Page 86 of Elijah
Amy
aged 28
Leon and I had been seeing each other for almost a month and things were going pretty well. He liked to take me on different types of dates, so we’d been to the horse races, on a ghost hunt, and more recently paintballing with his work colleagues. After really hating the idea at first, I ended up quite enjoying myself. I had a huge bruise on my bum from being hit while trying to run away, but otherwise, Leon had stuck to me like glue, protecting me as much as possible. I’d barely had to fire at anyone and even had bullets left at the end of the day.
I enjoyed Leon’s company and while I couldn’t say I was falling for him just yet, I could see it as a possibility. Not having seen Elijah for two weeks probably helped. After our coffee in the park, we hadn’t been in contact – not that I expected to. I think we both took that day for what it was, two people with the same grief needing to spend a little time together to share the pain.
When Elijah rejected the call from Mia, at the same time that I rejected Leon’s, for a brief moment I wondered if the act had meant something momentous to both of us. The thing was though, when we left the park neither of us said anything about it. We simply went our separate ways to our cars and nothing was mentioned. When I opened my car door, I looked up to see Elijah watching me from his truck. I held my breath, waiting for him to do something – anything, but he simply waved, got into the truck, and drove away and that was the last that I saw of him.
“So,” Claudia sighed as she came into the office with a couple of mugs of coffee. “You’re really going on this weekend away with the new fella, to see a bloody Laurel & Hardy exhibition?”
I rolled my eyes as she passed me my coffee, with a huge grin on her face.
Okay, so it wasn’t my idea of a fun time, but Leon was desperate to see it and had offered to pay for the hotel if I went with him. I declined his offer to pay, but he’d insisted and it would only be for a few hours out of two days. The rest of the time would be spent discovering and touring the Lake District.
“Yes,” I replied. “And I’m looking forward to it.”
“Well, you carry on telling yourself that,” Claudia muttered, as she started to type up the design plan for a local business man and his wife.
“I am,” I protested. “It’s going to be great and the weather forecast is good. We’ll be able to do lots of walking and sightseeing.”
“Oh, because that’s your favourite pastime,” she replied, sarcastically.
“I like walking and sightseeing.”
I tried to sound enthusiastic, but Claudia was right, walking or hiking, as it was more likely to be, wasn’t my idea of fun. I’d do it though, because Leon liked to and had already researched a couple of walks.
“And will you be sharing a room?” she asked.
I cleared my throat and coughed in an attempt to avoid answering her. It wasn’t something Leon and I had discussed. We hadn’t got past the kissing stage, which seemed ridiculous for two people in their late twenties, but I wasn’t ready. I was definitely attracted to him and things had got hot and heavy a couple of times, but that had been the limit.
I had no idea why I wasn’t ready. Leon was attractive and sexy and I was turned on during our make-out sessions, but sex wasn’t on my plan just yet. I’d slept with Seb almost straight away and there’d been the disastrous one-night thing with Finlay before we decided to be friends, but that was all both relationships were – sexual. To me anyway, I think both Seb and Finlay had other ideas. Maybe I wanted to do things differently with Leon because I could see that we had potential – who knew? What I did know was, I’d told him I couldn’t wait to go away with him and was now wishing I’d specifically asked for separate rooms, rather than wondering and knowing deep down that Leon would have booked a double room.
“You’ve still not broached the subject, have you?”
I shook my head and chewed at my bottom lip.
“You dick head, just ask him.”
“I can’t,” I grimaced. “If I do and he hasn’t booked a double, he might think that I want him to. If I ask and he has, well he might think I don’t fancy him and I do.”
“So what’s the problem? Go, shag him, and the job’s done,” Claudia tutted and continued typing.
“Because I don’t know if I’m ready for that.”
“What?” Claudia gasped in mock shock, her fingers hovering over the keys. “Are you telling me that you’re a virgin?”
“If you’re going to be sarcastic, I don’t even want to talk to you about it.”
Pushing my chair away from my desk, I moved over to a table of fabric swatches and started to search through them for something I could use for curtains for Matty and Carla’s baby’s room at Mum and Dad’s. I should have been sourcing lighting for the hotel job we were doing, but I was too agitated to think about proper work.
“How long before you slept with Elijah?”
Claudia’s question slammed into me, rocking me on my feet.
“Claudia!” I warned.
She raised her brow. “You asked me how Louise and I have sex, so I figured we had no secrets or boundaries.”
