Situated a stone's throw from the county border, Maudlinkestle Hospital defied Elise's past experience with medical settings. Its brown-brick outer walls and wood-beamed entrance gate better resembled a farm estate than the sterile, oblong blocks that constituted modern hospitals, a fact the pervasive aroma of freshwater and wet dirt drove home. Dense hedgerows surrounded much of the premises, leaving little more than glimpses of the stream's unhurried flow beside the carpark. Starry pins pricked dazzling holes in the untarnished night sky overhead.
Elise stared out across the restful valleys from the hospital's rear wall. A single oil lamp hung behind her dispelled enough darkness to sketch the outlines of her shoes, withholding its glare from the steep sloping land ahead. Lights of distant cottages gave shape to the land's twilit nooks, reinforced by the occasional whirl of car headlights between the hills. With just the faint splashes of the brook's water breaking the silence, Elise had to press her fingernails into her air-chilled arms to keep out of sleep's shifting sands.
"There she is," Cadence's voice said, its owner vaulting over the wall before falling beside Elise. She wielded a paper cup in each hand, and she extended one towards Elise, its steam trails making an offer too tempting to resist. "Here. I figured you deserved some overtime for this midnight detour, Miss Editor. Caffeine's good as part-payment, right? They didn't have any milk left, though, so you've got black. Sorry."
Taking the cup between her hands, Elise laughed and stifled a yawn while basking in the drink's piping hot air. "Believe me, I'm more in the mood for engine grease than a cosy foamy latte right now," she said as she nudged Cadence's heel with her foot, admiring the soft brushstrokes the lamplight left across her friend's tired profile. "How's your mum doing?"
Small gravel fragments scraped beneath Cadence's boots. "She got lucky, apparently. It was a mini stroke rather than a full-blown attack, so she should bounce back in a few days," she said, pausing to take a sip of her coffee. The sigh she released afterwards bore too much weight to come from just the drink's heat. "But the coats think she's at high risk of suffering another stroke because of her age, diet, and high blood pressure – not to mention the fact that she doesn't move a damn muscle, all day, every day."
"I had a feeling they'd say that," Elise answered. Her own cup of molten lava tasted more like rusty metal than roasted, earthy cosiness, yet its scorching heat ensured it did the trick of waking her up. "What about her dementia? Can they assess her for it here?"
"I told them all about her episodes, and they claimed they'll see what they can do." Cadence set her coffee on the wall and folded her arms, gazing up at the scattered stars. "This is fucking crazy, Ellie. When I saw Flo in that hospital bed, it was like she was barely there. She was just so small and weak and...dead."
Elise huddled her shivering body closer to her hot cup. "I get it. She's been struggling for a long time, Cade, and it's been putting so much strain on her." A series of lights flickered out in the faraway villages, leaving a wall of shadows in their wake. As Elise ran her nails along the side of her drink, small shimmering droplets appeared in the corner of Cadence's visible eye. "Florence is in the best place now, alright? They can help her here."
"Yeah, for now, but what about later?" Catching wind of her harsh tone, Cadence wiped her face and let deep breaths pass through her body. "Flo's not even sixty. She'll probably be living with this shit for years, and she doesn't have anybody around to help her but me. What the hell am I supposed to do? I don't know how to find a care home, or manage someone else's finances – and I'm not scrubbing her gritty, grumpy butt by myself every week, no way!"
"It'll be alright, Cade," Elise said as she placed a hand on Cadence's shoulder and met her friend's eye. "We can figure all this stuff out bit by bit, and there's a bunch of places we can get help from too. Whatever happens, you won't be scrubbing anybody's butt by yourself, alright?"
A look of shock jolted through Cadence's eyes, reflecting like fireflies in her pooled tears. "You really mean that?" she asked, sniffling as she managed a weak smile. "Because I'll hold you to that, killer. I'll bring the grump right to your door if I have to!"
Snorting suddenly, Elise hid her face behind her hand and keeled over in a fit of giggles. "Imagine Robin's face! Do you think he'd kick me out right away or wait until he'd found someone else to move in first?"
"Yeah, right. Like he'd ever kick you out." As her heels bounced off the wall, Cadence looked out into the night and followed the progress of a lone pair of headlights across the lone valley road. "The guy cooks for you, lets you use his stuff, and he even forgave you right away for breaking his super-private fancy wine. It wouldn't surprise me if he was secretly way into you."
"Robin? No way," Elise said, curling a stray lock of her hair around her finger. "He's nice, but we don't actually hang out all that much. That's probably the only reason he puts up with me, I think."
