Cherry Coloured - Alex Turner

33. Happy

  Forgiveness came in waves that rolled up in gradual, singular intervals, unwinding Maeve's walls at a fair and painfully tedious length of time. There were moments in the weeks that followed that Alex worried whether she'd ever fully return to him at all or if his promises had become so empty to her that she no longer believed them to be true. Her trust had never seemed more fragile and exclusive.

  Vienna's name hadn't left Alex's lips since he swore the end of his and her relationship to Maeve. It only ever appeared once as a passing thought when Alex would think of how little misery he felt with Maeve when compared to his previous partner. For once his soul wasn't aching, only his heart as it towed Maeve back to him with rope burnt grip.

  "I want to trust you. I'm getting there," Maeve often told him when he would beg for an update on his case. It wasn't easy for him to get upset, his promise meant as much as dirt if he did.

  Eventually, Maeve allowed herself to accept that Alex's promise was nothing short of the truth and that when he said he was no one if not hers, he was telling the truth. Her skepticism stepped aside for her happiness but for many weeks she lived beneath a thunderstorm of uncertainty and with a cold shiver creeping along her spine every time Alex's phone rang.

  "Hey man," Alex answered, pressing his phone to his ear. Maeve looked away and sighed with relief.

  "I can't tonight, sorry...Maeve and I are going out," Alex was saying, standing around his kitchen with a few bottles of liquor placed about the bench tops. "Going to this gig down in the city..."

  Maeve zipped up her knee high boots and stood up off the settee, pulling on a black leather jacket Alex frequently lended her. She felt a little too old to be dressed as she was but enjoyed her reflection for the first time in a long while. The night was young as ever and outside the sun fell into hues of violet and navy blue as stars crept across the clear sky.

  "Anyways, I've got to go. Yeah I'll phone soon, bye," Alex said and hung up his phone. "Yer lucky. I narrowly just avoided Matt intruding on our date."

  "Haven't seen him in awhile. How's he doing?" Maeve asked, putting two martini glasses on the bench for Alex who returned to making the cocktails he'd promised them.

  "Quite all reyt. Seeing someone again so he's quite content," Alex nodded, "how many olives?"

  "Three," Maeve said. "She nice?"

  "Haven't met her yet," Alex said, "but she sounds like she's been good to him which is a good sign. Here you are love," he smiled and handed her one of the glasses.

  "Thank you," Maeve smiled and pecked his lips before indulging upon her dirty martini. "Fuck. Always so good," she hummed and kissed him once more. "Don't forget, we're leaving in ten."

  "I know, I know," Alex chuckled and placed a hand on her hip. "All I need is me coat and I'm ready to go when you are."

  Maeve thinned her eyes at him with a cheeky smile. "I am!" Alex laughed.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Maeve teased and let the sharp gin spike her tongue and sear down her throat.

  They pulled out of Alex's driveway twenty minutes later with Alex getting an earful of jokes from Maeve going on and on about how he never left on time. He didn't sigh and grit his teeth like he would when it used to be Vienna, instead he laughed along and told Maeve to "pipe down" once she'd grilled him enough. He held her hand while he drove, palm pressed to the back of her hand on top of the gear stick so he'd never have to let her go.

"I have an appointment Thursday evening but I'll come after," she was saying to him as she drove under the night sky towards twinkling lights. The fingertips of her free hand stroked his wrist and danced along the raised veins that ran toward his fingers. "As long as you save me a seat at the back with you."