Love You Like a Sister:

Prologue

Michelle PoV

The bistro was empty, it had gone eleven now and Nick walks back over to our table after locking up. He slides back into the booth next to Carla and puts his arm around her.

"Do you remember when we were like that?" I ask Steve, who is slumped in his chair next to me, still chewing on the stones out of the olives we had eaten one hour previously.

"Like what?" He asks, oblivious to the couple we had been double dating all night.

"Nick and Carla." I persist and he raises his head to look at them. "The start of relationships are the best..."

"Oh well sorry I'll just take that wedding ring back then." Steve rolls his eyes and then places a kiss on the side of my head.

"We're not that early on." Carla retorts, taking a sip of her wine as she does so. "Four months I'll have you know."

"Well I suppose you did go on forever pretending that you didn't have feelings for each other." I shrug.

"I had a girlfriend." Nick points out.

"Yeah but everyone could see through that." Steve takes my side. "It's obvious Erica was just a mask for how you felt about one another."

"She was pregnant Steve." Carla reminds him, but curls into Nick's side all the same, as if marking her territory. "Sorry..." She suddenly realised that she's mentioned the miscarriage and he shakes his head, smiling.

"It's fine." He tells her, kissing her forehead, which she accepts appreciatively.

"You used to hate each other back in two thousand and ten." I laugh, reminding them of when they worked at the factory together.

"I couldn't stand her." Nick informs us all.

"Well you weren't really my favourite person either." Carla turns to face him. "Walking round my factory like you were God's gift."

"Me?" He looks taken aback. "You didn't half remind people you owned the place. Constantly reminding people of the authority that strutted around in six inch heels."

"Mmm... Yeah I know." She gives in, not wanting to have an argument there and then, before turning to me. "Anyway, should we really get started on you two? I don't know, you've been together nine years with a split in the middle and you only got married this year after God knows how many proposals."

"Yeah well, at least I check my men out before marrying them." I respond. "Wouldn't want to end up married to a murderer would I?"

"Did you two always bicker like this?" Nick interrupts.

"We have our moments." I smile, reaching for her hand over the table.

"Ok well now I feel like I'm in the way." Nick retreats, pulling a face at Steve.

"...You know something Chelle never spoke to me about?" Steve pipes up. "Whether these two ever... You know."

"What?" We both stare at him, shock in our faces.

"I have wondered..." Nick chuckles to himself and we turn to look at him instead. "...Oh come on. You've known each other practically all your lives. You're telling me nothing's ever gone on?"

"Ew no!" Carla retorts and I give her a look.

"Excuse me?" I cough and her face forms a smile, which I imitate. Memories of our childhood were not vague, in fact I could remember every second of them because it was so... Eventful.

"You did!" Steve exclaims, pointing at our expressions.

"No we didn't!" I yell at him, slapping him lightly on the arm. "We were just close that's all."

"Very close." Carla nods.

"Like sisters." I add.

"Well that's put me right off my olives." Steve pushes his plate away.

"Look... We were teenagers weren't we Chelle?" Carla sighs. "It was all a bit confusing at the time."

"Tell us more." Nick leans in, clearly very interested in how this story was going to end.

"Don't be having any dodgy fantasies or anything like that." Carla glares at him.

"...Were you together?" Steve comes right out and says it.

"No!" We both defend ourselves.

"Although... Many people on our estate got the wrong end of the stick." Carla reminisces.

"There might have been a few... Little experiments or games played..." I grin and Carla bursts out laughing. "But I loved her like a sister... I still do."