Chapter 23
Chapter twenty-three
"What time is it?" Rosa asked as she tried to move. The sofa was quite comfortable and wider than hers back at home, but with Billy pressed up against her, arm around her waist, hot breath against her neck as her face nestled there. Her body tensed, hyperaware of every point of contact.
"No idea," Billy mumbled without moving.
"Do you think you could unhand me?" Rosa asked as she fidgeted. "I need to go to the—"
Billy raised her arm, and with it, the duvet. "Yep. Sorry…"
Rosa twisted and sat up, standing quickly. She shivered, arms wrapping around herself, and reached for her jumper, pulling it on. "It's freezing."
Billy opened her eyes and blinked at the brightness several times before her eyes properly came into focus. "Fire's out."
"I can see that," Rosa said as she stepped around the coffee table. Quickly crossing the room, she stopped at the doorway to the bathroom and flicked the light switch. Nothing happened. "Electricity is still out."
Sitting up, Billy surveyed the options. They'd pretty much burned through the logs she'd brought in the day before.
Glancing up through the window, she noted the slightly pink sky and the dots of white that still fluttered towards the earth.
"It's still snowing," she said loudly enough that Rosa could hear.
The door to the bathroom was open enough to allow some light in. After a minute, she heard the toilet flush and the water from the tap splashing into the basin.
"I'll make some coffee," Rosa said as she exited the bathroom and came back into view, tiptoeing towards the kitchen area. As she turned, Billy smiled at the bare backside on display.
"I'll get a fire going." Billy stood up and stretched just as Rosa turned back to her. Relaxing her body, she noticed how Rosa was staring. "Everything alright?" she asked. Her sweater was on the end of the couch, and she grabbed it and pulled it over her head. "Rosa?"
"Yes." Rosa shook herself out of it. "Sorry, I just…it's all too…you're naked."
Billy chuckled. "I am…you are too." She pointed out the obvious. "Kind of happens when two people spend all night being intimate."
Rosa tugged her lower lip between her teeth. "Are we doing the right thing?" she finally asked. "It's just…what if…"
"We're moving at your pace, Rosa…" Billy said, closing the space between them. "But I'm not worrying about ‘what-ifs’. They are just obstacles that lead to confusion and imagined problems. I love you, and I know what I want, and I'm here to work at it…with you."
"There's no electricity," Rosa answered.
"Between us? Are you kidding?" Billy's brows shot up. "You're kidding, right?"
"I meant…for coffee. How do we boil the water?"
Billy stared at her for a moment, then stepped in and cupped her cheek. "I'll figure that out. In the meantime, maybe you should take a moment to let your thoughts settle?"
"Okay." She pushed up on tiptoes and kissed Billy's cheek. "I…I'm just not used to this I suppose."
"My nakedness?" Billy smiled.
Rosa swallowed. "Anyone's nakedness." Their eyes met and held, Billy's narrowing as she interpreted the meaning in those two words.
"Are you saying there's been nobody else since me?"
Rosa nodded.
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that…" Billy looked away. She'd had plenty of ‘someones’ over the years. "No one?"
"We should get some clothes on and bring more logs in, don't you think?" Rosa pulled her jumper lower. "It really is cold."
Billy watched as she turned on her heel and headed to the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
"No one?" Billy murmured to herself. She snapped herself out of her thoughts and went about pulling more clothes on. They needed some warmth back in this room.
By the time Billy made it back inside with her second basket of logs, Rosa was dressed and kneeling by the wood burner, stacking the first pile Billy had upended onto the hearth.
“There’s loads more out there, but I’m thinking… to bring in as much as we can now, saves us from having to go back out there later, in case the weather gets worse again.” She smiled down at Rosa before she eased the basket down and tipped out her current load.
“What’s it like out there?” Rosa asked, grabbing two more logs to add to her neat pile.
“Cold.” Billy grinned. Rosy cheeks poked out between her hat, she’d pulled as low over her face as possible, and the scarf wrapped around her chin. “Snow is about a foot and a half deep, and it’s still falling heavily, though the wind has dropped.”
"We don't have much kindling left." Rosa pointed to the nearly depleted stack of much smaller pieces of wood.
"I'll find some. Don't worry." Her eyes smiled above the scarf. "Get it burning, you're half frozen."
"I'm not the one going out there." Rosa ran a hand through her hair. "So, I'll get it started so you can warm up when you're done."
Billy grabbed the basket. "Not going to get an argument from me."
She was halfway to the door when she heard Rosa say, "Billy?" She turned and found Rosa facing her. "Thank you."
"No problem. Get that fire burning and then we can set about working out how to boil some water on it."
When Billy was gone, Rosa sat back on her heels and breathed out.
Maybe this was all just a dream, she thought.
She was going to wake up in a moment, in a panic because she'd missed her alarm, Roger in a tizz about something she'd forgotten to get done in time, and Imogen late for school.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Stop overthinking," she whispered, and reached for another log.