With or Without You by Alison Tyler Page A

myself more loosely, not to be so uptight about an A− or a B+. I went to concerts with her, and I learned to appreciate the colourful array of life that was displayed around me. Nora has never felt the need to look for art in a museum. She sees it everywhere she goes. Graffiti on a building – art. A fabulously decadent hairstyle – art. A pair of the most perfectly worn-in holey jeans – art.
    I could spend all day talking to Nora, could spend my whole life talking to her, and never run out of things to say. I could listen to her forever, and still want to hear more.
    Of course, Byron hated her on sight. He didn’t let me know his true feelings about her right away, because that would have been a deal breaker. At first, I think he might actually have thought there was a chance that he’d get the two of us into bed. When I took him to theclub to meet Nora, he danced with her, and then with me – I’ve gotten to the point under Nora’s instruction that I don’t make a total fool of myself on the dance floor. But once that fantasy wore off, he claimed she was pretentious. ‘If there was nobody watching her, would she even exist?’ he asked. I said he simply didn’t understand her, and we left it at that. Nora never has had a long-term relationship with a man, so I’ve not had to compete with her love life for attention.
    Thank God. I don’t think I’d be up to it. Not after joining her and Dean in that unexpected ménage à trois. Things like that are commonplace in Nora’s world. But not in mine.
    Once we reached Nora’s club, she set me up in the best booth in the room, a semicircle in the far corner upholstered in a dark-fuchsia vinyl and trimmed with multicoloured marabou feathers. The booths on the edges of the dance floor were all done in different shades of shiny material and different types of fringe: glass beads, silver bells, tiny twinkling Christmas lights. This was the best one because it had the clearest view of the rest of the club.
    After making sure I was comfortable, Nora ordered our drinks. And then she spent all her time with me, as if I were as important as the celebrities who continually stopped by the table to pay their respects to her, the doyenne of the club, the queen of the hour.
    ‘Nora, I didn’t even tell you the rest. The thing that happened after Byron and I broke up. The best thing.’
    ‘I was there,’ she teased.
    ‘I don’t mean with Dean.’ I flushed. ‘I mean, while I was still at the apartment.’
    My best friend sipped her cobalt-tinted drink and waited, tapping her berry-hued nails against the base of the glass in rhythm to the music. Actually, her nails weren’t totally berry coulored. Every other nail was – the ones in between were painted a glossy black. In thelights of the club, this was difficult to discern, but when Nora held up her Martini glass, the candlelight played over her hands, and I could see. With Nora, things are never exactly normal. It’s probably one of the main reasons why I like her so much. She doesn’t follow other people’s rules. Or, rather, she only marches to the beat of the drummers she wants to fuck.
    ‘So tell me,’ she insisted. ‘What’s the best part of getting rid of that loser? I mean, aside from getting rid of that loser?’
    ‘He wasn’t really –’ I started, but she held up her hand.
    ‘He actually said another woman’s name while he was inside of you.’
    I winced and looked down at the découpaged table. The pictures under the clear coating were all of Bettie Page. I stared down at the bondage maven and realised that Nora was right. Why the hell was I trying to defend him? Because I didn’t want to think I’d been dating a villain for four years. Didn’t want to admit that I’d been with someone so low. If I looked at our relationship too closely, and still couldn’t see the signs, then what sort of moron did that make me?
    ‘Has that ever happened to you?’ I asked.
    Nora shrugged. ‘Sure,’ she