Broken Souls (6 page)

Ashley pulled a tissue from the box on the side of her bed and dabbed at her eyes to dry her tears. Sniff
ling lightly, she swung her legs from the bed and stood. Placing her hand against her throat, she rubbed gently at the gnawing scratchiness that was starting to irritate her.

Deciding on some water,
she reached for her hooded jumper that was thrown across the end of her bed. Pulling it on, she opened her bedroom door and stepped into the hallway. It was a lot colder than she had expected, and an unwelcome shiver hit her body.

“
Shit,” she mumbled, wrapping her arms around her waist. She felt the faint hairs on her bare legs standing tall as a draft hit the exposed skin that her shorts and jumper didn’t cover.

Taking a glass off of the draining board, she opened the fridge and poured some water. Leaning against the open fridge door, she gulped quickly in an attempt at curing
the irritating dryness.

“
Gabriela... No...”

Ashley stilled and turned her head towards the darkened living room. Illuminated only by the light of the fridge, she was able to just about see Marco's sleeping form on the sofa.

He was curled in a ball with his arms folded across his chest. She noticed that he had draped his suit jacket over the bottom half of his body, his sock covered feet poking out from underneath. 

“
Please, don't go...” She winced at the sound of pain in his voice and the way his body stiffened. “I can't lose you, Gabriela!”

Ashley couldn't help the overwhelming urge she felt to comfort him. It hurt her to see him writhing with such agony. She could hear the desperation in his voice at each word spoken.

The nightmare had taken control of him.

He was merely a pawn being tortured and tormented in his sleep, and she could do nothing about it.
The truth had invaded his mind, and there was nothing that she could do to stop this. He had evolved into the darkness alongside her.

“
You're wrong! She isn't gone...” He struggled in his sleep, his arms flailing wildly in the air.

Ashley felt a chill against her skin,
reminding her that she still held the fridge door open. She placed the empty glass on the countertop and tried to close the door quietly, trying not to rattle the various jars and bottles sitting in the doorway.

Submerging the room into darkness once again
, she padded over towards the armchair nearest to the kitchen in search of the fleecy throw she and Gabby usually used for movie nights. With it being pitch black she found it a lot harder to locate than expected. Eventually, after running her hands over the various surfaces, she came across the fleecy material which she hugged to her body. She inhaled deeply, recognising the familiar smell of her best friend's perfume. Although it comforted her mildly, the scent still felt like another punch to her gut.

 
Unravelling the folded throw in her hands, Ashley stepped over to the sofa and draped the material over Marco's body. She placed a hand soothingly against his lower leg as he tensed and cried out again in his sleep.

S
he wasn't sure whether she should wake him from the nightmare or not.

Deciding against it, Ashley withdr
ew from him and sat on the corner of a nearby armchair. She placed her hands in her lap and watched Marco in the darkness, listening out for any further signs of distress. If it got too bad then she would have no choice but to try and wake him. She had been through enough of those nights herself, so it would be impossible for her to just stand by and watch him suffer.

The sound of Ashley’s alarm filled the room the next morning. Cursing under her breath, she fumbled for the device to silence the noise that was now pounding through her brain.

It was too early for this shit.

It was her own fault though, because she had completely forgotten about her weekday morning alarm. It had been programmed into her phone for the same time each day so that she could make sure she was in the bathroom before Gabby emerged.

With both girls
leaving the house at the same time to start their morning commute, they were always fighting for an extra five minutes of bathroom time. In the end, Ashley had started setting her alarm earlier so that she was out of Gabby's way. Her best friend had been the worst bathroom hogger ever.

“
Well, I might as well get up,” Ashley mumbled with a yawn.

She didn't have anything to do today after Ben had made it pretty clear that she was
to be on holiday this week. Despite that, she knew that she couldn't just mope about in bed all day. The only way that she was going to get through this grieving period was to keep busy.

After stripping the sheets from her bed and replacing them with fresh ones, Ashley emptied her laundry basket and headed for the washing machine in the kitchen.

“
Buongiorno
,” Marco called from the sofa as she entered the room. His eyes flicked to the sheets in her arms. “Do you need any help?”

“
No thanks,” she blushed, suddenly conscious of the shorts and hoody that she was wearing. “Did you sleep okay?” She nodded towards the folded blanket on the corner of the sofa.

“
As expected,” he shrugged. “How else am I supposed to feel today?” He slowly got to his feet and cocked his head in the direction of the hallway. “I'm going to go for a shower. I didn't feel like one last night.”

