Is She, Isn't She?

Ashley swore and bent down to try to find them, eyes struggling in the dark. A warm shadow moved up behind her and bent down to reach easily for the fallen keys.

"Here," Jeanie smiled and handed them to her.

"Thanks," Ashley muttered ungratefully, turning away from Jeanie and trying to fit her keys through the lock. She struggled and struggled but it wouldn't work for her.

"Here, let me, Ashie," a hand reached over the top of her own and Jeanie gently removed the set of keys from Ashley's fingers. "Is it this one?" she questioned her, holding the offending key up.

Ashley squinted at it attractively. "Yeah," she grunted.

"Okay," Jeanie was smiling to herself. She fitted it into the lock in one movement and turned it for her. The door pushed open. "There you go," said Jeanie. "Will you be alright to get into your flat now that you're in the building?"

"Yes, thanks, fine, I mean ... thankyou so much again for all this, hun, you didn't have to, and I'll see you round," Ashley mumbled, desperate to get out of her company.

"Bye Ashie," Jeanie called after her in a cutesy voice.

Ashley bolted into the lift and her fingers slammed on the close-door button. Jeanie had already turned and walked back to the street, and she heard her car pull out.

What a disaster.

***

Ashley did not go anywhere near Bolton's in the week that followed her drunken incident. Nor the week after. She was determined to get Jeanie out of her system. She'd just as good as told Jeanie how she'd felt about her. She, Ashley, cool strong blonde, who never lost control of her emotions, who always had the upper hand, may as well have painted a neon sign on her forehead with her "kiss me" shenanigans.

She had almost fallen for a straight girl, she realised in disgust. She was supremely irritated at herself. She, Ashley, was gorgeous. Women stumbled all over themselves for the chance to be with her. She did not make a fool of herself, ever, she didn't need to -- and now she had. All because Jeanie looked so good, Ashley had been thrown. She was a grown woman of twenty-eight, for god's sake, almost twenty-nine, she wasn't a hormonal young girl anymore. She had poise, dignity and control -- all of which she'd lost in one fell swoop when Jeanie came to town.

Even if Jeanie wasn't one-hundred percent straight, even if she did have the smallest of bi tendencies -- the only time she'd shown any interest was in Chantelle, when Chantelle had talked dirty to her. She obviously just wasn't into Ashley. Ashley screwed up her face angrily whenever she thought of it. Looked like she'd lost her "challenge" with her butch, cap-wearing friend.

So, although she pined for Jeanie a lot, and her thoughts dwelt on her a lot, she removed herself completely from temptation, and didn't go anywhere near her once-favourite bar. Her walks toward that area of town stopped and she started using her treadmill again, pounding out on it grumpily, knowing that only time would remove Jeanie from her system.

Her friends still went to Bolton's for after-work drinks, etcetera, but Ashley always found an excuse not to go. She found out from Tansy that Jeanie had laughingly asked their group how the blonde had pulled up the morning after their big night. Well, if only she knew, how agonising the morning after "that night" had been for Ashley. Not only had she been revoltingly hungover, but she'd been in stitches of embarrassment on top of everything else. Pure anger and wretchedness, was what she had been feeling.

"You given up the chase, Ash?" Claire asked her over the phone, about a week and a half after Jeanie had dropped Ashley back home. "I haven't heard you mention anything about netting Little Miss Hot-Pants Jeanie for a while now."

"No, I don't really dig it anymore," Ashley responded casually.

"Wow! Okay! Because we all thought you were really keen there, for a while."

"No," Ashley said, voice still relaxed.

"Soo ...?" Claire prompted. "Why have you been making excuses not to come to Bolton's? We've all noticed. Please, you have to come this weekend, at least! Chantelle's being odious, bragging to everyone that it's because you've thrown in the towel on your little game because you know you've lost to her and you never stood a chance against the Mighty Chantelle, or something."

"You know, on the surface, Chantelle doesn't sound like a very good friend, does she?" Ashley snapped, irritated at Chantelle for being so bigheaded at her, Ashley's, expense.

