ALAN - An Alan Rickman fanfic

Chapter 5 - Just A Taste...

Chapter 5! Enjoy!! 

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"Ava, I appreciate all you've done for the gallery but this is the best I can offer you. I've said the same to everyone else. I appreciate you have bills to pay, and there isn't much notice, but half a reduction in hours is better than laying you off completely. I've had to let some of the others go. You're one of the lucky ones."

I stand in my bosses office, torn between the cross-roads, not knowing what's best. If I get another job, my taxes will be through the roof.

"I don't understand. Not that long ago my hours were boosted. I can't manage on this reduction."

"Well Ava, you look adamant about that. You do whatever you think is best. If you have to find something else then I thank you for your time. A pretty girl like you can get any job she wants."

How dare he! I'm out of there like a light with no plans to return, except now I'm unequivocally screwed, but I sure as hell am not having my boss talk to me like that. Who does he think he is?!

Apparently the reason for the reduction in hours was because I was no longer needed as a gallery tour guide, and that those places now required a forty hour week contract and a training program on top of that, which I couldn't commit to because of my studies.

Job searching slowly sucks the life out of me and becomes a daily monotonous activity. One particular morning I receive a call from my parents in London - the last thing I need right now.

"Ava. I didn't think you'd answer but I was hoping you would because it's the only time I have for a phone call today. Your father and I have been so so busy," she sighs, "you know how it is in hay fever season. Everyone feels as if they're falling apart. It's nothing a little Piriton won't fix. No need to waste our time and make appointments. Oh, and I have to tell you, your sister is doing marvellously at med school. I'll send you a photo of the mark on her last paper. You won't bel-ieve her score! Anyway...how are you?"

A last resort as ever.

"I'm fine mum..."

"Keeping on top of studies? What is it you're drawing now?"

"Painting mum."

"Painting, yes."

"Expressionism."

The book that Alan lent me catches my eye on the dresser. I read the title with a warm fuzzy feeling coming over me. "Expressionism in Portraits."

"Oh that sounds interesting," she responds in the most uninterested way you can imagine.

I never bother explaining things too deeply to her when it comes to my studies. It's not so much of her being un-artistic and not understanding my vision, but more because my mother can be completely self absorbed. Sometimes I feel she only asks how I am because she is obligated to, which makes me think, why bother.

The conversation doesn't last long, the majority of it revolving around my parent's busy schedules and my sister's success in med school before fizzling out, but not before she announces,

"Oh and don't forget we'll be visiting in a few weeks."

Oh God.

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Whenever I see Alan, it makes me forget everything. He becomes the forefront and everything else fizzles into the background. One look from him is all it takes, and now with our secret kept close of the glorious kiss we shared in his dressing room last week, one glance brings it all back.