Housemates

Chapter 9

Ellie stood where she was, and dripped. The smoothie was cold on her skin. She pulled her shirt out, away from herself, and let it warm a little.

Mia seemed startled.

Startled and surprised.

At least, she did at first, and then, fairly quickly, she just looked like she was trying not to laugh. Far too quickly, when Ellie was wearing her smoothie.

Ellie didn’t know what to say. It was her fault. It was completely her fault. She ought to tell Mia not to worry, that she’d been standing too close.

She would have said that, except that Mia was trying not to laugh at her. Mia was being awful, so Ellie didn’t want to let her off the hook.

She just stood there instead. Trying to look shocked. Or offended. One or the other.

“Sorry,” Mia said in the end. “Fuck, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“Not really.” Mia looked at her shirt. “Shit, that’s ruined…”

“Don’t worry.”

“I’m so fucking sorry,” Mia said, and knelt down, and started getting Ellie’s apples.

“Leave them,” Ellie said, but Mia was already picking them up, and people behind them were watching, so she just stood there and let Mia do it.

Mia picked up the apples, and Ellie watched her, unsure what else to do. Waiting, hoping Mia would be quick, wanting to escape from their audience.

Ellie was just standing there when Mia looked at her legs.

Ellie had tight jeans on, and Mia was only supposed to be down there for the apples, but she took her chance while she was, and looked at Ellie’s legs.

Ellie wasn’t sure what to make of that.

Perhaps the flirting was back on.

Mia stood up, and held out the apples. Most of them, Ellie thought. One might have rolled away.

Ellie looked. They were a bit bruised, a bit dirty.

She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t have any way to hold them. She couldn’t hug them against herself with her shirt all wet and sticky, and the hand that wasn’t holding her shirt out from her tummy was holding her shopping bag.

After a moment, Mia seemed to realize that too. She took her wallet out, and paid the people at the stall. She put Ellie’s apples into her bag, one at a time, looking at each, and left the most bruised one on the counter.

“Okay,” she said, when she was done. “Come on. There’s taps down the back.”

Ellie didn’t know what else to do, so she followed Mia.

There were taps. There were trucks and vans and cars, all parked in rows behind the warehouse, out in the open air. There were crates and empty boxes and what seemed to be bins of produce waiting to go inside.

Mia looked around, then went right up the back, past most of the vehicles, where it was quiet and private and no-one seemed to be around.

She found a tap back there, and led Ellie to it. Ellie knelt down, and ran water, and started splashing it onto her shirt, dabbing at the stain.

She made her shirt wet, but it didn’t really make much difference to the mess. The smoothie was sticky. It had soaked in a little. It wasn’t going anywhere with just a little splashing.

Ellie didn’t especially care about the shirt. It was old, Saturday daytime clothes, and she was pretty sure the smoothie would wash out in the laundry. She just didn’t want to smell like fruit and milk all day. Not a day she was spending with Mia.

She looked around, thinking. It was quiet, back here. They were hidden down a row of trucks and crates. No-one could see them, and no-one seemed to be around, and Mia made her feel good. Mia made her feel daring.

So she took off her shirt, and stood there in her bra, bending over the tap.

She ran more water. She soaked the side of the shirt, where the smoothie was, until it all seemed to have come off, then squeezed the water out, to try and dry it.

She glanced up, to see if Mia was looking.

Mia was.

Ellie was wearing a nice bra because she’d been half-aware of things like that all week. A small bra, a frilly, brightly coloured bra, not the right one for under a tee-shirt at all, and not the right one for this.

Mia was looking at Ellie.

She’d probably been watching Ellie’s back while Ellie was washing and squeezing, and now she was looking at Ellie’s chest once Ellie had stood up.

Looking at Ellie just like Ellie had been looking at her, while they were standing in the queue.

For no real reason except that, Ellie decided the shirt needed another wash. She started over, and took her time. The sun was warm on her skin. The breeze was nice, soft, like someone’s hands ever-so-lightly stroking her. It caught at her hair, and tickled her shoulders and made her feel tingly.

Mia’s eyes made her feel tingly.

She took her time washing, and let Mia watch. She rinsed, and squeezed the shirt out, and shook it until it didn’t seem to be dripping, and this time she pulled it back on. She wanted Mia to look, but she didn’t want to spent too long standing around in her underwear in public.

The smoothie seemed to have all washed out, though. The cloth wasn’t crunchy any more. There was a cool damp patch against Ellie’s side, where it was wet, but it was a warm day, and would dry.

For now, it wasn’t unpleasantly chilly.

“I’m really sorry about that,” Mia said, very seriously.

Seriously, as if she’d been playing games all the time until now, and suddenly this one had gone wrong. As if this was really her, really saying sorry. A side of her Ellie hadn’t seen before.

“It’s fine,” Ellie said, but Mia still seemed worried.

Ellie stood there and looked at Mia, wondering. About all of this, and if Mia was still interested, and what had changed.

“I am,” Mia said. “I just…”

“Yeah,” Ellie said, and kissed her.

She hadn’t really planned to, and didn’t really think before she did. She just stepped forward, and kissed Mia, and Mia jumped, then kissed Ellie back.

And kept kissing her.

Mia kept kissing, and put one hand on the side of Ellie’s neck, and made a little whispery murmur in the back of her throat.

After a while she dropped her shopping bag, just let it fall with a thud onto the grass.

Ellie was pleased.

Mia was still interested, and Ellie felt like she’d saved something. She had, all herself.

It had worked out all right, Ellie thought.

She stood there, and kept kissing. In her damp shirt, in the warm sun, with the smell of Mia’s skin in every breath she took.

It had really worked out well.