A day later, Amelia asked, "So how did it go?"
Ella knew what Amelia was talking about. "Fine." Ella took the seat opposite Amelia. She unbuttoned her jacket and then discarded her jacket. Pretend this is normal, that yesterday her heart had been trampled.
"That rough huh?" Amelia was one of the few people who saw Ella for who she was, mainly because Ella dropped the mask when she was around Amelia.
Ella grimaced, closed her eyes as she once again felt the tears gather in her eyes. "I can't believe that even after all this time my heart still hammers when I go anywhere near that bloody man!" She shook her head. I'm not sure I'm going to survive this, she thought, as she tried to hold off her tears. "Me, the ice cold frigid bitch!" Ella said.
Amelia winced even though she knew that many men used those terms to describe Ella. Ella massaged her temples, as the headache began to make its presence known. A stress headache settled in. Seeing a man that you love and see him kissing someone, not once, but twice, was not good for your mental health, her heart reminded her mind as her headache flourished in her head as the memories raced around her head.
"I shouldn't have mentioned you to him when he was talking about looking for an interior designer for his house." Amelia mumbled with a sigh. "I am really sorry, Ella, I should have kept my opinions to myself about your work and..."
"It's fine, Ames." Ella interrupted, and just ran the tips of her fingers beneath her eyes, removing traces of her tears "You were drumming up work for me." Ella attempted a smile, but that headache prevented the appearance of that smile in her eyes. "I appreciated that. Honestly, Ames. I really appreciated your PR."
Amelia bit her lower lip, "Pull out." Amelia told her bluntly, seeing the distress in Ella's pinched features.
"I can't." Ella sighed with a huff, then she delved for a tissue and blew her nose. With a sigh of pure exasperation she added, "I need to do this." For my own sake, she reminded herself. "In any case, he told me, apparently, that I am the only interior decorator within travelling distance of this town. Actually, if I remember correctly, he said within a fifty mile radius! Can you believe that, he stretched his radius, just to avoid me!" Then with a smile of thanks she took the glass Amelia gave her, and before taking a sip, she added, as if it was just a passing remark, "Loretta Ascot was there."
"The solicitor?" Amelia asked with a frown, and Ella nodded. The corners of Amelia's lips turned down. "Ohh."
Silence. Ella sipped and looked away. Why didn't they tell you at school how to handle unwanted memories? With rote learning you learn to retrieve those memories, automatically. But what if you don't want to retrieve memories generated by real experience. Ella sipped again.
Amelia watched emotions flitting through Ella's eyes.
Ella looked over at Amelia, blew out a long breath and finally said out loud "I had just finished taking notes for one wing of his home and I had to go past the kitchen to get to the other wing, and I walked in on them kissing." Seeing David kiss someone else was like having open-heart surgery with a raw rusty knife and without anaesthetic. Ella knew that the pain would never lessen, no matter how many times she thought about it, said it, or acknowledged it.
"Oh no!" Amelia grimaced, as she understood why Ella looked upset.
Ella heard the sympathy in her friend's voice. She dabbed at the tears that escaped her eyelashes, again. She sniffed, "He did it on purpose."
"The bastard!" Amelia snapped. She was going to talk to David about his behaviour. Actually she was going to tell Jack, and would expect him to have a word with his brother! "Honestly, I would expect better of David. I mean, I know he has girlfriends but he doesn't do PDA. And he would never just do that, knowing that you were there. He doesn't do PDA!"
"Well, he kissed Loretta at his home!" Ella said with a rueful smile. "I guess kissing at home with an audience is not a public demonstration of affection!"
Amelia rolled her eyes and huffed out, "Ok, ok. Fine. He does PDA! But he is usually polite. Charming, with lots of integrity. I know that for a fact. He was lovely to me on that cycle trip. After that trip, I respected him. He is kind, has good principles and, well, to be honest, I think he is a good guy."
Silence. Amelia expected Ella to challenge her. Ella said nothing. "What happened after that?" Amelia picked up the conversation again seen that she had stopped the conversation with Ella by standing up for David.
The tears raced freely, Ella ignored them as she decided it was one way to deal with her headache to release the tension. "I felt my heart crumple." Ella hadn't meant to say that.
Amelia wasn't expecting that.
"He kissed another within days!" Ella hadn't told Amelia about her kiss with David in the school car park.
