Little White Lies.

“What about him?”

Her throat burnt as she pulled the glass away from her lips. Setting down the glass onto the floor, mindful of the laptop resting precariously on her middle, Evie cleared her throat. She’d been sprawled across her couch for little over an hour, laptop resting on her stomach as she petted the dogs beside her – two collies that licked her fingers to remind her they were there.

Evie peeked up over the top of her laptop, peering across at the woman at the end of the sofa. Dark, bobbed hair swished as her sharp face turned towards the big blue eyes. Mel smiled slowly, twisting her iPad around.

“Ooh,” Evie cooed, “he’s a dish and a half.”

“You need to try this website Evie-“

“No.” Evie sighed, pushing her hands through her hair to shove it away from her face. “I’m not messing about with that shit again.”

“Evie…” Mel squeezed her best friend’s tiny foot, pouting out her lower lip. “Come on, you’re going to have to find someone soon.”

Evie covered her face, hands coming away with smudges of black. “I don’t have to find someone.”

Mel was a stern woman. Piercing chocolate eyes that stunned you into silence and a sharp twitch in the corners of her lips would usually signal stormy waters for whoever was in the firing line. Mel straightened out her shoulders, twisted her hips and glared.

Evie shrunk into her messy curls, allowing them to consume her. Crimson enveloped her cheeks and her blue eyes twinkled with fear. Gooseflesh rose along her arms, tingled down her legs and spread across her stomach.

“But.. But I’m just an assistant. Another loser left in the trashcan at the end of the American Dream conveyor belt. I came to this country to-“

“Create your own magazine, become an editor, find your true love and settle down before moving back home to Wales and living the rest of your life out in luxury,” Mel recited, before sneering a look towards Evie.

With a heaving sigh, Eveline Jones threw her head back. The cool air on her face felt good, reminded her of the harsh reality she had left home to receive. The lighting of the living room bore into her eyelids, giving them a soft orange colour from the inside.

She thought about her past, her present and what looked to be a bleak future. The pain tip-toed up her thighs, licked up her spine and trickled around her shoulders. It burnt as it settled, sinking deep into the hollow between her shoulder blades. Her chest felt heavy with panic and her eyes swelled with fearful tears.
“What if you lied?”
Evie, stunned, moved her fingers away from her eyes and looked at her best friend. The dogs stirred beside her as their master stirred. She began to slowly sit up, joints clicking and popping as she moved her legs to cross beneath her curvaceous body. Brows knitting curiously, Evie reached across and wrapped slender fingers around the curve of the glass.

“Lie?” Evie chocked out around the glass in her clutches, shaking a glug into her mouth. “Lie on a profile? What if someone wants to meet me?”

“Treat it as practice. Practice dates for a real date. Gain your confidence back with men, with yourself.” Mel smiled slowly, “I want to see you happy. I want to see you at the top of that media industry, behind that desk with THE book.”

Evie’s lips twisted as she rolled the ideas around in her mind. The ideas of what was possible were endless. She could live out the life she dreamed she had. She could be anything, anyone, and everything. She could be everything.

“Maybe,” Evie murmured, “as long as I use my own picture and it’s only a couple of lies.”

“Yeah, sure,” Mel smiled. “You could be the editor of you own magazine. Just a start up one, it’s not a complete lie.”

The two women grinned at one another, their faces lighting up as they squished together and placed the laptop between them. The dogs rustled to sit on the couch, wrestling with one another to sit next to their owner.

“It’s just a little white lie.”