Taming the Beast by Emily Maguire

expect,’ Shelley was saying, ‘the constant pressure to
do it
. Like, he was satisfied with once or twice a week when he was at home and now he’s nudging me every bloody night!’
    ‘Don’t you like doing it with him?’ asked Sarah.
    Shelley and Jess looked at each other and rolled their eyes. ‘That’s not the point, Sarah. It’s
exhausting
doing it every night. Sometimes I would just like to cuddle up and go to sleep.’
    The one time Sarah had done it with Jamie, he had been careful but fast. That was a long time ago, but even allowing for less caution and longer duration, she couldn’t see how screwing Jamie could be
exhausting
. Anyway, the stupid bitch had ruined his life; the least she could do was have it off with him without complaining.
    ‘So what do you do then?’ Sarah asked Shelley. ‘Just leave him to look after himself?’
    Shelley’s face was white as she picked at her cuticles. ‘Jamie doesn’t do that.’
    ‘I’m quite sure he does.’
    ‘I think Shelley would know better than you,’ Jess said. ‘She lives with him after all.’
    ‘Right,’ said Sarah. ‘She does.’
    *
    Jamie was pissed off. Correction. Jamie had been pissed off at seven o’clock when Sarah had kissed him, now at seven forty-five he was nothing more than a concentrated mass of rage in the form of a human being. Sarah was so infuriating, such an unashamed bitch, that it was all he could manage not to grab her by the ponytail and toss her out on the street.
    First, there had been that kiss. He thought he had handled that quite well. He had kissed her back, which probably wasn’t the right thing to do as far as Shelley was concerned, but he would challenge any straight man with a pulse to not respond to Sarah for at least that first thoughtless second. Then he had walked away. That haddefinitely been the right thing to do. God knows what would have happened if he hadn’t.
    But Sarah being the vain, selfish little cow she was, could not leave well enough alone. She started flirting with Mike so blatantly that Jamie was embarrassed for Jess. He managed to get Mike outside, away from her brushing fingertips and suggestive smiles, but they had to go back in eventually and when they did she started in straight away.
    ‘Hey, boys, settle something for us will you?’ she said, and Jamie knew it was trouble because Jess and Shelley both said
Shut Up!
She ignored them of course, stood up and leant forward with her palms on the table so that her T-shirt stretched and a patch of pale skin on her lower back was revealed. Jamie knew that if she leant forward a little more, he would see the thin, pink scar that trickled across her spine.
    ‘How often would you say that a normal, healthy, Aussie bloke flogs his log?’
    Jamie looked at Shelley and saw that her face was red. He would be getting it later tonight. She had not wanted to invite Sarah. She said that it would be nicer to just have Mike and Jess over. Calmer. She felt threatened by single women now that she was not one. Actually, that wasn’t true; she had heaps of single friends. She felt threatened by Sarah and why shouldn’t she?
    ‘Do you keep statistics on that? For the magazine?’ Jamie asked Mike. It was important not to let Sarah see she had got him flustered. She could smell fear.
    Mike laughed and looked at Sarah in a way that turned Jamie’s stomach. ‘Not official statistics, no.’ He took the cigarette Sarah was offering, his fingertips brushing her wrist.
    ‘An educated guess though,’ Sarah said, lighting Mike’s smoke, ‘Based on personal experience and a livelihood based on writing about men and their penises.’
    Jamie tried to glare at her, but she only had eyes for Mike. Which really pissed him off, because what was with that kiss if she was angling for Mike? Was this an attempt to make him jealous, or was that wishful thinking? Was it more that the kiss had been nothing to her and the effects or consequences, or lack of both, were