“Oh God it hurts!” Joaquin gasped, the sweat pouring form her forehead.

“Take the pain,” Adele giggled, her own breath ragged from the exertion.

The woman on the Pilates instruction DVD said, “Relax,” and Joaquin promptly collapsed onto the floor.

“Don’t you feel invigorated?” Adele smiled as she looked down at Joaquin sprawled on her back.

“No, I feel hurty,” Joaquin frowned and waited until Adele stood up and offered her a hand before she got to her feet.

“Your muscles just aren’t used to the stretching.”

“I’m an artist,” Joaquin sighed as she opened the fridge and grabbed a jug of cold water. “The only movement I do is lift a pencil or a brush.”

“So I won’t be able to convince you to do it again?” Adele asked as she set two glasses down in front of Joaquin.

“Not unless I suddenly decide my stomach needs to be punished brutally sometime soon,” Joaquin chided. “Although you might convince me to go walking or something less likely to cripple me.”

“You’ll smack into lampposts,” Adele said blankly as there was a knock at the door.

“Oh, mean,” Joaquin frowned, snatching up her glass and spilling water on her t-shirt. “Crap.”

“I’ll go get that, shall I,” Adele laughed as she hurried to the front door. She opened it and couldn’t hide the surprised look on her face. “Fiona.”

“Uh, hi, is Jo in,” Fiona asked bashfully, several books under one arm.

“Yeah, sure,” Adele nodded. “JO!”

“What?” Joaquin muttered as she entered the room dabbing her cleavage with a dishcloth.

“It’s for you,” Adele mused. “I’m heading for the shower.”

“Fiona,” Joaquin said, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m having real trouble with my essay for Mr Murdoch and I was hoping you’d help me.”

“I meant how did you know where I live.”

“I asked in the front office.”

“And they just gave my address to you?”

“Yeah.”

Joaquin took a moment to be horrified and then looked back at the expectant Fiona. She had planned to spend the day in the park sketching and enjoying the sun, but she could almost see those plans slipping away.

“So will you help me?” Fiona asked again, looking like she might burst into tears if Joaquin turned her down.

“Ok, but I don’t want to spend all day on it.”

“Thank you so much,” Fiona gushed as she bustled into the apartment. “I really appreciate this. As fellow artists we should stick together.”

“Yeah,” Joaquin said half-heartedly, and made a mental note to pick up a bottle of something lethal later.

Adele laced up her black Chucks as she sat on her bed; she was in a fiercely determined mood. Well, semi-determined. She’d had a mid-week epiphany of sorts and decided that she was going to tell Aidan that whatever it was they were doing had to stop immediately. Granted Adele wasn’t sure what it was they were doing, but it was making her miserable, it wasn’t healthy, and it was effecting her friendship with Joaquin. Not that Joaquin was aware of that, of course.

She gave herself one more look in the mirror and headed out of the bedroom. Adele sauntered into the kitchen and was surprised to see Joaquin flipping through a very thick book with Fiona.

“I’m popping out for a bit, Jo,” she announced, snatching her keys up from where they’d been abandoned on the counter. “You guys have fun now,” she added and headed out the door as quickly as she could.

Driving towards Aidan’s, she flicked on the radio to distract her mind from debating whether what she was doing was actually a fantastic idea. The announcer cheerily declared that Ben Lee was up next so Adele cranked up the volume.

Gamble everything for love

Gamble everything

Put it in a place you keep what you need

You can gamble everything for love if you’re free

You gotta gamble everything for love

“Oh no we’re not!” Adele shrieked, almost careering off into heavy traffic as she turned the volume right down. The last thing she needed was sad fuck FM changing her mind again. She’d had enough of musical direction with ‘That Bastard’.

A short while later she parked her car in the street near Aidan’s block of flats and made her way up the flight of stairs to the one she’d seen him enter several times. The nerves seemed to kick in more and her hand shook slightly as she knocked. There were several seconds where she was relieved that Aidan might be out but instead the door opened and Adele felt her throat close over.

“Good morning,” Aidan yawned looking mussed, and very shirtless. Adele could feel herself turning crimson and looked at her Chucks.

“Morning.”

“Your sneakers are lovely,” Aidan mused, scratching his bare stomach. “Come in,” he added and wandered back into his flat, leaving the door open and welcoming for Adele.

She took a deep, reaffirming breath and followed him in. His flat was very small and Adele couldn’t help but take a good look at the living room she’d stepped into. A well-worn brown couch with several art books piled at one end, a low coffee table with more art books, an open sketchbook, pencils, brushes and a coffee mug. A small television, a bookcase that was chock-full of books, an easel with a half-finished painting, several canvasses leaning up against the wall and some very interesting paintings on the walls themselves.

