Love is the New Black

by Chrissie Keighery

  Georgie exhaled loudly. ‘True that. I can’t think of a way to tell my family or Sean about all the drugs I’ve been offered since I’ve been in Melbourne. Not that I’d ever take any, but I just don’t really …’ she trailed off. ‘Modelling is a weird job.’

  ‘I hope you stay true to yourself, Georgie,’ Kara said firmly. ‘There’s a lot of temptation to self-medicate in this industry.’ She gave Piper a quick eye-roll, as though referencing their first meeting at the Langham.

  Piper checked out the other photo. From the angle of the shot, she could tell that it was a double selfie, of Kara and a friend. It looked like they were having fun. Both of them were pulling big duckface looks, and her friend was flicking her long, wavy blonde hair back with one hand and holding the fingers of her other hand up in a peace sign. It was the sort of photo Piper had taken with Ally and Sarah zillions of times.

  ‘Hey, was that the girl in …’ Piper stopped herself. She was sure this girl in the foreground of the tabloid photo that had made Kara so upset at the Langham the other day, but it was stupid to remind Kara of the whole thing.

  It was too late, though. Kara had already caught on. ‘Yeah, that’s Laurie,’ Kara said, seeming to brighten at the mention of her friend’s name. ‘She’s a DJ.’

  Piper had a little pang of missing her own friends, wondering what they were doing that night. When her phone buzzed in her jacket pocket, she smiled. It was as though Ally had felt the vibe all the way up in Mission Beach.

  ‘Hey Al,’ Piper said. ‘What’s up? What are you doing tonight?’ She waved to Kara and Georgie as they moved into the kitchen.

  ‘Ab-so-lutely nothing,’ Ally said. ‘Unless I want to go to The Shrubbery with Mum and Aunty Lou. Harry’s gone fishing with his dad and Sarah has to stay home for her mum’s birthday dinner. Another thrilling night in Mission Beach. What about you?’

  Piper cupped her hand over her mouth and whispered into the phone. ‘I’m at Kara Kingston’s house! With her and another model. We’ve just come back from a shoot for Bojangles swimwear.’

  ‘You. Are. So. Not!’ Ally squealed. ‘I’m so jealous!’

  ‘And I’m desperate to rub it in,’ Piper joked. ‘But listen, they’re sort of waiting for me, so can I call you tomorrow?’

  ‘Yeah … okay.’ Ally sounded hesitant.

  ‘Or is there something you want to talk about?’ Piper asked.

  ‘Oh … it can wait,’ Ally responded.

  ‘Al!’ Piper said. ‘What is it?’

  She heard Ally taking a breath. ‘Okay, it’s probably nothing. I just thought … Well, I just wanted to tell you that I saw Dylan’s ute out the front of Leanne’s house pretty late last night.’

  Piper frowned for a second, considering the information. Now she understood why Ally was calling. It was sweet of her – but totally unnecessary. ‘Did you see Dylan at all today?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah, I ran into him at the supermarket.’

  ‘And did he have a new haircut?’

  ‘Actually … yeah,’ Ally said.

  ‘Well, there you go,’ Piper said. ‘Thanks for looking out for me, Al. But Leanne does haircuts from her place sometimes, for a bit of extra cash outside the salon.’

  ‘Oh,’ Ally said. ‘I didn’t think of that. But it’s just –’

  ‘Sounds like you’ve got Mission Beach Malaise,’ Piper laughed. ‘I know, because I’ve had the same illness. Symptoms include over-analysing. Solution is to get out of the house. Get thee to The Shrubbery, Al.’

  Piper expected Ally to laugh with her. She and Ally always used to play around with quotes from Hamlet when they studied it a couple of years ago.

  ‘Yeah, you’re probably right,’ Ally said reluctantly. ‘Talk soon, Piper.’

  Piper hung up the phone and walked into the sleek kitchen. There was no-one there.

  Kara’s voice floated down the stairs. ‘We’re up here, Piper.’

  Kara’s bedroom and ensuite took up the whole second storey. The bedroom, all decked out in earthy colours, was much warmer compared to all the glamour and starkness downstairs. The carpet was cream-coloured and the king-sized bed was covered in chunky European pillows and a luxurious-looking gold and burnt-orange doona. Kara had slid open a closet door along one wall to reveal a little bar with a wine fridge built into the wall.

