Just Friends?
Chapter Four
Elly sat there in the lift, impatiently waiting for Chloe's answer to her request for them to be friends again, "Well…do you think-?"
Elly was interrupted by the lift coming back to life, the lights flicked back on and the lift doors opened to the hotel reception.
Chloe's boss, Terese, rushed past the repair man to the lift entrance, "Chloe, are you okay…? Elly…what are you doing here?"
Chloe swallowed hard, then looking at the repair man as she got to her feet, "You work quickly and quietly…didn't even know you were here fixing the lift yet. I'm fine, thanks, Terese."
Elly stood up, addressing Terese, "I had to ask Chlo something but Chlo was trying to get rid of me because she didn't want Mark to see us together and she thought going upstairs instead of back to her office would get me off her trail. I caught up to her and I chased after her into the lift. This was entirely my fault for us been here. We weren't going up to a hotel room or anything."
Terese raised her eyebrow as Elly blushed deeply at her last comment, "That thought never would've occurred to me…uh…does Mark know you were trapped in the lift, Elly? I understand if you'd prefer me not to mention this to him because of how it could look…like you said...hotel rooms are where the lift leads to...it's our fault that the lift broke down so it's the least I can do."
Elly shook her head, "Mark's at the station and I didn't want to worry him…he'd be worried about the baby. He finishes late so I'll just fill him in tomorrow, you don't need to lie on my behalf, Terese. Anyway, I should probably…get out of this lift…and take the stairs next time."
Terese frowned at Elly's comment about Mark seemingly only been concerned by the baby and not Elly too but didn't feel it was her place to try and reassure Elly that Mark would be concerned for her wellbeing too.
Terese moved out of their way and both Elly and Chloe exited the lift but instead of taking off, Elly stood back waiting, explaining, "I'm still waiting for Chloe to answer a question."
"I should get back to work," Chloe decided, running her hand through her hair.
"Work? Chlo, you just spent half an hour locked in a broken lift, go home for the rest of the day. I'll see you tomorrow," Terese ordered.
Chloe opened her mouth to argue, but Terese pointed to the exit of the hotel, "Take the afternoon off…and answer Elly's question."
Chloe rolled her eyes, "Yes, boss."
Taking Terese's instructions, Chloe held onto her handbag as she exited the hotel with Elly trailing beside her.
Chloe and Elly had walked for nearly five minutes, heading back to Ramsay Street, before Chloe finally broke the silence, "Elly, are you really going to tell Mark tomorrow morning about getting trapped in the hotel lift with me?"
Elly nodded, "Yes, of course. I know he's going to call me on the fact that I sent that text telling him I left the Waterhole without saying goodbye to him because I was feeling so sick. I guess I might have to tell him I ran into you on the way out of the Waterhole and despite feeling the morning sickness I needed to talk to you anyway."
Chloe smiled, "I'm glad you're not intending on lying to Mark about this."
Elly bit her lip, thinking about all the lies she had already told Mark.
"What if Mark…does take it the wrong way…you and I in a hotel lift…and he thinks we were…?" Chloe trailed off not able to bring herself to suggest the idea of Elly cheating with her on Mark again because she knew it was never going to happen again.
"It's a risk…but if I come forward before he finds out otherwise then he should believe it was an innocent reason that we wound up where we did," Elly believed then even though she could feel her heart racing as she posited, "Mark probably wouldn't even think anyone would want a pregnant woman…he sure doesn't…and he knows how you and commitment can't be said in the same sentence."
Chloe chewed on the inside of her mouth feeling bad for Elly that Mark was clearly not treating Elly like she was the love of his life and then had to fight the urge to even think about if there could ever be a reason in the world that she wouldn't want Elly, including Elly been pregnant, if she was ever given a reason to think that Elly could ever return her feelings.
Realizing she had put Chloe in an awkward position to contemplate even the idea that been pregnant was the first of many reasons that Chloe would never want her again, Elly changed the subject, "Have you thought about what I asked…can we be friends again?"
Chloe slowed down the pace she was walking at, "I would like to be friends again…do you think it will be possible to get our friendship back on track?"
Elly smiled, "Yeah, I do. It's important to me."
"Then it's important to me too," Chloe agreed, "Will you be telling Mark…that you want us to be friends again? Or am I going to be a secret of yours?"
"I'll tell Mark tomorrow morning too," Elly decided, "You're not a secret, Chloe."
Chloe was surprised, "What if Mark doesn't want the pair of us spending time together? He has a reason to think it's a bad idea."
"What reason would that be?" Elly asked before she could stop herself, still wanting to know how Chloe felt about her after months of silence between them.
Chloe bit her lip but didn't answer, too afraid to tell Elly she was still in love with her.
Elly saw that Chloe wasn't going to answer her, "If Mark has an issue with this…it's not my problem. I might be married to him but I'm still my own person who can make her own decisions. I want us to be friends again because I've missed you and have really struggled without a best friend. Mark will need to understand that."
"Yeah but Mark hasn't spoken to me since he kicked me out of his house…I really don't see him wanting me to be anywhere near you," Chloe reminded Elly with concern.
Elly ran her tongue over her lower lip, "Yeah…but you're with Kyle now…right?"
"Ah…right…yeah…I mean yes I am…in a casual fling kind of way," Chloe hesitated before confirming, not really sure that Elly really understood that Kyle and her were most definitely casual despite claiming it several times and hardly worth mentioning to Mark as an excuse as to why he should let her spend time with Elly again.
"See so once Mark knows that you're off the market there is no other reason why we can't spend time together like we used to," Elly insisted.
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Chloe decided as the pair reached Ramsay Street, "I should let you get home. Text me tomorrow after you've spoken to Mark…or don't I'll get the hint that we can't be friends."
"Why do we have to wait until tomorrow?" Elly couldn't help but hide the disappointment in her tone, "You have the afternoon off, so do I…Mark won't be home until close to midnight…why don't we hang out for the rest of the day together?"
Chloe hemmed and hawed for a moment, "Because you had to point out Mark won't be home until midnight. I don't want to do anything behind his back. Talk to him tomorrow and then we can see where we stand."
Elly reached out and ran her hand against Chloe's shoulder, shocked to find herself getting an electric shock from the contact of Chloe, "It seems completely redundant that the two of us will just go to each of our homes and probably both just sit next to each of our pools separately. Please Chlo, I want to spend time with you…I want to be just friends with you and I need us to hang out together like we used to."
Chloe had trouble not reacting to the electric shock she got from Elly's hand on her shoulder and she quickly relented, "Okay…we can hang out for a couple of hours…watch some TV…sit by the pool…just talk and catch each other up on our lives…I'm not going to be staying for dinner or anything like that."
"Right…you have sex plans with Kyle this evening," Elly remembered as she struggled not to listen to her heart tell her she was jealous.
"No, because I don't want to risk Mark coming home early to check on you and the baby during his dinner break and finding us together," Chloe explained, then realized, "I totally forgot Kyle wanted to spend time together this evening…whatever…he was only trying to make Amy jealous…doesn't mean I'll actually be hooking up with him."
"Good," Elly whispered, glad that Chloe didn't seem overly invested in Kyle, "Shall we go to my place?"
"Lead the way, my friend," Chloe ordered.
Elly grinned happily and linked arms with Chloe as they walked over to her place with her friend.
'My friend'…see that feels completely normal and like we can get things back on track, Chloe thought.
'My friend'…something about that feels completely wrong but I know we can get things back on track…and maybe I can try to work out why the word 'friend' feels wrong, Elly thought.
