The Photographer

(10) Hotel room confessions

Ben: Wow! Dinner with Seb and Britta! I'm so jealous! Enjoy it! See you when you get in, love you xxx

Iris locked her phone and dropped it back into her bag before the guilt could start to set in. Sharing the lift up to the fifth floor with Seb and Britta, she could feel the German woman's eyes burning into her flesh. Britta was not amused by this turn of events and Iris had tried to make light of it, saying how she'd messaged Ben and how he was jealous that she got to dine with Seb and he didn't. Telling Ben that she was dining with Seb and Britta wasn't a total lie, it was partly true except that Britta wouldn't be joining them.

Seb was buzzing at getting this time alone with Iris and nudged Britta before shooting her an annoyed look, silently warning her to continue keeping her thoughts to herself and not stare at Iris like she was. He'd got the message the first time, knew that Britta didn't want to see him getting hurt but the chances of anything happening between himself and Iris was slim, she'd never leave Ben for himself. But at the same time, he was curious to explore this connection he felt to her, just in case there was that chance that he could make her his. He wasn't stupid, he wasn't going into this blindly, he knew to keep his expectations in the friend zone and knew it would hurt and make him feel jealous whenever he'd see her with her husband. But the way Iris made him feel, the way this thing he had for her inside of him was growing bigger and bigger every time he saw her, he had to take this chance to get to know her more, to find out if she was truly happy with Ben because what he'd seen this morning was awkward.

The lift doors opened on their floor and the three of them stepped out together, with Britta arching a brow at him in yet another silent warning to be careful. Thankfully this is where they parted company, with her heading in one direction and Seb and Iris walking in the opposite direction.

"I get the impression that Britta's not happy with us having dinner together," Iris said quietly while Seb kept an eye for his room number on the doors that they passed.

"She's protective, too protective at times," he replied, "I'll speak to her tomorrow morning, she'll probably try and quiz me over breakfast. I'll remind her that we're just friends."

"I guess you're used to everyone romantically linking you to every woman you speak to but not from her."

He stopped as they reached his door and then started to rummage in his rucksack for his room card, "oh she does that too and I've lost track of the number of times she's tried to set me up with someone. Ah, found it."

"It's just the married ones she doesn't like then," Iris remarked as he opened the door and held it open for her to enter first.

He wanted to say that usually Britta was fine with married women because he never felt anything for them and never experienced a connection with them like he did Iris. Instead he half joked, "maybe you're special," as he switched a couple of lights on. She was special, really special.

"Impressive room," she remarked, finding herself in a small lounge. As she took in the space around her it turned out that his hotel room was in fact, a mini suite.

"Make yourself comfy, there's a room service menu on that little table by the window," he called out as he went into his bedroom and then the en-suite to take a pee.

She dropped her bag onto the chocolate brown sofa and picked up the room service menu. While the food was quite reasonably priced and in line with a hotel like this, the prices on the wine list were eye watering. It didn't matter, she'd be sticking to water anyway.

Having washed his hands and removed his trainers, he loitered in the doorway to his bedroom for a moment, drinking in the sight of her. For a while this evening, he could play make believe and pretend that she was his.