Capturing Ella

Chapter 55 - Ella

'Welcome home,' Joe said as I kicked the front door closed of our new flat. As I went to find the car parking place for the flat in the underground heated car park, he went upstairs to turn on the water and electricity or whatever manly stuff he wanted to do. It took me about five minutes to drive my way through the labyrinth that was the underground carpark and find the allocated spots for the two bedroom flat.

I had to admit the flat Maui had picked for Joe, and then added my name to the paperwork agreement, was absolutely amazing. It would be perfect. When you opened the door, there was a relatively long hallway, with hooks on one side. It then opened out to the right, with a bookcake. The bathroom was to the left, the two bedrooms to the right. If you kept following the hallway it led into an open plan lounge with the kitchen tucked into the left. It sat looking over a park, which had young children playing on the climbing frame and dog walkers.

Joe suddenly appeared in the hallway in front of me, grinning at me. I ran forwards and hugged him, Joe picking me up and spinning around as he buried his head into my shoulder, kissing my neck before he put me down.

'This is too surreal,' He whispered, looking around. 'Like this... this is all ours now.'

'That's kind of the thing about buying a flat,' I mumbled and he grinned down at me before kissing me softly.

'Come on, then, let's make this house a home.'

'Alright Mr. Homebase Advert Man.'

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'Ella, can you please put something more on?' Xav practically begged of me.

'What's wrong with what I'm wearing?'

'You are literally in a pair of your boyfriends boxers and a baggy shirt – get changed.' Zed hissed at me and I put my hand of my hip, squinting at him. 'Nice Calvin Klein's though, mate,' He added as a side comment to Joe who just looked mildly confused.

'Er, they're mine.'

'They're men's.'

'Did... did you live with me for fifteen odd years or no? Do I care if they're men's or not?' I argued back as Joe continued to watch me.

'No, but it's weird now.'

'Why is it weird now?' I argued back with my younger brothers, plonking myself down on the settee that had just arrived and sinking into it almost immediately. Joe mumbled something about making a cuppa and I knew exactly why. He didn't trust himself not to mention the baby when I was literally in just a shirt and a pair of boxers. Near enough all the furniture had arrived – apart from the stuff that was due to come tomorrow afternoon after the ultrasound. I had got changed into my version of pyjamas – a pair of Joe's old boxers (not that I'd tell my brothers they were Joe's) – and a baggy old shirt. This was exactly what I would wear if I was at home in Colorado (apart from they'd be my boxers and not Joe's) but both of them were kicking off about it.

'We're back!' Crystal shouted as she came back through the door that was on the latch, and I could hear both them and Sky taking off their shoes, the paper bags from the drive through KFC crunching in their hand.

'We got lots of chicken – I am loving where Ella is going with this.' Sky walked through.

'Pyjamas already? It's only seven.' Crystal retorted, walking straight into the kitchen with the food, saying something to Joe and he just nodded. I frowned wondering why they were still having private words about me.

'It's always pyjamas.'

'Yeah, we can't argue with that logic after Cornwall.' Sky joked back, sitting down beside me. I grinned at her but immediately felt bad for hiding the baby around her.