Who: Georgie & Rae When: 10 p.m. Where: Georgie's room
The get-together in the billiard room had been something quite shy of a party, but to Rae, at least, it would suffice all the same. There was alcohol, there was some small degree of companionship, there was music and friendly wagers around the pool table. And it was good to be above ground again, to see sunlight through windows and breathe real air, frigid though it was, when she left the confines of the house. She was grateful, too, that her days of being forced into the unfamiliar, uncomfortable role of housewife and childcare provider were over. She felt more like herself than she had in days, in spite of still being a prisoner in a gilded cage. So afterward, she made her way up to Georgie's room with a bottle of vodka and a spring in her step, her bare feet making almost no sound on the carpeted floor. Mildly buzzed on equal parts alcohol and anticipation, she rapped her knuckles against the door only three quick times before trying the handle, and letting herself inside.
"Not to be needy," Rae called out, "but I hope you've already got the water running." She shut the door behind her, making her way through the lavish room into the comfortable, relative dark of the bathroom. "I'm in desperate need of a nice, long soak."