Girls, Interupted Ch. 03

Canberra - October 2003

If Camilla hadn't been desperate for news of Jeremy, she may have thought twice about letting a stranger into the apartment. However, it seemed like such a godsend that she might finally learn of his whereabouts that she thought she had to do it.

She buzzed the woman in and waited until she climbed to two floors. There was a knock at the door, and Camilla checked the spyhole before opening. Before her was a woman of medium height, with long black hair and a pale complexion. She was wearing blue gym shorts, a white t-shirt and running shoes.

"Hello, I'm Sally."

"Camilla."

Camilla stood, holding the door as Sally entered.

"Can I get you anything?" Camilla asked. "Water?"

"That would be lovely. I ran out back at Gundagai."

"Where have you come from?"

"Melbourne."

Camilla directed Sally to the lounges, and they both sat down facing each other. Camilla rubbed her knees nervously as Sally sipped her water. She was looking about taking the apartment, at the high ceilings and large windows, which gave the apartment an airy and spacious feel, allowing natural light to flood the room and provided a view of the city skyline, when Camilla spoke.

"So you said you were looking for Jeremy?"

"Yes. I was hoping he might be here."

Camilla felt her mood darken. So Sally didn't know where Jeremy was. "No. He is on a holiday overseas."

"Yes. I know."

That surprised Camilla. How did she know?

"Really?"

"Yes, he has sent me some postcards from Peru."

Camilla knew Jeremy had been writing to others, but she didn't know Sally existed until five minutes ago. She had to know more.

"Excuse me for asking, but how do you know Jeremy?" The room felt heavy with anticipation, the palpable tension between Camilla and Sally lingering in the air. Who was this woman to him?

"We used to work together. About five years ago."

That seemed like a pretty tenuous reason to send someone a postcard. Camilla was just about to say so when Sally spoke.

"And you?"

That threw Camilla. She didn't think there would be any reason for Sally to question her friendship with Jeremy.

"Umm... work, too." She stammered. She had gotten so used to hiding the full extent of her relationship with Jeremy that misdirecting had almost become an instinct, but this time she faltered. There was an awkward pause before Camilla spoke again.

"When did you last hear from him?"

"June, I think? It was from a town called Arequipa."

Camilla sighed. That was the last time she had heard from him also, and she said it. She shed a tear as she realised he might be gone forever.

"What's the matter?" Sally said, putting down her glass and moving toward Camilla.

"I... I'm worried that something to has happened to him."

Sally sat down next to Camilla, who explained what had happened to Jeremy that prompted him to go to South America. Omitting her presence, she told Sally he had been attacked in his basement and almost killed. After he recovered, he had told Camilla that he suspected someone was after him, but he couldn't say why. He thought it best if he leave the country for a while, hoping it might blow over.

Sally sat transfixed as Camilla relayed the events of March that year. Though she didn't know why, Camilla saw that Sally's face darken from interest to anger as she spoke.

"The worst part is," Camilla said. "I don't know why anyone would want to kill him."

Sally finished her glass and leant forward. "I know why."

Sally then told Camilla about her husband. She said that he had been acting suspiciously since February. For a few weeks he would be sullen, then oddly cheerful, then outright rude. Sally said that her marriage hadn't been perfect-far from it-and she had been going through the motions for years. She suspected she had already decided that she would get divorced, but hadn't had that conversation yet.

She would have left it at that except that other odd things had happened too. Private phone calls that would end when she walked in the room, money missing from their account and little things that weren't where they were supposed to be, that would then reappear. Little things like postcards from Jeremy.

She finally put two and two together when she bought a second phone and listened in on one of her husband's secret phone calls. Her husband was talking to one of his friends-she recognised the voice-and telling him where to find someone. Telling him where to find Jeremy.

"Jeremy had been including his mailing address wherever he travelled in Peru," Sally said. "And my husband has been using that information to have them chase Jeremy."

