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Chapter 7: An Interlude

One week later

They met precisely one week after the anniversary party, with the excuse that their schedules did not allow it. In reality. both had tried to avoid meeting for as long as possible, but one stormy, rainy autumn evening, the time had come.

Alec had just finished tidying up in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. In a bit of a hurry, he walked up to it and looked at the screen to see a half-drowned Ella standing there, struggling to hold on in the wind.

"Hi...It's Ella" she announced while clutching the hood of her jacket to pull it over her head, which she failed to do a second later as a strong gust of wind blew it away.

He had to laugh; at the fact that she was awkward in everything she did or plain endearing. Alec opened the door for her and then walked back into the hall for a moment until he realised that that might not be very polite, so he went back to his previous position and waited. The lift was round the corner, so he checked occasionally to see if she was there, but it eventually opened, and she got out.

She took off her hood and by God; he almost had to smile for the second time because she looked positively dripping wet. Ella didn't realise she was being watched until she saw Alec looking at her... This startled her a little and she slowed down before walking towards his flat and stopping in front of him.

"Good evening" she greeted politely.

"Hello... Come in".

Ella did so meekly, made sure to wipe her shoes extra well on his mat and then entered the flat.

Ella carefully took off her coat to avoid splashing on his dry, clean floor but it was for nothing. The coat and she were dripping on all sides; her mascara had run a little, her long hair stuck to her face.

"Give me your coat so it can dry. " and he pointed towards the radiator nearby.  She nodded shyly and gave her coat to him.

"I'll erm... get you a towel. Wait" and before she knew it he had handed her a clean towel. She thanked him and dried her hair briefly with it, then gave it back to him folded.

He led her to the kitchen, where she sat down at the table at his request.

"UH. Are you hungry? I um... have some food left over if you want".

By 'food' he meant a frozen pizza that he had put in the oven and had not been able to eat as it tasted like nothing. She shook her head and asked if she wanted a drink.

He prepared a cappuccino for her at her request and then sat down with a cup of coffee across from her and there was the awkward moment; he had to start a conversation with her now, avoiding the elephant in the room.

To his surprise, she acted casually as if nothing had happened and this pleased him because he was determined to keep it that way; in fact, nothing had happened.

It had only been a brief kiss; a one-time mistake on his part. Alec realised that he shouldn't have done it; that it might give her ideas.

Alec had wondered why he had given in to that impulse in the first place; why he had felt compelled to place his lips on hers. Pondering on it for a long time he had concluded that alcohol had undoubtedly played a part, though a little voice inside told him that wasn't quite true. A second voice he tried to silence told him he hadn't minded the kiss at all, but he didn't want to start thinking about that.

"Bad weather today, eh?" he began, after they had both drunk some of their hot drinks in silence.

"Yes, it is" she replied.