She’d heard Alexa talking on the phone the last couple of nights, not the words but the laughter from outside her bedroom door.  She’d suspected Alexa had met someone on her trip and expected to feel slighted that Alexa chose not to share it with her but she felt a deeper emotion than that, one she now recognised as the cold stab of jealousy.  She tried to shake the feeling off, they were best friends nothing more so why did thinking of Alexa giving her attention to someone else drive her crazy?

Rachel remembered the time they’d gotten really drunk at their favourite bar and she’d kissed Alexa a few months ago.  She’d always secretly wondered how long that kiss would’ve lasted if Alexa hadn’t pulled back an initial look of confusion on her face before laughing it off. 

She remembered telling Mark she didn’t want to move to London anymore:

‘Is this about not wanted to move to London.  Or wanting to live with Alexa more than you do with me?’ he had asked.

‘Don’t bring Alexa into this,’ she had told him.

‘How can I not Rachel?’ he had asked.  ‘I see you once a month and when I do you make me feel like you’d be having more fun if you were with her.’

The discussion had moved on, become increasingly bitter before they realised their relationship was over.

Alexa’s phone rang interrupted her thoughts and she waved at Rachel and left the room to take the call privately.  Rachel knew it was ‘him’ again and wondered why she hadn’t probed Alexa about all her private calls yet, before realising she hadn’t asked because she really didn’t want to hear about it.  She wondered if Alexa had ever felt this out of sync seeing her with Mark, she wondered if she loved Alexa in more ways than she thought.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

‘How’s the work going, you catching up ok?’ asked Helena.

‘Yes it’s been going pretty well these past few weeks.’

Helena laughed.  ‘Good, as I recall you got about one minute studying done for every ten minutes making out when you were over here.’

‘Hmm..I miss our study breaks,’ said Alexa fondly.

‘Me too..’ agreed Helena.  ‘I can’t wait to see you.  I have the calendar right above my desk here, just seven days now right?’