✓ | GOLDEN LIAR ↠ Thomas Shelby.

08.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

               FELICITY WOODS DIDN'T KNOW what she was doing and in all fairness, she didn't want to find out.

All she wanted to do was get on with her day, away from the likes of Thomas Shelby yet not in the same manner of ignoring him completely as she had done for the past few days. Felicity had no intention of setting anything right: not for the time being. Despite Polly Gray's words in the church having hit home in the girl, she still couldn't find the energy in herself to go as far as to actually bother conversing with the man in the same manner as they had done before the races.

Or rather: Felicity wasn't ready for how unpredictable he might be. Whether he'd actually take it upon himself to apologise for something that wasn't even his fault - how should he know that her father would be there? - or whether he would even remember it, and go on as normal.

Felicity didn't have the energy for either of the conversations that would emerge from either of those situations.

And so as the girl unlocked the door to the Garrison, she was hardly expecting for the day to be remarkable in any sort of way. All she did was hang her coat on the back of the small backroom's door, pull her hair back so that it was out of her eyes, and went on with her day with the hopes that it would be just as unremarkable as she was expecting it to be.

That is, until Thomas walked through the doors with raindrops dripping from his cap and his overcoat dark from the weather outside. He approached the girl with an emotionless expression.

"Can I get a drink?"

The girl nodded, matching his lack of expression. "Whiskey?"

"Please."

She grabbed the bottle from the cupboard, held it out towards him to which he took it from her grasp roughly, before making his way over to the private booth. Felicity breathed out a sigh of slight relief, turning back so that she could lean against the bar in the hopes of having just a moment to herself.

Later, Grace had taken it upon herself to force Felicity to go home early, claiming that she could handle the pub on her own back for once. The blonde had tried to refuse by arguing that there was no reason for her to leave her alone, but her friend had been firm. She hadn't let Felicity's profuse refusals get to her and so that was why Felicity found herself grumbling sulkily as she pulled her coat over her shoulders and pushed open the door to the cold streets of Small Heath.

"Go!" Grace had demanded, taking the girl's coat from where it hung on the hook and holding it out to her.

Felicity had only shaken her head. "I'm fine," she insisted, "Look! I'm not even tired, see."

The yawn that had taken over her features argued against that, and so Grace looked at her disapprovingly. "Go home and sleep," she continued firmly.

Felicity tried to argue once more but before she could, her coat was draped over her arms and she had Grace taking her shoulders and gently pushing her towards the door.

"Are you sure you'll be. . .?"

The other girl nodded. "Yes! Now go."