Hot Water

“Coming!” Liv called as she threw her phone onto her bed and headed to the front door. She opened it to find Jeanie standing there wearing an exaggerated frown, and her arms open.

“You’re the best,” Jeanie said, as the two hugged in the doorway.

“You are,” Liv countered. She closed the door and lead Jeanie to the kitchen. “Do you want tea?” she offered whilst they walked down the hallway.

“Uh…” Jeanie tried to decide, as she checked the time on her phone, and did some calculating on her fingers.

“You have time – it’ll help,” Liv said, turning to smile knowingly at her best friend.

“Sure – yes – yes, please,” Jeanie responded, setting her car keys and phone on the kitchen counter, and herself onto one of the two metal bar stools that stood beneath it.

Liv turned the kettle on, and placed peppermint tea bags into the mugs that she had pulled out of her clean dishwasher. Jeanie ran her fingers over her eyes, then through her hair, with a quiet sigh.

“So, how do you think it happened?” Liv asked, as she leaned against the sink to face Jeanie.

“I don’t know... I mustn’t’ve been careful enough when I was overseas,” Jeanie said, staring up at the antique light fitting on the ceiling.

“Are you going to tell your parents?” Liv inquired, delicately.

“Nah, I – I’ll be fine in a few days, and it’ll be like it never happened in four to six weeks, apparently,” Jeanie said.

“Oh, okay…” Liv said, whilst she poured the now-boiled water into the mugs. She splashed a dash of cold tap water into them before setting one in front of Jeanie and resumed her place against the sink.

“Thank you,” Jeanie said, cupping the hot mug in her hands. “Yeah, I’m lucky they caught it so quickly, and I got onto it straight away. Very annoying though.”

“People suck,” both girls said at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed.

“What’re you doing tonight?” Jeanie asked.

“I have work at 7,” Liv said, daring to take the first, small sip from her still-steaming, pink, polka dotted mug.

“Oh, of course – you said that before, sorry. My brain is still going a million miles an hour,” Jeanie said, turning her gaze to the pale green liquid in her identically patterned mug.

“It’s fine,” Liv said, waving her hand dismissively. “My brain wouldn’t work so well either if I’d had this thrown at me on an important day. So stressful.”

“Thank goodness I have you to save the day though! As always, I do not know what I would do without you,” Jeanie said, genuinely.

“Go thirsty,” Liv teased.

“Which would lead to death, which is no coincidence,” Jeanie shrugged, then smiled warmly at Liv, who shook her head and smiled back.

They both enjoyed a few mouthfuls of tea in silence, then Liv asked, “Are you going to tell May?”

“No way – she’d totally tell dad, who would tell mum, who would come to me and say, ‘I told you that you weren’t being careful enough!’. Then I would probably crack under her scorn and say that I didn’t follow her advice on not riding an ATV by myself either and that turned out alright. Then that would be another thing for her to go on about – probably for the rest of my life, and then she’d undoubtedly start crying, and then I would cry, and it would just – it would not be a good time for anyone involved,” Jeanie explained.

Liv took another sip of her tea, mulling it over, then decided, “Good point. It’ll be our little secret then.”

“I don’t care if anyone else knows, as long as they are not going to light the fire that releases The Wrath of Diane Pullman onto me,” Jeanie said.

“I will keep that in mind when I share the news of your misfortune and how I swooped in to save you from ruining your family dinner,” Liv said.

“Thank you,” Jeanie said, checking the time on her phone again.

“You’re fine,” Liv pressed kindly, noticing the look of anxiety spreading across Jeanie’s face.

“I know – I just want it to be nice –,” Jeanie started.

“It will be! You’ve had everything else ready for days, and you have a friend’s wine rack full of wine to choose from that does not require a monetary exchange, so we are all good!” Liv said, as she set down her mug to go over to Jeanie, grabbing her hand. “And the banks will be open tomorrow, so you can go and get some cash out to tide you over before your new card comes. Do. Not. Stress.”

Jeanie put her mug down, stood up, still holding Liv’s hand, took a deep breath, then said, “You’re right. Thank you. For the wine, and the pep talk. It would’ve been much more polite if the jerks used my stolen card details to visit a dodgy sex-cam website on a weekday before 3pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, but what can ya do?”

“You can go over there and pick out one of those bottles of delicious red wine, and – figuratively – show ‘em that they ain’t gonna ruin your dad’s birthday dinner!” Liv exclaimed, pulling Jeanie towards her wine rack on the other side of the dining table. “Pick any one you like.”

Liv walked back to take her last gulp of tea, and Jeanie scanned over her friend’s wine collection for a moment, until she chose a bottle that she saw there was a few of and knew wasn’t too expensive.

“Thank you,” she said as she turned, bottle in hand, to go back to the kitchen. “Did I mention that you’re the best and I love you?”

“You did, and you’re welcome,” Liv replied, giving her a quick squeeze. She picked up Jeanie’s nearly empty mug and placed it in on the sink next to her own.

Jeanie gathered up her keys and phone, and they walked back down the hallway to the front door. Liv unlocked the door, and held open the fly screen for Jeanie, who said, “Thank you, again. I really appreciate it,” as she passed through the doors.

“You’d do the same for me,” Liv stated. “Enjoy your night!”

“You too!” Jeanie said, unlocking her car. She got in, started it up, and put on her go-to feel-good playlist for the drive home. She waved to an already waving Liv on the porch as she pulled away.