Ellie's Return (9 page)

Ellie had boyfriends through university, a
couple were long term, and nobody ever thought they were serious. Claudia’s
love life was less conspicuous but sometimes she would disappear for a few
weeks at a time and then reappear as though nothing had changed. There had
never been a conversation about her sexuality because it had never seemed to be
anything of a mystery.
 
Certainly
she was only ever herself; Ellie did ask her once if she liked boys and
Claudia, who had been humming a tune, continued the hum unbroken except to look
at her as though she had asked a question of exemplary foolishness.
 

Their sexual relationship had begun one
morning, when Ellie had stayed over at Claudia’s little cottage soon after she
had moved into it. Ellie had not yet met Tom; she had only known Little
Crompton at all at first because Claudia was from Little Crompton. She and Lola
had visited Claudia’s parents house one summer and Lola was taken with the town
and decided she liked it. Ellie moved here only later when she had met Tom, so
she was visiting on this occasion. She was lying in Claudia’s bed on a Saturday
morning. There was nothing unusual about that since the girls often slept in
each other’s beds when staying over, so she had thought nothing of it. She had
woken a couple of times during the night to hear Claudia moving around or
sighing, unable to sleep, so she assumed she had finally dropped off and would
not disturb her. Ellie had heard a movement after a while and turning her head
had seen Claudia was sitting up on the edge of the bed. It was early daylight
outside, a dim light penetrating beneath the short curtains of the bedroom.
Claudia was wearing a silk robe, which she slid off her shoulders as Ellie
watched, silently; her dark wavy hair fell against her back. She raised her
head back and lifted herself onto her arms, with her shoulders pushed back.
Then she rotated her body from her waist, and Ellie watched as she saw a
glimpse of her left breast as Claudia lifted her hair up from her neck and
turned her body around at a side on angle to her.
 
She had a tattoo on her shoulder, and
instead of asking what it was, Ellie for some reason reached out to touch it.
Claudia sighed, and Ellie raised herself up behind her, kneeling on the bed, as
she got closer. It was a small black and pink cherry blossom, quite beautiful.
Ellie stroked it and she knew she was doing it to hear Claudia sigh, and that
it was turning her on to know she was having this effect on her. Claudia did
not speak, she continued to sigh, seemingly entranced by the gentle caresses of
Ellie’s fingers.
 
At first Ellie had
touched only the tattoo, but Claudia’s sighs had encouraged her, and she was
tempted to push, to see if Claudia would let this happen.

She had run her fingers down her back, and
then to her sides. The anticipation was turning them both on and each wanted
more but was afraid to push it too far. Claudia did not resist but allowed her
to touch her, as she wanted, to explore her. Ellie was glad of Claudia’s capitulation
to her but nervous too. She had kissed the tattoo when she first explored it,
now she lifted Claudia’s hair and kissed her delicate neck softly, at the same
time stroking her side, then her abdomen, then playing for a sigh as she gently
reached up in steps to feel her firm breasts with their hard little nipples. At
that, Claudia had decided that this really was happening and had turned around
and kissed Ellie full on, first on the mouth, then down her neck and over her
whole body, discarding as she went the scant under-clothing she had worn in
bed. Ellie was ecstatic with the novelty of the experience but no less than
Claudia who had hoped against hope that this could happen for them. She was
leading now, and she stretched Ellie’s anticipation to its limit’s, increasing
her first and every successive orgasm to its maximum intensity over several
hours that day. Neither one of them spoke at first. Ellie had screamed out
repeatedly at her first orgasm and was still trembling minutes later, then
lying in what looked like a catatonic state until Claudia spoke to ask if she
was all right.

 
They did not talk about the relationship
for the weeks that followed, either because they did not think it was turning
into one, or fear that recognition of it would bring them to a reality they did
not want to confront. Every other day and at the weekends for the next month
they were together, with Ellie travelling down from work every day or claiming
to her boss that she was working at home. They spent their days by turn being
homely, quiet and relaxed or engaging in sudden and prolonged surges of passion
that went on for hours, exhausting them both in each other’s arms until time
was nothing to either one of them. Ellie would do everything she could think of
to turn Claudia on, she would talk to her the way she could never get any man
to do, she would dress up for her, wearing only an apron to answer the door
when Claudia popped out without her keys. She would massage her, take her on
walks where they could make love with the threat of being caught, and tantalise
her with her own body, which Claudia worshipped, and which in turn would only
excite her more.

For all this, she knew she was building
Claudia up for a fall. She knew because she had known the intensity of her
friends feeling even before this was ever likely to happen and Claudia could
have lived with unrequited love as a fact of life we all have to bear at one
time or another. Ellie knew that she had pushed things further than she ought
to, because she had fed her memories to repent on at her leisure, and fuelled
her fantasies knowing that she could stop the affair at any moment that the affair
tripped over from novelty to reality, and that was what she did. Eventually the
time came when she had been with Claudia for a weekend but had been distant
from her, and Claudia knew what was coming because she had known it all along.
She had grown closer to Ellie of course, and she had dared to hope that things
would happen between them that she knew would not. It was not impossible because
of Ellie’s inexperience of a same sex relationship; if anything that factor was
going to go in Claudia’s favour. Sex was the thing about this relationship that
Ellie would not regret; she had experienced unimagined sexual elation and
become besotted by it, and by being the thing that besotted somebody else. The
problem was that she had only really engaged on a sexual level, and had avoided
any conversation that might be about how unusual this was for her, so Claudia
had known that she was thrilled and elated by it but that first flush would die
off soon and then she would know if there was anything left for them.

