HOW TO BE SINGLE | SIDEMEN

TWENTY NINE

t w e n t y n i n e
" still love her "
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By Simon's standards, the Christmas part had been a great success. Everyone seemed to have a great time. All the food was gone, all the wine had been drunk and the guests all left happy with beaming smiles on their faces and rosy cheeks.

Although, he didn't take Adela or her plus one into this equation. He didn't like to think about that, about her. She smiled at Lewis like she used to smile at him and that hurt to realise, but he'd made his choice and she'd made hers, even if they were technically still on a break.

As he emptied crumbs into the bin, Catherine stepped into the kitchen without a word and took her coat from the back of the chair. She pulled it on, wrapped her scarf around her neck and stuffed her hands into her gloves.

"I know you still love her," She said, making Simon drop the wine glass he'd begun to clean. It shattered at his feet.

"What?" He choked out, staring at her as he stood in the broken glass. He could barely feel it, though he definitely should have. It was hard to focus on anything but Catherine as she stood before him telling him what he had tried so hard not to think about.

"It was written all over your face when she walked in with that guy. Besides," she shrugged, "you couldn't keep your eyes off her all night." She wasn't angry, just disappointed that the guy she thought she could've gotten very much in love with wasn't feeling the same way about her. It honestly left her a little heart broken.

"I just hadn't seen her in a long time," He defended, looking away from his new girlfriend not bearing to see the way she stared at him with those dark eyes he'd been drawn to anymore.

"It's not just that. You talk about her all the time, you insisted on inviting her even though I said that that might not be a good idea, but you wouldn't take no for an answer. You still love that girl and maybe that's why I can't stay here tonight."

"Catherine..." He couldn't quite find those denying words to rescue their perfect night. His heart clenched inside of him, his stomach swirling and his palms clammy at his sides.

"No, I can't sleep in the same bed you used to share with her knowing that you're wishing she was there instead of me." She stepped back when he tried to move towards her, the glass crunching beneath his feet. "I think I should go home. I'll... I'll call you."

"Okay," He managed, folding his arms and watching her as she turned away from him, walking out into the Winter's night seeking her own bed and the warmth of her own home.

And he'd lost another person in his life, just like that. Letting her walk away from him without doing a thing to stop her because, in truth, she was undoubtedly right.

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Where one love was ending, perhaps another was blossoming elsewhere. Earlier that day, Chris and Cora got back from the shop with all their decorations.

Without a word, Chris helped her unpack her car and take the purchases into the bar. While Cora tried to make conversation with him, he denied all attempts with simple one word answers or even went as far as to simply grunt in response.

Cora would've put it down to him being rude, but she'd used the same tactic enough to know that he was probably just pissed off at her.

As he brought the last box in, she folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "Alright, what's up with you?" Cora finally asked, eyeing him as he put the box down on the table.

"Nothing," He replied, sulking like a child, not looking at her.

"If you're mad about what I said to you in the store, I thought we were just messing around. I wasn't meaning to upset you." If there was any reaction from him, she didn't see it.

"Let's just get the decorations up. I have a video I need to film later today," He told her, pulling open one of the boxes. From out of it he pulled none other than the Frosty the Snowman he'd picked out earlier that day.

"Can't go wrong with Frosty the Snowman," Cora repeated, stepping up to the other side of the table from him. "Now where should he go?" She scanned the room, not even knowing where to start. There was a lot of space for potential Christmas décor, but also quite a few spaces where it would almost definitely get broken from excessive drunken dancing or kissing couples.

"He'd not that big so maybe on a shelf? Or on the bar, I guess?" Chris mumbled, handing it to her, making sure the wire didn't swing and hit her in the leg.

"The bar would be nice," She replied, strutting over and putting it down a little harder than she should've.

Cora's face moulded into concentration as she unwound the wire and ran it behind the bar to plug in. Chris watched her, unbelievably amused by her expression and making no move to help her. Eventually, she popped back up, a proud look about her and huffed her hair out of her face.

"I think that should work," She said. "Hold on, let me switch it on." She ducked back down again and flicked the switch. The little snowman lit up a warm white, his scarf coloured. It was small, but it was a start.

A large grin spread across her face almost as bright as the snowman himself and, with that, Chris' annoyance at her melted away.

"That looks great," He commented, not being able to keep the rising smile from his own face. "Now let's get the rest of these up before you have to open this evening."

She nodded and hurried over to start pulling more decorations out, both of them sitting on the floor to yank out the decorations, laughing at each other as they struggled or forgot about buying an item, and joking with one another as if there hadn't been tension in the room only moments ago.

As Cora watched Chris straightening out the branches of the fake Christmas tree, she felt a sinking sensation in her stomach when she realised something she hadn't felt in a long, long time. She was starting to like him, a lot, and it wasn't stopping.

And she didn't know what to do about it.

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1113 words
honestly, a chapter without adela and lewis seems strange to me after writing only about them for literally two chapters straight, but it was nice to progress some other storylines for once.