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Claire stayed at Jody’s place for a while after…after Norman. She told Jody she couldn’t go back to that house right now with its ghosts haunting her memory long after they fell back into slumber, and Jody couldn’t blame her. It only took a little rearranging of candles and knickknacks out of Cooper’s wagging tail range before they all settled in together.
Caitlin had come storming into Jody’s place the day after, all hot rage and betrayal and grief exploding from her lungs and her eyes like it had when she was smaller and she didn’t understand that her father had died but had protested it all the same. Jody made tea and retreated to her bedroom to give mother and daughter space. By the time Caitlin left, both were red-eyed but calm.
Claire continued to see Dr. Drayton, whose stoic reaction to her update on using the Ouija board made Jody unsure if he believed Claire or was just humoring a descent into lunacy.
Either way, Claire started to stock the pantry with fireballs.
Jody tried to see her apartment through Claire’s eyes, harsh brick walls softened by candlelight, steady zen instrumental music in the background, incense or essential oils making the air heavy and homey. She had wondered the same thing on that day when Claire and Jody had first met at a new age shop, Jody paying for a tarot card reading she wanted to believe in but didn’t really, Claire with a toddler on her hip and perpetual red eyes looking for an answer to why her daughter’s father was dead. Whatever Jody had seen in those two figures, lost and unsure, she had invited them back to her place, lit her candles and enveloped them in the comfort of crystals and caring auras. Claire was still here, nearly twenty years later, so Jody presumed Claire had decided this place was good.
Elena had come to visit, and while Claire was in the bathroom Elena confessed to Jody how she’d had no idea what Norman was capable of, how the last dinner they’d all had together at the restaurant was so nice, so nostalgic. Jody had nodded and said no one knew, but what stuck in her mind was the description of Claire and Elena out on the town and for some reason pissing off Finnish dudes. Jody couldn’t believe that was her Claire, her reserved, polite, straight-laced friend, that had been part of that story. She didn’t have a chance to get more details, because Claire returned to the room and they chatted about safer topics.
That night Jody prepared a bath for Claire, setting out the eucalyptus sugar scrub, filling the tub with rose petals and drops of peppermint essential oil. “Stay,” Claire said quietly when Jody was done, a question and a command and a plea all rolled into one. Jody thought back on their seance, and stayed.
It was then, as Claire stripped off her clothing, not asking Jody to turn away, that Elena’s story started to make sense, there as Jody saw what had been lying beneath the surface all these years. She could see it in the smoothing tension lines around Claire’s eyes, the curve of her hips as they sank below the line of bathwater, the paleness of skin that never saw daylight. Jody lifted her gaze to meet Claire’s and saw, naked and bare before her, the true person she had only subconsciously known was there, buried under the perfect housewife persona, but the one Jody had been drawn back to again and again, the magnetism of souls recognizing each other.
They stared at each other, sweat droplets caused by the steamy water forming on Jody’s neck. The bathroom door crashed open, making them jump. Cooper trotted in, tongue lolling. Heart pounding, Jody let out an aggravated huff. When she looked back at Claire, the hauntedness had returned to her friend’s eyes, and Claire sank deeper into the water as if trying to take back the confession she had exposed. “Please, don’t hate me, Jody.”
Jody immediately knelt in front of the tub, clasping Claire’s wet fingers. “I don’t hate you.” She moved forward, hesitated, and Claire tilted her head to let their lips meet, peppermint fumes tingling against their faces as Jody’s blood raced. She leaned her forehead against Claire’s, eyes closed. She wanted Claire to move in, not just for now, but forever. “Stay,” she said, putting all her emotion into the single word, a question and a command and a plea all at once.
“Yes,” Claire replied, and kissed Jody again.