Page 4 of You, As You Are

Vera took a long coat from the rack at the foot of the stairs and folded it over her uninjured arm. “Ronnie is picking me up, then we’re going to the Italian place in town. It’s a friend from my hiking group’s birthday today, so we’re celebrating.”

Maisie smiled from her seat. “Have fun.”

“No need to stay up for me, Moo Moo.”

“Don’t stay out too late.” Raising her mug to her lips, Maisie smirked. “And no kissing boys on street corners.”

Vera huffed lightly. “Well that scuppers my plan to sneak Ronald into the house then.”

Maisie coughed on her tea.

“He really is anexcellentlover.”

“Ew,Nain,no!”

Vera’s laugh was straight from the soul as the doorbell rang. “That’ll be him, now.” She opened the front door where Ronnie stood with an umbrella held up, rain pit-pattering down on the canvas. His cream wool suit was sharp, and he’d covered his cropped grey hair with an adorable flat cap.

His eyes roamed and adored over Vera, his greeting a gasped – “My lovely, you look beautiful.”

Elbow sliding forwards on the table, Maisie swooned with her chin in her hand. She was glad that after hertaid, Vera had let herself find someone to love her. Who would not? Vera wasoutgoing and as sharp as a knife, with an elegant, timeless vibe. They could be stood next to each other, Maisie’sDoc Martensnext to hernain’skitten heels, quirky beside classic, and anyone would assume that they weren’t related.

She could look at Vera and think:yes,any man would bend over backwards to give her what she wanted and treat her how she deserved. In Maisie’s experience though, thebendingonly went so far. It usually stopped when they found out that she wasn’t one for spontaneous, rampant nights of sex. She couldn’t fall into bed with justanybody.She couldn’t give herself over when the process of doing so hurt so much.

In the end, relationships always dwindled to her giving a lot more than she received just to keep a man happy. Then things would fall apart. There was only so much pleasure that she could fake on the receiving end of the mouths and tongues and fingers of boyfriends from years gone by before they grew bored with waiting for her.

She was too much work. Too much effort.

So they left.

Maisie didn’t realise that she’d made herself tear up at the sight of Ronnie, the quintessential gentleman helping Vera into her coat, until a warm droplet landed on her fingertip.

Oblivious to the twist of sadness in her stomach, Ronnie smiled at her. His sweet, pale cheeks that were always a little tickled pink meeting his blue eyes. “I’ll have her back before midnight.”

Maisie laughed and pretended that she wasn’t upset by her own thoughts at all. “Have a good evening.”

“I’ll see you in a bit, Moo Moo,” Vera called as they left, and Maisie wiggled her fingers in a goodbye.

The front door closed behind them, then silence filled the house once more.

Maisie swept her gaze slowly around the living room. She’d been staying here for two weeks, and already she itched to have some company other than Mister Roberts and these faded, floral wallpapered walls. Though Mister Roberts didn’t seem to enjoy her presence any more than Maisie actually wished that she was here.

Tapping her fingers to her upper arm, she checked her phone.

It was the sixteenth of January, the day that Faye, one of her best friends, moved up to Manchester to begin renovations for the new location of her bakery,Baked By The Dozen.

In some weird misalignment of fate, their friendship group that had been strong for the last ten years since their university days had lost two members to relocations in only two weeks. Their group chat was alive with messages; Bash giving updates on how things were going, with a strong undertone of how proud he was of his girlfriend for living her dreams; Freddy sendingthumbs upemojis between his breaks at the art museum he worked for; and Sienna asking when she could travel up to visit the bakery.

Maisie had been a little too focussed today to contribute to the well wishes, so she added them in then and followed up with how much she missed everyone before getting on with the next four hours of work.

She worked on cutting and moulding a batch of daisy earrings right through the evening withHairspraystreaming on her computer and Mister Roberts glaring at her from the staircase, hiding between the wooden balustrades like some kind of criminal behind bars. The half an hour break for her dinner wentby quickly, Vera’s homemade shepherd’s pie disappearing even quicker.

It was nine o’clock when Maisie sank down into averybubbly bath and let all of her muscles relax. Surrounded by the fruity aroma of grapefruit and jasmine as she massaged a body brush over her skin, she was tempted to dip her fingers past her soft stomach and down between her legs, but the mental inclination just was not there. Not with Mister Roberts providing the soundtrack to her soaking by whining incessantly at the door. She’d learned, reluctantly, that the cat hated water, even if it wasn’t anywhere near him,hencethe closed door. But still he sat there, makingthudson the panels with what Maisie could only assume was his giant black paw.

“Moo Moo, I’m home!” Vera’s voice rang out at a point where she’d lost track of time, the frosted window painted black outside.

“I’m in the bath,” she yelled back, loud enough to disturb her own peace and carry her voice down two flights of stairs. The door to the bathroom burst open a minute later.“Nain!”

“Hush, no need to cover everything up. I gave you all of your bits.”

---