After work the next day, Ellie went home, intending to change before Mia arrived. She started to change, but then stopped and didn’t put anything on, because she couldn’t quite decide what to wear.

She knew what she wanted to wear. She’d half-assumed a dress, one that made her look good, but then she’d thought about what Mark might notice. Mark was around Mia a lot, and around Ellie a lot, and might notice things like clothes, and he might just also notice what Ellie normally wore around the house, and how a short, sleeveless, fitted dress wasn’t really that.

Ellie couldn’t wear a dress. She probably couldn’t wear a skirt. She should wear jeans, like she always did, but she decided on shorts instead. Shorts were almost as everyday as jeans, but with more of her bare to anyone who happened to be looking at her legs, which Mia hopefully was.

She wore shorts, and hoped Mia would notice.

Mia seemed to. She arrived just after Mark. She brought Chinese and beer, and smiled at Ellie, and glanced quickly down, and then grinned. One quick look, but after that she wasn’t obvious at all, so Ellie decided not to be either.

They all sat in the lounge and ate and watched a movie, and Ellie wondered what was going on. It was slightly odd to be that close to Mia and not touching her, or even really acknowledging her. It was almost some odd game of self-denial.

Ellie wasn’t really watching the movie very well. She couldn’t concentrate with Mia just across the room. Ellie assumed Mia was deliberately across the room, staying away from Ellie, but staying away didn’t especially help when Mia was still in her work clothes, in a skirt, with her legs bare.

Mia’s legs were bare and folded up in front of her and she was hugging them, like she ought to be hugging Ellie. Mia was on the couch beside Mark, but she was sitting the way she did when she was down on the floor, and that made Ellie fond of her, because she was used to seeing Mia like that.

Mia was concentrating on the movie, too, which Ellie wasn’t managing to do. Ellie tried, but she kept getting distracted. Mostly she watched Mia instead.

Slowly, Ellie was becoming horny and desperate and impatient, and didn’t know how to stop herself.

Ellie started plotting. She thought of ways to get Mia’s attention, to get her out the room, to slip away and have a quickie.

She came up with an idea.

She emptied her glass, and said, “Who wants another?”

Mia and Mark both said yes.

Ellie went and got them beers, and refilled her wine, and while she was out in the kitchen she got her phone too. She typed out a message to Mia, “I’m wet, I want you,” but didn’t actually send it. She left it on the screen instead, ready to go, so she only needed to push one button to make it send. Then she carried the phone back into the lounge in the same hand as her glass, hoping it wasn’t obvious.

It didn’t seem to be. Neither Mark nor Mia looked up.

Ellie had a plan. It was mostly a silly plan, as much about sneaking around for the fun of it, as actually being deceptive, but it was still quite clever.

Ellie had decided couldn’t just text Mia from the kitchen, because it might somehow look obvious if Mia was getting messages while Ellie was out of the room. Instead, Ellie would send it from lounge, five minutes after she sat down, holding the phone by her side so no-one could see she had it. Then it couldn’t possibly be Ellie. She was right there, in the room, not using her phone, so it must be someone else.

Not that Mark would notice. Not that he’d be paying enough attention to notice, or would care if Ellie did. None of it mattered, but Ellie was still quite proud of herself. She had a plan, and it was fun to sneak for sneaking’s sake. It was over-thinking, she thought, but a good kind over-thinking that was mostly having a joke and fun.

Ellie sat in the lounge, and waited five minutes, and then sent the message.

Mia’s phone beeped. She ignored it for a moment, which Ellie hadn’t thought of. Ellie watched, worried.

After a moment Mia got out her phone and looked.

She blinked. She glanced at Mark, guiltily. He didn’t notice, because he was watching the TV. Mia made sure he actually was, then looked over at Ellie, and grinned.

“Me too,” she said, out loud.

Ellie almost panicked, thinking Mia had got so horny she’d made some terrible mistake. Ellie opened her mouth, but had no idea what to say to fix that blunder.

Mark noticed. He looked at Mia. “What?”

“Sorry,” Mia said, sounding bored, apparently with a plan of her own. “It’s just something about work. There’s stuff. Someone’s saying what she wants to do. I do as well.”

“Yeah,” Mark said. “She can’t hear you unless you push the little keys.”

“I know,” Mia said. “Dickhead. I am.”

She seemed to be.

Ellie watched, and almost panicked again, because she’d forgotten to put her own phone on silent. She looked at Mia, wondering how to warn her.

She glared at Mia, trying to catch Mia’s eye.

After a moment, after Mark was looking at the TV again, Mia over looked at Ellie.

Ellie shook her head, as obviously as she could, and Mia nodded, and put her phone away.

She must have understood. Ellie’s phone didn’t beep.

Ellie decided she’d better behave. She’d got a nasty fright, thinking Mia might text back.

She watched the film for a few minutes, trying to work out what was going on. After a while she looked up, and realized Mia was looking at her. Mia had shifted, was leaning sideways, facing more towards Ellie. Now Mia could see both Ellie and the TV without having to turn her head.

Mia started looking at Ellie a lot. Probably too much.

She was staring, distracted herself now.

Whenever the movie got interesting and Mia looked back at the screen, she actually seemed confused about what was going on.

“Why did they do that?” she asked a couple of times, and usually, patiently, Mark explained.

Once Mia said, “Wait, who the fuck’s he,” about someone who had been on the screen for half the movie.

“The bad dude,” Mark said. “Dickhead.”

Mia looked at him for a moment and obviously had no idea, then just said, “Oh yeah.”

After that Mia didn’t ask any more.

Ellie watched Mia, and smiled at Mia sometimes, and Mia grinned back. Mia stretched her feet out in front of her, and stretched her arms as well, and did both a few more times than she probably needed to.

Mia was tempting, Ellie thought. Mia was playing some silly, dangerous game, and making Ellie want to as well. They both were really, and it wasn’t very sensible, since they both wanted this to be a secret.

Ellie kept looking anyway. She looked, but that was all, and the movie finished without either of them doing anything too outrageous.