Alone at Winter

Alone Again

Oscar woke up suddenly in the middle of the night, he thought he could hear Alex's voice. But it was just a figment of his imagination, he then looked toward the now naked Faith who laid next to him. Oscar sighed as he looked onward at her, realising the seriousness of what he had just allowed himself to do. He soon got out of the bed and made his way to the dinner table where he sat and thought about all of the events that had unfolded over the last few weeks. Faith began to slowly wake up in bed.

She rubbed her eyes and then looked toward Oscar as the blankets covered her body.

"Baby, why aren't you asleep?" She asked tiredly as she looked at Oscar.

"I had a nightmare." Oscar replied as his gaze fixed onto the table. Faith stood out of the bed and went behind Oscar, wrapping her arms softly around his neck.

"Will you at least come back to the bed with me?" Faith asked as she laid a soft kiss on Oscar's cheek.

"Faith, look. I know that I said that I'm okay with dating yesterday. But now it just doesn't feel right." Oscar muttered as he looked up at Faith, who was in a state of shock.

"I-er. I-I don't know what to say." Faith proclaimed as she stepped back.

"You can stay for the night. But what happened yesterday is a one time thing, okay? I'm not ready for something new yet." Oscar said as he stood from his chair. Faith looked away from him and crossed her arms.

"I thought we had something, Oscar. Now you just decide to throw everything we could have away?" Faith said as her eyes began to get teary. Oscar looked down at Faith as he sighed.

"I'm just not ready for a commitment right now. Not after what happened to Alex." Oscar said quietly. Faith slowly nodded slowly at Oscar's words.

"I-uh. I understand. Are we still going to have appointments?" Faith asked as she out on a pair of Oscar's pyjamas. Oscar looked toward her with a smile and nodded.

"I'll still need the support from you, it won't be easy living with the fact my husband is gone." Oscar said as he climbed back into the bed.

"Well, of course I'll still support you, Oscar. But what's going to happen to our personal relationship?" Faith asked as she climbed in the bed next to him. Oscar turned and looked at her.

"We just stay in a platonic relationship. That's all we'll be after tonight." Oscar said as he pulled the blanket over them both. Faith nodded understandingly as she cuddled inside the blanket.

"Just friends. I'm okay with that if you are." Faith smiled while simultaneously letting tears fall from her eyes. Oscar nodded as he smiled.

"I'm fine with it, Faith." He said as he wrapped her in a tight hug. They then both fell asleep fairly quick.

A few hours later both of them woke up at different times. Oscar woke up first and got dressed and nearly two hours later Faith did the same. Oscar dressed himself to get ready for Anne's return from her sleepover last night. Faith was preparing herself to make her way back to the hospital. Oscar waited outside as he waved Faith off as she walked into the distance, soon out of sight. Oscar sighed and hung his head as he waited on the arrival of his daughter. Soon enough a car pulled up in front of the hotel with Anne.

She ran out and jumped into her father's arms with an enormous grin on her face, Oscar had never seen her so happy to see him before. She normally have this type of attention to Alex whenever she saw him. But Oscar guessed that since Alex was now gone, Anne put her focus on the only father figure still left in her life. The then both walked inside the hotel together; hand in hand. Anne smiled the entire way, Oscar barely smiled at all. They soon reached their room and Anne was quick to jump into the bath before Oscar.

He snickered at the sight of his daughter being so enthused with teh challenge of hearing her father to having a bath. But he simply waited on his bed well she stayed in the bath. At that moment, with Faith gone and his daughter locked away in the bathroom. Oscar felt alone. More so than usual. He figured that the reasoning behind this was that he felt romantically involved again with someone new, but with that person suddenly gone; a feeling of loneliness had replaced his romantic feelings. He sat on the edge of his bed staring at the ground.

He looked at his right hand for a few minutes before focussing his gaze upon his ring finger, which still bared the ring given to him by Alex when he proposed to Oscar all those years ago. Inscribed on the ring were the conjoined words: 'My love, my light, my star.' Tears formed in Oscar's eyes as he looked down at the words, but without hesitation. He slid the ring off his finger and into his pocket. A mark was left by the ring, where the rest of the finger was tanned, the ring left a lighter skin tone where it originally sat.

While he waited for Anne in the bathroom he laid back on the bed, defeated. He stared at the white ceiling as he slowly closed his eyes. His head turned to face the wall as his breath slowed slowly. His heart slowing it's best as he continued to question his own mortal existence. He thought to himself that only one person is the driving force for keeping him alive. Anne. She was the only reason Oscar didn't want to die yet. So he pulled the cover over him, he didn't want a bath at this point and all he wanted was to rest.

So he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

"Oscar?"

"It's time to go."