  ‘Seriously, you have a bar in your bedroom?’ Piper said.

  Kara shrugged. ‘It’s for bubbles,’ she said, pouring a glass of Veuve Clicquot and handing it to Piper. ‘Just the essentials,’ she added, clinking Piper’s glass. ‘For the viewing.’

  ‘For the viewing of –’

  Piper got her answer before she’d finished the sentence. Kara swung open the door to her dressing room. Georgie emerged, looking gorgeous in a white halter-neck dress. It was the perfect dress for her figure.

  Piper wolf-whistled. ‘That dress rocks.’

  ‘You really think so?’ Kara asked. She took a swig of champagne.

  ‘Well, I’m not exactly a fashionista, as you’ve probably realised by now,’ Piper said, ‘but I really like it.’

  Kara refilled her champagne glass. ‘I designed it,’ she said softly.

  ‘How clever is she?’ Georgie enthused, doing a spin so Piper could check out the back.

  Piper shook her head. ‘Seriously, it’s not fair. You already won the gene-pool lottery, now this. Do you have other designs?’

  Kara nodded. She led Piper and Georgie down the length of her softly lit and elegantly decorated dressing room, which held an enormous wardrobe that almost put the fashion cupboard at Aspire to shame.

  ‘All these,’ Kara said, gesturing to one corner, ‘are my own designs. Not that I’ve shown them to anyone yet. They’re probably not good enough to let loose in the real world. But I’ve been doing a design course online.’ She tilted her head to the side. ‘I’m just trying to think about what happens when the modelling runs out. You know, when I’m too old and too saggy and no-one wants to see me in my knickers anymore.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Georgie said, ‘I’m planning on doing a beautician’s course when I get older.’ She smiled cheekily. ‘I think I might specialise in microdermabrasion.’ All three girls giggled.

  ‘What about you, Piper?’ Kara asked between laughs.

  ‘Well, for ages, I wanted to get into a creative writing course. I thought that …’ Piper stopped herself. It was strange that she was using the past tense. But maybe creative writing wasn’t for her? She hadn’t felt a single impulse to do any of it since she’d been in Melbourne. She sank down on the cream velvet chaise longue that sat in the middle of the dressing room.

  ‘You probably don’t even need a plan, Piper,’ Kara said, as though sensing the doubt that had crept into Piper’s mind. ‘I mean, you’re already working at Aspire, so that’s pretty cool.’ She lifted her empty glass and looked at it as though it were a travesty. She walked back towards the wine fridge.

  It was good that Kara didn’t wait for an answer, because Piper wasn’t ready to give one. It seemed that a lot was changing for her and she hadn’t caught up with herself.

  ‘When I work on my designs,’ Kara said dreamily, coming back with a fresh bottle and topping up their glasses, ‘it’s like the whole world disappears. I just get so immersed in it.’

  As soon as she said that, Piper’s mind swung back to when she was researching and writing the ‘Sheer Sense’ article. That was exactly how she’d felt. Immersed. More so than she’d ever felt with her creative writing. It was hard to explain, but Piper gave it a shot. ‘They’ve put me in the fashion department at Aspire,’ she said. ‘And it’s okay so far. But the one time I’ve gotten really excited about my work, the one time I felt immersed, was when I researched and wrote an article. It was just a silly piece on how the sheer panels trend might relate to the lipstick effect theory. No-one is ever going to publish it. But it made me wonder how it would feel to work on something bigger – something more important, you know?’

&
nbsp; ‘So maybe journalism?’ Kara asked.

  Piper shrugged. It was definitely something to consider.

  ‘Maybe you should work up another article and try to get it published in Aspire,’ Georgie suggested.

  ‘Maybe,’ Piper agreed. ‘The truth is I have no real ideas at the moment.’

  ‘Something will occur to you,’ Kara said confidently. ‘Until then, it’s all baby steps. Practice. With each of my designs, I learn something new. The next challenge will be to get some people interested in my progress. Let people know that I have another string to my bow.’

  Piper watched as Kara put down her champagne glass for the first time since they’d got there and grabbed a bunch of clothes that were hanging in the self-designed section.

  ‘Actually,’ she breathed, looking excited. ‘Maybe you guys can help me with that.’

  Outfit number five was the best. Piper ran her hand over the flowing black silk pants. The dusty-pink beaded singlet top was tight but, amazingly, it felt comfortable.