Camilla couldn't believe what she was hearing. This revelation seemed fantastical. If what Sally had just told her was true, then Sally's husband was likely the masked man who had attacked Jeremy. After he failed, he had then sent his goons after him and they had followed him to the other side of the world.

Camilla had to ask, "But why does your husband hate Jeremy so much?"

Sally bit her lip and looked at the floor. "My," she said. "Is it suddenly hot in here?"

Sally then told Camilla about East Timor. In 1999, she said, she had gone to Timor as part of the UN intervention force. She had known Jeremy from before and while they were there; they were intimate.

Camilla sat back, breathing out through her nose. So much information in such a short amount of time that she never previously suspected. Shaking her head, she stood up and walked toward the kitchen. Opening a cupboard, she pulled down two wine glasses, then drew a bottle of red from Jeremy's wine rack. Pouring until both glasses were full to the brim, she walked back to Sally and handed her a glass.

"Shouldn't we wait until it has a chance to breathe?" Sally asked.

Camilla downed a mouthful, then said, "Fuck it. We are drinking!"

Sally howled, her eyes welling up with tears of laughter and relief. "You are my kinda girl!"

Camilla asked how Sally's husband knew about the affair and Sally replied she didn't know. She had been very careful, she thought, and she had rarely communicated with Jeremy since Timor or even flirted or even discussed those events.

"It's a mystery," Sally said. "But irrelevant to the current predicament."

Taking another sip, Camilla asked about Sally's friendship with Jeremy. Was Timor the first time they had been together? Sally said that she had been keen on him from the first time she had met him. But she had been engaged, and he had also been in a relationship, though Sally had rightly guessed that it was doomed.

"The timing couldn't have been any worse," Sally said. "He got dumped while he was away from work, but within a week, he had met another girl."

Camilla asked for more detail and Sally told him he had met a pretty little sporty girl called Alison. Camilla almost choked on her wine at the mention of her ex-flatmate's name. The girl she had shared a bed with. Shared Jeremy with.

With a smile, Sally downed another mouthful. "So, how long have you known Jeremy?"

Tipsy and distracted by her memories of that fateful night years earlier, Camilla accidentally said, "At university."

"Not the same uni as Alison?"

Every fibre of Camilla wanted to deny the thing that she had been concealing for so long, but after a moment of resistance, she looked at the floor and said, "Yes."

Sally's lip curled into a smile and she asked, "Are you together now?"

Camilla felt like she was about to be sick. Years of guilt, deception, and months of despair following Jeremy's disappearance tied her stomach in knots. But instead of nausea, she let out a moan, then burst into tears.

"Yes. Oh thank God! Finally, I can say it!" Head in her hand, she bent over, shaking her head, wine glass dangling precariously at her wrist. Sally put down her own glass and moved to Camilla's side. She hugged her as Camilla sobbed and shook.

Camilla then confessed her attraction to Jeremy when he was still with Alison and her guilt at being with him now. Sally reassured her it wasn't her fault. If it had lasted, she said, then nothing could have stood in their way. Sniffing and regaining her composure a little, Camilla thanked her and took another sip of her wine.

"I have a confession too," Sally said. As Camilla looked up, drying her eyes, Sally continued, "I told Jeremy this in Timor, but since we are being honest, I don't mind telling you. Alison, I... um, had a crush on her."

"No! Really?" was all Camilla could say.

"Yeah," Sally replied. "I was never into women before then, but now I don't mind them at all. And do you know something funny?" Camilla nodded her head.

"Jeremy told me that while he was with Alison at university, they had a threesome with one of her flatmates. I was so jealous. I wished it had been with me!"

Camilla laughed and asked if Sally if she had a thing for blondes. Sally looked her in the eyes and said that she was happy to try brunettes, too. At that, Camilla shivered and tried to look away. Her stomach suddenly felt empty, and despite the afternoon sun, the room darkened around her. "It was me."

Sally looked at her and, taking Camilla's face in her palms, tilted her head to the right and kissed her on the lips and said, "Yeah, I guessed."