Emilia locked the front door and then switched off the lights as she walked towards the stairs to go up to bed. It had been a wonderful evening, but she was still kicking herself for not realising that Amber had been having such a terrible time during the day.
She should have realised that someone not used to long walks in freezing temperatures would suffer. It hadn’t even occurred to her that Amber wouldn’t be used to the cold. Now she realised that Amber’s one-word answers and complete silence were simply because she was too cold to speak.
“Vad jag är dum,” she mumbled to herself.
She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t even taken the time to check with Amber that she would want to go on an hours-long walk out in the snow. She’d just assumed that she would because Emilia was such a fan of it. Also, because she wanted to show off her favourite place in the world to her new friend.
The cold and persistent wind, along with the wet snow and the generally cold temperatures, had affected Amber greatly. The moment Emilia’s fingers touched her cheek she had realised how badly. If it was just a usual chill, Amber would have warmed up following her shower and their eating dinner, but she hadn’t and was cold to the touch.
Emilia had felt awful, as if she had broken her new friend. She felt like a child on Christmas morning who had received and subsequently wrecked her present.
She climbed the stairs, turning off the hallway light and stepping into the darkness of her bedroom. Directly opposite was the guesthouse bedroom. Unintentionally, she looked up and saw Amber pulling off her top as she prepared for bed.
Emilia fell to the floor in her haste to not be caught looking. Although, it was an accident. It wasn’t her fault that Amber’s light was on, that her bedroom was directly opposite, and that she’d walked in just at the moment she was exposing herself.
She crawled along the floor towards the window. Grabbing the edge of the curtain, she flicked her wrist to try to drag it closed. After a few unsuccessful attempts, she finally succeeded.
She let out a relieved breath and sat with her back to the radiator. Now she just had to hope that Amber hadn’t seen her. Surely she hadn’t? Emilia hadn’t had the chance to turn a light on, so the room would have been dark.
She placed the back of her hand to her cheek, surprised to find it was hot. She assumed it was from the panic and from crawling across the floor.
Blinking a few times to clear the sight of Amber’s bra from her vision, she tried to think of what they could do the next day. Nothing came immediately to mind. Most of the things she enjoyed were outside in nature.
If she were to prove to Hugo that she was able to make friends—and not make them miserable and cold—she needed to think outside the box.
She got to her feet, checked the curtains were fully closed, and then turned on a light. Conversations with Amber raced through her mind as she tried to recall things she enjoyed.
Evidently, she’d made an error in assuming that Amber would appreciate all the things that she did. It seemed so obvious now: friendships were about give and take. And people were very different from each other. She needed to consider Amber’s likes and dislikes.
Shopping, she thought.
Amber had mentioned more than once that she enjoyed going shopping with her friends. They would meet at a large shopping mall and stroll around for hours, eating lunch and chatting as they went.
Emilia shivered at the thought. She’d been to one of the city malls a couple of times when she really needed to buy something that she couldn’t get from town. It was often crowded, overly bright, and very loud. All the things she hated most.
But she knew it would make Amber happy and would keep her warm. They couldn’t very well snuggle up on the sofa in front of the fire every night, even if she had enjoyed it. It had probably been hellish for Amber considering how cold she’d been.
She made up her mind. They’d go to the mall. It wasn’t her thing, but friendship meant compromise and she wanted to prove to both Amber and Hugo that she could do that.
She hoped that she was making progress on that front. Thankfully, the dreaded topic of the contract had only been brought up a couple of times during the day. Both times she had managed to push the subject aside with relative ease.
As time went by, she knew she was making it harder and harder to admit that she had no intention of ever talking about business with Amber, but she comforted herself in the knowledge that, hopefully, Amber’s goals were changing from business to friendship.