Perfect Strangers

The bell of the alarm clock rang out signaling the end of her session. Huffing out a deep sigh, Myla picked up her coat and slipped it on before pushing to her feet. “Remember, use your coping mechanisms if things get too hard to deal with, if you find things start to spiral out of your control, you call Dion and have her book you in with me straight away.”

“Thank you, Dr. Greco, have a wonderful Christmas,” she beamed as she shook his hand and headed out of his office.

“You too, Myla. I’ll see you in the New Year,” he called after her.

Pushing through the doors of the main entrance, the wind was in full force, biting around her neck as she grabbed her collars with one hand and held it firm around her throat. It’s miserable days like this I wish I could drive.

A loud honking of a car horn caught her attention, interrupting, and breaking her fierce stride towards the bus stop. She halted as the familiar sight of a mini cooper, complete with the dull thud of bass music, pulled to a stop at the curb. The window wound down and the jovial tones of the Spice Girls blasted from the car. “Yo! bitch, get your ass in the car, we have places to be,” hollered Cass over the music.

“Like where?” asked Myla. Ignoring her, Cass sat pointing at the passenger door, with a stupid, smug smile on her face. Rolling her eyes, Myla held her hands up and walked to the passenger side, wincing as she climbed in the car over Cass’s taste in music.

“So, how did your session go with Dr. Lector?” Laughed Cass.

“I wish you wouldn’t refer to him as that, he’s had a great impact on my recovery.”

“He’s creepy, Myla, you sure those notes he’s making are not really ways to carve you up and partake in a bit of cannibalism?”

“Really, Cass? You’ve watched Silence of the Lambs one too many times,” she retorted. She leant closer to the stereo system and flicked it off.

“So, what brings you here? Why are you picking me up?” Myla asked, swiveling her upper body towards Cass and eye balling her.

“Because, we have places to be.”

“Like where?”

“Jheeze babe, you ask to many questions. Why don’t you just chill? Avery and I feel that it’s about time you went out. For the last eight months, all you’ve done is work, visit Lector and mope after Kai,”

“Have you seen him?” Myla asked as her heart began to palpitate in her chest. She held her breath and waited for her response. Myla hadn’t told the girls she often found herself standing outside Baxter’s late at night hoping to catch a glimpse of him at work, or that she had on several occasions, hopped on a bus to the boutique and then found herself standing outside the Art studio hoping to see him, but after eight months she hadn’t been lucky. It was as though he had become the invisible man.

“No, I haven’t seen him. Brody said he’s taken a vacation for Christmas.”

She felt her chest rapidly deflate and her throat restrict as she croaked out a gravelly “Okay.” Myla turned herself back around and gazed out the window with a deep sigh and silently wiped the single tear that had escaped.

“We’re here,” sang Cass. Myla squinted as she looked out the window at the beauty parlor. She turned to voice her dismay, but Cass was already out of the car and heading towards the shop front. “Hurry up, we are on a time limit.” Cass hollered.

I’m going to kill you Cass. Climbing from the car, Myla begrudgingly followed her in. She caught the tail end of Cass’s conversation with the receptionist. “Yes, that’s right Fox, Brazilian and nails.”

“You have to be kidding me? Why the hell would I need a bloody Brazilian?” Myla asked in a deep growl as the receptionist shrunk back in fright.

“Because, who knows what the fuck has grown down there since Florida, now get gone,” ordered Cass pushing Myla forward towards the back of the salon. Laughing to herself minutes later at the painful cries leaving Myla’s mouth, Cass penned a message to Brody.

Smiling she rammed her phone in her pocket and reached for a magazine as she waited patiently for Myla to return, and kill her.

*

“Where are, we going again?” Myla asked. She returned to Cass’s lounge wearing the tightest red dress Cass could possibly find for her.

“It’s a surprise, and if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you,” smiled Cass as she hoisted her DD’s into the smallest bra known to man.

“I feel nervous. I haven’t been out properly since …well since..,” Myla stammered as she looked at herself in the floor-length mirror in the middle of the room. She looked smoking. Her dark hair was up in a top knot and against her wishes, Cass had insisted on doing her make-up, dark and smoldering but strangely, Myla liked the look she was rocking.

“Since Kai,” finished Cass for her. “You can say his name, Myla.”

“I know. I just wish he hadn’t given me his ultimatum that night, given what had come out. Grace said he was out of order for saying not to contact him.”

“He was hurting too, he fell fast and hard for you Myla. You will always be the one for him, always,” she replied absent mindedly jumping into a skin-tight black cat suit.

Myla’s hand flew to her mouth and she pivoted with speed towards Cass. “You know that how? You’ve spoken to him, haven’t you?”