Anna and Other Girls

The morning sun shone in through the bedroom window. Clothes were scattered from the bedroom door, across the Persian rug, to the foot of the bed. Men's feet stuck out from under the doona. Hairs on the big toes.

Christopher was stroking Titania's hair.

"Anna said you vant her as your girlfriend," said Titania. "And... Ethan as your boyfriend?"

"Anna said that?" said Christopher.

"Anna said she take her relationship away from you, before it got broken."

"What?" said Christopher. "I don't under..."

"Vhy vould she say that if not true?" asked Titania. "It not something voman normally say."

"She had some idea..."

"Just idea?"

"What? yes... of course," said Christopher. He looked away. "I don't know where she got it from." Titania looked disbelievingly. "She don't just make such thing up."

"She really said that was why she went away," said Christopher. "Because of me?"

"That vhat she say."

They were silent for a moment. Christopher was stunned by what Titania had said. There was that one morning with Ethan, in somebodies house somewhere in St Kilda. They were both really out of it, been partying far too hard. Christopher could hardly remember it. It was all about drugs, pills. Once Christopher got a taste for amphetamines, he'd do anything for more - it was why he didn't do them any more. Ethan was complicit. He must have told Anna, Christopher was surprised.

The silence became thick in the air as Christopher remembered.

"Are you everything you say you are?" said Titania.

"I haven't said I'm anything..."

"By... actions say a lot," said Titania. "You have other things to say?"

"We made no promises," said Christopher. "This is all it is. There are no other things."

Christopher moved to kiss Titania, she moved her head away from him.

"Vhy did your last girlfriend dump you?" She smiled and looked him straight in the eye. "Really?"

"Because I ran hot and cold. Because I was a narcissist. Because I didn't know what I was. Because I am a sex addict." Christopher was amazed at his sudden burst of honesty. He'd been in counselling for nearly twelve months.

They held each other's gaze and they was silent. Christopher eventually smiled. Titania did not.

"They vere your girlfriend's exact words?" said Titania.

"Yes," said Christopher. "They were her exact words.

They just stared at each other.

Titania threw the doona back and stood up.

"What are you doing?"

"Leaving." said Titania."

"What?" said Christopher.

"I've been out with you before." Titania pulled on her panties. "My first boyfriend. Just like you." She slid on her pantihose. "You remind me of him so much. So I know what to expect."

"You can't be serious," said Christopher. "Expect what?"

Titania slip on her high heals and tuned topless to face Christopher.

"I see you looking at Jimmy and Varren." She shrugged. "It was the same look as in my first boy friend's eyes. I thought he was just friendly vith everybody, but..." She pulled on her skirt. "Anna was right." She buttoned her leather jacket."

"Anna was right about what?" said Christopher. "What are you saying?"

She bent over and kissed him, wrapped like a pharo in a sheet, on the forehead.

"So beautiful. So loved by everyone. But, in the end, destroyed by his own secrets." She picked up her bag. "I'm saying I don't want to do it again." She walked to the door. "It nearly killed me the first time."

"Huh?"

"Play with your friends, Christopher."

She blew him a kiss and was gone.