Road to Romance

[ Chapter 3 ]

Craig remained outside her bedroom door for a short while, listening to her cries as she tried to stop her crying. She was a strong person to break, she was also very closed off emotionally, rarely ever crying. Craig would have remained stood outside her door for many minutes, or hours, to come had it not been for Emilia coming besides him after he had stood there for some moments.
"Cray, I'm sorry," she told him softly. He didn't have to look at her to know what she was sorry for. He didn't need to ask why she was sorry but he did anyway.
"Cray, she's realised she loves you and if you can't see you love her then your blind. We all saw it, you two were blind though. Whenever I needed to ask a question about you, it was Darcey. Whenever Darcey ended up in trouble it was you who'd go put sense into her. You've worked together for eight years and if that doesn't say something, I don't know what does," she told him softly, her hand on the small of his back. She gave him a small, sad smile a message hidden in her eyes. Craig looked at her questioningly.
"We're not going to work when you're in love with another woman, Craig," her voice remained kind and welcoming and Craig wanted nothing more to deny what was blatantly obvious but instead he nodded in defeat.
"I'll pick my things up tomorrow," she told him before patting his shoulder and leaving him alone in the hallway. Her touch lingered moments longer than it should. He heard the front door click open and the keys being posted through the letterbox, then finally, her car on the gravel. His face dropped slightly, realisation dawning upon him. He had planned on acting like nothing had happened, going back to normal.. or as normal as one could expect.

Still, putting on a brave face for Darcey, pretending like nothing’s wrong… that’s something he can do. He may be rusty, out of practice, but he’s still an expert at it. Vulnerability isn’t his strong suit. It’s far easier to pretend that everything’s fine when he’s only under the scrutiny of one woman. Especially one woman who needs him. God, it’s been a long time since he felt needed. Maybe it’s selfish to think like that, but it had been a painful experience when they had that argument all them years ago. They hadn't spoken to each other for two years unless it was work related, and everyone else had been caught up in the crossfire.

He had realised in that moment that Darcey wasn't doing this for the jokes, per say, but was admitting something to him. That something had clearly been tearing her apart from the inside out and he couldn't deny his feelings for the younger brunette either. (P.S. We had an argument over whether or not she was blonde or brunette. Eli finally won for the purpose of this story but I am adamant that she is blonde. Please, tell us what you think)

However, he could hide the feelings from Darcey and he could pretend there was nothing between them other than a friendship. He could harbor his emotions, not let them show, at least he could in public. He would silently conflict with these emotions behind closed doors, hell he had been fighting emotions for her since before they had met.

How'd you manage to despise somebody you had never met? He didn't know, but he had also envied her. Maybe that envy was being mistaken for hate because he had fallen quick for Darcey. She waltzed into his life, and now, she was making her imprint in his life. Well, she did that the day we met Craig told himself.

He mentally berated himself as his thoughts lingered moments longer on his friend. She often wore him out with her frustration, heartache and her fits of fury but each time they kept coming back for the re run. Both kept coming back, silently, and they were content to say nothing. They had long since reached a silent agreement that nothing would be said, that they would just be.

Both had the others heart in their hands and they wouldn't make a move by themselves. They were petrified of breaking their already delicate friendship. Maybe Emilia's words would get their relationship on track. Help them admit it, and act on it. What would the point be if they didn't act on it?

Sighing in frustration, he swivelled away from the tired door and entered his own bedroom. Laying in bed, he lay flat on his back. Cold. The bed was cold, that was his first thought but it was a boring, uninteresting topic to even be considered at this ungodly hour of the morning. He attempted to sway his thoughts away from his friend.

Fame had been bad for her, she was clearly drinking too much alcohol. She was having relationship problems and she had slipped from society extremely quickly after her divorce. The girl he had once known was now invisible. At least until she did some scandalous act. She spent many of her days by herself, declining offers from him, Bruno and Shirley. She was very clearly lost in this big world and her loneliness was causing her problems. Nobody deserves to be lonely, he knew she couldn't do this by herself, she must be freaking out. She was always searching for perfection but, news flash, nobody's perfect. She didn't see what she had  in front of her and it frustrates him. He threw a pillow at the wall. How could she question her friends? How could she keep secrets from them? How many more did she have? Was she ever going to see that people did love her? She had been the first to open up, maybe he should share one of his secrets to her - preferably whilst she was still alive. Darcey looked like she was going to die any moment, though that was all too common in this past year or so. He didn't know why he had such a hold on his friend, why he was still around. She was like a bad habit but his love for her was stuck to him. He didn't know why he did the things he did concerning his friend, or why he couldn't say no to her. It isn't his fault but he just didn't know why she had such a grasp on him. She had power over his body. He put a pillow over his face, a last minute attempt to stop his endless train of thought concerning Darcey. His final thought before he fell into a restless slumber was that they would be amazing together.

This chapter will be rewritten ASAP as it is a maze. I just wanted to get it down more than anything. Thanks for bearing with me and for all the well wishes. My PD says that I'm finally allowed to do most of my daily activities so I'm back! Thank you all yours sincerely -

Aurelia xx