Ashley waved a hand in the air as she piled the washing into the machine.
“Go for it. There are towels on the back of the door, so just help yourself.” She didn't lift her head to address him as she replied; instead, she chose to keep her attention focused on the machine.

When she heard Marco's footsteps
in the hallway and the bathroom door close, she let out a long and drawn out breath. There was definitely something different in the air between them that she decided she was going to leave well alone. It most definitely wasn’t in her interest to raise the nightmare she had heard last night, or to tell him that she had kept watch from afar until his cries had stopped. It was friendly behaviour, but she wasn’t sure if it was
overly
friendly on her behalf.

Switching
on the washing machine and turning towards the fridge to get something to eat and drink, she pulled out a carton of orange juice as an almighty yelp echoed throughout the flat.

“
Merda!
”

She jumped at the sound of the bathroom door
swinging open. Turning on the spot, she caught sight of Marco standing in the hallway, his hair soaking wet and a towel slung around his waist.

“
Ashley, the water is stone cold,” he grumbled, placing his hands on his hips.

Distractedly, s
he looked over the length of his body, her eyes lingering longer than necessary at his bare torso and the smattering of dark, curly wisps that covered his chest. He wasn't as muscular as she had expected him to be, but nonetheless he was still a good looking man. If anything, she felt the absence of a rippling six-pack and deep cut pelvic muscles on his still lean and slightly tanned frame to be more attractive for his particular physique. He didn’t appear to be the sort of man that cared about conforming to any specific stereotype, which she liked.

“
Ashley,” Marco pressed, fixing her with an unimpressed stare.

“
Y-Yes?”

“
There isn't any hot water...”

Lifting her eyes to meet his gaze, she panicked.
“I... Um... just put on the washing machine,” she tried to apologise as she fidgeted with the hem of her jumper. “Honestly, I didn't even think about the water.”

Marco
thrust a hand through his wet hair causing droplets of water to fall onto his skin. “Forget it... I'll have a cold shower,” he mumbled.

Ashley
watched as the drops fell from his rich, chocolate coloured hair and dripped tantalisingly over his torso, before running streams through the small patch of dark curls across his upper body.

She was
glued to him and she couldn't look away. Actually, she didn't
want
to look away.

“
I'm going to...” Marco trailed off with a slight cough as he dropped his hand to the knot in his towel. He gripped it firmly with his hand as if her eyes were going to rip it from his body within seconds.

Discovering that
she had made an already tense atmosphere even more uncomfortable, Ashley turned away and went back to rummaging in the fridge. She used the open doorway to hide her deep exhale as she tried to forget the sight she had just witnessed.

Her best frie
nd's brother was attractive...
really
,
really
attractive.

If she w
as being honest with herself, she hadn't actually expected to be so impressed by his appearance. Yes, she had spoken to the man online for the past few years, but it was nothing compared to seeing him in the flesh for the first time.

She
had thought he was good looking already, but it was nothing in comparison to the body that had been stood before her. The image of him still burned in her mind despite her efforts to shift it. She pictured the olive tones of his skin. He appeared darker than what she had imagined him to be. The sun-kissed glow he sported worked as a highlighter, illuminating the side of his lean and nicely shaped upper torso before her eyes had filtered down to what she could see were firm thighs teasing through the gap in his towel.

She felt a feeling of lightness in her stomach as if she had swallowed a gallon of bubbles. There was a twinge of happiness and excitement from finally being able to meet him, but
alongside it there was also a feeling of anxiety.

She had heard a lot about Marco and his taste
in women from Gabby over the years. His standard was very picky when it came to choosing the women he wanted to sleep with. There was a certain fulfilment that all girls had to meet before he would even entertain the idea of spending an evening with them.

She wondered if she would fit his criteria at all.

“For God’s sake, stop it!” Ashley chastised herself for her own thoughts. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking like this about Marco. He wasn’t good for her at all. Deep down she knew this, but refused to believe it. The attraction between them was there, it was clear as day in her mind. But she would never be able to act on it. He was her best friend’s brother, so he was off-limits completely. It was something that she was going to have to get over and quickly.

~

Ashley heard Marco emerging from the bathroom a little while later. She was curled on the sofa in a ball, hugging her duvet cover to her chest. Tears burned and stung the skin on her already sore face. She had been crying constantly since the earlier thoughts of Marco had invaded her mind.

It was
wrong for her to be thinking of him like she was.

