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Abby was probably not the best person to unload her guilt over the scenario with Morag too. Currently bent double in severe hysterics and hyperventilating from lack of oxygen, she was begging Rose to tell her again in exactly what position Morag had caught them.

‘Abby!’ Rose was hauling at her, trying to gain some control. ‘It’s not funny!’

‘It totally is! Tell me again was that before or after the ‘Ooooh aah ahh, YES’ screams.’ She mimicked a dramatic orgasm as Rose batted her again. Her own face flushed with embarrassment and trying hard not to giggle at Abby.

‘Abby!’ Rose had to fight to keep a straight face, but the girls laugh was infectious. ‘Stop it! If Rob hears you, he will pulverise you.’

‘Before, during or after????’ She was prodding at Rose suggestively. Relentlessly

‘After! During? Maybe? Technically! I don’t know how long she was there.’ Swiping away her poking fingers and invasive eyebrow gestures, Rose tried to hush her once again.

‘Oh, my god. That’s class!’ She was wiping her eyes and trying to hold her aching sides, her face several shades of pink and red from the amount of laughing and tears.

‘This was not the reaction I expected, to be honest!’ Rose sighed and slumped down on the bed.

‘Well, obvious yuckiness aside, considering it’s my brother, but I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that little scenario.’ Abby was still grinning, still giggling sporadically. As she finally slid down beside Rose on the bed, flopping down with exhaustion.

‘You’re sadistic, you know that?’ Rose nudged her playfully.

‘You’re surprised? You’re marrying my brother; we share genes. It should have been noticed before now that we’re both not quite right in the ‘whatsits’.’ She made a mock circular motion at her temple and fell back on the bed, fatigued from her bouts of hysterical laughter. Rose pushed her legs away as they came to rest against her on the end of Abby’s bed.

She had come up here to offload some tension while her betrothed was busy downstairs, lost in a million calls. She had stayed here the last few days, lost in the feeling of being back in his arms and his bed but the niggling anxiety had plagued her following Morag’s departure. Abby’s return had been a welcome relief.

‘He hasn’t heard from her Abby, not anything! Not a word.’ She bit her lip anxiously, that knot in her stomach that had been growing the last few days was getting harder to ignore.

‘Maybe she’s finally done the world a favour and...’

‘Abby!... For god’s sake!’ Rose chided a tad too harshly. ‘He saw her car last night, on one of the back roads past town...She hasn’t topped herself, okay? Besides, someone would have informed him if she had done anything to herself, he’s her emergency contact. Rob doesn’t think she will.’ Rose raised a brow at Abby, a sign she wasn’t impressed.

‘Could be her ghost haunting the roads like a lonely...’ The deepening frown and serious look paused her mid-horror tale and she smiled instead. ‘Sorry. Bad taste!’

‘Rob isn’t saying much, closing down on me again I guess. He’s tried to give her some breathing space. I know he’s on edge. Unsure if this is it.?...If this silence is how it’s going to be, and she just fades away from his life or if this is the calm before the storm.’ Rose sighed, completely out of her depth with this and trying not to over think how quiet he had been about it. He wasn’t pushing her away this time, but he wasn’t exactly verbalising his own thoughts either.

‘Except she works for him technically! The museum is only running because of him.’ Abby rolled onto her stomach and began picking at imaginary fluff on the duvet alongside her. Rose fell back on the bed alongside her friend with a deflated exhale.

When did this get so uncomplicated and never ending?

‘Rose, you need to get drunk and dance the night away and forget about her!’ Abby pointed out, a chirpy tone and a serious expression.

‘Ummm...I’m pretty sure all my troubles have started that way since the day I came here.’

‘Perspective my love! Perspective!... Drunken behaviour bagged you the idiot downstairs on more than one occasion. I’m sure contrary to my sense of tastes, you’re pretty overjoyed at that fact. Well, sounds like your happy with your lot sometimes, when you think the house is empty.’ Abby grinned wickedly, catching Rose’s eye with a wink.

‘Oh my god Abby! Really?’ Rose gushed, her face flaming almost instantly.

‘What?’ Abby held up her hands in childish defense. ‘I’m not the one moaning and groaning down there, am I? Banging the headboard into next week. Must say though I am impressed with his stamina.’ The giggling which followed was stifled by a swift whack over the head with the cushion Rose was holding.

‘Jesus¡ Rose heaved, mortified at the thought of people hearing them, especially Abby!

‘Maybe wanna tell Rob that sound proofing might be something he should look into. Or at least moving his room away from the kitchen and cosy, everything down there, echoes up here.’

‘You do realise now I’m going to be constantly aware that everyone can hear us.’ Rose groaned.

‘SOUND PROOFING!!!’ Abby said it slowly and deliberately at her friends blushing red face, raising brows and annunciating clearly. ‘Sometimes, I feel more like your mother than your best friend, you know?’ Rose was pressing her palms to her flaming cheeks, trying hard to cool her embarrassment.

‘Technically in a few months, you will be.’.

Rose raised an eyebrow questioningly as Abby shrugged.

‘Rob’s more of a second dad than a brother. That makes you my step mother, sister in law, to be.’

‘Maybe in your twisted world of whatsits.’ Rose tapped at Abby’s temples and crossed her eyes. ‘If that’s true, you shouldn’t be asking your step mother, slash, sister in law, to be, if she was mid-orgasm when that woman barged in.’ Rose chided playfully.

‘Just like to know you’re keeping the old man satisfied. And vice versa.’ Abby grinned wickedly once more, that youthful devilish face of hers alive with naughtiness.