Housemates

Chapter 92

Ellie’s phone’s alarm woke her an hour later. It was inside her bag, under the bed, and it took her a bleary moment to find it and switch it off.

She’d woken up still holding the pyjama shorts in her hand. That was a little odd, and a little sexy too, and wasn’t quite sure why she had. She looked at them for a moment, thinking about Mia, being tempted, but she made herself not.

She’d told Mia she wouldn’t, and she didn’t have time anyway. Her alarm going off meant she had to hurry to get ready and get to work.

She slid out of bed and put the shorts in the laundry basket, and tried to wake herself up. She thought for a moment, then pulled the sheets off the bed and put them in the wash too. She almost didn’t, because those sheets would smell like Mia, and Ellie liked Mia’s smell, but it bothered her how they’d been rolling around on the floor right before they got into bed. She was fairly sure she could get Mia to come back to make sheets smell nice again, if she asked.

She found clothes, the jeans and tee shirt she’d had on yesterday, enough just to get to the bathroom, and went and had a shower. Most weekday mornings she had twenty minutes with the bathroom to herself before Mark woke up, and she liked not needing to worry about taking turns and being fair.

While she showered she thought about Mia. About being alone with Mia, and how much she wanted to, and the best way to organize it.

She didn’t think either of their houses was manageable.

Ellie and Mark had never been big on asking each other to go away while they had people over. The few times it had mattered, when one of them had someone there, the other had just understood and stayed in their room. It usually worked, Ellie had found. It just wouldn’t right now, when Ellie was trying to hide who it was she was seeing. Ellie’s place was no good, and Ellie wasn’t sure if Mia’s place was the same, but it didn’t really matter anyway. Now Ellie had met Mia’s housemate, she’d be just as embarrassed if Tasha knew she and Mia were having a sex night, even if Tasha had left before Ellie got there.

Ellie thought for a while, as she washed her hair, and decided the sensible thing to do was go to a hotel.

It didn’t seem sensible. It seemed excessive, over-thinking, and would probably be expensive, but the more she thought, the more it seemed best for her.

It was best for her.

The cost didn’t matter, not if it meant they could both relax and enjoy what they were doing.

Ellie got out the shower, and went and got ready for work. She put on clothes, and didn’t think that much about what, because she was happy and thinking about Mia and didn’t really care, for once. She wore what she happened to see first, and left her hair mostly alone, and then went to make coffee.

She decided, while she did, that her impulse was right. They ought to just go to a hotel.

She got her phone, and texted Mia, and said, “I think we should get a hotel tonight.”

Then she sat for a moment, thinking. About phones and messages and how Mia was now under pressure to answer, and say something clever and sexy, and that Ellie didn’t want to pressure Mia at all.

Especially when Ellie didn’t care about clever and sexy.

All she cared about was yes.

She picked up her phone again. “Don’t answer too much, just say yes or no,” she texted. “Because pressure, and also, because I don’t want to talk to you like this all day. Sorry, but I don’t. Talking too much now will make waiting too much.”

She sent the message, then she sat there, slightly nervous, wondering what Mia would say.

After a moment Mia replied, “Yes. God yes.”

“Yay,” Ellie sent, “I’ll organize it. Don’t answer.”

Mia didn’t, and Ellie hoped she understood, and didn’t just think Ellie was weird and rude.

Ellie finished her coffee, and ate some toast, and went back to her room for her shoes and to do her makeup. She was only a few minutes, because she was still being quick, and by the time she was ready, Mark was leaving too. He usually only took five minutes between the shower and the door, and sometimes Ellie envied that.

They walked outside together. Ellie pulled the door closed and made sure it was locked.

Mark said goodbye, and then looked down the side of the house and said, “What’s that doing there?”

The bin, Ellie realized. It must still be on its side outside her window.

She said, “What?” anyway, because she’d been learning how to lie.

“The wheelie bin,” Mark said.

“Oh,” Ellie said, thinking. “I was just throwing shit out. Like old paper from uni. It seemed easier just to chuck it all out the window than carry it through the house.”

Mark nodded.

“It fell over,” Ellie said, telling herself she had to stop lying. “It must have been leaning lopsided, because it fell over before I started, and then I didn’t bother. That was all. I went to sleep instead.”

Mark grinned.

“I’ll put it back,” Ellie said and started walking up the drive.

Mark shrugged. He never really cared about things like that. It was what made him a good housemate, Ellie thought. That, and his hot friends.

“Don’t worry now,” Mark said.

“Nah,” Ellie said. “It’s fine.” She should move it anyway.

“Bye,” Mark called, as Ellie picked the bin up.

She waved, and wheeled the bin back to it’s place beside the garage. She walked back down the drive, and got into her car, and thought about being alone with Mia, and how much she wanted to taste Mia, and that she was going to dot hat tonight. It was an astonishing thought, after days of making a fuss, teasing them both.

She was going to, but first she needed to organize where.

She wanted to do it now. She was too impatient to wait, and also excited, and she had a feeling the only way she would get Mia and sex out her head would be to sort this out now, and then try not to think about it for the rest of the day. She got out her phone, and searched for hotels, and phoned the first one she’d heard of that seemed to be near the middle of the city.

She booked a room that night.

It was expensive, but it didn’t matter. She was fairly sure she needed to do this.

She’d told the hotel she’d check in at five, but she thought for a moment about what time to tell Mia. She wondered about seven or eight, so there was time to go home and change and get back into the city, because she wanted to avoid making the same mistakes twice.

She thought, but even seven seemed a long time to wait. She didn’t know she’d be able to stand waiting that long.

She had makeup in her bag. There’d be a shower at the hotel.

The only thing she needed to go home for was to change, and the more she thought about it, she didn’t know why she would bother.

She wasn’t going to be wearing much as soon as Mia arrived, so it didn’t seem worth delaying several hours, just to wear something nice for the first few minutes. It was silly. It would be better, simpler and sexier and everything else, just to wait for Mia naked.

Ellie decided she would.

She texted Mia and said, “Done, but don’t answer.” She told Mia where and that any time after six was good, and to text for the room number when she arrived.

Then she started the car, and drove to work, and tried not to think about Mia all the way there. She failed miserably. She had a whole day to get through, and she didn’t know how she’d manage, because she could hardly kept Mia out her mind for five minutes at a time.