Chapter 11

• “Come on, Rob, hold it still!” Ella was wobbling on the ladder as she adjusted her balance for the umpteenth time, having agreed to come around and help with some projects while his girlfriend was on a trip. It was supposed to be a nice surprise that she'd come back to him done with his 'honey do' list and a lovely candlelight dinner. It had also included greeting her with a luxurious bath, but Ella had managed to talk him into setting up a shower and leaving the bath till after, throw in a massage and she'll be in heaven.
• “How do you know her, apparently better than I do?” he'd asked, just done with re-skimming the wall in the hall ready for painting later, splatters of plaster mix nearly head to toe. “It's the ritual,” she responded in a dramatically spooky tone, pressing the nail gun into the upturned stool again as she replaced the padding and fabric. “Women talk. I may have low-key got her to tell me while asking about her trip, steered it gently towards doing something similar at home to relax, which led to asking what her ideal relaxing night in would be for the sake of comparison and ideas.” When she finally raised her gaze, Ella was grinning, proud of herself at the way Rob was regarding her in an impressive way.
• It was comfortable, and she far from minded spending one of her days off helping a friend - especially knowing his lady would be over the absolute moon to finally have the things are done that had piled up while they were both busy. Mara was an amazingly sweet woman, who got along with Ella like a house on fire - unfortunately, she was only mildly less concerned about Ella's life. Sometimes it felt like they were trying to parent her. Which just made it all around ick.