Housemates

Chapter 33

Ellie waited, but Mia didn’t drive away. She was still looking at Ellie.

Ellie assumed she wanted to kiss again, and tugged at the seatbelt until it loosened enough to let her lean over.

Mia kissed her, but that wasn’t it. “So what does that mean, don’t I have a plan?” Mia said, as soon as they’d stopped kissing.

“What?” Ellie said, then realized. What she’d said outside the car. “I don’t know. You always seem to have a plan, that’s all.”

Mia looked a little surprised. “No I don’t.”

Ellie shrugged.

“I don’t,” Mia said.

“Okay.”

Mia looked at Ellie for a moment. “Are you all right?” she said. “You seem a little…”

Elli nodded slowly. “Yep.”

Mia didn’t seem sure. She hesitated, then said, “So what should we do?”

“There’s my place,” Ellie said. “If we can’t think of anything else.”

She said it like that was distasteful, trying to make clear she didn’t actually want to. That she’d rather sit in an unlit car-parking building and eat cold takeout than go home. It was almost as a test, to see what Mia thought. To see if Mia agreed. Because Ellie still couldn’t decide if they were pretending they were only friends, and it seemed like if Mia wanted sex, then she’d probably realize that getting past Mark to Ellie’s bed would be awkward for everyone, and would say no to going to Ellie’s.

Either that, or she’d think Ellie wanted to go out but had a really odd way of saying so. Ellie had only just thought of that, and that it might not work as a test after all.

“Going somewhere else’s fine,” Mia said, and Ellie sat there, wondering.

It was a little too ambiguous for her to be sure.

She started wondering if she should just ask about the sex. She’d be embarrassed, but it might be better.

Then Mia said, “It might be tricky at yours. With Mark and everything.”

And Ellie started to smile, without quite meaning to.

She was relieved. Relieved, and very pleased. Far more that she’d expected to be.

She nodded, trying not to look too excited.

She wasn’t sure she was managing.

Because of that, because of the relief, she decided to tease Mia.

Because, obviously she would. Because she was overreacting to being pleased, and some part of her was probably thinking it might help with the seeming too excited. Because Mia was always teasing her, so it only seemed fair. She wouldn’t have done it if she’d thought first, but she didn’t think at all.

Instead she just said, “Um, wait. What might be tricky?”

Mia looked at her.

“What is it you’ve got planned that makes Mark tricky?” Ellie said.

“I don’t have a plan,” Mia said. “I told you.”

“But what do you think we’re going to do that Mark shouldn’t know about?”

Mia kept looking for a moment longer, then just said, “Don’t.”

Ellie grinned. And after a moment Mia did too.

“So where?” Mia said, after a moment of smiling at each other.

“You decide,” Ellie said. “A drink. Food. A walk somewhere. Anything.”