"You know she's just joking, she's just playing around," Claire appeased her. "She's always been like that." She paused, then said cannily, "I know you probably want to know how her pursuit of Jeanie is going, even though you'll never ask because you're much too dignified. So, here's the lowdown, without you having to crack your Snow Facade: apparently she's talked dirty to Jeanette a few more times, reckons she gets major vibes off her each time, but, every time, Jeanie shoots her down. Last time, Jeanie actually threatened to speak to Tony, if Chantelle didn't behave. Chantelle told her she needed disciplining -- I think spanking was mentioned -- Tony was told, and made Chantelle apologise, and had a quiet word to her. It was so funny! Chantelle said she didn't give a rats, that Jeanie's just playing the hard-to-get game because she's enjoying having Chantelle chase her -- modest, isn't she? Either that or sadly delusional. Ha ha ha! Anyway, Chantelle said she'd hold a low profile on the flirting front for like, a week, then "get back on the saddle" -- her words. Apparently, she thinks she's wearing Jeanie down. Poor Jeanie! Like a deer in the headlights, don't you think?"

"I don't think anything," Ashley complained, annoyed at the surge of possessiveness that she still felt -- but Chantelle shouldn't be talking to Jeanie that way, it was way out of line! "I'm pretty sure I'm free on Friday for Bolton's, Claire, I'll just have to check and confirm with you later in the week ..."

Claire took a breath and paused. "Look, your birthday's coming up. I know you're having a party this year, and you have to hand out invites, and just about all the people you'll want to invite hang out at Bolton's, so you need to come to do an invitation drop, if nothing else," she reminded her, trying to pressure her into giving a concrete response.

"Hmm ..." Ashley spoke unwillingly. It was true, she was planning a modest celebration for her twenty-ninth birthday -- she had been planning on seeing out the last year of her twenties with some sort of festivity. She'd been going to invite a group of friends to a club, Spiral. A fortnight spent away from Bolton's was probably long enough, she thought. And she had been thinking of Jeanie less recently -- except when she was masturbating (and that really needed to stop). "Well, I know that!" she hastily regathered herself now. "I haven't been avoiding Bolton's, Claire, I've had legitimate reasons why I haven't been able to make it ..."

"Yeah yeah, Ice Queen. That line will work on people who don't know you as well as your friends do, but I went to grade school with you, remember?" Claire teased. "You can hold it together pretty well when you want to, but I don't buy it. You're trying to get rid of a crush and what's wrong with admitting that? We're all human, we all have feelings! But I don't need to tell you the obvious. Come out with us Friday for after work drinks! Hand your invitations out, stay for an hour and leave!"

"That won't be a problem, if I'm free this Friday," Ashley replied in a voice of stone. "Look, okay, I'm pretty sure I am, I just wanted to cover my bases. I'll see you then."

Now she also had the dilemma of whether or not to invite Jeanie to her birthday celebrations -- the idea had been toying around in her mind. She sort of wanted to -- she missed Jeanie, missed her lively chatter, her infectious laugh. But at the same time, she wanted the brunette out of her system.

She wanted to have sex with someone else, she decided -- she hadn't had sex for months and she needed it. And she wasn't going to get what she needed from Jeanie.

***

Friday rolled around and Ashley sat nervously at a table with her friends toward the middle of Bolton's, having decided to be self-disciplined and not invite Jeanie to her birthday party, under the heading It Wouldn't Be Good For Her, the birthday girl, if she did. She needed to stop thinking about the brunette, and inviting her out to a social event was not going to be helpful in that department. She had to be strong.

She hadn't actually seen Jeanie yet, didn't even know yet if she was working. The thought of seeing the beautiful bartender again tore her up inside more than she cared to admit. Despite her inner turmoil though, she sat prettily at the table, posture perfect, blonde ponytail high, cool green eyes calmly taking in her surroundings, and keeping a sharp eye out for one brunette in particular.

"Who else are you inviting?" Tansy asked, fingering her invitation in front of her.

"A couple of girls from the bank, plus Fleur, Paola, Tina, and Bella. I was thinking there'd be a group of around maybe twelve, thirteen of us ..."

"Are you inviting Sweet Jeans?" Chantelle barged in and interrupted. "I mean, if you're inviting Bella ..."

"I don't think so," confessed Ashley.

"She wouldn't say yes, even if you did," Meredith rejoined stoutly. "I was talking to Bella, you know how social Bella is, goes to most parties, socialises with the other side of the bar too, and she says Jeanie's been invited to like, fifty things since she started working here and says no to every single one. Which makes sense, because she's straight, so she obviously doesn't want to give anyone the wrong idea ..." here she stared pointedly at Chantelle.

"The only reason she's turned her ripe little ass up at everything is because I wasn't the one to ask her to it!" sniffed Chantelle, grinning around at the table.

"You are too bigheaded for words, Chantelle, settle down!" a tiny bite of irritation entered into Meredith's voice. "The point is, everyone's been trying to coax her out and kitty won't budge, so let's just leave it ..."