“Sorry, it’s not very pretty,” Aidan sighed, looking vaguely ashamed. “I’m gonna get a new couch though, sometime.”

“It’s fine,” Adele managed to force out, noting Aidan had made no attempt to put a shirt on. “Did you do the paintings?”

“Yeah,” Aidan smiled. Damn him for smiling. “It’s the closest they get to a gallery showing.”

“They’re fantastic,” she said softly. “They should be in a gallery”

“Thanks,” Aidan smiled again, this time modestly, and Adele had to quickly distract herself with something else. “I love that,” she declared pointing to a sketch of an old man on a park bench in the open sketchbook.

“Really?” Aidan said surprised and wandered over beside her. “I showed it to a couple of friends and they said it was shit.”

“I think it’s beautiful,” Adele breathed, noting Aidan was so close she could feel the warmth emanating from his bare skin, and smell the sweat, faded deodorant and methylated spirits that hung around him. God, it was sexy.

“So anyway,” Aidan announced, bringing Adele out of her giddy stupor. “What brings you here?”

Adele swallowed. “I wanted to talk about us.” She looked at him as seriously as she could. “Well, not that there is an us, but I’ve been thinking, and this whole thing, whatever it is, is just ridiculous. I can’t date you because Jo has a crush on you and she’s my friend and it wouldn’t be fair. Anyway, we’d make a horrible couple, what with me being too freaked out by affection and you being emotionally wrapped up in your own ego. So I think we should just stop, whatever it is, now.”

Aidan crossed his arms and then looked at Adele confused. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“Yes””

“Despite the fact we’re not even dating?”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s so fucked!”

“Oh my god, you said fucked!”

“What?”

“Sorry, keep imagining you’re perfect.”

“What?”

“I blame Jo.”

“Del…”

“I’m just gonna back out of here and pretend none of this ever happened,” Adele announced, her cheeks burning as she promptly strode from the flat and then bolted to her car.

“I don’t know why it’s so important,” Fiona whined as Joaquin slid the book back under her nose. “It’s just some weeds.”

“It’s not just weeds,” Joaquin sighed as she seriously considered breaking out the emergency bottle of vodka. “It shows a truthful observation of nature.”

“Big deal,” Fiona shrugged. “I could paint weeds.”

“You’ve got to look past the obviousness of the subject matter.”

“Well it’s ugly weeds,” Fiona pouted. “You can’t look past it.”

“A decent artist could.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well I’m sure Aidan would see it as more than weeds.”

Fiona seemed to pout more at the mention of Aidan’s name. “Why don’t you call him Mr Murdoch like everyone else?”

Joaquin shrugged, “He’s my friend, so I don’t really need to.”

“I see,” Fiona said quietly. “Are you sleeping with him?”

Joaquin dropped the book she was holding. “What? No!”

“Well it would explain why you’re teacher’s pet.”

“The only reason I’m so advanced is because I studied art for years back in the States before I came here,” Joaquin explained. “I started out like you, but I worked at perfecting my craft.” That was a lie, she’d never been as bad as Fiona was. “You really have to work at these things.”

“I’m the top student in my other classes,” Fiona said adamantly. “It’s just Mr Murdoch who picks on me.”

“I think he’s just trying to help you.”

“This is helping,” she huffed motioning to her essay. “He just wants everyone to be like him and not express their own style.”

“The point of the class isn’t to express any style,” Joaquin rebuked. “It’s to make sure you have a firm understanding of the basics.”

“You don’t need basics if you have natural talent,” Fiona declared astutely.

“You don’t have natural talent,” Joaquin said before she could stop herself. Fiona looked at her startled. “What I mean is, your natural talent isn’t defined.” She wasn’t sure what it meant but it sounded good.

“I just don’t see why we need to go over all this old boring stuff.”

“Because the old boring stuff teaches us how to go about doing new original stuff.”

Fiona let out a small huff and turned the page of the book in front of her. The next two pages contained images of the mostly-nude Adam and Eve. She blushed and quickly turned the page.

“Wait, that was Adam and Eve,” Joaquin mused, noticing Fiona’s discomfort. “Let’s discuss those…”

“I feel ridiculous,” Leo frowned as he leaned against a tree smoking a cigarette.

“Well we’re not going to find out otherwise,” Ben shrugged and they both jolted as they saw Aidan appear on the pavement.

“Come on,” Ben enthused and Leo rolled his eyes and followed. They walked a short way behind Aidan, who seemed very distracted anyway, his hands deep in the pockets of his coat and his brow furrowed deeply. They watched as he stopped at the bus stop. Leo and Ben looked at each other before Ben raced across the road to the newsagent and returned moment later with a couple of papers for them to hide behind as they waited for the bus.

