She turned her back on him, so angry and so sad in equal measure, and she wanted to scream. Of course she had heard that people called her an icicle, but that was different. He had just confirmed that he thought she was an icicle, despite the fact he had kissed her, not the ten-year-kiss, the kisses they had shared recently. How could he kiss someone he thought was an icicle?
David pulled on his jacket, but he couldn't leave without talking about the elephant in the room. He looked at Ella warily he asked, "Aren't you at all interested in what happened to me after our little get together, at the training camp?"
She stopped what she was doing, then turned and said softly, "No." Her eyes gleamed. "I know what happened." She headed for the door, she opened it, held it open ajar, as she said, "You went on to play in the squad until you got injured, two years later." Nodded at the door, "Now leave."
"We haven't finished." He replied uneasily.
She shook her head. "Yes, we have."
He came toward her, and when he reached the door, he said, "No. We haven't."
She kept her mouth shut. David shook his at her obstinacy. "We haven't talked about the incident." David laughed humourlessly, "Not the kiss. I meant after Henry spouted that rubbish." She could see that he was angry. His eyes left her in no doubt that he was still angry about what had happened ten years ago.
She stiffened and asked curtly, "What about it?"
"I was taken to a tribunal!"
She told him quietly as her temper vanished, "I know." She was not happy when her dad told her about the tribunal. But her father had explained why they had to, given the circumstances. Ella sighed. "Henry over reacted." She folded her arms, waiting beside the door, waiting for him to leave. "Just like your mates" She tacked on quietly, and then wished she hadn't said anything.
He stopped as he was about to step out and turned to stand just in front of her. He said nothing as he processed her statement.
She continued, truly serious, "I think we are done...."
"My mates?" David snapped. "My mates?" He asked again as his brow furrowed.
"Yes. Your team." She said simply.
He frowned even harder. "What?" He stared at Ella, unwilling to move away from the door before they sorted out this. "The guys at the camp? The guys who said they'd been with you?"
"Yes." She retorted stiffly and she didn't make eye contact. She had found his mates' statements mortifying at the time, and even now, they still had the power to make her cringe. The fact that his mates, and with Henry's assistance, had trashed a precious moment. A precious, rare moment that was started from an extraordinary meeting of young soul mates. And trashing that special, remarkable, moment had consequences for her. Being labelled a slut was not something she wanted to revisit. "The guys on the training camp. Your mates."
He ignored the fact she assumed the players were his mates. "Because they told me about you?" At the time their words had hurt. Hearing that she had made a habit of sleeping with guys on her father's squad, had left him feeling stupid and humiliated. At the time, the fact she was still at school made him feel like a scapegoat because he was taken to a tribunal.
That had her eyes flashing to meet his. "No." She looked straight at him. "Because they lied." Her eyes flashed with barely restrained fury. That surprised him. Ella fought hard to regain her composure. She was not going to let him see how much his lack of trust had hurt: she was not going to let him know that the fact he'd believed his peers, and believed she was a groupie had more than hurt.
"Lied?" His eyes narrowed, focusing on her eyes. "You didn't even tell me you were at school."
"It never occurred to me." She all but yelled at him.
He shouted, "Just like you never told me you had a penchant for rugby..."
Ella interrupted. "Get out." With both hands she shoved his shoulder. But before she forced him out of her office she said with fury, "After that kiss-debacle, do you think my dad would have kept you on the squad if he thought you had accosted me?" Fury laced her words. David didn't budge. His eyes met hers as she added, "I told him the truth. Unlike your mates! I told my dad the truth!"
"And that was?" David asked softly. Although he knew from her father.
The words emerged without a filter. "That I liked you. Really liked you. That we talked. And I thought we were soul mates. So we kissed. Just a spur of the moment. I kissed you. And Henry overreacted."
"And he believed you." He frowned, wondering why her father would believe that Henry had overreacted. "Even after he'd heard what the other guys had to say?" David knew he always questioned Ella's father' support at that tribunal. Why did he support David? Eventually David reached the conclusion that he was just trying to support his daughter, by down-grading that kiss. Sweep the matter below the carpet before her history hits the newspaper.
"Especially after he heard what your mates said." She pushed the door again. She said in a quarrelsome voice, "I went to a boarding school after my mum died." David waited at the door and rubbed the back of his head. Ella continued, "When I met you at that training camp, that was the first time I'd ever been to any training session." She stopped for a second. "Ever." She said sharply.
David couldn't say anything as he processed Ella's statements.
"So how could I have got with the players in the previous years? Virtual sex?" She snapped at him then reined in her fury.
Ella's words beat a tattoo inside his head. His eyes flew to Ella.
"Now if you don't mind, I think we're done."
David didn't move. The players had sounded so adamant. Believable. Giving the impression that she did came onto the rugby players on a regular basis. David hesitated at the door, thought about what she was saying and then asked, "Why would they lie?" For it was obvious that they had, given she'd never been to a session before, they couldn't possibly have even met her, let alone had an opportunity for her to hit on them.
Ella was not willing to answer his questions. Enough. She turned and left him at the door, walked back to her table and carried on putting her things away, "Close the door after you." She called over her shoulder.
Ella didn't check to see if he was going to do what she wanted. But she could feel his presence as he loitered at the door. Ella waited for that feeling to vanish. She knew when he left and her shoulders' slumped. She lifted her head and looked at the closed door.
The memories she had buried, emerged with a vengeance, and she couldn't stop her tears. She remembered that feeling: You scaled a remarkable mountain and find yourself at the bottom of a murky ocean. And what was worse, her memory reminded her and the last three hours, was the fact that she had no control of her heart and head.