"It would be rude to invite Bella and not her though, wouldn't it? I mean, they're the only two girls who work here," Tansy mentioned.

"We've known Bella for a lot longer, we're much closer to Bella," Ashley heard herself saying bluntly.

"Yeah, but I thought you and Jeanie were friends and stuff," Tansy shrugged.

"Well, not really. I mean, we're friendly sure, and we've had some friendly chats, but I haven't seen her for a couple of weeks, because, as you know, I've been too busy to get down here, so ... I mean, it was more just a friendly acquaintance kind of thing ..."

"Changed your tune now that you're doing the dance of defeat, Ash, what was it at the beginning? "Who says you've got dibs on her"? "She's sexy"? You went from a bitch in heat to a "friendly acquaintance", that's such a shame," Chantelle jumped on it, smirking.

"Chantelle, shut the hell up!" Ash held her gaze, and her voice went cold.

"What?" Chantelle demanded laughingly, her eyes going wide. "You can't get defensive! This was just a little friendly competition, after all! One that you lost," she added snidely. "You should see little Jeanie start to salivate when I talk dirty to her. She won't admit it but she loves it, it's written all over her face. Meanwhile, you've taken six steps backwards and become an "acquaintance". Never picked you for a quitter either, Ashley Angelique James, but here you are, plain as day, rolling over and playing dead!" and she laughed again.

The atmosphere at the table had plummeted. Meredith, Tansy and Claire were looking from Chantelle to Ashley warily.

"Who says I've quit anything?" Ashley asked icily. "She's straight, Chantelle!"

"Oh no she isn't! I know a pussy-hungry bitch when I see one, and she's got it written all over her. It's animal instinct, baby, and mine is more finely tuned than anyone else's. She's a timid little thing, but she wants it."

"She's not shy at all, I wouldn't call her shy!" Claire disagreed with a frown at her friends.

"She's too scared to stop playing it straight!" Chantelle clarified. "Mark my words. She wants me," she leant back in her chair comfortably. "Invite her to your birthday party, Ash, so I can get off with her!" she barked another laugh.

"So one of us can get off with her!" Ashley knew she shouldn't be doing this, knew that she was setting herself up for massive failure and humiliation. All evidence pointed to Chantelle being exactly right when it came to Jeanie's secret attraction to her -- Ash had seen the hungry look Jeanie had fixed Chantelle with that first time. But now, Chantelle was pushing all of Ashley's buttons and the usually composed blonde was starting to see red, and it was making her uncharacteristically rash.

"Invite her then!" Chantelle played on this, eyes bright.

"She won't come," Meredith tried to interject.

"Fine!" Ashley cut her off. "I have a blank invitation here. Put her name on it, Chantelle, and let's see what happens."

"You're going to let me go to the bar with it?" Chantelle asked, in surprise.

"Yes, because she'll say no, just like Meredith says she will!" Ashley snapped back.

"You won't need to go anywhere near the bar," Tansy spat the straw out of her drink and looked up. "Look who just got into work? She's doing a glass run, she'll be over at our table in two minutes."

"And she'll say no!" Meredith reminded them all again, as Ashley furiously scrawled Jeanie's name on the invitation, folded it and shoved it into an envelope. "She's been invited to heaps of things by girls in this bar and she turns them all down."

"Here, gimme that!" Chantelle snatched the envelope from Ashley. "Shut up Mez, don't be so damn pessimistic all the time! Watch this, she'll say yes to me, I guarantee it!"

Jeanie looked tired when Ashley first clapped eyes onto her for the first time in almost two weeks -- but still just as beautiful as ever. She collected glasses, and reached their table.

"Hey guys," she said, barely looking up, eyes taking in Chantelle only. She seemed a little irritated.

"Hey hottie!" Chantelle grinned at her. "Still got your handbag on. Late for work? You bad girl."

"Yeah yeah, it happens to the best of us, I got caught in traffic, some stupid old geezer in front of me was doing like, forty under the speed limit and holding the rest of us normal people up. Obviously the fact that some of us actually have lives to be getting on with was a foreign concept to him -- Ashley!" she finally realised Ashley was there, and Ashley couldn't help but find her exclamation of happy surprise flattering. "Hey, I haven't seen you since ... that night!" she put a hand on her hip and ginned at her.

"Yeah, I've been really busy," Ashley tried to say casually, but Tansy was quick off the mark.

