{"id":574,"date":"2011-08-16T06:00:54","date_gmt":"2011-08-15T19:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/?p=574"},"modified":"2013-09-27T16:44:31","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T23:44:31","slug":"a-double-dose-of-apricot-delight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/?p=574","title":{"rendered":"Season 3: Episode 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Warm smells of baking wafted through the house as Willow opened the oven door and removed the batch of apricot delight biscuits. She\u2019d gotten the recipe from a wonderful online baking community that she had stumbled across one day. The tops were golden brown and she had white chocolate melting slowly over a basin of hot water that she was going to drizzle over the top. She hadn\u2019t baked anything since her ill-fated dinner with Robert Fortescue the previous week and was finding the familiar actions very cathartic. For a few days after the dinner, Willow had been furious with Robert but this had given way now to confusion. On paper, she shouldn\u2019t really like him, but he was everything she thought about. She certainly didn\u2019t understand why he would pursue her like he did only to leave without so much as a good-night kiss or a follow-up phone call.<\/p>\n

Men<\/i>, thought Willow. Bah!<\/i><\/p>\n

She shook her head to dispel thoughts of him; it wouldn’t do her any good to be distracted by that now. Tonight, the girls were interviewing for a new housemate. Willow and Mia were devastated that Ana was leaving. For years now they had enjoyed a pretty much perfect household: The three girls who were so different from each other but each knew they could rely on the others for a shoulder to cry on, a willing champagne partner or a special occasion meal. But all good things must come to an end \u2013 or at least diverge a little \u2013 and Ana had found her Tom and he was, well, perfect for her.<\/p>\n

Ana herself had been in denial about the fact she would no longer be living with her best girlfriends. Tom was completely wonderful and amazing, but just didn\u2019t have the same ability to gossip over a bottle or three of champagne. She initially hadn\u2019t wanted to stay for the interviews at all, but Willow and Mia had begged Ana to sit in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s your house,\u201d Mia had pleaded, \u201cand don\u2019t you want to make sure anyone who moves in is going to get along with you too? Just because you\u2019re getting married doesn\u2019t mean that we\u2019re not going to keep hanging out all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ana conceded that Mia did have a point and so was reluctantly preparing the living room for the anticipated arrival of the first prospect.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

At 5:30pm, the girls were seated eagerly and nervously in the living room, sipping cups of tea and trying not to eat all of Willow\u2019s amazing biscuits before any of the interviewees arrived.<\/p>\n

At 5:45pm the first girl still hadn\u2019t arrived.<\/p>\n

The doorbell finally rang at 5:52pm. Mia answered in and ushered Marianne \u2013 \u201ccall me Mazza\u201d \u2013 into the living room. Willow, Mia and Ana had already independently decided there was no way that they would ever call her Mazza and thus the prospects of her being invited to join the household were slim. But, they pushed aside their prejudices\u2026 for about three and a half seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so sorry I was late,\u201d Mazza said, tucking into the biscuits without being offered, \u201cBut Deal or No Deal was fucking awesome tonight and I couldn\u2019t get my arse off the couch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The plastic smile was plastered over Ana\u2019s face as she made eye contact with Willow.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t suppose you could switch on the telly could you? Neighbours<\/em> is on now and I never miss it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe television is broken,\u201d lied Mia, \u201cand we\u2019ve got another person arriving in a few minutes. We\u2019ll call you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mazza grabbed another biscuit for the road as Willow, politely but firmly, showed her to the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe farted on the way out,\u201d whispered Willow in disbelief, walking back into the room.<\/p>\n

The others started laughing hysterically and Ana jumped and went into the kitchen. She reappeared moments later with an open bottle of red wine and three glasses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think tea is strong enough for us to endure any more of these,\u201d she said, filling the glasses.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Jenny was next and, having very recently broken up with her boyfriend, spent fifteen minutes sobbing about the injustices of the patriarchy regarding their ability to completely destroy a woman\u2019s life by deciding they wanted to hang out with their mates and play poker rather than settle down and have 2.5 children and a white picket fence.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long were you together,\u201d asked Willow softly, stroking her back as Mia handed her a box of tissues.<\/p>\n