The corners of Amelia's lips turned down, reached across the table and squeezed Ella's hand. "He kissed another in front of you?"
Poor choice of words, days, he should have said minutes. "No, the same person. Loretta." Ella gave a small shrug as she tried to recover her slip, "I saw him kiss Loretta twice within minutes, it just felt like days between the kisses." She just wished she hadn't remembered those events so vividly. In fact it was something that she reviewed over and over as she struggled to sleep last night. It was like a nightmare, playing over and over in her mind. She woke up the next day and she was really tired. She thought, it would have been better if she hadn't gone to bed, she could have watched a documentary, or ironed her clothes or worked on the design for his home. Instead, she had gone to bed, hoping that sleep would erase her thoughts about him kissing her and her memories of him kissing Loretta.
Typical Amelia, how could she process all that information so fast, thought Ella when she saw Amelia's eyes, "Really." Amelia tipped her head to the side and frowned.
"Just a slip of the tongue." Ella said quickly. Note to self: If you have a headache you shouldn't visit Amelia, because she will see the gaps in the explanations.
Amelia nodded contemplatively as her mind replayed some of the conversation. Amelia frowned. "Have I missed something, Ella?"
"Like what?" Ella's mouth was dry. Have a clever girlfriend is not always an advantage.
Amelia sighed. "Exactly, if I knew, I could tell you!" She narrowed her eyes, "And I think you haven't told me everything." She tipped her head to the side, "You could tell me!"
"About what?" Ella was frantically trying to fathom out whether to tell Amelia everything.
"Ella!" Amelia grumbled.
After a few seconds later, Ella said, "I kissed him."
"Yes, I know that." Amelia rolled her eyes.
"You know?" Ella's eyebrows rose in shock. How would Amelia know about that kiss? Unless David told his brother and Jack told Amelia.
"Yes, of course." Amelia nodded and added, "You told me, remember, and I have good short-term and long-term memory capacity."
Ella chuckled in relief and took a sip of her drink. Her shoulders lowered and her headache practically vanished.
Amelia frowned. She took a few seconds and came up with another scenario. "You weren't talking about that kiss, the kiss from ten years ago." She shook her head and looked over at Ella.
Ella sighed. Typical. Amelia was clever, not just academically astute she was clever at working through puzzles.
Ella weighed up her options and opted for honesty. "Yes."
"And?" Amelia practically squawked at Ella when Ella stopped at that affirmation.
"I kissed him recently!"
Amelia shrieked. Ella nearly giggled when Amelia fell off her stool. "What? Recently?"
"It was just an accident." Ella replied automatically.
"You kissed him recently?" That was the last thing Amelia expected to hear. "An accident?" Amelia retook her stool. "What do you mean? And when?"
"I tripped." Ella chewed on her lips.
"What?" Amelia took another breath. "Ella, I am really lost, here. Apart from falling off my stool, I can't work it out!" She muttered. "You tripped. And you kissed him! How does that work? Where is the link?"
"I tripped." Ella shrugged.
"I get that." It was like pulling teeth, thought Amelia, as she waited for information. "Then what? You tripped?"
"Yes."
"And?" Amelia looked appraisingly at Ella.
"I tripped and he stopped my fall. He was beside me." She stated with little intonation. Keep this simple. Facts. An accident. "I tripped. He has good reflexes. I could have hit the ground."
"Ok. And then he kissed you?" Amelia frowned, as Ella's explanation was woeful in details. "And Loretta witnessed that? You were in the kitchen?"
"Er. No." Typical, Amelia would want details, of course, Ella thought.
"She was in another room? Or you were in another room?" Amelia took another breath as she hid her frustration with Ella dripping her news.
"Er, no."
Amelia scowled. "Ok, where in his home..."
"I was at the car park...."
"A car park? His house has a car park? Do you mean his driveway? Or his garage?"
"No. The school car park."
Amelia widened her eyes, "The school car park?" She rifled through her memories, "That social..."
"Yes."
"What, at that social, after Jack and I left?" Bewilderment in her eyes despite the fact the pieces started to fall into place.
"Yes."
Amelia's eyes were wide in shock. "So, you and David were in the car park, you tripped, he stopped your fall, and he kissed you."
"Basically, yes."
"You didn't tell me!"
"I just told you!" Ella smirked.