. But it was all coming a bit slowly, despite Maggie’s reaction to being called out. Natalie had never felt denser. ‘So, I lied. And you lied.’
Eden nodded. ‘Yep.
‘And why did we both do that, exactly?’ Natalie asked, genuinely wanting an answer.
Eden sighed. ‘I don’t know why you did it. But I was embarrassed.’
‘About what?’ Natalie asked, confounded.
‘That you… you told me after we slept together, that first time. You… you said…’ Eden clammed up.
‘I said what?’ Natalie demanded.
‘That it wasn’t anything to you.’
Natalie was shocked. ‘I never said that.’
‘Not in those words. You made it clear though,’ Eden said, hurt burning in her eyes.
‘No, it was you… I thought you said…’ Natalie shook her head. It was time to just say it. ‘I lied because I thought that you didn’t think it meant anything either. I was embarrassed too.’ She sighed. ‘I’m extremely stupid.’
Eden’s mouth nudged at one corner. ‘It seems like maybe we both are.’
Natalie was still playing catch up, but it could wait. Because she had just one thing that had to be said, here, now. Words she’d never dreamt could come out of her mouth. ‘Eden, do you wanna go on a date with me?’
The other corner of Eden’s mouth slipped upwards, and there it was, a real smile. It was blinding. ‘You’re asking me out?’ Eden said through the smile.
‘I am,’ Natalie confirmed. There was a long pause, and then Natalie added, ‘So… will you?’
‘I thought I’d already said yes. I didn’t say it?’ Eden said.
‘I think I’d have noticed if you had,’ Natalie said.
‘Oh. Then, yes.’
Natalie and Eden looked at each other with fresh eyes. It was happening. Natalie and Eden. Natalie didn’t know how they’d gotten to this point; it had seemed like an impossibility not an hour ago. But she’d asked, Eden had said yes, and it was happening.
Thirty-Two
Eden wasn’t in the main dining room tonight; she was in a different restaurant, same floor but the other side of the main hall. It was similar to the usual dining room; its only real advantage was that it wasn’t filled with the rest of the group. They’d be trooping in to sit down at their usual tables about now, and that was not where Eden wanted to be. The chaos in Barcelona had somehow led to a real date, and Eden wasn’t taking that for granted. She wanted to be alone with Natalie. She needed to be.
At last, Natalie entered the restaurant. Eden felt adrenaline flood her system at the sight of her. She looked gorgeous in her little black dress, but that was nothing new to Eden. She supposed what was exciting was that tonight’s gorgeousness was intended for her.
‘Hi,’ Natalie said nervously, sitting down opposite Eden.
‘Hello,’ Eden said.
They both started to laugh. ‘This is mad, isn’t it?’ Eden said.
‘Mad?’ Natalie asked.
‘Yes. A week ago, we were just colleagues,’ Eden explained.
‘Well, a week is a long time on a lesbian singles cruise,’ Natalie chuckled.
‘Longer for some than others,’ Eden noted. ‘I think Angelique has fallen in love with half the boat by now.’
Natalie snorted. ‘She’s still got a day left before we dock home, I’m sure she’ll get around to everyone else.’
Eden glanced around the restaurant. ‘Speaking of that lot, I wonder if we’re being missed?’ Eden asked.
‘What makes you ask that?’ Natalie enquired.
Eden pointed over to a window where Caz, Saz, Florence, Beatrice, Mary, and Steph were all gawping at them, slack-jawed. ‘I think we’ve been spotted,’ Eden said, grinning.
Natalie turned to look, and the entire crew all tried to act as though they hadn’t been staring into the window like tourists at the Louvre. Eden and Natalie watched as they all had a conversation out of the corners of their mouths while they pretended to look elsewhere, and after some discussion, decided the only course of action was to leg it. Eden shook her head at them. ‘All the subtlety of a house fire.’
‘They’ll be hounding us about this later,’ Natalie sighed, turning back to Eden.
‘What will we say?’ Eden asked. ‘I mean, if we have to give a press release, which we probably will, how should we word it?’
‘I don’t know. What would you say?’ Natalie asked carefully.
‘I guess I’d say that I’m on a date with someone I’ve liked for a while,’ Eden said, trying to sound cool.
‘Oh. Would you?’ Natalie said. ‘Yeah, I guess that’s what I’d say too.’
Eden laughed. ‘Look, you don’t have to lie.’
‘What?’ Natalie asked, shocked.
‘You might be coming around to me now, but I don’t think…’
‘Eden, before you start on that again, let me just… It wasn’t like that. I know I’ve been… cold. I admit that. But it’s not what you think. I was just…’ Natalie sighed. ‘Yes, part of it was that I’ve been finding it a bit tough, you being around because… because I wasn’t good enough for your job and you clearly are, and I’ve been, I’ve been… struggling with that. I guess I was feeling a bit…’ She sighed. ‘Insecure.’
‘What?’ Eden said with a shocked laugh. ‘I made you feel insecure?!’
Natalie shrugged. ‘Yep.
‘Look, you never had to feel that way because I was completely intimidated by you,’ Eden told her.
Natalie raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re… Stop that. You’re not at all.’
Eden tutted. ‘Of course I am. I mean, you know everything, and you always have a solution for every problem, and they wanted you for this job. It should have been you. You don’t think I feel that every time I come into that office? I’ve been living in your shadow from the moment I started there.’ Eden was surprised at herself. She’d said it, she’d admitted weakness. It didn’t feel as bad as she would have thought. In fact, she felt lighter. ‘So there you have it. We can’t both be intimidated by each other. One of us has to stop, or it doesn’t work,’ Eden finished.
‘Please don’t use the word perfect again,’ Eden said quickly.