Page 21 of We'll Meet Again

Billie rolled her eyes. “Oh, fuck off,” she muttered into her wine glass.

Chuckling, Tessa returned the noodles over to the stove top, and stirred them into the sauce. Billie watched her in order to avoid Ethan’s eyes across the table.

“Need any help, Tess?” Billie said. If she could get up and walk away from him it would be easier.

“Nope, almost done,” Tessa assured her. “All that’s left is to plate it up.”

Billie deflated. There wasn’t really enough space in their kitchen for two people to cook anyway, but that would have been a nice buffer between her and their visitor. She had half expected Ethan to comment on the size of their place, but she remembered all too well what he’d said about his own upbringing. In fact, he seemed right at home in a modestly sized place. Tessa served them first and then retreated back to the kitchen to hang up her flowery blue apron before joining them at the table.

“Well, tuck in!” she said.

Nobody needed telling twice. Billie took her first bite, and let out a soft moan at the flavor. “Holy shit, Tess, this is amazing!”

“It really is,” Ethan agreed after swallowing. “I’ve never had homemade sauce before.”

“Thank you!” Tessa said, beaming. “It’s my first time making it, I’m glad it’s not rubbish.”

“Never,” Billie said.

“You’re not just saying that because I feed you?”

“Billie doesn’t cook?” Ethan asked.

“Fuck no,” Billie scoffed.

“Billie’s a right menace in the kitchen,” Tessa added.

“You could always learn,” Ethan said, addressing Billie directly that time.

“Ach, no, therein lies the problem,” Tessa said. “Bills hates to fail. And the only way to never fail is to not try.”

Billie forced her eyes down to her plate, but she could feel Ethan’s gaze on her. Tessa’s phone rang, she excused herself to answer it (it was her mother, after all), and stepped out of the flat and into the hallway, as if she hadn’t just stripped away a core piece of Billie’s meticulously crafted armor with all the carelessness most people used to rip up credit card offers in the post.

Ethan toyed with his fork for a moment before meeting Billie’s gaze. “Can I ask you something?”

She hesitated, but nodded. “Sure, I suppose.”

“Have I done something to offend you?”

Her instinct was to look away, to avoid that earnest look in his eyes, that searched hers, and if he looked long enough, she would crack. “That’s the thing, I don’t know.”

The answer was as honest as she could be without sounding insane. Some part of her was mad at him. Her heart was drawn to him, and yet recoiled at the thought of getting too close, like it had reached out before and been burned. But there was no logical explanation for that feeling. All she was sure of was that she didn’t want to get burned again.

“Well, do you think you could ease up?” he asked. “I’d sorta like to get to know you.”

She stiffened. “Why?”

He didn’t answer right away, though he maintained eye contact with her as he mulled it over. Then he grinned. “That’s the thing, I don’t know.”

She almost smiled in return.

“What I do know is that I feel…something when I look at you,” he went on, serious now. “Like we’ve met before, but in a dream or…” he trailed off and ran a hand through his hair. “Listen to me, talking nonsense.”

Billie had to catch her breath. Her heart was suddenly fluttering against her ribcage. He felt it too? It made her feel less like she was going crazy, but it also made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

“I know what you mean,” she admitted, in almost a whisper. “Doesn’t it scare you?”

“No,” he answered readily. He leaned on the table closer to her. “It doesn’t scare me at all.”

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