Heartbeats in Moonlight

Chapter 74

"No, you take the bed." Ella corrected. "You wouldn't fit on the couch." She looked around, "But you can leave my bag in the bedroom. We can talk about our bedroom arrangements when Jack and Amelia come back."

David nodded. "Ok."

Ella walked towards the balcony, "Ok if I open the door to the balcony." She glanced around quickly as it became fairly evident that she and David were going to be here for a long time, alone.

"Sure." David said, and Ella opened the door. "Do you want room service or go down to the restaurant for refreshment?"

Ella looked over her shoulder, "Aren't we going to wait for Jack and Amelia to order lunch?" The more she thought about it, Amelia and Jack were playing cupid.

"I doubt they are going to be back within an hour." 

Ella thought about her options. "Lets order room service." She really did not fancy having to play his doting girlfriend in the restaurant, so room service was the best option.

David was happy with that. He reached for the room service menu, walked over to the balcony door and handed the menu to Ella.

Ella made her decision and passed the menu back to David. A few seconds later David phoned for room service to place their order. With that done, he returned to the balcony door. Ella was standing outside on the balcony.

"Great view." David said.

"Yes."

David asked, attempting to have a normal conversation with her, "Have you stayed here before?"

"No." She looked over her shoulder, "What about you? Have you stayed here before?"

"Yeah."

Silence.

A few minutes later, he said, "We could use this time to figure out how we can manage our situation."

She braced her hands on the sill of the balcony's wall, and looked at the view without taking any notice of the vista. "Our situation? Which one?" She murmured before adding, " I am only on this trip because Nic is in trouble."

"I mean us. How it affects Jack and Amelia." He kept his voice in neutral, "Our relationship."

"Our relationship will not have any consequence on Jack and Amelia." Ella said bluntly, but David's eyebrows contradicted her statement.

"Of course it would." He corrected with assurance. "Come on, Gabriella, you are not a coward." Despite the fact she tended to run rather than face her life- complications head on.

"Don't make a mountain of a molehill!" She huffed. She looked over at David and said, "We barely had a rapport back then. We had no real associations over the last two years. Before that, no link at all, until recently. Then Amelia and Jack started to date, and our history, our 'relationship' didn't affect Amelia and Jack getting together."

David acknowledged, "Maybe." He agreed. "But we both know that Jack and Amelia are worried about us. Why do you think they have left us here? We could have gone together to drop off the car. I would have to be there to see the shop that Jack is thinking about buying, as I am his business partner, albeit a silent partner and he always ran his decisions past me. Don't pretend that you don't know that Amelia is worried about us. Is it really so difficult to talk? You are not a coward, not in your heart. You stand up for your friends, is it time that you take a stand for yourself." He watched her tongue as it swiped over her lips. " Jack and Amelia want us to address our issues. I want us to dealing with our situation. I know, I think, well, in my gut, I know, you want us to be friends." David braced his palms on the sill of the balcony's wall. "At least friends" he murmured and Ella heard that, and straightened up. Just like Ella, a few minutes ago, was just staring at the view without taking it in.

Ella blew out a breath leaned her head back, looking at the sky as if it had the answer. "Look, I don't want any new complications."

"Complications?"

"I am only here to pack up my stuff. And yes, I accept that we will meet again, given Amelia married your brother."

"We really need to address the elephant in the room! We could take this time to sort ourselves. So that when we meet at Jack and Amelia's place, that they wouldn't feel awkward, in their own home, and we wouldn't have to pretend." David turned around to face her, "Look, Gabriella, for Amelia and Jack's sake, we should shelved our issues."

"I agree." She nodded with a sigh. "We should move on."

"Which means, what exactly?"

"Everything is sorted. This, is the end of our discussion about these issues. I will be living at another town. We might meet at your brother's place, we both have the manners to be cordial. So everything is sorted!"

David shook his head and chuckled. "Your concept of shelving our issues is different to mine! And nothing has been sorted. Not yet."