When the bus arrived they made sure to sit a couple of seats back from Aidan. The bus jolted along for a while before stopping and quite a few people got on. An old lady shuffled on and Aidan leapt up immediately to offer his seat.

“Lovely young man,” the woman cooed sitting down.

“Flatterer,” Aidan smiled as the bus started up again.

“Smooth move,” Leo sighed, noting a young mother who was standing glaring in their general direction.

“So he’s nice to old people, we can be nice to old people.”

They sat quietly until they noticed Aidan ring the bell and both sprung to their feet and followed him off. They were in the midst of a group of small specialty stores and it wasn’t hard to see that Aidan was heading for the art supplies.

Ten minutes later Aidan emerged from the store followed shortly by Ben who was hurriedly joined by Leo who had been hiding behind a bus timetable display.

“Well?” Leo asked more eagerly than necessary.

“He bought some graphite pencils and a tube of white paint.”

“That tells us nothing,” Leo huffed as Aidan crossed the road ahead of them and was stopped by a very attractive woman in a fluffy coat. She wrapped him up in a hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. They chatted animatedly a moment before she demand he call her.

“How many women does he fucking have?” Ben gasped.

“A harem, clearly,” Leo said blankly.

Aidan went the opposite way to the woman and into a tiny bookshop. This time Leo followed him in with hope that perhaps the guy might buy some insidious pornographic book to prove he wasn’t perfect. Unfortunately, Aidan bought a book of Shakespearian sonnets which only confirmed he was intelligent and sensitive — dammit!

“This is awful,” Ben huffed as they hid behind a tree in the park as Aidan wandered along none the wiser. “He’s intelligent, good looking, witty, arty and sensitive ,just like I said.”

Just then they noticed Aidan had stopped and they looked over to see why. A rather depressed-looking dog was whining — it had been abandoned and tied by a thin rope to a park bench.

“Oh, walk away,” Leo almost whimpered.

“You poor dumb thing,” Aidan chided as he walked over and untied the dog. “We can’t leave you here.”

“Shit, he is perfect,” Ben said, sounding like he’d just been told he only had three days to live.

“…Fiona that’s not even a coherent…” Joaquin’s voice trailed off as she heard Adele re-enter the apartment. Her keys were clearly heard dropping onto the coffee table and then her bedroom door slammed.

“You were saying…” Fiona announced, bringing Joaquin’s attention back to her.

“Huh? Oh, doesn’t matter,” Joaquin sighed, deciding she couldn’t bear another second with Fiona’s idiocy and self-delusion. “Well, I’ve got things to do now, Fiona, you should be able to manage the rest on your own.”

“Oh,” Fiona said, a hint of annoyance playing across her face. “I’ll just make up some kind of ending,” she added and began collecting her books.

“Yes, any kind of ending would be a bonus,” Joaquin agreed distractedly and escorted Fiona out as quickly as possible. She shut the door, locking it just in case Fiona returned with a key. She made her way to Adele’s room and knocked on the door. When Adele didn’t answer it, she opened the door and wasn’t surprised to see a lump underneath the covers of the bed. “Problems?”

“No,” came Adele’s snuffling voice from underneath.

“What happened?” Joaquin asked as she helped Adele poke her head out from beneath the quilt.

“Nothing,” Adele sniffed. “I saw ‘That Bastard’ with ‘That Bitch’ and it upset me.”

Joaquin squeezed Adele’s shoulder. “You have got to stop letting him affect you like this.”

“I know,” Adele sighed. “I’m pathetic.”

“Well, this just confirms the need for us to polish off a bottle of something medicinal tonight.”

“I couldn’t agree more!”

Joaquin and Adele giggled before Joaquin lifted up one side of the quilt. “I think after my morning with Fiona I need to join you under there.”

“Be my guest,” Adele laughed as Joaquin crawled in beside her.

“I love the way we deal with our problems like mature adults,” Joaquin mused, letting out a relaxed sigh.

“This better be urgent, I’m being an artistic genius!” Dale declared, opening his door. “Oh, bloody hell,” he gasped, looking at a miserable looking Aidan with a scruffy pooch on his doorstep.

“I need to talk to you,” Aidan declared, pushing past Dale with the dog. “I need a woman’s perspective.”

“Do you have to bring that in here,” Dale huffed. “Where did you acquire that, by the way?”

“Found him in the park,” Aidan replied, flumping onto a sofa. The dog leapt up beside him and Dale looked mortified.

