CHAPTER 4 – Intrusion 1

　　Striding in and flashing me a smile, Tess’s brother, Dawson, entered the cottage, with another known male following on behind. What was Tess’s boyfriend doing here as well? So much for our girly time together.

　　“Woah, easy with the weapon,” Dawson jested toward me holding the umbrella.

　　Dropping it down to my side, I did look ridiculous, stood with it in some sort of pre-combat pose.

　　“What are you doing here?” Tess asked, closing the door behind them both.

　　“Elijah thought it would be a good idea to come up to the cottage a couple of days earlier and do a bit of fishing. Little did we know how heavy the snow would be, and that you two would already be here,” Dawson explained, removing his hat, scarf and coat.

　　It had been years since I’d last seen Dawson, and to be fair, I hated the sight of him. He was always so idiotic and cocky, and that was one thing I’d been relieved not to have been around for the past few years. When my parents had upped sticks and gone abroad for the festive season, I really had been left in peace. How I already missed the silence and idiot-free atmosphere.

　　“It’s always great to see my girl,” Elijah commented, giving Tess a kiss on the cheek as she giggled away in his presence.

　　Ugh. I wasn’t averse to any public displays of affection, but this was not how I was expecting my night to pan out. I thought it would just be me and Tess, a few glasses of wine, good food, and definitely no boys.

　　“So, Emma, are you still with your boyfriend?” Dawson asked, making himself comfy on what was my spot on the sofa.

　　Glancing at Tess, she shrugged in apology, making her way over to the sofa, with Elijah in tow.

　　“No, I split up with him ages ago. Not that I want to go into any details of it with you,” I huffed, going to sit down on the armchair, which wasn’t half as warm as where I had previously been sat.

　　“Sorry,” Dawson commented, raising his hands in the air as a gesture of surrender.

　　“Tess, have you told anyone else, any of my business?” I wondered, as she and Elijah cosied up together.

　　“I only mentioned that you were with someone when we were last here for Christmas. It was just general chit-chat,” she defended, far too preoccupied with Elijah, to even focus too much on what I was saying.

　　“Hmm,” I mumbled, narrowing my eyes at her.

　　“Anyway, have you girls eaten? We’ve got some food in the boot of the car. I was going to rustle us up a curry, but there’s more than enough for all of us,” Dawson spoke, eyeing us all.

　　“Ooh, yeah, a curry would be good,” Tess agreed.

　　“Something warming is always a winner.” Elijah grinned, pulling her in closer to him.

　　Shaking his head, Dawson turned to me. “I’ll get the food from the car. Do you want to help me rustle up the food?”

　　Anything was better than sitting here, watching Tess and Elijah fawn all over each other all night.

　　“Yeah, sure,” I half-grumbled, rising from my seat.

　　As Dawson went to retrieve the supplies from the car, I made my way into the kitchen to locate pots, pans, and all the other things that we were going to need to make the food. So much for my go-to Spaghetti Bolognese tonight; we were now going to be butchered with a creation of Dawson’s, which was probably going to burn my mouth alive, so I wouldn’t be able to taste anything else over the Christmas period.

　　“Here we go,” Dawson announced, placing the food on the kitchen island, as I set up the pans on the stove.

　　“Great,” I sarcastically remarked. “Let’s get started.”

　　Giving me a knowing look, he emptied out the food from the bags, and together we started to prep the ingredients.

　　“So, Emma, how have you been?” Dawson asked, chopping some onions as I heated some oil in the frying pan.

　　“Fine,” I replied, taken back by him asking me a question.

　　“Just fine?” he asked, with a light chuckle at the end.

　　“What else am I supposed to be?” I wondered, adding the chicken to the pan.

　　“Nothing, I suppose.” He paused, setting down the knife on the side. “I didn’t mean for it to seem like Tess had been gossiping about you before… it’s just last time we were here, you came up in conversation, and she said that you had a boyfriend.”

　　Great – it was always nice to know that you were being talked about behind your back with someone you didn’t like.

　　“Yeah, well, we broke up a few months back,” I mumbled, watching the chicken start to brown in the pan.

　　“What happened?” he wondered, eyeing my reaction.

　　Arching an eyebrow his way, I wondered what the point of this questioning was. Me and Dawson had never really gotten along, and the thought of opening up to him like he was some sort of agony uncle, didn’t seem like an appealing prospect.

　　“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I quipped.

　　“Fair enough. I didn’t mean to pry.”

　　Bringing the onions over, we began to add the different ingredients to the pan, and I was surprised at how good the food smelt. I was expecting him to want to make some sort of vindaloo, which would burn my mouth off and have me breathing fire for the rest of the night.