Just Rose

13

'Hurry up shorty, if you want to catch the bakery before it closes for lunch.' Rose pushed Abby out of the cottage door into the bright sunshine, heading for her car. They had spent the morning packing up her artwork for the courier and sketching flowers in the garden. Abby loved fine art as much as Rose and they were working on a collage together for her studio.

'Oooh, well move then. I have a severe craving for cupcakes and I promised Duncan I would save him some for later.' Abby grinned at Rose's eyeroll, Abby had been absent a lot lately due to her blossoming romance with the farm boy from the dance. Rose could only grab time with her sporadically, but it did make concealing her relationship with Rob a little easier.

'What does your brother think of your new love life?' Rose pressed when they were settled in the car, Abby just smiled wickedly.

'What he doesn't know won't kill him.' Abby chuckled and pulled her bag onto her lap to check for her purse, pulling it out triumphantly and waving it around. 'You know he offered to take me to college this morning. What's that all about? Normally he's up at dawn and married to his work and you barely see him. Lately he seems to be around a lot more, although he didn't believe me that today was my day off.'

Rose's phone vibrated before she had even pulled off and her mother's face flashed on screen. She tried not to react, just slid it into her bag at her side and carried on manoeuvring out of the car park.

She had been avoiding her mother's calls lately or passing her off with excuses that she was busy. Truth was, she just couldn't lie to her and her mother would know something was up. They hadn't spoken properly in weeks, she had no clue what to tell them about Rob, if anything and it just made things a whole lot more complicated.

'Avoiding mummy still?' Abby cut in with a knowing look and leaned back to clip her belt. They had pulled out onto the road and both girls immediately rolled down windows to let the breeze in. It was another surprisingly scorching day and shaping up to be the best summer in years.

'Who said I'm avoiding my mum?' She lied and crossed her toes childishly, accelerating as they passed the Manor opening, she still got nervous near that entrance.

'Come on, I've seen you blank that phone several times when your mothers beautiful face is on screen. What are you avoiding her for? I thought you were close.' Abby was inquisitive at the best of times, Rose's nickname for her was 'Nosey mare' as she was forever prodding for information, it only made Rose surer that Abby knew something about Rob as she never broached that subject at all.

'It's nothing, she just calls a lot and she is just a bit over protective.' Rose hated the white lie, hated that she was yet again bluffing her way out of the truth with Abby, but she couldn't tell her the truth. It had gone on too long and even if she could, she didn't know how to tell her now. Abby would be crushed that she had been kept out of the loop. That Rose and Rob had been sleeping together for over a month now and had never told her.

Abby flicked through her phone and bumped on a tune loudly.

'This is my new fave.' She beamed Rose's way and started gyrating in her seat and singing along as they pulled up to the town sign and Rose followed the familiar route to the café car park, it looked unusually full as she circled for a space, noting a couple of tourist buses nearby and headed back out to the road for the next carpark at the museum.