What are the chances?

I love the way you Lie

Cheers! The echo of clinking glasses, idle chit chat, and laughter filled the garden and kitchen making the cheery background music barely audible.

It was a little warmer than normal for a Saturday evening in mid-May, Kat was escorting her latest arrivals through her modest London home and into the back garden as the doorbell chimed once more.

"We're sorry we're so late Kat." The heavily tanned man placed his hand on Kats lower back, making her shift uncomfortably as his oblivious wife stood huffing and puffing at a wayward strand from her immaculately styled hair. "We've just had the worst luck with childcare recently, it's so difficult to find someone reliable these days." He towered above Kat, flashing a mouthful of intense white teeth.

"You're so lucky you don't have to worry about that stuff." The wife interrupted as she continued to fiddle with her hair.

"Don't worry about it at all." Kat dutifully smiled, beckoning them through the back door and out into the lively yard. "You're here and that's the main thing." She continued, pausing for a moment as they passed her.

"Oh-" The wife paused from her preening. "- your garden looks... cute." Her mouth twitched under the strain of all the Botox keeping it in place. Finally managed to form an awkward grimacing smile.

Kat sighed heavily as she glanced down the narrow garden that stretched back and assessed her decorative handiwork. The pretty fairy lights that were pinned to the wooden fences were now beginning to illuminate the makeshift 30th bunting that hung between them, and the pastel-coloured paper lanterns hanging from the washing line swayed almost in time with the thumping beat of her husband's playlist.

"That's very kind of you, thank you." She finally spoke after a prolonged silence. "We were not quite sure what to do, but it all came together nicely in the end." Kat rambled away as she eyed her handiwork again and now proudly smiled.

The new guests continued with their polite small talk, occasionally nodding to people they spotted in the crowd as Kat looked around the sea of faces occupying her backyard with a heavy heart. Apart from the few family members that had made the trip to London from Stafford, she actually didn't have many of her own friends. A couple of women she worked with, who were really only there out of politeness were the closest she had to friends, but everyone else at her birthday party was actually a friend or an acquaintance of her husband.
The chiming of the doorbell pulled her from her thoughts, as it repeatedly sounded again and again.

"You want me to get that?" Her husband's broad cockney accent bellowed over the buzz of the music and multiple conversations filling the small space around her.

Kat watched as David smoothly manoeuvred through the crowd, repeatedly tapping people on the arm or back, and flashing his £4000 charismatic grin at them in acknowledgement.

The doorbell echoed through the house again as Kat grinned at her husband before gently shaking her head.
"No it's fine, I'll get it."

She stepped aside and signalled to her most recent guests where they could find food and drinks, and pointed to a group of people towards the rear of the garden who were mutual friends of theirs. She thanked them again for coming before leaving them with David and headed back into the house.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" She called out as the sound of the bell rang through the narrow hallway again.

She caught a glimpse of herself in the large silver framed mirror hanging beside the door and paused to re-adjust an unruly strand of her jet black, poker-straight hair. The muggy English weather had caused her eyeliner to smudge in the corners of her eyes and an exasperated sigh escaped her dry cherry red lips as she tried to wipe it off with her little finger but just smudged it even more.
She stood back, hardly recognising the sight of the washed-out 30-year-old woman in the knee-length floral dress staring back at her.