Charming Mr Stewart

13b. Clanging Hints for the Nearly Deaf

Before Elle realised it, she'd been sitting alone for half an hour and had already done some damage. She drained the bottle, her stomach unsettled by this point. She could see a pinprick of red on the carpet and decided it was high time she walked into a bathroom, changed, and got some shut-eye.

She put the wineglass on the table and picked herself up on unsteady legs and willed herself to find the way to the guest room. Thou shalt go to bed and slumber, Elle, she thought and giggled, closing the bedroom door behind.

It was in the wee dark hours of the morning that Elle woke up with a heavy head and a growling stomach. She was on the carpet next to her bag, a few clothes spilled out from it. Guess she never made it to that shower.

She picked herself up, grabbed her pyjamas and fresh underwear, and walked into the bathroom. The heat of the water in the shower soothed her tired body. She couldn't remember more than half the things they had talked about, but she was pretty sure they had mentioned sure Dean a few times. Even in the heat of the shower, she could feel her cheeks blush. A certain want intruded on her thoughts. She swatted the air around her head as if trying to shoo them off.

Dean Stewart was going to be in that same apartment in less than twenty-four hours, and Elle was already jittery. What would she say to him? What would he say to her? Would he even talk to her after the last time? Disheartened, she stepped out of the shower, wet hair dripping, and stared at herself in the mirror, surprised that her face and body still looked young. Had she really given birth to Maya? If so, where was the extra bulge?

"I'm so envious, Elle!" She heard Chloe's ramblings afresh in her head. "I hope I shed weight as quickly after my pregnancy."

"When will that happen I wonder," Aunty Ester had asked sourly.

Elle snapped out of her thoughts and dressed quickly. Maybe she could give this dating thing a go. Then the gold band glinted on her hand with a question. What about Blake? Was she ready to accept that he was gone forever? It hurt even to think about it.

She combed her hair poisonously and slapped her face with enough moisturiser to hydrate a rhino's hide. Angry with herself for being so caught up in everything that she'd vowed not to do until Maya began school. Maya needed her right now, didn't she? But Maya was impressionable. Best time to bring in someone new and permanent in her life, or so Uncle Steve had said once a few months after Blake's first death anniversary.

She sulked back into the bedroom and got into bed, hair still wet, but it did not bother her. It wasn't like she was going to catch her death in Sydney. The weather was warm on the waterfront. Suddenly she scuttled off the bed and tittered to the windows, drawing the curtains open. She wanted to see the city.

The streets were quiet and lonesome, dark buildings flanking them like sentries. Elle sighed, thinking how wrong she was to think Sydney never slept, but here she was, staring down at the empty, sparsely lit streets.

Her uncontrolled thoughts took her all the way back to the night Blake had proposed. They had not spent their second night at Harriett's place but in the city. Blake had been the most romantic guy she'd ever met. Elle had never dared to date anyone prior to Blake. That night was the night he'd proposed, in a hotel room littered with rose petals.

A light flickered in the sky. A plane flying into or out of Sydney, Elle couldn't tell. She walked back gloomily to the bed and hopped in. It had been a long day and before long, guests would arrive at the apartment. Elle pulled the duvet up around her neck and stared out the window, the curtains still open.

By the time Elle woke up and joined the Hammonds in their kitchen, they were already well into sipping their dark no-milk-no-sugar coffee and chopping up ingredients for a delicious breakfast.