Chapter 12

Ella

“Come on guys, you know I’m not one to kiss and tell,” I say in an attempt to keep the details of my date close to my chest. I just want to forget about it because I know we won’t be able to continue with any kind of relationship.

“So, you did kiss him!” Cameron shouts, as Kat giggles away.

“See, L! I knew we could get it out of you!” Kat says, nudging me in the side.

“Dammit, you guys, I just want to forget about it okay?” Why won’t they just leave me alone!

“Oh, come on L, you have to tell us, I mean did anything happen? Was he the one?”

“No,” I say sternly. At this rate nobody is going to be the one. I don’t care anymore.

“Alright, sorry, we’ll stop asking. But like, we want to know that you’re safe at least,” says Kat. “I mean, he was better than…you know… was he?”

Cameron and Kat look up at me, honestly wanting to know if Joe was any better than Aaron, my asshole ex-boyfriend from college.

“Of course he is. I mean, look at him. Joe is amazing,” I sigh.

The girls seem relieved and happy that Joe is a good guy, but we all know that a relationship won’t work.

“He was very sweet and he picked me up in his limo.” The girls’ ears prick up at the mention of a limousine, and I know they want to hear all about it, so I guess I can share some of the details.

“Oh. My. God! I’m so jealous.” Cameron gushes, “I’ve never been out in a limousine before! Did you stick your head out—”

“The window and go woo? Yes, of course I did! But that wasn’t until the end.” I roll my eyes, “It started off a little awkward, but then we got to talking at the restaurant. It was this gorgeous place on top of one of the skyscrapers in the middle of the city. It was incredible, you could even see the sunset!”

“Wow, L! It sounds so romantic,” Kat says, dreamily.

“He told me about what happened the other night, with his rich business friends from school. I kind of get why he was so drunk now. They seem like they’re pretty impossible to hang around with sober.”

“Oh good, so you forgave him then?”

“Yeah, I did. He was such a gentleman on our date. Then we had this incredible moment in the limo on the way home, and, well, I may have kissed him.”

The girls cheer and giggle away like school girls. I mean come on, is it really that big of a deal that I kissed him?

“How was it? Did he go in first? Was it more like this?” Cameron makes a smooched up face, puckering her lips, “Or was it more like this?” she sticks her tongue out and wiggles it at me.

“Ew, Cam, don’t be so gross.” Kat rolls her eyes, then pauses, “Okay, which was it?”

I can’t help laughing at them, “There was no tongue and I started it. We were leaning out of the sunroof and I tripped, he caught me, and it was a heat of the moment kind of thing okay?”

The girls sigh and almost faint back into their seats.

“This is such a great story, I’m excited for what happens next, you guys!” Kat exclaims.

“Oh crap, that guy over there is staring. I guess I better go wait on him,” Cam jumps up and heads over to the counter.

Kat stares back at the man and narrows her eyes.

“Something wrong?” I ask her.

“Yeah, that guy was staring at you. I don’t recognize him. Do you?” she asks.

I look over at the guy who is now apparently charming the pants off of Cam, because she is looking at him with complete googly eyes.

“No, I don’t. He was probably just trying to get someone’s attention to get served. Anyways, I’ve got to get to Joe’s.”

“Oooh!”

“For work!” I interrupt her with a hug before she can get excited.

I grab my bag and get up, I wave to Cam as I leave and notice that the guy she is serving is totally staring at me. How strange is that? Oh well, I’m actually in a good mood, weirdly. I’m not going to let it get to me!

* * *

I knock on the door to Joe’s and find myself wondering if I’m ever going to get a key. Is that something that nannies get? Or would that be weird? That I could just wander into his house whenever I wanted, even when he wasn’t here. What would I even do? I mean, I think I’ve already found the most interesting thing I could find. So what else would there be? Unless he’s got some crazy sex dungeon in the basement.

I really hope he doesn’t, I’m not ready for that... Or the laundry it might produce.

I can hear Joe running to the door now.

“Hi Ella, sorry about that. I was just trying to change a sheet,” he says, seemingly out of breath, like he ran down the stairs to get here.

“Are you alright?” I ask, as I step through the door, “Do you want some help?”

He pauses for a moment, almost as if he were just caught in a lie. Does it really take that much thinking to help change a sheet?

“Sure, that would be nice,” he laughs awkwardly.

Wow, what is with him today? He seems so jumpy, “So where’s Marnie?”

“Oh, she’s at an after school club. It’s actually good because I was hoping to get a few things sorted out before she got here if that’s okay?”

We go up the stairs and I follow him into his room, trying to act as if I’ve never seen his room before. The quilt and pillow are gently tossed on the floor next to the bed and there is a fitted sheet left in a pile on top of the bare mattress.

“I think it might have shrunk in the wash, because I can barely get it to stretch across now!”

“Hm. You men really can’t do anything without a woman around!” I stick my tongue out at him and I grab the end of the sheet. I stick one of the corners on and spread out the rest of the edges, “It should be easier if you get the opposite corner first.”

