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‘Sorry, you’re right. But I just need a bit more time to process. You go first.’
Fliss suppressed a groan, schooling herself to appear as normal as she could.
‘I’ve no idea where to begin, either.’
‘Okay.’ Elle grinned suddenly. ‘Remember what we did at uni? First animal to pop into your head. Don’t think. Just say.’
‘Dog.’ Fliss floundered, thinking how unoriginal her answers had always been.
‘Favourite colour?’
‘Purple.’
‘What’s the big news?’
‘I kissed Man Candy.’
A stunned silence filled the room, so loud Fliss could hear it thrumming in her ears. She willed Elle to say something. Anything.
‘Are you serious?’
Fliss’s heart flip-flopped. She hadn’t realised how much she really wanted to hear Elle’s approval.
‘Serious.’ She nodded. ‘Well, more than just kissed, actually. We slept together. In a hotel. On the way home.’
It sounded so emotionless when she said the words, but nothing could be further from the truth.
‘Are you shocked and appalled?’
‘Shocked, yes. Appalled, no,’ Elle marvelled. ‘I know I suggested it, but I never really thought you’d go in for a fling. I’m so pleased; I think it’s just what you needed after Robert.’
‘You’re right, of course,’ Fliss began hesitantly. ‘Only it wasn’t just about having a fling; it was about finding the person who made me want to have a fling.’
‘Oh, no.’ Elle peered at her. ‘You’ve fallen for him, haven’t you?’
Fliss attempted to look horrified. ‘No. No, of course not. Well, not fallen for, exactly. Okay...maybe a bit.’ She puffed up her cheeks and blew out. ‘I need your help, Elle. What am I supposed to do now?’
‘Don’t ask me.’ Elle shrugged, feigning nonchalance. ‘Following our phone conversation I decided that I wasn’t going to spend last night moping in my room, and so I went to some Latin-dance club. After fifteen years having only ever slept with one person, I have now slept with two.’
‘You had a one-night stand?’ Fliss gaped.
The coincidence of it was striking. Both she and Elle had always been so career-focused, so conservative in their personal lives, yet within twenty-four hours of meeting each other, they’d both had the first, and probably only, one-night stand of their lives.
‘So you want to tell me how I’m supposed to do this, because I seem to have got the fling-then-forget bit a little messed up? What do we do now?’ Fliss joked
weakly.
‘Don’t ask me.’ Elle shrugged. ‘Only I think I may have fallen a little for my guy too. Not that he is even my guy. So I think that makes you and I a right pair of one-night-stand failures.’
She rolled her eyes and Fliss laughed.
‘I think you’re right. But hey, at least we can now say that we tried it.’
‘Right. But now we just try to figure something out, and forget them.’
She looked about as dubious as Fliss felt and an image of Ash popped, unbidden, into her mind. The way he’d worked so in sync with her that first day. The way he’d come to that rooftop to tell her that Corporal Hollings was stable enough to be flown home. The way he’d listened to her at the table as she’d told him things she’d never told anyone before.
And then other images. The way he’d kissed her back at camp. The way he’d made her forget everything but him as he’d touched her so skilfully on that hillside over the carnival. The way he’d claimed her again and again, making her feel as though no man had ever understood her body, her needs, as he did.