"What night?" she demanded. "Did something happen between you two? Oh my god ..."

Ashley could have kicked her -- in fact, she did, under the table. The embarrassment she and Jeanie both obviously felt was stifling. Jeanie's cheeks flushed and she immediately displayed signs of being flustered.

"Ha ha, no no!" she hastily corrected them, eyes still on Ashley. "It was the night you girls all, er, had a big one. That's all. Well, it's good to see you, Ashley," she smiled at her. "I can't believe it's been a whole two weeks!" her full lips turned downwards in displeasure as she noted the amount of time that had lapsed.

"So, sugar-britches!" Chantelle was determined to get Jeanie's attention back onto herself. "I have something for you!" she put the envelope into Jeanie's hands.

Jeanie started at it blankly. "What is this?"

"It's an invitation to ..." began Chantelle, but Jeanie abruptly cut her off.

"Sorry Chantelle, but I don't attend social gatherings with patrons from the bar I work, it's unprofessional."

"What are you on? "Unprofessional"? It's not like you work at the doctor's surgery, you work in a bar, for Christ's sake girl! Everyone does it. Bella's coming, why do you have to be so high and mighty?" Chantelle rolled her eyes angrily at Jeanie's spiel.

"No, sorry, I never mix work and social life. Personal rule I have, I never break it. I've said exactly the same thing to everyone else who's invited me to things. It's not that I don't appreciate it, thanks for thinking of me, but I won't be going," Jeanie tossed her hair at Chantelle, held her eye and stared her down.

"It's for Ashley's twenty-ninth birthday party," Tansy inserted innocently.

There was silence for a moment. Jeanie's eyes widened slightly in realisation, and she turned to Ashley with a face full of immediate apology and yearning -- she did want to go, since it was Ashley's party and not Chantelle's -- that much was painfully obvious from her facial expression and body language. Her eyes moved from Ashley to Chantelle in distress for a moment. Colour definitely stained her cheeks now -- Ashley could see the cogs whirring in her head as she tried to work out a way to come out of the situation gracefully. Unable to find one, she had to backtrack, and go straight back on the haughty words she'd just uttered, looking even more embarrassed than ever, voice sheepish.

"Um," she pulled a piece of hair behind her ear, set the glasses down on their table for a moment, and opened the envelope, making a show of reading it. "Um ... I ... you know what? I might make an exception. I mean, you're right, Chantelle, I don't work at a doctor's surgery. And what do you know?" her cheeks were bronzed pink now, and she wasn't looking at any of them, instead concentrating on the writing on the paper in front of her. "I'm actually free that night. The boys are working -- I'd love to come, thankyou for inviting me, Ashley. Sounds really fun."

Chantelle's face blackened but she didn't say anything. Tansy and Claire were both wearing shit-eating grins. Meredith's brows raised slightly, and the bottom fell out of Ashley's stomach.

"Great!" the words tumbled out of her surprised mouth. "Great, that's fantastic. Um, I'm really happy ... you're always more than welcome, you know ..." her brain ordered her to shut up.

"So ... so it's next weekend, isn't it?" Jeanie cleared her throat, making sure not to look anywhere near Chantelle. "So, um, I've never been to Spiral. Is it a, er ... is it an, um ..."

"It's not a gay club, no," Tansy supplied for her, voice still innocent.

"The crowd that hangs there is a mix of bi and gay," Claire built on Tansy's effort. "Some of Ashe's bank friends are straight, so we picked a venue that would suit all. You should be able to slip under the radar unnoticed with them too, straighty."

"Ha ha!" Jeanie laughed nervously. "So, um ... how ... like, I mean, maybe ... maybe I should give you my phone number Ashley? Because I don't know how to get there, or where this club is so um ... in case I get lost on the night, I may need to call you ..."

"Seems like a sensible and reasonable precaution to take," Claire's eyes were twinkling as she good-naturedly mocked.

Ashley kicked out under the table again and Meredith squeaked.

"You missed, Ash!" she got out between gritted teeth.

Ashley felt even more flustered as she realised Jeanie must realise that she was resorting to the immature practice of kicking people under tables.

"We're all meeting at my apartment first for half-an-hour pre-drinks, I think it says so on the invitation ..." Ashley turned away from Meredith, speaking quickly to distract Jeanie. She pointed to the piece of paper still opened in Jeanie's hand.

"Oh yes, of course, right!" Jeanie nodded. "Well, I know where that is."

"How do you know where Ash lives?" Tansy asked, voice surprised.