Crown of a Prince (Finn Shelby)

58.

Ailbhe went to the usual spots she would usually find Finn but she couldn't find him. He wasn't with Charlie and Curly in the stables, he wasn't in the betting shop nor the old Shelby house on Watery Lane. Uncle Charlie had been glad to see her and even gladder to see she had come back from New York in one piece. It was a long shot but she went to the offices, hoping to see if Jade knew where he was.
 
"Jade?" She called out, shutting the office door behind her.
 
She heard shuffling and moving around but they didn't sound like the movements of one person.
 
"Jade?" She called out again, coming around the corner and finding Jade at her desk. She looked a little flustered but nothing too much out of the ordinary.
 
"Ailbhe!" She exclaimed, glad to see her best friend after so long apart. She stood up and came to meet her, squeezing her around the shoulders in a tight hug.
 
"Thomas said you were back" She stated, holding her by the arms before grinning again. It was good to have some more young people around, more women too.
 
"I'm actually looking for a different Shelby" she told her, craning her head to see if Tommy was back in his office or if Finn was in there by any chance. He wasn't but the office wasn't empty either.
 
"Bonnie?" Ailbhe asked, not sure if her eyes were deceiving her or if Bonnie Gold was in Tommy's office signing papers as he stood over the desk.
 
His head snapped up, noticing his old friend in the hallway and an easy smile spread across his lips.
 
"Well, Ailbhe Kennedy! From beyond the grave, it would seem"
 
 He laughed, throwing down his pen and closing the distance between them. He pulled her in for a hug, having missed her around the place. He wasn't sorry to see her home in the slightest. With Ailbhe gone, Finn was well and truly off the rails and hopefully, with her return he would be the old Finn, the real Finn.
 
"What are you doing here?" She asked, stepping back and realising he was dressed like a real peaky blinder now, proper suit, peaky hat and hair cut. It looked good on him. Power suited him.
 
"I have a fight coming up and Tommy needed me to sign some forms" he explained, his eyes darting from Ailbhe's to Jade.
 
There was a lie in there somewhere. Ailbhe could feel it. But she didn't see any malice in it so she smiled and nodded, pretending to swallow it. If she was a betting woman, she would be putting money on it, that should she not have knocked and announced her arrival she would have caught Bonnie in a very compromising position with Jade. Ailbhe tried not to smile.
 
After all of Jade's social climbing and high-class partying in London. She was back in Small Heath, shacking up with the gypsy boy who promised he would one day, rule the world.
 
"I better get going" He admitted, pulling his peaky cap back on and nodding in goodbye to the two young women.
 
Ailbhe waited until the door shut behind him before she turned and gave Jade a knowing look.
 
"What?" Jade asked, feigning innocence with those big doe eyes that had made sure she had always gotten away with murder.
 
Ailbhe just narrowed her eyes at her. 

"How long?" Ailbhe asked, curiosity getting the better of her and a smile tugging on her crimson painted lips.
 
Jade's eyes lit up, Ailbhe's smile being clearly contagious. Jade should've known she couldn't hide anything from Ailbhe.
 
"I don't know what you're talking about" she tried to deny but the smile on her face exposed her.
 
She shook her head laughing. Nothing got past Ailbhe anymore.
 
"Well then I'll have to have a word with Bonnie because red lipstick just isn't a good look on him" Ailbhe joked, raising an eyebrow at her friend whose lipstick had stained Bonnie's shirt collar and the pale skin of his neck.
 
Jade rolled her eyes, busying her hands with the flower that sat on her desk. It was a single daffodil and she ran her fingers over the delicate petals, a pensive look on her face. Ailbhe knew that look, it was the look she was sure she got when she thought long and hard about Finn.
 
"It's nothing, it's just a bit of fun" Jade promised her, taking her seat back at her desk but Ailbhe didn't believe her for a second.
 
She didn't believe her, not because she knew Jade well enough to know when she was lying. But because that single daffodil from Bonnie was capturing Jade's undivided attention whereas the bouquet of flowers and diamond bracelet sent from her suitor in London sat unadmired and unnoticed in the corner of the room.
 
Ailbhe tore her eyes away from it, checking around the office but it was just her and Jade now. Finn was nowhere to be seen and she seemed to have lost her nerve to talk to him. She didn't know what she was going to say but the little displays of love she saw from Bonnie and Jade made her reconsider. It really was that simple sometimes.
 
"What about you?" Jade asked, sitting back and resting her hands on her stomach.
 
She really was quite beautiful, with golden skin and almond-shaped eyes the colour of honey. She wore lipstick that was a bright crimson always and lined her eyes with black so they stood out even more. But it was more than her body and her face, it was the air of ease and confidence she had, a certainty about herself that she carried so easily. Jade had an endless amount of confidence and belief that she deserved all the best in life if she was willing to work for it and she had. It was just ironic in the sweetest of ways that after everything, she found herself wanting the life Bonnie Gold could give her.
 
Ailbhe snapped out of it, leaning against the doorway.
 
"What about me?" She asked, shrugging her shoulders and hating how the tables had turned on her so quickly.
 
Jade rolled her eyes dramatically.
 
"Don't give me that" she snapped "What about you and Finn? He's been a mess since you left and I know for a fact you've barely spoken since you got home!"
 
Jade heard everything. She was better than the morning papers for news and heard everything that was worth hearing first. Ailbhe didn't know how but she seemed to just know everyone's business.
 
"I don't know Jade" she sighed, resting her head against the door frame and closing her eyes, wanting a moment of quiet. But Jade didn't know how to be quiet no more than Ailbhe knew how to speak Japanese.
 
"Oh, for fuck's sake" Jade exclaimed, throwing her pen onto the desk in front of her dramatically.
 
"Do you love him Alv?" she asked bluntly.
 
Ailbhe opened her eyes, seeing that Jade wasn't going to take silence as an answer.
 
"Yes" she admitted quietly. Of course, she loved him.