The Arrangement

Chapter Eleven

Trigger Warning.

The warmth of my heater pelts against my face, warming every inch of my body despite the rain that splatters against the front of my car, the hard stream emanates a loud patter around me. A background to Sophie's soft laughter as it echoes through the speakers, drowning out the anxiety that comes with driving in the rain.

"Don't you dare act shocked!" I chastise, I'm grinning wildly as I finally pull of the highway and begin the last stretch to the family home. "I've heard more than that about you and Sam, or did you forget the time you defiled our sofa?"

If I could see her, I know her cheeks would be burning and green eyes hazy with the memory. "Are you kidding? I'd do it all again and that's not the point Claude! That's not a common occurrence for us but I know you're all for being choked out but in public. I guess I should have seen it coming"

"Hey! It's not just like in crowds of people, and I have the decency to realise when it's less than hygienic, or morally right"

"The rollercoaster" She giggles again, voice breathily and aghast. "Now that's a come down that I wouldn't mind but I don't think I could get lost in it the way you do, I'd be too worried that everyone around us could tell"

"In all fairness I don't think they should be transporting a rollercoaster of that calibre across the country so any look people watching saw was probably just assumed to be fear"

"Somehow I don't think you looked fearful" Sophie teases, "But I never would have guessed that Hugo would be willing to do something like that, just out in the open when his Dad plasters his face all over the real estate sites while claiming to hate his son"

"They're both just obsessed with the money and he's a casualty of his grandfather's decisions" I sigh, this ache in my heart intensifying. If my parents wouldn't have blanched and fussed at a last-minute guest, I would have dragged Hugo along for the holiday. "But the sex? Soap you can't really be surprised"

She hums thoughtfully for a moment, "No I suppose not but Sam doesn't share all the sexy gossip that the boys talk about even when they insist that they don't"

"I always just wait for Imogen to share when she gets it all from Cam, he takes far less convincing than the others, but I suppose your right. Hugo will talk shit about anything and everything, but he rarely ever spoke about what he liked when it came to sex, I suppose we loved the adrenaline rush of everything that it was a subconscious connection in knowing we would click sexually"

"It's mostly shocking that the two of you didn't figure it out earlier" Sophie crackles, the towering houses that line our street come into view, large brick structures with their long wrap-around porches that make me feel like I'm suffocating. "If I didn't know what you couldn't keep a secret very long then I wouldn't have been shocked if the two of you weren't sneaking around earlier"

Sophie's not wrong. "Now that we have gone past that line, it makes me wonder how we were so blind too. I've been thinking that perhaps I was in the same boat as you, not realising the depth of my feelings for someone and being comfortable in keeping them masked with friendships"

"Never living that one down" We laugh, "But I think for you and Hugo it was more about this deep desire to preserve the bond that you have, and a little bit of not wanting to prove people like Mark right, in saying you couldn't stay friends"

The reminder leaves a sour taste in my mouth, if it was possible, it would make me happy for that man to never be right about anything again. "I hate when other people are right but if it means I get to be with Hugo? I suppose I can let it slide just this once and besides, I think he's kind of nervous that I'm going to regret it"