Housemates

Chapter 34

Mia’s apartment was in a newish building not far from the middle of the city. It wasn’t a tower, just three or four stories in a street full of three or four stories, but it was a nice area and the street had trees.

Ellie was quite impressed.

Mia drove into an underground garage, and parked, and then spent a minute looking for things in her car, finding her phone, getting her bag, and then getting another, a briefcase, from the back seat.

She looked like a completely normal person, doing completely normal things. Not someone Ellie was obsessed with. Not someone who could make Ellie feel what she felt. And also, Ellie suddenly thought, not the video-game playing floor-sitter Ellie was used to seeing at her place.

Just someone getting home from work.

Mia looked up, and caught Ellie watching. She grinned for a moment, then slowly stopped grinning, and just looked at Ellie, terribly seriously.

“What?” Ellie said.

Mia shook her head.

“Tell me,” Ellie said.

Mia shrugged. “Just, we’re here. Finally.”

“Almost here,” Ellie said, and Mia nodded.

Without quite realizing she was, Ellie had been leaning towards Mia. They kissed, and kept kissing.

“Um,” Ellie said, after a moment. “Just so you know. I’m going to right here if we don’t get out the car.”

“Yep,” Mia said.

“I don’t really care right now,” Ellie said. “I’m just saying so you know.”

Still kissing, Mia reached over, and opened Ellie’s door. She pushed it, so it swung.

“Go,” she said. “Because same.”

Ellie was pleased. She liked she could make Mia feel that way too. She turned, and swung her feet out the car, and got out before she changed her mind.

And Mia just watched, unmoving, almost as if she was changing hers too.

Ellie stood beside the car. She was on the side nearest the lifts, so she waited where she was. Mia came around the back of the car, and probably didn’t even mean to, but she walked close to Ellie, so Ellie said, “Hey,” and caught her arm, and kissed her again.

Mia looked surprised, then pleased, then just desperate.

They kissed some more. They kissed a lot more, most of the way to the lift.

They kissed standing beside the car, while Mia pushed on her remote to lock it, and then reached around Ellie and tug the handle to make sure it was done. They kissed behind a concrete pillar halfway to the lift’s door, and even though it was only thirty steps, they stopped to kiss anyway. They kissed as Mia pushed the button to call the lift down, and kissed as they waited.

Mia’s mouth felt hungry on Ellie’s. It was warm, and soft, and her kisses felt as frantic for Ellie as Ellie felt for her.

Mia seemed to be running out of hands, and seemed not to want to have no hands. She kept shifting her briefcase and bag and the keycard for the lift from one hand to the other, and using the free hand to touch Ellie’s face, then seeming to feel something about to slip and letting go of Ellie to grab whatever it was she was about to drop.

All while kissing.

In the end, Ellie took the briefcase away from her, and it worked better after that.