Distant bats assembled in the night sky, a lively, leathery cloud flocking from tree to tree with keen coordination. Swallowing down another swig of coffee, Cadence allowed herself a fiendish smirk. "Please. Why wouldn't he want you around? In a town full of weirdos and assholes, getting a chill girl like you as a roommate must have been like winning the damn lottery."
"I guess." The events of the past few days had provided more of a glimpse into Bosmouth's worst side than Elise had wished for. However annoying she may have been, she was not blatantly rude and she was definitely never dangerous. "I don't know how chill I am to live with, though. I feel like I'm moaning to him about something or other every evening."
"That's every person ever. Everybody's bitching all the time, whether they like it or not," Cadence said, fiddling with the collar of her jacket. She pulled herself along the wall until her shoulder bumped against Elise's, and her gaze honed the edge of her serious expression. "You're a great person, Ellie. You're fun, you're cute, and you're a damn good writer too."
"I..." Elise said as her mind froze on the compliment bombshell Cadence threw her way without a care. After a breathless moment, the last of Cadence's statements entered her thoughts. "How do you know I'm a good writer? I've never shown you any of my work."
Cadence's eyes widened. "Uh oh. Busted."
"Cade, have you read my articles?"
Clearing her throat and tugging on her beanie, Cadence avoided her friend's stare as she chose her words. "I might have come across a couple here and there, just to see what you wrote about Flo, you know?" she said, rubbing at the back of her neck. A single harsh blink from Elise's stern eyes shattered Cadence's charade. "Alright, I've read them all. When I first found out you were getting published, I went back and read all your old stuff. I even get notifications when one of your posts goes up so I can read it straight away. Happy?"
Thoughts flew from Elise's mind as she sat in silence, transfixed by the flurry of rose hues that coloured the curves of Cadence's cheeks. She took a lungful of air to clear her woolly mind, thankful that the breath also cushioned the sudden lift of her heart. "That's...I don't know what to say. I didn't think you'd be interested in anything I put out there. I didn't think you'd care."
The beaming whites of Cadence's eyes outshone the feeble oil lamp mounted beside them. "You did not just say that."
"I thought you hated me," Elise protested as she drummed her fingers against the topside of the wall. Though embarrassed enough to hide away, warm wisps filled the feather of space between them to keep her in sight of Cadence's shimmering hazel stars. "I thought you wanted to forget about me."
"So what if I did? You were my best friend, Ellie. I could never forget you, even if I really tried." With her jaw hung open, Cadence pinched the bridge of her nose, venting her surprise through a series of long sighs. A choked sob announced the return of her voice. "When shit got hard, like when Faith and Oli gave me up, do you know what I thought about? When Mel ditched me suddenly without a word, do you know what I wished for?"
"Cade..."
"You, Ellie. I wanted my best friend back more than anything." Cadence's posture slumped on the spot, overburdened by the thoughts racing through her head. "That's why running into you so suddenly screwed me right the hell up. I was pissed at you, sure, but I was more pissed at myself for being so damn psyched to see you."
The wind picked up around them, and Elise closed her hands around her bare arms. "I was so giddy about running into you too, Cade. Maybe I was a little too excited, because I didn't expect you to get mad and drive off. I guess I should've seen it coming."
Cadence clicked her tongue. "And I should've handled it better, so that makes us both dumb kids." Her forearm knocked against Elise's pale knuckles, and she shivered on the spot as if struck by a rogue spark. "Ellie, you're freezing."
Squeezing her arms, Elise shrugged and tried to ignore the stinging bites the wind left on her skin. "Things were pretty crazy inside the hospital. After they took you and Florence to assess her, I figured I needed to step outside and have a breather."
"Taking 'chilling out' a little too literally, don't you think?" Cadence asked as she ran her fingers along the lines of her friend's arm. Every hair on Elise's skin stood to attention, eager to bask in Cadence's touch before its peers. With a shake of her head, Cadence slid her arms free of her jacket and held it out towards Elise. "Here. Don't worry, I do actually wash it...now and then."
Elise hesitated, then wrapped the jacket around her shoulders. Infused with Cadence's heat, it chased the ice out of her joints and enveloped her extremities in the close, gentle buzz of its brimming energy. The garment was heavier than anything in Elise's usual outfits, yet the way its fabric fluttered close to her sides left her on the verge of sailing away with the next strong breeze. "Thanks," she said as the last of her chills melted away. "I didn't realise how cold it was."
