Espresso • Love Island 2024

Chapter Three

After their conversation in the kitchen, Emeline and Ciaran parted ways. Emeline was once again hurried away by the girls as they all headed to the dressing room to get ready for bed.

Being the only two single people in the villa, Joey and Emmie had to sleep in the same bed, both making it very clear that nothing would happen between them.

"Keep your hands to yourself Joey boy!" Jess exclaimed from her space beside Sean with a sly smirk painted on her face.

"We came in together, she's my villa sister you little weirdo." The man shouted playfully and ruffled Emmie's hair that she had just brushed.

"Villa sister..." The blonde girl let her eyes wander to her left and looked over at joey and giggled at his choice of words. "Emmie Essex has a nice ring to it." She joked, just as the lights switched off and plunged the room into darkness.

It took several moments for her eyes to adjust to the switch in lighting but she could see that most of the islanders had laid down in bed and pulled the covers over their heads for some privacy from the cameras scattered everywhere.

"Night everyone." She exclaimed in a loud whisper but received no response.

"Goodnight Emmie."

The voice came from her right, in the direction of Harriet and ciaran's bed. She could tell from the accent that it was Ciaran who had bid her goodnight and as much as she tried to fight it; a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

•

The room suddenly seemed exponentially brighter — what felt like just minutes of Emeline's eyes being shut was in reality, seven long hours of sleep.

In a desperate attempt to shield her eyes from the blinding studio lights above her, Emmie reached over and clambered around on the des for her sunglasses before frantically shoving them onto her face.

"How was everybody's sleep?" Mimi asked in an unusually chirpy tone.

Emeline was never a morning person, the very idea of waking up and getting out of the comfortable bed just put her in a naturally bad mood which wasn't ideal for a good start to her day. But today was different; sure, the bright lights felt like they were burning holes in her corneas and the absence of the duvet - which joey had stolen during the night - infuriated her but... she felt oddly cheerful.

"I'd just like to apologise on behalf of Joey to the person he's coupling up with today because I feel like I've been run over by a truck... he's a kicker." Emeline exclaimed as she sat up slowly and rested her back against the headboard.

"You sleep like a plank of wood!" Joey exclaimed from under the duvet cover which he was tangled up with despite the thick and humid air that permeated through the large bedroom because of the Spanish heat.

"If you were a sweet, you'd be a jawbreaker." Sean grumbled from the other side of the room — his words were directed towards Joey.

Emeline internally groaned at Sean's words. He'd been comparing everyone to sweets the entirety of last night and the joke was starting to get old. Although, she was rather happy that Sean had compared her to a peach ring.

The young blonde sat back and observed the rest of the islanders from behind her sunglasses.

Harriet had left hers and ciaran's bed to cuddle up next to Nicole, much to Sean's dismay.

Mimi and munveer were huddled under the covers with their heads poking out from the duvet. Emmie could still tell that the two were almost a foot away from each other.

Sam was still sprawled out asleep next to Samantha who was also sporting a pair of sunglasses.

Ayo and patsy were sat up, their eyes still heavy with sleep as they both tried to adjust to the bright lights.

Jess and Ronnie were still fast asleep, the latter had his hands clasped tightly around Jess' waist.

As Emmie's eyes reached Ciaran, they widened. At that moment, she was thankful that there was a thin later of dark plastic from the sunglasses protecting the islanders from seeing her prying eyes because as soon as she looked at the rugby player, his eyes were already glued to her.

•

"Hiya Hun, can I pull you for a chat really quickly?" Harriet walked up to the esthetician who was in the middle of applying eyeliner.

"Oh yeah of course, just let me finish this wing. They're more like distant relatives rather than sisters." She joked light-heartedly.

Harriet's eyebrows furrowed in response and she put a hand on her hip but her face still remained plastered with a wide smile.

"No I'd rather get this over and done with now."

This time Emeline's eyebrows furrowed. She didn't appreciate being spoken to in a condescending tone and she didn't like Harriet bossing her around. But, in typical Emmie fashion, she did what Harriet asked to avoid conflict.

The two girls made their way onto the terrace under the watchful gazes of most of the girls that were still getting ready.

"So what did you want to talk about?"

"Yesterday when Ciaran pulled you for a chat, I found your behaviour quite muggy." Harriet took a sip of her water and toyed with a strand of hair.

"What behaviour?" Emmie chuckled and rolled her eyes in disbelief. She truly couldn't fathom why Harriet found fault in her getting to know Ciaran. "It's the second day babes, I'm just getting to know him like I am everyone else."

A deep sigh left the older girl's mouth and she rolled her eyes before looking back in Emmie's direction.

"I just feel like could've approached me for permission — no not permission but like just a green light, because he'd been whispering sweet nothings in my ears but then going off and having what seemed like the time of his life with you in the kitchen."

Emmie stood there dumfounded, mouth agape in absolute shock and incredulity. Harriet being this possessive and controlling on the first day just rubbed her the wrong way, her rhetoric didn't even make sense to the londoner, it just sounded like Harriet was trying to create a problem for the sake of it.

"Look babe, I don't want this to progress into childish conflict — I don't see anything wrong with our conversation earlier but if you felt any type of way then you should have approached us and talked this through with him as well." Emmie stood up and finished her sentence before making her way back into the dressing room with raised eyebrows.

"What was that all about?" Mimii whispered from the beside the empty seat that Emmie had been sitting in before.

"I'll tell you later Hun."

Emeline wasn't stupid, she knew that Harriet was friends with most of the girls in the villa.

Dove speaks 🤍

This really shouldn've been a longer chapter but I knew I wouldn't be able to fit the recoupling in without making it more than four thousand words and that makes it hard for me to proof read after. The recoupling and subsequent events will be next! <3