Laptop on her knee, Josephine Mitreski tapped her neon-pink fingernails on her bedside table as she waited for her husband to FaceTime her. Nik was in Japan, apparently working, but she had a sneaking suspicion he was happier over there than he had been with her for the past few months. It was Saturday night and here she was, stuck in a place they’d moved to because of his work, with no family and no one she could really classify as a friend. The most exciting thing she had to look forward to was a phone call from her absent husband and he couldn’t even manage to call her at their prearranged time.
Taking matters into her own hands, she punched her finger to the keyboard and dialled him instead. Just when she thought the call was about to ring out, his smiley, gorgeous face appeared on the screen.
‘Hey, babe.’ His warm voice filled the bedroom and he seemed genuinely happy to see her. Tears immediately prickled at the back of her eyelids.
‘You were supposed to call me,’ she accused, hating herself for sounding so needy.
‘Sorry. I’ve been busy. Work’s insane right now.’
‘Never mind.’ She leaned back against the pillows and lifted her knees, raising the laptop. ‘How are you?’
‘Good. Busy.’ He glanced over his shoulder as if expecting to see someone. ‘Work’s demanding, we don’t have the same supporting manpower here as in Australia, but it’s good experience.’ He peered closer to his screen. ‘Are you still wearing your pyjamas?’
‘No. I just had a shower and put them on.’
‘Okay, good.’ She bit back her irritation at his obvious relief. Last she checked it wasn’t a crime to wear your PJs all weekend. ‘What have you been up to today?’
She noticed he didn’t ask how she was—probably he didn’t want to know the answer. Just as he wouldn’t have liked the fact she’d been wearing her pyjamas since she got home from work yesterday afternoon and had no intention of getting out of them until she had to leave the house again Monday morning.
‘Oh, you know.’ She injected a chirpiness into her voice. ‘I went for a walk along the beach this morning, did some shopping, then a bit of housework and a lot of marking—the year elevens and twelves have just done their mid-year exams.’
‘Bet you’re happy I’m not there distracting you then,’ he said with a cheeky grin.
As a high school drama and English teacher, Josie brought a lot of work home, whereas Nik’s job as an aircraft engineer didn’t require after-hours input. On the nights or weekends she had to do preparation or marking, Nik being home was both a help and a hindrance.
‘It’s too quiet here without you. I miss you.’
‘I miss you, too. I sleep crap when you’re not lying beside me, but I’ll be home soon. Only seven more sleeps to go.’
Home? Even after eighteen months Sydney still didn’t feel like home. ‘Good.’
This one word was met with awkward silence—the thing that had broken them but which Nik didn’t like talking about lingered between them like the proverbial elephant in the room.
‘Have you heard from your dad lately?’ he asked eventually.
Josie nodded. ‘He sent an email from some place in the South Pacific a couple of days ago. Sounds like he’s having the time of his life, meeting different people every night. Dancing till dawn. You’d think he was seventeen not seventy. Mum would have hated it.’
Nik chuckled. ‘Good on him. Maybe we should try a cruise sometime.’
Josie tried hard to hide her horror. She could barely bring herself to get off the couch these days; the idea of being stuck at sea with a couple of thousand strangers didn’t appeal in the slightest. ‘Aren’t cruises for single people, retirees or young families?’
And there, without her actually mentioning it, was the elephant. No matter how hard they’d tried, she and Nik didn’t fit any of those classifications.
His expression tightened and she noticed little spots of rouge appear in his cheeks. ‘I was thinking maybe we could go home for Christmas.’
This time it was obvious the home in question referred to Perth—where his huge extended family and her smaller one still lived—but a trip back to her birth state appealed only marginally more than a journey on the high seas.
‘Didn’t we just have Christmas?’ She tried to make the question sound like a joke.
‘It’s June, Jose. Besides, if I want time off over the holidays, I need to book now. Some of us only get four weeks a year.’
Her hackles rose. It was one thing people who didn’t understand how hard teachers worked making snide remarks about all the holidays they got, but Nik knew better. She was about to remind him exactly this when a voice sounded from somewhere behind him.
