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Chapter 5 : The Separation

He had apologized to her the next day to which she had downplayed the incident and mentioned there was nothing to say sorry for, that she had gone too far and had no business judging him and Alec thought it was best to not talk about the incident anymore.

However, it did seem to have some sort of an effect on their dynamic because, while he suspected it but could not prove it, she was going out of her way to avoid him, barely coming out of her room at night. It was like having a ghost living in his house and while he had tried to get on with his life, the entire situation was starting to annoy him.
Work was not going well either. They were not making any head way on the granulite case.

It was hard to ignore the blatant evidence, the government had purposely without truly doing any kind of research dumped a cancerous material into the river.
They were trying to formulate convincing arguments that the government had made a mistake but again... the evidence overruled any argument they could produce.
It had been a long Friday and he was it glad it was over. When he finally got home he kicked off his shoes, opened his fridge to get a beer but then Alec's attention was drawn to a blue container with a note attached.

"Going out, see you later.. There is food in the fridge if you want. Ella."

She was going out? With whom? She didn't mention any friends so far, and they had been living together for a while now. Alec opened the container and saw she had made a beef and noodle stir fry. He took one piece of meat in his mouth and tasted a lovely, rich flavour so he quickly put the whole thing in the mic-ro-wa-ve (writer's note: sorry Nigella, could not resist) to heat up and enjoyed a nice meal.

Well, she was not a bad cook if he was honest and.. thoughtful despite them not being on good terms. He showered, put on comfier clothes, and sat down to watch some Netflix with another beer in his hand. Alec was trying to focus on the show he was watching, it had been an enjoyable series so far but unwillingly his mind drifted off. He wondered, unwillingly of course, where she had gone to and with who before deciding it wasn't important (or at least he fooled himself into thinking so).

"Oh, no Miss Ella. I see how you're trying to change the subject, but I don't want to talk about my honeymoon, nor do you two want to hear about it. Spill!," Emma said. Ella rolled her eyes at her friend but did it with a cheeky smile.

"There is not much to tell really..," Ella answered, a bit dejected a moment later.

"You're full of it," Emma accused.

"Better start talking or I'll.. I well don't know what to threathen you with exactly, but I'll think of something," she warned while pointing her finger faux threateningly at her friend.

"Come on, Ella... Tell us. We are dying from curiosity here and indeed no offence Emma, I have no interest in finding out how many times you and Gerald had sex during your honeymoon".

Emma pointed at Daphne and said "See?."

"Fine. God. His name is Alec Marsters, and he works as a barrister at Anderson & Cooper.," Ella stated.

"That's it"? both Emma and Daphne asked at the same time and Ella's face faltered a little. That was it for she did not know much about him. Still didn't after weeks of living together.

"Show us a picture," Emma demanded but Ella refused although she had a couple of them on her phone she had gathered during her research but for some reason had not deleted it yet.

"Stubborn mule! You know what I'll google him. Alec Masters was it?" and Ella nodded, hoping that Emma would buy her lie.

"No, Em, it's Marsters, with a R. Cheeky Ella, trying to give us the wrong name," Daphne said, and she winked at her friend. Emma entered the name in the search bar and then was silent for a while.