Evie's Job

56: Natalie

On Wednesday, after work, Evie arrived at Natalie’s door, wearing a party dress, holding a coat she must have just taken off, with her hair up in an elaborate untidy bun. She looked formal. She looked like she was on the way somewhere special.

“Where did you come from?” Natalie said, and kissed her.

“Home.”

Natalie was puzzled. “All right, then where are you going?”

“Here?”

Natalie looked at her. She reached out and touched the fabric on Evie’s hip, and twisted it between her fingers. “What’s this for?”

“Oh,” Evie said, and grinned. “I felt like it, is all.”

Natalie smiled. She understood completely. “Of course you did,” she said. She pulled Evie closer, and kissed her again.

“And I thought I should look the part,” Evie said, into her mouth.

“What part?”

“You know, the part. Your mistress.”

Natalie laughed.

“I mean it,” Evie said.

“I know you do,” Natalie said. “That’s what’s funny.”

Evie grinned, and stepped back from Natalie. She went and draped her coat over a sofa, and stepped out of her shoes, and then walked into the kitchen, where they always seemed to end up standing. Natalie followed, and poured them both wine. Evie sipped a little, a mouthful, and kissed Natalie again. Then she turned around. “Unzip me?” she said.

“Already?”

“Why not?”

“You only just got here. I’m still looking at the dress.”

Evie smiled.

“It’s a nice dress,” Natalie said.

“That’s a nice suit.”

Natalie shrugged.

“Now unzip me,” Evie said.

Natalie didn’t move.

“Please?” Evie said.

“You’re impatient.”

“I’m impatient,” Evie said. “And I want you. So unzip me, please.”

Natalie smiled, and did, and tried to remember how long it had been since she’d last done that for somebody. Meredith had stopped asking years ago, and just reached backwards herself, and now she was wondering about it, Natalie didn’t quite know why. Whether Meredith had started wearing different kinds of clothes, or had got more flexible, or had just decided not to bother asking any more since she could have reached on her own all along.

Natalie unzipped Evie, and kissed Evie’s neck as she did, and Evie pushed the dress off her shoulders and kissed Natalie in the lounge, in view of all the windows, and sipped her wine.

Natalie stood there looking at her.

“What?” Evie said.

Natalie shook her head.

Evie smiled, and took Natalie’s hand, and led her into the bedroom.

                                                            *

On Thursday night, very late, after work, after sex, Natalie lay on the bed, hugging Evie.

Natalie liked this moment. She liked feeling the warmth of someone else’s body, and the shared niceness of having made each other come. She liked the odd, disjointed intimacy of having watched each other, of having seen each other’s faces as they did. She held Evie, and stroked her, and felt deeply content.

Evie got up and had a cigarette in the bathroom, and then came back to bed. Natalie moved her arm when Evie got up, and again when Evie lay down, and then went back to gently stroking. Evie was warm, and her skin slippery soft, and she was breathing very softly.

Natalie lay where she was, slowly stroking, exhausted from working all day. The evening was quiet. The apartment was quiet. Everything seemed very still. There was hardly any sound in the bedroom, and barely even traffic noise from outside. Natalie closed her eyes, not really intending to sleep, just to lie there and feel Evie.

She thought she dozed. She might have dozed. She felt like she had, ever so briefly. She looked at the clock, and wasn’t sure, but it seemed like too long had passed since she’d last noticed the time.

“It’s late,” Evie said, after a while. “I should go.”

“You don’t need to.”

Evie rolled sideways, and looked back at Natalie. “This again?”

Natalie shrugged.

“I was here last night.”

“You were.”

“And the night before.”

“Yes.”

Evie thought. “And the one before that, too, I think. Wasn’t I?”

“I like you being here.”

“And I like being here, but I ought to go home sometimes. I can’t just keep staying here.”

“Why not?”

Evie thought. “I don’t know.”

“Do you actually have anywhere you have to go?” Natalie said. “Anywhere you need to be?”

“Not really.”

“So stay.”

Evie seemed to be thinking.

“You have before,” Natalie said.

“I know. I could. If you wanted me to.”

“I do. Do you want to?”

Evie nodded.

“Then stay.”

Evie lay there for a while. She seemed sleepy as well. “All right,” she said. “But I have to go home sometime soon.”

“Of course,” Natalie said. “Are you ready for bed?”

Evie nodded.

“You don’t want water or anything?”

“I should brush my teeth.”

“You should,” Natalie said. “But I’m not. I can’t be bothered.”

“I can’t either.”

“So no?”

“No,” Evie said.

Natalie switched off the bedside light. Evie was still for a moment, then she opened her mouth. Natalie heard it, somehow, in the darkness.

“Don’t say it,” Natalie said.

“Don’t say what?”

“Goodnight. If you were going to.”

“I was. But why not?”

Natalie thought. She wasn’t sure either. “I don’t know,” she said. “Just don’t. Just lie there, like were both awake, like we’ll stay here like this forever.”

“Okay,” Evie said, and lay still for a while. “I want to say something so I know we’ve stopped.”

“Something,” Natalie said, and Evie laughed.

“Or nothing,” Natalie said. “Just like there.”

“I will,” Evie said.

“Don’t say it.”

“I won’t.”

There was a silence, which seemed to last. Neither of them spoke. Evie moved a little, shifting slightly, pressing herself against Natalie. Natalie stoked Evie until her breathing changed, and she seemed to be asleep, then held her until she fell slept herself.