‘Nikolce, my main man, hurry up! We’re ready to go and there’s a beer with your name on it waiting.’
Nik glanced behind him again as the owner of the voice poked his head around the door. No one but Nik’s grandmother and his mates (when they were taking the piss) called him ‘Nikolce’; sometimes Josie even forgot it was his real name. She vaguely recognised the tall, ginger-haired man as one of Nik’s colleagues from Perth.
‘Give me five,’ Nik called back and although he had his head turned away from the screen she imagined him explaining with his eyes that he was talking to the crazy wife and couldn’t rush things.
‘Hi, Josie.’ The guy—she couldn’t remember his name—waved from the door. ‘How are you?’
‘Fine. Hi.’ She forced a smile.
He disappeared and Nik turned back to the screen.
‘Where’re you going?’
He shrugged. ‘Dunno. Some of the guys were just gonna head out for a few drinks, but I don’t have to … I can stay if you want to chat.’
Yes, she did want him to stay so she wasn’t left alone with her thoughts, but she didn’t want to be an obligation or a drag.
‘Nah, it’s fine. You go.’ She waved a hand at the screen attempting nonchalance. ‘I’m actually going out too.’
‘Really?’ He sounded sceptical and rightly so because that was complete and utter bullshit.
In reality she planned a night in bed with a bottle of wine and one of her favourite movies from the eighties playing on her laptop. Big bold hair, outrageous fashion, feel-good music and a little Molly Ringwald had been her medicine of choice for as long as she could remember. Now the question wasn’t whether she was more in a Breakfast Club or Pretty in Pink mood, but rather if any of her old faves would do the trick.
‘Yep—some of the other teachers are going out for dinner to celebrate the end of exams.’
‘Which teachers?’
She thought quickly, naming a couple of young women from the English department and a music teacher she didn’t even like. Nik hadn’t met many of the people she worked with, so he bought the list hook, line and sinker.
‘That’ll be nice. It’ll do you good to get out.’
‘Yes. So you go enjoy your night out and I better get ready for mine.’
‘Yeah, you do that.’ And then he grinned. ‘You might embarrass your colleagues if you turn up to the restaurant in your current attire.’
‘What?’ She feigned hurt as she gestured to her vinyl-record-covered flannelette pyjamas. ‘You don’t like these?’
‘They’re cute, but I much prefer you without anything on at all.’
Once upon a time such words from Nik would have sent shivers rippling through her body, but now all Josie felt was a flicker of irritation.
‘I think going out in my birthday suit might embarrass my friends even more. Now, have a good night.’
‘You too. I love you. Send me a pic of you all dressed up—it’ll make it feel almost like we’re going out together.’
‘Okay.’ She silently cursed this sweet suggestion.
Nik grinned, blew her a kiss and then disconnected the call.
FFS. Cursing Nik’s name, she discarded the laptop beside her, then threw back the bedcovers, climbed out of bed, flung open her wardrobe and grabbed the first thing she laid eyes on. She ripped off her PJs, shimmied the dress up over her hips and reached around to zip it up. Her bra was very visible but her gold jacket over the top would fix that for the photo. Ten minutes later, quicker than she’d ever taken to get ready for a night out in her life, her hair and make-up was done, and she fake-smiled at her phone as she snapped a selfie.
Image sent, she made a beeline for the kitchen. Pulling open the fridge, she could already taste the wine on her tongue and couldn’t wait for its anaesthetising effects to give her some reprieve from her thoughts. Yet, when she picked up the bottle she was horrified to find there wasn’t even enough for half a glass.
Surely she hadn’t devoured two whole bottles on her own last night?
A quick survey of her cupboards told her she had and this made her want to drop to her knees and howl. A little voice in her head told her to take a long, hard look at herself and ask when wine had become so important to her.
But a much stronger voice whispered the solution.
You’re all dressed up. Go out and have a drink.
Why should Nik be the only one having fun?