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Thread: Last Resort

  1. #21
    A small laugh left Alice and she nodded knowingly. "That would make two of us."

    Without waiting to see if Kat had any further commentary Alice headed past the lobby area and quickly down a hallway she hoped would lead them to their destination. The small pale blue signs with the overly loopy writing soon pointed the way down past other rooms and areas, finally leading to a series of doors set in between various storage areas that offered a place to hang the fuzzy bathrobes and offered Modesty Towels. The thought of lounging around in a sauna without one, even if she was swearing a swim suit, seemed mortifying. Each area seemed filled, and the slightly blurry shapes that appeared in the mostly opaque window set into the doors showed that apparently they hadn't been the only ones with this idea. Alice was just about to suggest that they try something else when she noticed the very last area seemed... well... empty. A quick peek inside proved their luck and Alice let out a quiet thanks to... whatever deity watched over socially awkward women in awkward public situations.

    "Score one for the good guys."

    The robe she wore was quickly swapped for one of the towels, wrapping it around her body tightly as if it was some sort of armor and a spot was quickly selected in the wooden interior and she sat down, somewhat huddled against herself. Alice couldn't help but wonder exactly how this was supposed to be relaxing... stuck in a room, with only Kat... Not that Alice found Katrina to be a nuisance! Just that... without the television to keep them both entertained the topic of conversation was bound to start drifting back towards things that Alice really didn't want to discuss. Again her thoughts went back to that single word that really did just seem to sum everything up. Complicated.

  2. #22
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    Kat shuffled along dutifully in Alice's wake, deciding that the world would probably be best if she kept her mouth shut for a while. She often had moments like that, though unfortunately they only ever seemed to show up in the immediate aftermath of her saying two much of the wrong thing, at which point her mind saw fit to remind her of each and every poor choice of words that she'd ever uttered. Today it had decided to revisit some of the classics; stupid things she'd said and done way back in her teens and pre-teens. The sheer abundance of that sort of stuff didn't exactly make her feel all that great about stuff.

    As she towel-wrapped herself burrito style and wriggled awkwardly onto the sauna bench that was ever so slightly too tall for her stubby, hockey-player legs - the grass kind, not the ice kind - to not swing idly back and forth, a very loud and noticeable silence descended. That kind of silence was Kat's worst enemy, because it brought her two greatest fears and weaknesses into direct conflict: the fear of saying nothing, and the fear of saying the wrong thing. It taunted her, hissed at her through the proxy of water being poured on the sauna's hot rocks. She squeezed her eyes closed; tipped her head back against the wood-clad sauna wall; mustered all her self control to clamp her mouth tightly closed.

    "Do you have any brothers?" she blurted out.

    Horror descended, not only that she'd failed so miserably in her efforts, but also at how inappropriate that might sound given the apparent conversation theme for the day. "Or sisters," she quickly added, but to be honest that didn't sound all that much better.

    She drew in a careful breath, which felt both weird and pleasant in the roasting hot air, and tried again with a little more careful choice of words. "It's just that, with everything that has happened, you know pretty much everything there is to know about me, about my family, about all the baggage we're all dragging around. But I know pretty much nothing about you." She kept her eyes closed and her head still, feeling too awkward to actually look at the no doubt horrified face that Alice was pulling. "And I know you don't like talking about stuff, and you keep yourself to yourself and all that, but like -"

    She trailed off, a frown wrinkling her brow. Finally she forced her eyes to open, and mustered yet another apologetic smile. "You're basically my best friend; my only friend, I guess. And I feel really guilty for not trying to know you better."

  3. #23
    And there it was, questions. Not the one that Alice had been expecting but they fell into the same realm of please don't ask. But as Kat continued, the sudden tension that came from the immediate question faded away and she felt... guilty. Alice had to admit there hadn't been a lot of fairness to everything. Thanks to Tom she had come to know a great deal about the Harrimans but the most they could say for her was Well...she's from Canada... The whole concept that Kat felt like Alice was her only friend wasn't helping anything.

    "I..." She started, finding the feelings that came with everything a confusing jumble. It left her twisting part of the towel in her hands, not looking up as she forced herself to say something. "I had an older sister..."

