Opposites Attract

What Happens In London ,Stays In London

"This is torture, you're torturing me, you realise this, right?"

Penelope lifted a slice of cucumber and cast a side eye in Kayo’s direction. "This isn't about you. You said you wanted nothing to do with organising this event so you must live with the consequences." She dropped the cucumber back into place and relaxed with a contented sigh as the pedicurist started massaging the arch of her right foot.

"Don't even think about touching my feet," Kayo snarled, causing the beautician to drop the bottle of pink nail polish she held and make a rapid retreat.

"Selene, are you enjoying yourself?" Penelope asked, pushing home her point by focusing on the reason they were there.

Selene paused, unsure how to really answer that. She'd loved the back massage, which had left her muscles feeling pleasantly rubbery, but Kayo was right, the rest of the treatments were bordering on sadistic.

Oh, she understood Penny's point, they wouldn't have a lot of time over the next five days in the run up to the wedding, so cutting down on prep time by including manicures, pedicures and facials in the bachelorette party made sense, she just couldn't understand how Penny seemed to be enjoying it so much.

Kayo had refused most treatments and was barely suffering through her facial without throwing hands, but Penelope had taken hers, and by default Selene's, to the extreme. They had been waxed, plucked, buffed and smoothed so much that Selene was surprised they hadn't whipped out an electric sander and been done with it.

"Selene?" Penelope prompted, although her tone had changed a little, holding just the barest hint of worry.

"Sure!" Selene rushed to reassure her. "I'm having a great time, never felt so smooth, it's like they've revealed three new layers of skin I never knew I had, my eyebrows have never been neater and I'm feeling slightly cold from lack of body hair."

"Did you wish for John to marry a yeti?"

"A yeti? Excuse me? How dare! It's not like I was sporting a full winter coat!"

Kayo sniggered, the smile lighting up her face and relaxing her slightly hostile aura enough that her beautician obviously felt it was safe enough to try again. She soon stopped when Kayo gently kicked her hand away, making her point very clear.

"Ladies, we only have ten more minutes before they wash off these face masks and start on our make-up so let's enjoy them, shall we?"

Selene glanced at Kayo, who shrugged in return. It was ten minutes, they could hang it out that long if they had to. They had no other choice.

Selene sat back and tried to relax but the mud on her face was itchy, it smelt vaguely of raw potatoes and she now wasn’t sure if she was hungry or worried as to what they had smeared on her skin. She'd be very glad when they washed it off, smoothed on some much nicer smelling moisturiser and handed them over to the makeup department.

Her nails were painted a nice deep purple that matched her hair, it felt like she wouldn't need to shave for at least a year and, much as she didn’t want to admit it, the potato mud had actually done something nice to her face, making it feel all tight and smooth. The makeup artist had gone a little light on the eyeliner and Selene had had to step in and insist on more, but all in all she was feeling quite relaxed and, yes, she’d admit it, pampered.