"What's wrong with you!", Giselle burst out all of a sudden. Her voice was shaky. She felt all kinds of wrong and didn't realize, jealousy would even fill her up again. Yet here it was. The knot in her chest rose in intensity and weight. She glared at two surprised and unbelieving faces. Ian was the first to recover, his voice became defensive. It always did in a fight. "Annie brought us wine since she'd crashed last week's couple's night", he explained quietly, but he didn't expect the storm to calm down.

Their guest only looked at both in turn until she got up and visibly felt uncomfortable. Giselle turned to her, "What the actual fuck! Do you expect me to believe that!". Now that Annie was under fire, she mustered her courage and shot a glare back, "Well, yes! I expect you to believe that! Especially since you know that I don't date men!". The woman reached Giselle with large strides and squeezed by her, out into the stairwell. Seconds later her own apartment door slammed into its lock.

Giselle felt a tear roll down her cheek. A nightmare just came true. She completely went mental. Ian gestured with a hand at her, silently and she could see his mind trying to figure out just what exactly had happened. Something she had no answer to herself.

The knot dissolved and her knees gave in. Leaving Ian, she ran into the bathroom, kicked the door into its lock and leaned against it with all her weight. She felt ashamed. What overcame her when she reached home and found Annie chatting with Ian, she had not the slightest clue. That reaction of her, it scared her and she felt bad. Bad for Annie and even worse for Ian.

Face hidden in her palms, Giselle sobbed and cried. She sat behind the bathroom door in darkness. The only light was a small line under the door.

A knock on the door. And another. "Go away!", she whined and when it knocked a third time, she repeated herself angrily, louder and firmer, "Go away!!".

Her phone beeped. Behind her, behind the door, there were steps, growing fainter until they vanished. Another beep. It was still in her bag. Annoyed, she dug it out. Finding it was easy despite the lack of light, every message turned on her display. She was about to yell at it to be quiet, when it beeped again.

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The lock screen previewed the latest message.

Annie: "The door is unlocked, talk to me..."

She took a deep breath, put the phone down next to her and looked up into the dark room. Her head banged against the door with a loud thump. She hit her head against the door again, harder this time. Pain shot through her. With a raspy voice she wondered, "Ouch,.... what the fuck am I doing?".

With closed eyes her body slowly calmed down. Air filled her lungs, she held it in and exhaled. Repeatedly. When she pushed herself up, the tears were dried on her cheeks and she felt to be in control of herself again.

Ian sat on the sofa with a bottle of coke and watched the news on TV. ".... In other news, Prince Harry visited the grave of his grandmother yesterday. He carried a bouquet of...". Ian turned down the volume until it was muted. "Sorry about that", Giselle said as she fell into the cushions next to him. She leaned against his shoulder. "No idea what happened. I guess I was jealous.", she admitted heavily.

Ian sipped his coke and put his arms around her shoulder. He said nothing. Giselle closed her eyes and sunk into his comfort. He wasn't angry. She knew how angry looked on him, this wasn't it.

Finally his voice broke the silence, "You've gotten close. --- With her I mean". She nodded visibly and sighed, "Yeah, I have". The part where she'd admit that it might be too close never left her mouth. Her partner put the cap on the bottle, leaned it next to him on the backrest of the sofa and switched channels on TV. He nudged her upright. "Go talk to her", he said, "I'll be here, I'll watch The Spy who loved me" and with that he got up and took the Blu-Ray from the cupboard and knelt down in front of the TV.

Giselle hesitated and glanced at him. Hesitation and fear. A bad combination. She was quite afraid of what she'd find once she entered Annie's apartment. Did she end up having a real fight? Why had she been jealous in the first place?

Before making her way over, she changed into something comfortable and removed her make-up. The tears didn't do it any favours. When she came back out of the bathroom, Ian looked at her and waved, "Go! I'll be here! Or in bed later!".

She clutched her hand around her phone. Both hands were trembling, her heart pounded for all its worth and without putting on shoes, her socks carried her out of her apartment. On the fifth deep breath she found the courage to push against Annie's apartment door and it swung open, revealing darkness behind.