She had forgotten the real purpose of his visit to London. He wasn't here on
a jolly holiday to meet her and have a happy time, but instead, he had flown into the UK to be by his sister's bedside. And, ultimately, arrange her funeral.

Guilt overwhelmed and wracked her
completely. She couldn't believe that she had been so selfish earlier. This was supposed to be all about Gabby. Everything in her life right now was supposed to be consumed by the best friend she had only just lost, and not the man who had just
physically
walked into her life.

“
Cara,
I'm going out,” Marco grunted, loosely tucking his shirt into his trousers. He picked up his suit jacket from the back of the sofa and threw it casually over his shoulder.

Not hearing any indication of when he was planning to return, Ashley sat upright from her curled position. She used the duvet cover
that was still clutched in her hands to dab at her unrelenting tears. “M-Marco,” she said, trying to garner his attention.

By this time, he was already standing by the front door, his hand raised in readiness to open the latch.
“
Si?
” he asked, flicking a glance towards her.

“
Um... Are you planning on staying
here
for the length of your trip?” She cringed at her own bluntness as soon as the words left her mouth. “I... I meant that you are more than welcome to stay here if you wanted to.” She knew that her attempt at recovering the situation was long gone and that she was continuing to dig into a deeper hole.

Marco
pursed his lips. “I didn't really plan anything for this impromptu trip, because I wasn't anticipating a call that my sister had been involved in an accident. I left Milan with nothing but my passport and the clothes on my back.” He used his hand to gesture at the overly crinkled and dirty suit he was wearing. “I didn't really think my accommodation through either, but I decided to just make my way here because I have to start thinking about getting Gabby’s affairs in order. There’s so much that I don’t want to think about yet; like how I’m going to go forward with Gabby’s share of the dental partnership, the funeral arrangements, her possessions. I don’t really know where to start, but, if I’ll be a nuisance then I’ll quite happily check into a hotel?” He turned away and opened the latch on the door without waiting to hear her answer.

“
No,” Ashley squeaked.

He held open the front door and turned towards her.
“No?”

“
You can stay here if you want? I mean, you have every right to want to stay in your sister's flat after all,” she blurted, a hopeful gleam in her eye. “I mean, I could even take you to go and meet the partners if you want?”

At this point, Ashley
didn’t register that she would be introducing Marco to the man she was currently dating. Instead, she merely thought of herself and the opportunity she had been presented with to get closer to him.

The worry that he was
just going to leave her after the funeral unsettled her somewhat. She didn’t like the idea of him walking out of her life and never seeing or speaking to him again. After all, regardless of the budding friendship they had grown over the years, the main connection between them had always been Gabby.

Marco’s
eyes drifted towards the rustic looking leather sofa in the small living area, then back to Ashley's face. “I’d like to stay,” he murmured with a gentle smile. “And I will take you up on your offer of introductions, but I’m afraid that I can’t do today or tomorrow.”

“That’s fine. Just let me know when you want to go.”

“I will. Thanks,
cara.
”

Ashley
didn't say anything as Marco stepped into the corridor and closed the front door behind him. She waited for a few minutes to ensure that he had moved away and was out of earshot before she let out her deep exhale.

At least he
was going to be around her while he made arrangements for the funeral. She was grateful that she was going to have him by her side as a support barrier to lean on. He didn’t know it yet, but his presence was going to be invaluable.

“Right, where did I put the
spare bedding?” she mumbled, casting a glance towards the airing cupboard in the hallway. It was the Pandora’s Box in their flat; the place where anything and everything was kept. She didn’t like to venture into it without a strategy. It was almost like a game of Jenga. If she moved one item incorrectly then the whole lot would come tumbling down around her.

Storage was the one thing that she and Gabby had always found to be a problem with their little flat. It ended up that they were paying through the nose for their location as oppose to the building itself, so they had to make do with the poky two bedroomed flat situated in the up and coming North Greenwich area.

In recent years, the borough of Greenwich had been ever changing. With new developments springing up all over the place, and businesses fighting for prime space along The Thames, it was the perfect location for two young and career driven girls such as Ashley and Gabby.

With the dental practice only a
short bus ride away in Central Greenwich, and the rest of London easily accessible via the Jubilee Line on the Tube, the decision in picking the poky flat that they now called home hadn't been a difficult one. Despite the creaking floorboards, the aging kitchen and the practically prehistoric bathroom, Gabby had been able to see past the decorative flaws to see the building for what it really was... quirky, cosy and perfect.