    The words felt like sand in her mouth and brought back all the horrible sensations that had caused her to leave home in the first place.

    "But... she had leukaemia." Alice let the rest go unspoken. She didn't need to say how hard it had been watching her big sister suddenly get sick... how it had reflected what had happened to their mother... and their father before that.

    It was the sudden pain she felt that let Alice know she had been biting at her lower lip. She hadn't looked up to see what Kat's reaction was...she didn't want to. Instead a deep breath was drawn in and she forced a shrug of her shoulders.

    "I just don't talk about these things. When I left home I just wanted to leave all that behind... pretend it all never happened. You and Tom... you're kinda like my family now. I know that sounds stupid but, I guess it's just how I feel. I'm sorry I don't say a whole lot about myself. I'm not trying to be some great mystery... I just... want to forget."

  4. #24
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    As per usual, it turned out that the voice in her head urging her to keep her mouth shut was right all along. It wasn't just the sauna making it take more effort to breathe: guilt made it felt like her chest wanted to cave in, and Kat was inclined to let it, on the condition that the rest of her followed suit and she collapsed into a teeny tiny black hole pinprick of nothingness.

    She had no idea what to say. She wasn't sure there was anything she could say, and she sure as hell didn't feel inclined to chance it and risk making things even worse. She knew how it had felt losing her father, and how it had felt almost losing Tom: but she had something, someone to blame for all that, and this Hurucan guy was doing a pretty damn good job of making himself an easy person to hate for just about everything. But leukaemia? That was a force of nature; it did what it did without malice or intent, because that was all it existed to do. Hating that was like hating a hurricane: Kat doubted it helped even slightly.

    She couldn't bring herself to look at Alice; her attention was focused mainly on her knees. With a little effort however, she did muster a tiny amount of movement, shifting her hand to rest on top of Alice's on the bench between them.

    "My family could use an extra sister," she said quietly.

  5. #25
    If given a few options of a perfect opportunity to disrupt some sort of touching moment Diana really couldn't have asked for anything better. The door to the sauna was opened just as Kat had finished speaking and in she walked, wrapped in one of those ridiculous, obviously designed by men, towels. A smile graced her lips as she took a moment to do one of those cliche "I'm just trying to get my hair to stop annoying me" brush of a hand through her copper locks. Lawd have mercy. Not that she was showing off. Okay. Maybe a little. Really it was just done in an effort to ruin that quaint little sisterly bonding that was going on. Diana had listened in, waited for the sobbing that didn't seem like it was going to come and then perfect timing.

    "Oh thank the goddess. All the other ones were so full I figured I'd end up wedged between two men with enough body hair to..." She paused and gave a visible shudder before sitting down with what could best be described as feline grace. "I hope you don't mind if I join you both! Three's a crowd and all... hopefully you can make an exception for little old me, though."

  6. #26
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    Kat stared, frozen like a rabbit snared in headlights. How that reaction was supposed to help was beyond her; at best guess, part of her brain was perhaps hoping that if she stayed still enough and quiet enough, maybe the invader to their little bubble of sisterly bonding wouldn't actually notice she was there.

    Good plan, Katrina, the voice in the back of her head - the same voice that tumbled out of her mouth every time she had a conversation with a parent, teacher, Tom, Jace, or just about anyone else who probably deserved respect but sure as hell wasn't going to get it - taunted. Because clearly this is Jurassic Sauna, and that woman is a bloody T-Rex.

    The sarcastic voice was momentarily replaced by the nitpicky voice that persistently corrected everything - a voice that sounded suspiciously like Tom, come to think of it - which explained in great length how the whole vision based on movement thing was totally not true, and that in fact T-Rexes had a higher percentage of their brain capacity devoted to vision, suggesting that they probably saw really really well; the baton was quickly replaced by the paranoid voice that wrenched her eyes around in frantic zigzags trying to work out if the sauna's wooden walls would defend them against tyrannosaurus teeth, or if she was going to die in the same sort of undignified way as that guy on the toilet.

