the holiday- mileven

chapter 7

CHAPTER 7: 'he likes you, idiot'

one thing el has thoroughly enjoyed since arriving in england is the atmosphere.

she felt strangely at home here, and she wasn't sure why. she'd never been to london before in her life. she had only seen images online or brief clips on the tv and couldn't piece together why she had a sense of belonging, here in london.

it was almost as if something had been missing from her life. like the one small puzzle piece that had been left at the bottom of the box, had finally slotted into place. though, she wasn't quite sure what it was.

but one thing she knew for sure, was when she leaves in a just over a weeks time, she will have a hard time saying goodbye to a city she's grown to love, in the short time she's spent here.

"el?"

the sound of max's voice echoed through her ears, slowly bringing el back to the present, where she was sat in a coffee shop with max.

el hadn't realised but she had completely switched off mid conversation and ended up gazing out the window.

"did you hear anything i just said?"

"u-uh, yes?" el answered quickly, still not completely out of her trance. "you were saying about how you want to go to france with lucas for your anniversary."

"el, that conversation ended like ten minutes ago." max chuckled at the brunette sat opposite her, before furrowing her eyebrows in concern. "are you okay?"

"yeah, yeah i'm fine. i just went into a daydream." el nodded, a tight-lipped smile on her face as she picked up her cappuccino and took a small sip.

max eyed her suspiciously but decided to drop the topic, which el was thankful for.

"so, how are you going to spend the rest of your holiday?" max questioned, taking a huge bite of her brownie.

"i'm not really sure, i still have a few christmas gifts to buy and a few places i haven't checked off my list. though, mike has been giving me a tour which was better than anything i came up with."

"mike gave you a tour huh?" max raised her eyebrow and scoffed. "sounds about right."

"what do you mean?" el asked, slightly confused.

"oh come on, el. don't tell me you don't know."

"know what?" el pushed on, feeling more and more stupid by the minute.

"wow, you're just as oblivious as he is." max chuckled. "you're perfect for each other."

el's face flushed red and her eyes widened in panic at her words. "u-um what?"

"seriously? he's giving you a tour, he took you too all his favourite places, he talks about you all the time...he introduced you to us!"

"so?" el furrowed her eyebrows, not sure what max was getting at.

max sighed, wondering how two people could be so clueless.