As Joe goes to pull the other side over the edge of the mattress I lean forward and push out the sheet as far as I can, I suppose I could have chosen a different position, but it’s actually hard not to be seductive around him. I find myself giggling to myself as I bend over on my knees at the end of his bed.

Joe looks up at me, about to speak, but chokes on his words as the sheet pings out of his hands.

“Come on Joe, it’s not that hard!” I laugh, handing the sheet back to him.

“I think you’ll find otherwise,” he kind of mumbles to himself, as he fits the corner of the sheet back on.

“What was that?” I raise my eyebrow at him.

“Uh—nothing,” he laughs and stutters.

We finish putting the sheets on and Joe goes to grab the pillows and covers. Am I a child? Maybe so, because I can’t stop myself from reaching for a pillow while his back is turned. I creep up behind him and smash him in the back of the head with the pillow, causing a very satisfying ‘whumpf ‘ as he drops the covers on the floor.

He looks up at me with a stern expression plastered across his face. I can’t help giggling and biting the tip of my finger nail. Aw come on, don’t look at me like that! I was only messing around.

Slowly, Joe goes to pick the pillow up off of the floor and he starts to laugh.

“You’re going to pay for that!” he says, swinging the pillow at me.

I laugh and scream as I dodge his swing and jump across the bed, grabbing one of the other pillows. I swing back at him, landing a few hits until he catches my pillow and throws it across the room so he can get me while I’m defenseless.

Quickly I dodge one throw and run past him, jumping on the bed to grab another pillow.

“Oh no you don’t!” he shouts at me, throwing his pillow and jumping forward to catch me on the bed.

We laugh and pant a little after running around, and I look up to see him on top of me on the bed. My mind blanks a little and I can’t remember what it was that I was doing.

He laughs a little nervously, unsure of what he was doing on top of me. He goes to speak and I land one last direct hit, right in his face with a pillow I managed to grab just before he jumped on me.

Joe rolls off and lays beside me, sighing, “I’m too old for this,” he says.

“Oh, come on, Joe. It’s just a bit of fun!” I reply.

“To you maybe, but for me, this is war! Just be thankful Marnie doesn’t have any water guns!”

So, surprise Marnie with water guns. Got it. I laugh to myself.

“So, what were you about to say? Before that pillow so rudely interrupted.”

“Right, yes of course. I wanted to go through Marnie’s schedule with you, and establish what times you should come in. Things like that, so we can make a proper time table for you.”

“Oh, right.” Remember, some people are actually professional when it comes to these things. Rather than being pillow fighting lunatics. “I think that’s a good idea.”

* * *

We sit in the kitchen together working out a full time schedule for me, and all I can think about is how not twenty minutes ago he was kneeling on top of me in his bed. My thoughts are driving me totally crazy, and I wonder how his are doing.

“Ella?” he asks.

“Oh, sorry, yes?” Ugh, my mind was in a whole other universe, what did he say? Get it together, L!

“How does that sound to you, is this a good schedule?” he asks, I assume for at least a second time.

“Uh, yeah it looks great!” I say, skimming over it, not really knowing completely what I was agreeing to.

“Great! So I’ll get it typed up and send a copy over to you tonight then.”

“Sure, thanks.”

I’ve got to change the subject so he doesn’t know I wasn’t paying attention.

“So Joe, could I have a proper tour of the house?” That should do it, keep him talking for a little bit more.

“Well, I think you’ve pretty much seen everything,” he says, grinning.

“Oh right,” I laugh awkwardly.

“It’s just my room, Marnie’s room and a guest bedroom upstairs, then my office, the living room, the dining room and here, downstairs. I suppose I could show you the garden properly?”

“And the pool?” my eyes widen a little.

“Yes, I can show you the pool,” he laughs.

We step out to the yard through the sliding door in the living room. There’s a huge wooden deck, up to the edge of the pool. It takes all of my strength to not push him in as he walks up to the edge.

It looks incredible out here in the afternoon sun, the water almost sparkles as it sits perfectly still.

“I used to love swimming, Joe. I’d go out to places all the time, but after college I just ran out of time.”

“You know, me too! I love swimming, I used to go out to beaches in the early morning just to get my mind off of things.”

“Me too!” I said, laughing.

He laughs, “Wow, I wonder if we’d been in the same year if we would have ever ended up at the same beach?”

“Yeah, maybe.” I can’t help smiling, I know we would have, and we would have ended up talking all the time about how we struggled with things, and we would have watched the sun rise, laying together on the sand… and maybe even gone skinny dipping because no one was around.

We smile at each other, awkwardly laughing at the thoughts going through our heads.

Unfortunately, we both missed the sound of the car driving up to drop Marnie off, and she decided it was a great time to run up on us as fast as she could, crashing directly into our knees, taking us both out and sending us straight into the pool.