    In other words, no matter how hard Kat tried to think straight, and muster up a half-way cool, or at least vaguely non-crazy reaction to her current situation, there was too much confusion and shouting in her mind to actually get anything done.

    "Sometimes it's better when there are three," her mouth blurted out.

    Oh god. That suddenly shut the voices up, all of them turning on the one in charge of her vocal chords like it had just dropped it's lunch tray in a High School sitcom.

    "I mean, you know. Groups are good. And it's always good to meet new people who are also -" Her train of thought was rapidly transforming into a babble. She slammed on the brakes, and it ground to an uneasy halt. "- wearing towels."

    An awkward silence settled into place; Kat mustered a nervous smile. "I like your hair?"

  7. #27
    Alice was baffled...not so much by the apperance of the woman, but more by Kat's reaction. It was like she had managed to take any hesitation or discomfort Alice had been feeling and channeled into herself to come pouring out of her mouth with some ungodly amplification. Okay so maybe the whole spa thing wasn't such a great idea. At least it hadn't been her idea. Maybe later, when they were both done dying of embarrassment and self-conscious nitpicking Alice would casually point that out.

    Since Katrina was obviously doing enough tripping-over-her-own-tongue for the both of them, Alice simply nodded politely at the newcomer. Of course she could stay. Telling her to leave was just rude and the both of them suddenly getting up and leaving was just as bad. No choice but to stick it out.

    Alice found herself wondering if Tom was having as much fun as she was. Oh well, it would make for something funny to talk about at dinner later. You know, if she could bring herself to even try and speak about it in front of him. Dinner... alone... with Tom. The thought brought uncomfortable butterflies back into action in her stomach. Oh god... now she probably looked as nervous as Kat. At least Alice could pretend to be busy picking at a cuticle on her finger... Kat had saved her from having to become really invested in the conversation so far.

  8. #28
    Oh wow - behold the awkward train in motion. Maybe this wasn't going to be as hard as Di had thought it might be. It had been suggested that the older one would be quiet and shy and kinda lame but the younger one... no one had said there might actually be some fun there. Shame she wasn't just a bit older...

    Diana let a small laugh dance around the room. It wasn't mean or even mocking. It was as if she was a young girl that had just found a dandelion puff in her front yard and was running off to show her brother before she had the both of them make a wish.

    "Oh, aren't you just the sweetest?" She rolled her eyes slightly and brought a hand up to once more gently brush through her hair. "It looks awful right now. All this humidity will have me looking like some sort of disaster later, I'm sure. But it's good for everything else. Nothing quite like just taking some time to relax and enjoy yourself."

    As if on cue she leaned back, her hands going to either side of her as she rolled her shoulders and let her head fall back to look up at the ceiling.

    "So nice to have time away from my brother too... he can be so damn over protective at times." She lifted her head slightly and looked over at the younger woman, a small smirk playing on her lips. "You can't relate...can you? I mean, you've got your big sister right here, huh? That must be nice too."

  9. #29
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    Oh god, I'm the sweetest?

    At that moment, Katrina was pretty sure she was made purely of marshmallow. Her certainty stemmed mostly from the disconcertingly pleasant sensation that she was slowly becoming an oozing liquid that wanted to gloop off the bench and onto the floor, partly because of the heat but mostly because of that weird kind of I really don't know how to take compliments very well embarrassment.

    "We're not sisters," she corrected reluctantly. "At least, not yet. She needs to marry one of my brothers first."

    For a moment, Kat was confronted with the alarming mental image of Alice and the wrong brother, which she frantically pushed as far into the deep recesses of her mind as she could. "Mine are both pretty protective too, but I guess I shouldn't complain too much. After all, it's Tom's credit card that is paying for all this. We're making the most of a little girl time before -"

    Before I get abandoned for the evening while you have a little romantic dinner. Because having me around is such a burden that you need to make me feel guilty for even existing, and for not being able to give you privacy at home because I'm stuck in this strange country with it's stupid money that I don't have any of, and with no friends to spend time with because you dragged me away from all of the ones I had to keep me 'safe'.

