Castle Walls

Chapter 16: Expecting

Elena's PoV

Elijah and I make our way to Matt's apartment. He invited us for an evening of board games, pizza and probably drinks. Matt also invited Vicky and - of course - Rebekah. Those two have been all over each other for some time now.

Upon our arrival, it's Vicky who opens the door. "Hi guys! Elijah, nice to see you again. I think it's been almost a year."

"Yes, I'm afraid so. I've been too focussed on work and neglected my social contacts." he answers.

Vicky grins. "Huh. I almost forgot you're always so formal."

"I hope that's not a bad trait?" he asks as we enter the apartment.

Vicky laughs and I lean over to kiss his cheek. "No, don't worry." I say, "I think it's cute."

"Well that's a relief." he responds and kisses my cheek too.

Vicky shakes her head in an amused manner and leads us to the living room. Matt and Rebekah are already sitting on the couch whispering with each other and looking incredibly cheerful.

"Hey guys!" I greet them. "Hope we're not interrupting?"

"Uhh, no no, not at all!" Rebekah quickly stammers and Matt gets up from the couch.

"Elena, Elijah, hey. Would you like something to drink? Wine perhaps?" he asks. Elijah gratefully accepts the offer and I decide to stick with water.

"Okay, what should we start with? Ludo? Codenames? Or perhaps Concept?" Matt asks.

We agree on codenames. My husband, Vicky and I against Rebekah and Matt. Since Rebekah and Matt are quite experienced with the game while Elijah is playing it for the first time, we agree it is fair enough.

"And if we lose, we can always blame it on being outnumbered and demand a rematch." Rebekah adds, grinning.

We start playing. Matt and his girlfriend quickly get a headstart making it difficult for Vicky, Elijah and me to catch up, but it is still a lot of fun. Matt's couch is really comfortable and it is very nice to talk to them.

"By the way, did we mention Matt and I are going on a weekend trip together next month?" Rebekah innocently asks.

I squeal and look at my husband with a huge grin on my face. "O my god, that's amazing! I'm so happy for you guys!"

"Sounds like things are getting serious then." Vicky states. She looks a lot more sober than me right now, even though she is the one drinking beer. Then again, she is always suspicious when it comes to her brother's girlfriends. One, because his first girlfriend dumped him and left him hurting badly and two, because she is working with less than friendly people on a regular basis. She told me once that her coworkers as well as her clients could be really hard to deal with sometimes.

Matt just grins and takes Rebekah's hand. "Guess you could say that, yeah." he says. Rebekah smiles shyly and even blushes a little. Wow. Seeing her behave like that tells me she must be completely smitten. Good for them.

"Wood, three." Matt adds. Rebekah considers for a moment. Then, she points at three different cards on the board, with the words 'forest', 'bench' and 'spoon' on them. Matt smiles and marks them as correct.

My husband interferes. "Wait, how did Rebekah know that 'spoon' was also a wood-term?" he asks confused.

I calmly explain again: "Matt said three. That means, there were three cards with terms related to the term 'wood'. So Rebekah chose the three words that sounded most related to wood to her. But she didn't know, she guessed. That's the point of the game, honey."