It was hot carrying boxes around in the sun. After a few trips outside, Ellie was starting to feel unpleasantly sticky.

She was feeling sticky, and she was starting to realize Mia was still watching her.

Ellie was hot, and flushed, and probably a little bit shiny too, and Mia was looking at her every time they passed each other, the way Mia always did. Noticing Ellie, aware of Ellie, just like normal, but this time while Ellie was carrying boxes. In the sun. Getting sweaty.

Ellie had been a little bit annoyed when she first realized. It had bothered her, but not very much. Not as much as it probably ought to have.

She was a little surprised by that. Being looked at, while grotty, that seemed like something she ought to care about.

But apparently not. Not when it was Mia.

Ellie just didn’t care.

She was actually quite surprised by that.

She spent another couple of trips thinking it over, and decided she liked how the rules for Mia were different. She didn’t know why, but she liked it. She liked how Mia’s stare didn’t annoy her, when anyone else’s would have, and she especially liked that she wasn’t even deciding that on purpose.

The not on purpose seemed like quite an important thing.

She was getting used to Mia’s constant half-attention, she supposed. She was becoming accustomed to it, and starting not to notice. In a way it was quite flattering, having Mia always watching.

It ought to be a little scary, but it wasn’t.

Maybe because Mia just seemed to like Ellie. To like watching her. She watched Ellie go past, with sweat on her arms, watched her put cartons down, with a bit of a shove because she was tired, then stand there and yank at her hair and put her hairtie back in, roughly.

Mia watched all that, and seemed to like it.

And Ellie was actually quite pleased.

At the end of her next trip out to the ute, because Mia was standing nearby, Ellie pulled up her singlet up and wiped her face. Because she knew Mia would look.

Mia looked.

Ellie watched her, and took a moment longer than she needed to putting the singlet back down. And Mia kept staring while Ellie’s stomach was bare. Apparently Mia was into tummies, Ellie thought. That was good to know.

Or maybe, she thought, Mia was into sweatiness, and doing stuff, and she was into old clothes. It could be that as well. She was starting to think that with Mia, it could be anything.

Ellie suddenly wasn’t sure.

It still seemed a little odd that Mia had asked Ellie to help, of all the people in the world. Ellie didn’t mind, but she also didn’t quite understand. It was as if Mia didn’t realize they could just go for a drink, or sit on Ellie’s couch and talk, or whatever else Mia might want to do.

Or perhaps Mia did realize, and just didn’t like doing that kind of thing. Perhaps she’d rather have a particular task they’d planned around, so she had something to do. It seemed almost possible, Ellie thought. It would save Mia being forced to make conversation, like she would have to at a bar, and suddenly that seemed almost possible, since Mia really didn’t seem to like making conversation.

As if Mia had worked out a way to do things with people without ever having to make small-talk, Ellie thought.

She almost wondered if it was true.

She told herself no. She made herself stop.

It was probably just that Mia was just nice, and a bit disorganized and impulsive, and that she’d wanted to help her friends, and see Ellie, and decided to do both at the same time. It was probably that, Ellie thought. Like when they’d gone to the farmer’s market. Like when Mia was around at home seeing Mark, and also grinning at Ellie. Mia changed her plans, and came up with new things, and was just a bit disorganized. She did things, and they happened, and she might not over-think everything as much as Ellie did.

It was probably that, Ellie thought, and that something Ellie could probably learn from.

Mia was still standing in front of Ellie, watching Ellie think. Looking at Ellie’s bare arms, at her bare legs. Glancing up at the house, then looking back to Ellie. Almost as if she was wondering whether to hurry Ellie up.

Ellie wasn’t sure.

She felt a bit tired. She wasn’t used to this much carrying. She sat down on the back of the ute, on the part that had folded down so they could load the boxes in, and said, “I’m resting.”

“You okay?”

Ellie nodded. “I just need a moment.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yep.”

“Okay,” Mia said, and walked towards the house.

She started walking. She was halfway there when more shouting started inside. She stopped, and turned around, and came back to the ute.

“Maybe I’ll have a break too,” she said.

“I would,” Ellie said.

Mia grinned. She sat beside Ellie, and looked around, but didn’t say very much, apparently just waiting. She seemed to be looking at a tree down the road, one that had a lot of flowers in it. Ellie didn’t know what it was.

The shouting went on for a while. It got quite loud.

“Are they okay in there?” Ellie said eventually.

Mia nodded. “I think so.’

“It sounds kind of nasty.”

“They’re breaking up, so I guess it will. But I think they’ll be friends again in a month or three.”

Ellie nodded. They were Mia’s friends, and Mia presumably knew when it was time to start being concerned. Mia’s lack of worry made Ellie stop worrying too.

It was nice sitting in the sun. Having a rest. Just sitting.

“Did I say you smell good?” Mia said suddenly.

Ellie looked at her, then said, “Yep.”

“You do.”

Ellie leaned sidewards a little, towards Mia, and tipped her head away. Left her neck bare, for Mia to smell if she wanted to.

Mia did. She leaned, and breathed in for a moment, and then sat back upright.

Then she grinned, and Ellie grinned back.

They were staring to understand each other.

Mia slid her hand sideways, just a little, across the back of the ute. Slid so her fingertips were against Ellie’s bare leg, making the very slightest contact.

As if smelling Ellie had made her think beyond moving.

Ellie rather like that idea. That she could get Mia interested just with her smell.

She felt Mia’s fingers, barely touching. She liked Mia touching her, too.

She sat, and didn’t move, and after a while, she said, “I like how you smell too.”

Mia grinned. She grinned in the way that was probably somehow teasing, even though Ellie couldn’t work out how.

Ellie was pretty sure it was teasing. She looked at Mia, almost glared. “You started it,” she said.

“I did.”

“So stop making faces like that.”

Mia shrugged. Then leaned over and breathed in next to Ellie’s neck again.

Ellie forgave her. She did what she had before, leaned sideways, tipped her head, and then just sat in the sun, letting Mia breath against her.

And getting turned on.

Mia’s nose was almost, but not quite, touching Ellie’s skin. Which meant her mouth was not quite touching too. Ellie remembered the last time Mia’s mouth had been where it was now, she remembered that very well. So well she wanted to shiver, or sigh, or lean sideways enough that Mia’s lips made contact with her skin.

She wanted to do something, but instead she sat where she was.

She sat completely still.

After a moment Mia sat back up, and swung her feet a little, and looked around.

The moment seemed to be gone.

Ellie was disappointed. She was almost upset. She felt like she’d missed some kind of opportunity she hadn’t even known was being offered.

She opened her mouth to speak, to say that, then closed it again.

She wasn’t ready to say. She just couldn’t.

Instead she sat in the sun.