    Those thoughts rattled through her head, but fortunately not out of her mouth. "- Alice has to endure whatever romantic escapades he's got planned for the evening." She didn't need to roll her eyes; the tone of her voice conveyed that well enough. Ever since the whole feelings stuff had been out in the open, Tom had started growing insufferably romantic; and it was even worse this time, because he was so blatantly holding back. One of these days he'd snap, and they'd open the front door only to be buried by an avalanche of rose petals or something.

    "I'm Kat, by the way," she added as an afterthought, with a smile that was perhaps slightly too enthusiastic.

  10. #30
    While her eyes had trained on Kat as she spoke, nodding her head knowingly when appropriate, Diana couldn't help but notice the other woman in the room trying her best to vanish into thin air. She almost felt bad for her, but the Oh, Poor You look she briefly gave to Alice didn't exactly help the situation. The goal had become obvious... the shrinking violet wasn't going to be a way in. But the chatty one....oh yes, that would do just nicely.

    "Well I must say that it is my good fortune in meeting you, Kat." She smiled, trying to not think about the faces Sol would be making at her right now if he could hear her. "I'm Diana."

    Another quick glance was cast at Alice before she let a mischievous smirk form on her cherry colored lips. "So let me get this straight. You're on vacation with your brother and his..." a small pause "girlfriend. And don't even try and tell me you're local. That accident is adorable but isn't exactly helping you blend in. What's in all this for you?"

  11. #31
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    Diana wasn't wrong: Katrina was a good few thousand miles away from being local. Mention of her accept though ruffled her feathers to some degree; while her brother was lucky enough to still have the faint highlands lilt to his voice that had always made Kat's school friends get all swoony and weak at the knees, she didn't have an accent of her own. Her voice was generic. Neutral. Normal. And yet, pretty much everyone in America insisted that she either sounded like Mary Poppins or Dick Van Dyke.

    When that initial irritation subsided though, the film of emotion it left behind was something different entirely. What's in all this for you? was just a fancy way of asking, Why are you here? And sure, maybe Diana just meant at the resort. Heck, maybe she just meant specifically in the sauna. It all boiled back to one simple answer though: one simple explanation that accounted for everything.

    "My dad died."

    Her voice was soft; timid almost as she spoke. Though it was a truth she'd come to terms with already, more or less, it still sounded strange to hear those words in her voice, rather than in the half-blanked out voices of everyone else who'd explained it for her. Diana had already turned her skeleton half way to a liquid puddle; but now her mind froze it in place; she couldn't unslump herself even if she tried.

    Her features twitched as her face cycled through potential expressions to display. "Some guy threw him off the roof of a hospital. It wasn't safe for me to be on my own, so Tom, he -" She forced herself to swallow, throat slowly turning into a desert. "He flew me out here. He and Alice let me stay with them, and, well -"

    She half-heartedly mustered a brave smile.

    "I guess all that's in it for me is that I don't have anywhere else to go."

  12. #32
    Threw him off a roof....? It wasn't hard to looked appalled at the idea. That sort of thing was just downright cruel. There were far more efficient ways of killing someone if you wanted and Diana could instantly think of several that may have even been considered classy. But where-as Diana could take comfort in the mental image of a person handling from their neck by a satin sheet she doubted that Kat, or her overly quiet friend, would exactly appreciate that sort of thing. So that left the usual...

    She nodded her head slowly. "I know how that is. My mother died when I was young."

    Oh fuck's sake why did she have to say that and suddenly have to relive the moment in her head. Water and fire everywhere, her own childhood voice screaming until someone started pulling her away from it... which thankfully brought her back to the actual point of what she had said.

    "All I had left after that was my brother. We watch out for each other. It's what siblings do... even if we don't always appreciate it." A small whistful sigh left her as Diana shoved all those wonderful little memories back into their little black box that lived somewhere in the very veryvery back of her mind.

    "But that's no reason to not take full advantage of things. A new life means a lot of great things can happen. New home, new start, new friends! I have to admit, I kinda envy you in a way. And hell, if you're here on his tab... well, I'd suggest raiding the mini fridge for starters."

  13. #33
    Kat Harriman
    Guest
    "Why would we raid the mini-bar," Kat asked quietly, a tiny smile elbowing it's way onto her features like a timid teen through a crowded corridor, "When my brother has already set up a tab at the full-size bar?"

