Chapter 12 #3
She set about her nightly routine, then tied her hair up loosely to keep it out of her face.
And all the while, her mind refused to settle.
Every thought seemed to circle back to Ellie Hamilton.
To the way she’d looked out on the balcony beneath the moonlight, and the softness in her voice when she talked about the future…
to the certainty that she would eventually meet someone else.
Alba rinsed her face with cold water and pressed a towel against her skin.
She didn’t want Ellie constantly asking about the shift in her mood, but Ellie was perceptive.
Far more perceptive than Alba had initially realised, anyway.
Which meant pretending everything was normal was becoming increasingly difficult.
Get a fucking grip of yourself!
The facts were simple. Ellie was straight, she was her boss, and she’d just admitted that she may start dating again. Which meant that Alba’s current situation could only be described as spectacularly inconvenient.
She changed into her pyjamas and splashed one last handful of cold water across her face. By the time she stepped back into the bedroom, Ellie had already changed as well. She was standing in the middle of the room with the TV remote in her hand, the glow from the screen flickering across her face.
Alba stopped in her tracks. The bed somehow looked even bigger now that the lights were dimmed. And Ellie…well, she was wearing a strappy little pyjama top trimmed with lace.
Alba nearly lost her mind.
“Hope you don’t mind,” Ellie said, gesturing at the television. “I thought we could put something on while we wind down.”
“Go for it.” Alba climbed in on the other side of the bed. “I went through a phase of not being able to sleep without the TV on.”
“Great. I’ll just finish off in the bathroom. Won’t be a sec.”
“No rush.” Alba smiled as she watched Ellie slip off into the bathroom and close the door, the mid-thigh silky shorts she wore doing nothing whatsoever to help Alba’s situation tonight. “Fucking hell.”
Okay, this was her chance to calm herself down and get some rest.
The mattress dipped as she settled beneath the covers, the duvet cool against her roasting hot skin.
Then she became instantly aware of just how close Ellie was going to be during the night.
They wouldn’t be touching, the bed was huge, but Ellie would be close enough for Alba to feel the warmth radiating across the space between them.
Just…relax.
Wasn’t that the entire point of this spa break? To relax and recharge. At this rate, Alba had a feeling she’d need another break just to recover from this one.
The bathroom lock clicked, and she instantly clenched her hands into fists under the covers. Ellie, free of makeup and the stress of the day…looked incredibly beautiful right now.
“All done.”
Alba cleared her throat. “Yep. I see that.”
Ellie climbed into bed and flicked through the channels until she settled on something mildly entertaining.
When she laughed at something on the screen, Alba found herself smiling despite the relentless thoughts circling around in her head.
This felt…domestic and comfortable. Dangerously comfortable.
Ellie reached over and switched the bedside lamp off before shifting onto her side, turning so she faced Alba.
The room fell into darkness, illuminated only by the flickering glow of the television.
Alba stared up at the ceiling. This was fine; it was perfectly normal.
It was nothing more than two friends sharing a bed during a spa weekend.
Except Ellie shifted again, settling more comfortably beneath the covers, and suddenly Alba became acutely aware of every inch of space between them. Which really wasn’t much at all.
She could hear Ellie breathing quietly beside her. Slow and relaxed, completely unaware of the chaos happening inside Alba’s head.
“Alba?”
Her heart jumped straight into her throat. “Yeah?”
“I meant what I said earlier,” Ellie murmured into the darkness. “About you being really good to me since we met.”
The sincerity in Ellie’s voice made Alba’s throat constrict. She kept her eyes fixed on the ceiling, swallowing repeatedly as she tried to steady herself, praying Ellie hadn’t noticed. “You’re my friend, Ellie. I’m always good to my friends.”
“It means more than you know.”
Before Alba could react, Ellie lifted a hand and gently tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
The contact was brief, barely a touch at all, but Alba froze completely.
Her entire body locked in place as warmth spread through her chest in a way she absolutely did not want to examine too closely.
She smiled into the darkness, though the weight in her chest had suddenly grown heavier than ever.
She blindly reached across the bed, searching for the remote control. When her fingers finally found it, she clicked the television off, and the room fell into complete darkness. “Get some sleep. Today has been a long day.”
Ellie hummed quietly in response, her breathing settling into the slow, steady rhythm of someone drifting off to sleep.
Alba, however, remained wide awake. Because lying here beside Ellie Hamilton, knowing it could never be, felt like standing at the edge of something she could never quite reach.
And the worst of it was that Ellie didn’t even know she was standing there.