  ‘Wow,’ said Georgie. ‘These clothes really suit you, Piper. But this one looks like it was totally made for you.’

  ‘It actually does,’ Kara agreed. ‘The pink really brings out your colouring, Piper. So, do we have a deal?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ Georgie squealed, lying back on Kara’s bed.

  Piper shrugged. ‘God, Kara. Of course it’s a yes. It just seems – too good to be –’

  ‘Piper,’ Kara interrupted. ‘This is just business. I want you two beautiful women out there in the world, wearing my creations. The pay-off is, when someone asks you who designed them, you let them know it’s me. It’s all marketing, it’s a business deal. Got it? Let’s seal it with a drink.’

  Before she got a chance to pop another champagne cork, Kara’s phone rang. She checked out the caller ID, and her gorgeous face lit up.

  ‘Baby,’ Kara cooed. ‘I’ve missed you.’ She put her hand over the receiver. ‘Excuse me for a couple of minutes,’ she whispered to Piper and Georgie, before starting towards the bathroom.

  ‘Ah, that must be Mason,’ Georgie said after the door closed.

  Piper’s tummy did a little flip at the mention of his name. But it didn’t matter. If her body was going to keep misbehaving where Mason was concerned, she would just override it with her mind.

  ‘Isn’t it cute that she misses him even though they saw each other this afternoon?’ Georgie said.

  Piper smiled. Although she wouldn’t say it to Georgie, she actually thought it was a pretty over-the-top thing to say to someone you’d seen only a few hours before, even if you were madly in love. Maybe it had something to do the booze.

  Piper’s head was a little cloudy. An image of Mason Wakefield, teasing about her Blue Steel move with his hand on the steering wheel of the Aston Martin, did momentarily float into her head before she was able to swat it away.

  ‘You know,’ Georgie was saying,’ I heard that a couple of years ago Cosmopolitan in the US wanted to include him in a spread for “The Sexiest Bachelors in America” and, even though he was broken up with Kara at the time, he said no. He told them he might be a bachelor right at that moment, but he was never going to put out his candle for Kara. Isn’t that romantic?’

  Piper shrugged. ‘Yeah, it is romantic, Georgie,’ she agreed.

  The bathroom door opened. As Kara walked back towards them, it was clear that something in her phone conversation had shifted. Kara’s tone had gone from cooing to pleading.

  ‘You’ve got to come over. You promised,’ she moaned. Kara opened the bar fridge and pulled a bottle of vodka from the freezer – it was as though she’d forgotten that Piper and Georgie were even there. Just like she’d forgotten that she’d said the fridge was just for bubbles. Obviously, Kara kept harder supplies for harder moments.

  ‘Well, later then. Whenever you finish work. And we can still do that picnic tomorrow. We’ll just do it for dinner rather than …’

  Piper winced as Kara took a massive slug of vodka straight from the bottle. It was like she was trying to drown herself.

  ‘Anita doesn’t own me. I know and I am going to do it. You just have to give me some time. I want to see you.’

  Kara finally seemed to remember that Georgie and Piper were still there. ‘Hang on a second,’ she said. Then, into the phone, ‘Please, baby. I’ll stop drinking if you promise you’ll come.’

  Piper could actually see the level of vodka go down the bottle as Kara necked it. ‘We can go,’ she whispered. ‘Give you some privacy.’

  Kara shook her head violently. ‘Please don’t go,’ she mewed. ‘I don’t need privacy. Please. You can’t. Go downstairs and I’ll come down in a minute.’

  When Kara appeared a while later, the vodka bottle was half empty. This time, however piss-fit she thought she was, Kara was staggering.

  ‘Isss all jusss bullshit.’ She waved her hands around. ‘There’s no waay any of it really worgs. Works,’ she corrected herself. ‘Iss all pressure then the rest is jusss … lies. Might as well just self …’ She flopped down between Piper and Georgie on the leather couch, her shoulders slumped. ‘Self medi … cate,’ she finished.

  Piper bit her lip. She wondered whether the bit about lies had any meaning. Part of her wanted to tell Kara that if her relationship with Mason was causing this much pain, she should end it. What could possibly have happened between this afternoon, when things seemed more than fine between them, and now? Obviously he was pissed off about Anita setting Kara’s agenda for the next day, but surely that wasn’t a big enough deal to lead to this?

