Always and Only You

Chapter Sixty-Nine

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

Five years ago

She hasn’t seen him sitting in the darkened kitchen. As she crosses the threshold, he says ‘Hi …’ as softly as he can. She jumps back, pressing her hand to her chest. He stands and reaches for the light on the cooker hood and when he presses the button, a gentle glow fills his side of the room.

‘You scared the life out of me!’ she says, laughing nervously. Her face shows she’s considering sprinting back upstairs. It’s so easy to read her now, even though it’s the first time he’s seen her since she’s been away. He feels as if he knows her inside and out.

‘Sorry. Couldn’t sleep. Didn’t mean to scare you.’ Her expression doesn’t change at all as he issues his apology, and he adds, ‘I thought you were Simon.’

At the mention of his best friend’s name, she begins to glow again, even while she glances awkwardly at the floor. Gil tries not to notice her bare legs under Si’s shirt.

‘I just came to get some water.’

He nods, reaches into a cupboard, pulls out a glass and fills it from the tap for her.

‘Thanks,’ she says as she takes it from him. Her gaze shoots to the ceiling, where Simon must be snoozing above them and then back to the tiled floor.

He’s torn. On one hand, he can’t stand being so close while she’s treating him like he’s a stranger, but on the other, he’s waited so long to be in the same room with her, it feels like a wrench to get up and leave. He does it anyway. She’s feeling awkward, and he doesn’t want to do anything to cause her even the slightest discomfort.

As he passes her, he can smell her perfume – something floral with an edge of sandalwood, a fitting mix for a woman of so many facets, so many contradictions. ‘Night, E.’

‘Night,’ she replies softly as he walks down the hallway and closes his bedroom door behind him.