Charming Mr Stewart

23. Sneaky Suspicion

Elle had been absolutely, positively sure about it as they'd left the party. Absolutely sure it was what she should do. While emptying her gut of what little dinner she'd had, she had planned her goodbye. It would have taken place on their ride to his apartment. She'd give him a demure kiss on the cheek, a small toast to the wonderful dream he'd been. She'd get out of the car and walk into the building, alone and broken, and completely sworn off love despite utterly loving the man. After the night she'd had, she was pretty sure she didn't fit into his world, nor he did hers. It would just be too damn difficult.

As soon as the cab pulled up outside the building, Dean jumped out and opened her door. He had been so agitated throughout the ride that as Elle stood on the curb, she no longer had the heart to say goodbye to him at that moment.

As they walked into the building, while they rode the elevator up, while she watched him open the apartment, she just couldn't bring herself to utter the words. As he kissed her intently as if for the first time and made love in the room's silence, so many scenarios ran through her head. What their life could be like together. What her life was going to be like without him? How she could see herself grow old with him, or how he may wake up one day down the track and wonder why he'd even stuck with her. None helped her either way.

Instead, she lay beside him, listening to the low hum of his breathing as he slept, a hand holding onto her as if he feared she'd leave while he slept. She hoped the sun would take whole millennia to rise. What she had to do in the morning was going to hurt him much more than she'd ever wanted to.

She couldn't really say when she fell asleep and woke up in a dark room. Dean still lay beside her. Had she turned the lights off? She couldn't quite remember. Perhaps Bonnie was home?

She snuck out into the hallway and crept to Bonnie's room. The door was ajar, and she peeked in to see a perfectly made bed and the hurried mess of a makeup bag still strewn across it. Bonnie hadn't come back yet.

Elle looked at the wall clock down the hall, surprised it was almost six in the morning. She walked back into Dean's room and grabbed her phone off the nightstand.

'Bonnie. Where are you? Are you safe?' She messaged.

Elle waited impatiently, watching Dean sleep without a care. She stroked his lush hair gently, savouring the feel through her fingers, trying to imprint that sensation in her mind. This day was going to wreck a lot of things. Bonnie had spent the night with a man who wasn't her boyfriend, and Elle had just loved a man like it was for the last time.

Moments later, her phone vibrated in her hands. 'I messed up, Elle.'

'What did you do? Are you okay?' Half an excruciating minute later and still no reply, Elle sent another message. 'Where are you?'

And it felt like an age before her phone shook in her grip. 'Am at Joel's...n...I messed up! Can u come get me? Please!'

'Where is Joel's place? Are you okay?' Elle pressed the send button, her breath caught in her throat as she imagined Lachlan's face when he finds out.

'I don't know where I am.'

'I'll ask Dean to take me to you.'

'Don't tell him. '

'I have to, Bonnie. He's the only one who knows where you are. See you soon.'

Elle waited a minute to gather her thoughts before she caressed Dean's arm. He rose immediately when he saw her tense. "What's wrong?"

"We have to pick up Bonnie."

"Where is she?"

Elle remained quiet. She didn't exactly know what to say.