Something inscrutable passed through Cadence's eyes, and a crack of a smile sprouted on her lips. "Look at you, all ready to thrash the fuck out!" As she grinned, she slipped her beanie onto Elise's head and fought to suppress a violent shiver. "Bet Robin would be sad he's missing out on this, right? He'd so lose his mind for punk rock Ellie."
"You're ridiculous," Elise groaned, exaggerating her exhaustion to disguise her broadening smile. Shivers trembled through Cadence's body, yoking Elise by her heartstrings to her friend's side to pause just before their elbows touched. The slightest sigh from her friend was enough to push her further, melting into the warmth offered by Cadence's familiar heartbeat. "And there's nobody else I'd rather sit with while freezing in the middle of nowhere."
"You know, we don't have to be freezing our butts off," Cadence said as she looped her arm around Elise's shoulder. "There's nothing left for us to do here. We can go home any time you want."
For anybody else at any other time, Elise would have bundled herself into the car and clung to its promise of future heat across whatever distance they needed to cross. Yet, nestled in the impenetrable shield of her friend's jacket and numb from the improvised seating, she conceded that no potential comfort could lure her away. There was all the peace she needed in Cadence's close embrace under the flawless stars.
Cadence looked down, a twinkling gleam in her eye. "What do you want to do, Ellie?"
Curiosity, exhaustion, and simple opportunity wove together into a single impulse that stirred through Elise's blood. Deafened by her pounding pulse, she locked her gaze on Cadence's shining eyes, swept the locks from her red-hot cheek, and crossed the final sliver of space to take her lips in a long-awaited kiss.
The first whisper of contact banished the knots from Elise's stomach. Diving into Cadence's hot, wild waters washed the shivers out of Elise's blood, replacing them with the thrilling rush of newfound freedom. Subtle notes of sweet mint unfurled in her every breath, and the sharp tang of Cadence's cloud-soft lips raced along her nerves. Slowly, tentatively, Elise's weight melted away, leaving her anchored in her friend's safe harbour where her heart yearned to stay.
As Elise willed herself away, a look of distilled shock greeted her on Cadence's face. "Jeez," Cadence muttered, blinking away the surprise in her eyes. "I didn't see that coming. You don't hold back, Ellie."
Elise's heart crashed through the base of her chest. "Oh no. Oh gosh, I'm sorry. You're right. We just met up again after ten whole years. How could I even think that was a good idea? I shouldn't have gotten so carried away. I feel like such an idiot."
"No, I don't mean the kiss." With a smile, Cadence tucked a wing of stray hairs behind Elise's ear. Her hand fell on Elise's shoulder, slipping inside the jacket to track up the burning skin of Elise's arm. "I'm talking about this."
"What? What are you on about?" Elise asked, yet her voice soon fell flat as Cadence's fingers reached her wrist. Without her knowledge, Elise's hand had slipped down Cadence's face and neck, her fingers coming to rest dipped beneath the low neckline of her top. The smooth curves of Cadence's bare skin peeked out from below her necklace, mere millimetres from Elise's touch. "Oh. Oh my word. Cade, I'm so –"
A light pressure stopped Elise's words, the feel of Cadence's finger sealing her lips without a fight. "If you apologise one more time, I'm taking my jacket and hat back," she said with an impish grin, snatching up Elise's wandering hand from her chest and casting it over her shoulder. "You're fine. If I didn't want you touching me, you'd have known about it by now."
"So, we're..." With her arms hanging around Cadence's neck, Elise pulled close to stop herself floating away from the light, gentle brush of the girl's fingers down her back. A heady heat passed between Cadence's lips with every breath, flooding Elise's mind with thoughts of closing the space between them all over again. "Are we okay?"
Cadence let out a small laugh and ran her nails down Elise's back. "You're so cute. Yes, Ellie, we're okay." She leaned forward, brushing her lips against Elise's cheek. "Unless there's anything else you want to get out of your system."
Bathing in the light of Cadence's glowing eyes, Elise barely retained enough substance to speak before melting into the girl's chest. "So...what now?"
"Up to you," Cadence said as she pinned Elise to the spot with a fiendish wink. Her hands traced their way down Elise's spine, stopping a hair above the dip in her back. "Your place or mine?"
Elise collected herself, the pause stemming more from nerves than uncertainty. She locked eyes with Cadence and bit her lip. "Yours, I think."
Cadence cracked a smile. "Escaping Roomie, huh? Real kinky, killer."