Ell noticed your change in attitude the second you walked through the door to your shared apartment. Maybe it was the stupid smile splitting your face in two, or the fact that you didn't immediately sneer at the state of your apartment. (It was clean. Ell must have got a call from her divorce lawyer. She cleans when she's stressed. Which happens to be often. It's not your fault you practically raised yourself. Which definitely didn't entail cleaning anything up.)
Either way, Ell noticed. You didn't even get your key out of the lock and the door shut behind you before she was commenting on the fact.
"Do my eyes deceive me or is Carmilla Karnstein actually happy?" You rolled your eyes as you walked over into the kitchen where she was leaning against the counter, cupping a steaming mug of tea between her hands. She didn't wait for your response before mock gasping. "Who died?! Wait, was it your mother?! Because that wench of a woman can go straight to-" She was lucky you loved her because honestly, she was worse than your brother sometimes.
"No one died, Eleanor." She hated it when you called her by her full name, but the glare you always got in response always made you feel a teensy bit smug.
"Well, if no one died then what has you all 'sunshine and rainbows and unicorns'?" You went to comment on the fact that you were in no way associated with sunshine or rainbows - well, maybe rainbows - or unicorns, but she, again, didn't bother to wait for you to answer. "Oh. My. Gosh! It's a girl!" You were going to deny it, but your face flushed crimson and that alone was confirmation enough. "Yes, finally! Who is she? Is she cute? What's her name? Where'd you meet?!" She was standing directly in front of you now, practically vibrating with excitement. It reminded you of Laura - all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns - and you instantly felt your lips pull up into a small smile that Ell very much noticed. "Aw, you like her." The smile left your face just as quickly as it appeared and in it's place, a glare, directed at the shining blue eyes invading your personal bubble.
"What are we, twelve?" You rolled your eyes and went to step around your flatmate, but she caught you mid stride with perfectly manicured nails at the tips of her slender fingers around your forearm.
"Come on, Milla. Give me something! You haven't been this smitten since that- actually, no, since never. And the day you adopted your cat doesn't count. He's a cat," she whispered that last part. A loud mew sounded from somewhere down the hall and you smirked. Ell rolled her eyes and let go of your arm, allowing you to push past her, reaching into the corner cupboard. "Sometimes I forget he's practically your feline reincarnate."
"And he hates you just as much," you sing-songed, accompanied by a sickly sweet fake grin as you turned around and began to pull out a stack of Oreos. Ell scoffed.
"Bullshit, he loves me. Don't ya Baggy?" You sniggered when Bagheera let out a low hiss from somewhere in the living room. "Damn cat. I need to start sleeping with protection or one day you're going to wake up and no longer have a roommate. He'd probably hide my body and everything."
"Dramatic much?"
"Not even, but enough about your cat. Tell me about this girl, Carmilla, or so help me, I will follow you around and find out who she is myself." She wasn't joking. That was how she caught her now ex wife cheating on her with her older brother. Needless to say, she doesn't talk to either of them anymore.
The look in her eye told you you had no choice in the matter, so you did. You told her everything. And it wasn't until 3am the next morning that she finally got a chance to put in her two cents.
"Well, shit, Milla. When's the wedding? I better be your maid of honor."
You made sure to smack her arm for that one before the two of you fell asleep on top of the covers of your queen sized bed, Bagheera curled up above your head.
The next morning, you didn't wake up until your last alarm sounded at noon, cleverly named, 'welp, you're late as hell anyway, might as well just stay home'.
You texted your sister that you wouldn't be coming into the gallery and she called you back almost immediately, leaving a voicemail when you didn't answer, demanding that you come in over the weekend and that she'd be sending your assignments to your inbox.
You didn't mind working weekends. It just meant you didn't have to deal with the other idiots your sister hired.
But it also meant no Laura.