Ellie was guilt ridden after that. Claudia
may have known it was coming but she cried more than she slept for another
month again. Ellie went home after their frank discussion and avoided Claudia
for a while, partly at Claudia’s request and partly for her own needs. Each of
them feared the loss of a friend, the one they would turn to. Ellie had long
known that Lola was not the person to turn to in an emotional crisis; there was
something about her that either lacked experience of emotional things, or
lacked a sense of how they could matter. Claudia had other friends but nobody
who could console her, but she had always known it would end, and would not have
lived a moment less of their month together for knowing it.

Thirteen

It had already occurred to Ellie that she
may have been better off not coming home at all, but that now she was here she
may as well know for good whether when she left it should be for good, even if
she did not long return to Venice. The morning had shot past, since she had
been horribly upset by the revelation about Tom and Lola being together, but
had still managed to follow that up with several orgasms at the skilful hands
of her ever accommodating friend Claudia, who had taken to the task with an
impressive zeal, creating a small endorphin tsunami to delay Ellie’s pain to a
later hour, long enough for her to absorb the facts of it more before deciding
what to do next, even if her head was still a little cloudy.

She had expected that the only thing Lola
could possibly do with her was brazen it out about Tom, and tell Ellie she
would have to like it. Obviously even someone as upfront as Lola would be
expected under the circumstances to choose her moment to be as tactful as
possible, but now that Ellie was quite sure Lola had been receiving her
messages about coming home, she knew that Lola had at least had the time to
contemplate this and could be expected to have thought about how to proceed.

Lola insisted on getting the coffee’s
while Ellie took a table, and as Ellie watched her as she stood in the queue
she fancied that her body language made her look uncomfortable, for all that
she was smiling when she turned around. She was probably rehearsing her
responses, or filling her head with questions so that she could gush them at
her as soon as she sat down, so that no conversation would have a chance to get
going and Lola could make good her escape before telling her anything. Ellie
was wondering how to respond to these scenarios when she looked up and saw that
Lola was already back bearing a tray with coffee’s, and chocolate brownies, as
if that was going to cut it.

Ellie had already decided to lead so that
Lola could not overwhelm her with questions, so as soon as Lola went to speak
she cut her off and asked her about the event she was holding that evening.
What was it for, who was going, did she say it was for charity, where was it,
is it black tie?

Lola was still trying to respond to the
first of these questions as they came thick and fast. Yes, it was black tie she
said, just a charity thing, boring, she’d got roped in.

Ellie agreed that it sounded like a
terrible bore to have to do things like that when all you want to do is run a
business, and Lola said it would soon be over. She was starting to ask Ellie a
question about how long she was staying and what she would be up to but Ellie
asked her about her business, and Lola looked as though she would rather have
an answer to her question but she responded that it was good, and she had spent
a lot of money on renovating the arcade branch because it was the flagship
store and now she was nearly finished with the other two branches too, so in
future when she opened a shop they would all look the same, and she was
starting to become quite animated but then she realised that she had not
received the call yet and it was twice as long in coming as it should have
been. She had even chosen this coffee bar because she could waste time queuing
instead of talking. She reached into her purse to check her phone and realised
she had left it in the office.

She could not stay here indefinitely, it
was only a matter of moments before Ellie asked her about the men in her life;
it was a favourite subject and would usually have been one of the first
questions that either of them asked, so Lola was uncomfortable with the fact
that Ellie had not yet asked it, and needed to get away before she did. She
stood up to go and said that she was so sorry but she was waiting for an urgent
call and she had left her phone behind. Ellie said no problem she would come
with her, but Lola insisted that she would be on the phone for quite a while
when she finally spoke to the caller. She would go now, and hope that they
catch up soon.

As she turned to go, with no talk of when
they would meet up or how she would contact her, she asked Ellie how long she
was staying. Because she was feeling mischievous Ellie decided to add some
confusion and she said she did not know, she might be here indefinitely, she
was thinking of going into the property business. Lola looked taken aback by
that, and seemed to want to know more but she had insisted already that she
really had to go. She said, right, well we will have to catch up, and as she
got to the door, Ellie called out:

“Tell Tom I will be needing some tips from
him!”

Fourteen

Lola had spent the afternoon fretting
about what Ellie may have meant by that. Did she know then, about her and Tom,
or did she just assume that they were still friends? She had wanted to go back
and shake Ellie, scream in her bright sunny face and ask her what she knew, but
she had already insisted on leaving and not having time to talk.

Did it matter? She kept asking herself why
it mattered that someone she did not care for might have rumbled her for being
with someone else who, incidentally, she also did not care for. It should not
matter, but maybe Ellie was over Tom after all, and perhaps he would be more
pleased to see her than he expected and they would get talking. It did not
matter if Ellie never wanted to talk to Lola again unless she did want to talk
to Tom, because Lola’s whole plan had revolved around them being too
antagonistic ever to speak to each other again, and if they did speak it would
not have to be long before they realised that she had set them up for a fall.
They would want to know why, although if Tom had any sense he would at least
have worked out why she would not let him go and had him trapped now, so that
did not matter so much, it only mattered if they realised she had split them up
in the first place.

In the end she had no choice but to find
out more, so she decided that since the charm offensive was the most offensive
she could be she would invite Ellie along this evening and tell Tom that he was
not needed so he could go and crawl under whatever stone he crawled under at
weekends. She would tell Ellie about Tom and say he was away on a long trip and
it was a shame because they might have been able to talk as friends, except
that he had changed so much she was not surprised it had not worked out between
he and Ellie. He might seem pleasant at first, Lola would say, but then she
would throw in some stuff about his moods, his drinking, womanising and how she
had needed to step in and save the business.