  ‘What were you fighting about?’ Piper managed to ask.

  Kara shook her head then let it flop down to her chest. ‘Iss my fault. Iss always my fault.’

  Piper doubted that. Surely, whatever work Mason was doing could wait, since Kara was obviously so desperate to see him. There was no doubt Kara had issues with alcohol, and he sure as hell didn’t seem to be helping.

  Georgie moved closer to Kara on the other side.

  ‘Sometimes it’s okay to have a fight,’ she said gently. ‘Then you get to make up. He obviously loves you, Kara. I was just telling Piper about how he refused to go in Cosmo as one of their sexy bachelors because –’

  ‘Yeah, I heard that one,’ Kara interrupted. ‘Iss crap. Iss nothing to do with me really. Mase hates that shit. Thass why he didn’t do it. We’re each other’s excuses.’

  Kara reached out either side of her. ‘You wanna know a sssecret?’ she slurred.

  She leant forward. Piper and Georgie leant forward too.

  It was obvious that Kara was under too much pressure. But something else niggled away at the back of Piper’s mind. A sense that she wasn’t getting the full picture of what was going on. A sense that Kara was holding back something that was so toxic that no amount of champagne or spirits could kill it. Maybe it was to do with work; maybe it was to do with Mason. Maybe it was something else altogether. Whatever it was, it was clear that she wasn’t coping. Piper had the distinct feeling that Kara was about to unburden herself.

  And she did.

  All over the stark white tiles.

  Saturday morning had disappeared by the time Gaynor came into Piper’s room with a cup of tea and a toasted sandwich. She fluffed up the pillows so Piper could sit up against them. Piper had been truly lucky to land a place with her godmother; she felt very well taken care of.

  ‘You obviously needed a good sleep,’ Gaynor said, sitting down next to Piper’s uplifted knees. ‘Big week, darling?’

  Piper nodded. As soon as she bit into her sandwich, she realised how ravenous she was. When she got back from Kara’s in the early hours of the morning, she’d been too shattered to eat. Kara had passed out right after she was sick, so Piper and Georgie had stayed to clean up the vomit and make sure she was okay.

  When Kara had finally woken up, she didn’t seem to remember the vomiting incident, and neither girl mentioned it. However, Kara had been really apologetic, and bef
ore she called the driver to take them home, she’d invited both girls to a VIP night at a club called The Texan the weekend after next. Piper and Georgie would be Kara’s guests and everything would be free.

  ‘A very big week,’ Piper agreed through a mouthful of sandwich. ‘The shoot yesterday took forever.’

  ‘But was it fun?’ Gaynor asked.

  Piper nodded. ‘It was sort of fun-slash-torture,’ she said, thinking of all those hours standing on the cold beach. ‘Remind me not to become a famous model,’ she joked. ‘Gyrating in the ocean when it’s zero degrees wouldn’t be my thing.’

  ‘Don’t become a famous model,’ Gaynor replied, without missing a beat. ‘Should you choose to gyrate, you can do it somewhere warm.’

  Piper laughed.

  ‘And where did these come from? They’re lovely.’ Gaynor said, nodding at a chair in the corner.

  Piper looked over to where she’d hung the clothes from Kara. ‘Kara Kingston gave them to me. They’re her own designs.’ She rested her head in her hand. ‘She gave them to me and another girl in exchange for telling people who designed them. To get her name out there as a designer.’

  ‘Wow, glamorous clothes, hanging out with modelling royalty, you are hobnobbing,’ Gaynor teased.

  ‘You may kiss my hand,’ Piper said, and laughed as Gaynor gave her outstretched hand a slap. ‘So, what did you get up to last night?’ she asked.

  ‘Doing battle,’ Gaynor said, with a sweep of her hand.

  ‘Uh-oh, another date?’ Piper ventured. ‘What happened, Gaynes?’

  ‘Well, his name was Andrew, and he seemed very nice,’ she began.

  There was something oddly compelling about Gaynor’s bad-date stories. Already, Piper sensed a very big but coming.

  ‘We met at Spuntino’s. He had already ordered champagne.’

  ‘Oooh,’ Piper said. ‘That was a good start.’

  ‘An excellent beginning,’ Gaynor agreed. ‘Over starters, we talked about old music. The good stuff. Sinatra. Holiday. Franklin. The best of the best.’