Page 141 of Only Ever You

Faye twirled as she crossed her kitchen and warned, “She doesn’t know about Bash and I, yet. I was going to tell her tonight, so shush.”

Sienna motioned a seal of her lips and Maisie filled her mouth with another chocolate digestive biscuit.

Ellie greeted Faye in a flourish like always. Her glasses steamed up in the centres as soon as she crossed the border of the flat, and she took them off to waft in the air. El knew Faye’s friends from parties and passing each other in the bakery over the years, so the reintroduction wasn’t awkward at all.

“I never expected for you to come here when it’s so late, El.” Faye looked over the patches of rain on her step-sister’s anorak.

“Your text sounded serious and a little desperate. That’s not like you.” Ellie removed layer after layer and hung them on the back of a kitchen chair. Her green scarf tangled in the windswept lengths of her dark hair as she battled to unwind it.

“Sorry. It wasn’t supposed to.”

Faye led her towards the kettle and set it to boil whilst she dug about in the back of her cupboard for some fruity tea bags she only kept because they were El’s favourites. Maisie and Sienna seemed to be in a fully focussed conversation on the sofa, so weren’t likely to be listening through the boil and steam of the kettle when Ellie leaned into her line of sight.

“Faye … what’s going on?”

The truth got caught in Faye’s throat. Not trusting how long her friends would be able to keep her relationship status from slipping from their mouths, she wanted to get this conversation over with, needing sleep soon before she woke up as a ghost with her five a.m alarm.

“Did you … did you ever have doubts before marrying Scott?”

“What bride doesn’t have doubts?” Ellie said it humouredly and Faye realised she had to get specific.

“I mean about the longevity?”

Checking her hip against the counter edge, El’s brow puzzled. “Hmm, no. Why?”

Faye brushed thewhyaside for another moment. Answers to how she was supposed to navigate her feelings right now were more important. “So the fact that your parents are divorced didn’t cross your mind?”

“My parents’ marriage was their marriage, not mine.” Ellie’s answer dipped the fluttering ball of nervousness further and further down through Faye’s chest with each word. “What happened to them wasn’t certain to happen to me, and I couldn’t think like that because Scott wasn’t worth losing over it.”

I couldn’t think like that.

She didn’t know if she’d been expecting to receive a different answer, because guilt latched itself onto the rest of Faye’s unsettled feelings. She’d thought those things too, only, she hadn’t exactly practised what she’d preached, and now Bash was presumably home alone without her because of it.

“Right … ”

The kettle clicked off and she turned to fill the mug of tea. She had to concentrate on ignoring Ellie’s unwavering stare in the corner of her eye as the steaming water poured. Maisie and Sienna laughed about something behind them, and when she slid the mug across the counter, Ellie didn’t even look at it.

“Faye … why are you asking this?”

Here goes.

She steadied her breathing. “Because Bash and I … aren’t just friends anymore.”

Ellie jumped on her, shaking her by the shoulders enough to earn concerned looks from across the room. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to hear you say that?”

“I can imagine.”

“Did you kiss? What’s happened?”

“Oh we did a lot more than that.” Faye blushed at the many wonderful memories of her and Bash’s bodies intertwined, and Ellie squealed. “But I think I’ve already messed it up.”

“Wait, what? How?”

Faye glanced a quick tour through the events of the evening, though there wasn’t much further for her to lower her voice when she said, “He was thinking that we’d skip dating and go straight to getting married and baby making.”

“He said that?” Sienna’s sudden voice by her shoulder made Faye’s hand smack to her chest.

Seriously, shewasgoing to end up with her heart stopping tonight.

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