“Doggy, that sofa is an Italian import,” Dale huffed, motioning to the floor. The dog ignored him and settled his head in Aidan’s lap. “So what’s the problem then?”

“She dumped me.”

“Who?”

“Adele.”

“You’re not dating though, are you?”

“No.”

“Then how can she dump you?”

“I don’t know,” Aidan pouted. “But she did.”

Dale rubbed his temples. “I hate to break your self pitying, but she can’t break off a relationship that’s not happening.”

“So what do I do?”

“Tell her you refuse to be dumped,” Dale sighed and then narrowed his eyes. “And get your fucking stinky mutt off my imported Italian sofa!”

The dog lifted its head, looked at Dale and whined. “Oh, you’ve offended him now,” Aidan chided as Dale rolled his eyes.

“You answer it,” Joaquin pleaded as the phone rang. “If it’s my parents, I’ve moved to Antarctica.”

“If it’s your parents, I’ve moved to Antarctica,” Adele chided as she picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Adele,” Leo said sheepishly at the sound of her voice.

“Leo.”

“Uh, is Jo there?”

“Sure,” Adele replied. “Jo, it’s Leo.”

Joaquin made her way over and took the phone from Adele. “Hey Leo.”

“Hey Bliss, you busy tonight?”

“Why?”

“Well I was thinking we could hang out, eat pizza, watch bad movies,” Leo enthused. “Ben’s going out…”

“Oh, that sounds great, but I kinda planned a night in with Del.”

“Go, have fun,” Adele called from where she was eavesdropping in the living room.

“You sure?” Joaquin called back.

“Of course,” Adele mused, reappearing. “I’m quite capable of drinking, eating and watching sappy movies on my own.”

“Ok,” Joaquin smiled. “I’ll be around in time for pizza.”

Joaquin arrived at Leo’s apartment a little after seven and knocked on the door. She wondered if Leo had bothered to clean, but knew the possibility was as likely as her parents going to brunch with the local Bible study group.

The door opened and she was surprised and a little annoyed to see Ben. Although instead of his usual sweat pants and football shirt, he was sporting a nice pair of jeans and a shirt that accentuated just how fit he was beneath it. “Hi Jo,” he smiled.

“Hi,” Joaquin waved rather foolishly. “Where’s Leo?”

“Leo? He went out.”

“What? He invited me over for pizza and bad movies!”

“Oh,” Ben frowned. “Well you’re welcome to get pizza with me.”

Joaquin was tempted to turn on her heel and leave, but Ben was looking quite handsome in his shirt and something told her it might be nice to stay. “Ok, but I get to choose the topping.”

Ben moved aside and Joaquin brushed past him, causing Ben’s heart to beat so fast he hoped she couldn’t hear it.

“So what movies are we watching?” Joaquin asked as Ben punched the pizza shop number into the phone.

“Oh, did Leo promise movies?” Ben frowned. “I was planning on watching a documentary on the Renaissance artists and how their works reflected the good and bad parts of that time.”

Joaquin laughed, “Of course you were.”

Ben motioned to the television as the opening credits to the documentary appeared. “It’s sure to be very interesting,” he remarked before placing the pizza order.

“Yes, I’m sure it is,” Joaquin nodded, wondering if she hadn’t just walked into a parallel universe. She made her way over to the couch as Ben rushed over.

“Sorry,” he smiled and grabbed a couple of books so she could sit down. “I was reading earlier.”

“You were reading Da Vinci’s Notebooks?” Joaquin asked, surprised. “And the complete works of Shakespeare?”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Jo,” Ben declared, placing the books on the coffee table and averting Joaquin’s attention to some memberships forms for an animal charity.

“Something is seriously going on,” Joaquin announced under her breath as Ben returned with two glasses and a bottle of champagne. “So Ben, who’s your favourite Renaissance artist?”

“Well, I think the works of…ICE! I haven’t got the ice for the drinks,” Ben announced so suddenly Joaquin nearly dropped her glass. He fled back into the kitchen and Joaquin narrowed her eyes. Something was definitely going on here.

Adele sunk the shot of vodka, stuck a piece of chocolate in her mouth and wondered why all men weren’t like John Cusack. God, she was miserable. What idiot breaks up with a guy she’s not dating? Could her talk with Aidan possibly have been any more embarrassing? She pondered drinking straight from the bottle of vodka that was evilly sitting there and tempting her more, but was interrupted by a knock at the door.

With much reluctance, she pulled herself to her feet, padded over and opened the door. “Aidan,” she gasped, her heart leaping into her throat and her fingers locked, white-knuckled, on the door handle.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier,” he announced, his voice nervous and breathy. “And I refuse to let you dump me from whatever it is we’re doing.”