\u201cTh-th-th-three weeks,\u201d sobbed Jenny, emptying the contents of her nose loudly into a tissue. \u201cIt was my longest relationship ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even think that three weeks constituted use of the term boyfriend,\u201d said Ana after she left.<\/p>\n

She topped up the three glasses with wine.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Sofia \u2013 a stunning Russian national \u2013 seemed nice enough, until her phone rang and she proceeded to shout into the handset for ten minutes, pacing around the room and making lewd hand gestures to no-one in particular. None of the girls spoke Russian, but they were pretty sure she wasn\u2019t making polite chit-chat with the caller.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy muzzer,\u201d she explained, hanging up and slamming the phone back into her bag. \u201cVot a beech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really get along with my parents either,\u201d said Ana, who understood something of dysfunctional families, but not a whole lot of Sofia\u2019s strong Russian accented words and took a punt that she was talking about her mother.<\/p>\n

Sofia made a snarf<\/em> noise in the back of her throat and nodded enthusiastically. \u201cZe beech vants me to have lunch vis her Saturday, but I am getting my nails done. She doesn\u2019t understand how important eet ees.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

By the time Natalie \u201cI don\u2019t eat anything with carbs, fat or sugar\u201d; Steph \u201cI think my boss is trying to kill me. Actually I think everyone is trying to kill me. You\u2019re not trying to kill me though, are you?\u201d (They didn\u2019t actually have to reject her as she decided about two minutes after she got there that they were, in fact, trying to kill her, and ran from the house.); Bridget \u201cmy favourite thing to do on a Saturday night is to have wild sex with a stranger\u201d; and Molly \u201cI don\u2019t like to wear underwear\u201d, had come and gone the girls had polished off three bottles of red wine and were falling around the living room in fits of giggles.<\/p>\n

Ana\u2019s ringing phone quietened them momentarily until they heard it was Tom and then they started grabbing the phone and making kissy noises into it.<\/p>\n

Tom laughed good naturedly, indulging them until he had Ana on the line again.<\/p>\n

\u201cSweetheart, I know it\u2019s late notice, but have you filled the room yet?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot yet,\u201d said Ana, \u201cYou should have seen some of the people who came through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a new girl at work who just started last week and she needs a place to live pronto. I completely forgot to tell you the other day about her. She\u2019s really sweet \u2013 you\u2019ll love her. I\u2019ve already mentioned to room to her. Can she come over now?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ana shrugged. \u201cSure, why not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHer name is Sarah,\u201d said Tom before hanging up.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Twenty minutes later Sarah rushed into the room breathlessly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you so much for seeing me,\u201d she gushed, words tumbling out of her. \u201cTom told me about the house and I\u2019ve just moved over from Perth and need a place to live and he said that you were all so wonderful, especially Ana of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her cheeks were flushed from the cold and she had a pleasant smile. She was pretty in a plain way and had a wonderfully sweet vibe about her. She detangled herself from the swamp of coat, hat and bags and sat in the chair that was proffered by Mia. The girls liked her immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, I almost forgot.\u201d She jumped out of her seat again and ferreted through one of the bags, producing a Tupperware container.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made these for the people at work today,\u201d she said removing the lid and offering it forward. \u201cBut architects don\u2019t eat too much when they\u2019re working and there are heaps left.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girls peered into the box.<\/p>\n

\u201cAren\u2019t they\u2026?\u201d Willow trailed off, looking at the plate of biscuits on the table next to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re called Apricot Delights. I got the recipe from this great baking website.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three girls all burst out laughing simultaneously and Ana held forward the plate of identical biscuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s some we prepared earlier!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warm smells of baking wafted through the house as Willow opened the oven door and removed the batch of apricot delight biscuits. She\u2019d gotten the recipe from a wonderful online baking community that she had stumbled across one day. The tops were golden brown and she had white chocolate melting slowly over a basin of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[199],"tags":[15,92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1233,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions\/1233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ravenoustales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}