No Place Like Home. Maxine Morrey

insulting. Why change the habit of a lifetime?’ She tried to smile in a way that involved the least amount of muscles as possible.

      ‘The police are charging him with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer for a start.’

      Ellie nodded, as he continued. ‘They said they’ll be in touch with regards to any charges you want to press.’ He paused. ‘Ellie?’

      She knew what was coming. Zak was her closest friend this side of the Atlantic, ever since she had joined his infant publishing group as a contract illustrator seven years ago – an endeavour which had since gone from strength to strength.

      Initially Ellie had to admit that she’d thought Zak was the clichéd public-school-boy type who had been given a company to play with by a rich daddy. She soon realised that she’d been too hasty in her assessment of his character. The money to start the company had indeed come from his family but it was in the form of a business loan, to be paid back with interest, just as a standard bank loan would have been. Zak’s father had built up his own very successful business from nothing and Zak intended to do the same. The only thing his father was prepared to offer for free was advice, and then only when it was requested. But Zak had worked hard and his business was doing well, and they were currently in the process of recruiting several more staff.

      ‘No.’

      ‘No what?’

      ‘I’m not going back to him. That is what you were going to ask, isn’t it?’ Ellie turned her bloodshot eye on him.

      ‘Yes. It was.’ Relief flooded Zak’s face, as he tenderly found an un-bruised piece of Ellie’s and kissed it, very gently squeezing her hands. Ellie looked back at his handsome face. Normally it was full of smiles and laughter, but now it was filled with concern. Concern for her. It was the catalyst she needed. A big tear plopped onto the starched sheets.

      ‘I’m so sorry!’ she sobbed, emotion breaking her voice. ‘I should have listened to you. I should have left before. It’s just that he would apologise and he seemed to mean it. He really did and then …’ The sobs became more continuous, painfully wracking her broken ribs.

      ‘I know darling, I know,’ Zak soothed as he stroked her hair. ‘I know.’

      *

      Three days later, Ellie was released from hospital. Zak collected her and they drove back to his apartment.

      ‘I am quite capable of being on my own, you know,’ she said, leaning against a countertop in the large kitchen of his Kensington apartment.

      ‘I know that,’ he replied, glancing back at her bruised face as he poured freshly brewed coffee into two bone china mugs. ‘I just don’t want you to be at the moment.’ He handed her one, taking in her expression as he did so.

      ‘Indulge me just for a bit,’ he said/ ‘After all, isn’t that what friends are for!’ he asked before proceeding to sing an appropriate line or two in his best, not-very-good Dionne Warwick voice.

      ‘Zak!’

      ‘Please. Just for a while.’

      Ellie sighed. ‘OK. So long as you promise not to sing.’ Taking her drink, she headed through to the living room and eased herself down on the squashy sofa. Zak followed and sat opposite on its twin. He was wearing his ‘mortified’ face.

      ‘I’m hurt.’

      ‘I’m serious.’

      ‘Fine. Fine,’ he mumbled before his face suddenly brightened. ‘How about humming? I’m pretty good at humming. Or whistling?’ He pursed his lips and blew a few notes before a cushion landed square on his nose. Picking it up, he gave Ellie a wry brow raise. ‘I’m taking it that was also a no.’

      ‘You’re tone deaf and dogs are beginning to howl, so yes, that was most definitely a no.’

      *

      ‘Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.’

      ‘Hmm?’

      Zak placed a mug of tea on the low table next to the sofa.

      ‘What time is it?’

      ‘Just after seven.’

      ‘Really?’ Ellie sat up. ‘You should have woken me.’

      ‘Why? There was nowhere you needed to be. Besides, I think a few snoozes are allowed after what you’ve been through. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re vital.’ Zak was concentrating on dunking a biscuit in his tea.

      Ellie smiled. He really was a sweetie. Why on earth she had picked someone like Carl over someone like Zak, she had no explanation for. Not that she and Zak would ever date. They’d just never felt like that about each other. It had been a familial relationship from the first time they’d met. And she was glad. Zak meant the world to her and she certainly wouldn’t have wanted a relationship gone bad resulting in her losing both her lover and her best friend.

      ‘I spoke to – oh bugger!’

      ‘What?’

      He held up half a biscuit. ‘My biccie broke off!’

      Ellie giggled at his forlorn face. ‘Oh, poor Zakky!’

      He stuck out his tongue and took another biscuit from the jar he’d plonked on the table alongside their drinks. Showing it to her first, he popped it whole into his mouth in an exaggerated motion.

      ‘Zachary Benton! Just wait until I tell your mother!’

      ‘What?’ he asked innocently, chocolate brown eyes full of question, mouth full of chocolate biscuit.

      ‘For someone with such a privileged upbringing, you have some appalling habits.’

      ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ he replied, pretending to pick his nose.

      Ellie stifled a smile, instead attempting to give the impression she was pointedly ignoring his actions. Zak knew her too well to be fooled but it was the principle. ‘You spoke to whom?’

      ‘Oh! Sandy. She rang this afternoon at the office as she’s been trying to get hold of you. I gave her a very quick rundown – I didn’t think you’d mind – and explained that your phone had got damaged.’

      Ellie’s phone had been in her pocket during Carl’s last attack and had ended up, like so many other things, shattered into pieces. Zak had ordered her a new one to help take his mind off things while he’d waited in the hospital but it had just sat in the box after its arrival as Ellie told him she wasn’t really in the mood to talk to anyone. Zak finally got it out and set it up anyway, partly as a way to keep his mind busy but also knowing that eventually she would want a phone.

      ‘She was going to ring here but I thought you might be asleep so I gave her your new mobile number and said you’d call her when you woke up.’ He saw her hesitation. ‘I said you’d probably prefer a voice call for now, rather than your usual video chat and she was fine with that.’ Ellie nodded, her eyes averted.

      ‘Erm, El?’

      She looked up at him. ‘Oh no.’

      ‘What?’

      ‘You have that look?’

      ‘What look? I don’t have a “look”.’

      ‘Yes, you do. It’s that look that says, “I know you’re not going to like what I’m about to say but I’m going to say it anyway because I think I’m right.”’

      ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘That look.’

      ‘Yes. That look.’

      Zak let out a breath through his teeth. ‘OK. Sandy and I were talking and we thought it might do you some good to go and stay with her for a couple of weeks. You know, help with the recuperation, get away from everything.’

      ‘I don’t need to get away from everything.