    She turned, planning to aim a little of her smile in Alice's direction as well; it was only then she realised that Alice was trying really hard not to be there. Before Kat had arrived in Los Angeles, Tom had warned her about how shy and introvert Alice was; how she was likely to stay pretty quiet, and how Kat shouldn't expect her to be chatty right away. Kat had reacted to that with her usual bullheaded ignorance, giving Alice no choice but to engage her at every possible opportunity. Wherever Alice turned, there Kat was, being talkative, irritating, invasive, and all manner of other stuff. It was the way that Kat always infiltrated her way into people's favour: it was like living next door to a railway line; endure the constant noise for long enough, and you'd just grudgingly accept the fact that it was there.

    It was what she was doing with this new person, really: babbling away until she seemed comfortable enough to tolerate Kat being around. But from the look of things, Alice wasn't all that enthusiastic a participant in Operation Befriend The Redhead. Guild clumped around Katrina's heart, the extra weight sending it plummeting through the bottom of her gut.

    She realised her hand was still resting on top of Alice's; she offered a small squeeze, and what she hoped looked like a reassuring smile. "I think we're just gonna relax and have some girl time though," she explained. "At least, that's what we're gonna do until it's time for Alice and Tom's dinner-date."

  14. #34
    She offered a small smile back to Kat. Finally. It wasn't that she was opposed to the Ginger Invasion, it was just that this woman was so confident, so carefree. No one was like that genuinely, were they? Of course, Diana was American and really who knew what went on in their heads? If Alice had even thought of suggesting they all enjoy a little quiet relaxation time the woman probably would spout off something about free speech. Or... maybe not. It was cynical to think that and really, despite being horribly uncomfortable, Alice just couldn't make herself really believe it.

    Her hand slowly pulled back from Kat's as she mustered her best smile. No, quiet wouldn't work either, she supposed. It worked well enough for her most of the time but it was starting to get awkward. What if Diana thought she was some uptight...rude... person? That thought seemed to bug her as much as just about anything else.

    "It's, not really a date...I don't think. It's just dinner..." A dinner that Kat wasn't invited to. She wasn't quite ready to tackle the guilt from that on top of nerves from actually joining Tom for something other than just takeout Chinese food.

  15. #35
    They were just precious weren't they? Oh if only she was there on vacation this whole situation could turn fun. And while she guessed the little thoughts running about skipping in her head would technically count towards make them trust you, something told her it probably wasn't the best plan to try and get Harriman's little sister and his interest into a compromising situation. Even if it would be fun. Even if Sol would probably high-five her the day after. Pity.

    "Not a date?" An eyebrow raised as she eyed Alice, playing up the disbelief before she looked back to Kat. "It's is a date, isn't it?"

    Her head shook as her eyes rolled slightly in that Oh the innocence of youth look that really shouldn't have been able to be pulled off by someone who looked her age.

    Then suddenly... her eyes brightened. Yes! Perfect! What else got girls together and made them all become BFFs?

    Diana gave a quick and mischievous smile to Kat before her eyes trained directly on Alice. "We need to give you a makeover."

    Her hands came up and shook as if brushing off the idea. 'Okay no, not that. But you're at a spa, right? This is the perfect place to get ready for a date!" She paused, the smirk reappearing, "Especially one you're obviously nervous about."

  16. #36
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Has been a member for 5 years or longer Tom Harriman's Avatar
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    Tom had never been so nervous in his life.

    For a man who used to jump out of aeroplanes for a living, that was a pretty ridiculous notion; or for a man who ran around at night beating up criminals while dressed as Robin Hood, for that matter. He'd fought wars, clashed with gangs, stood in front of thousands, spoken on camera before millions, felt his flesh literally melting away from his body... and yet what terrified him most of all, apparently, was a tiny little table covered in an unremarkable piece of cloth, two sets of generic-looking cutlery, and a tiny vase of flowers that looked a little bit too wilty for his liking.

    He peeled back the neatly folded napkin, glancing down at the screen of the cell phone he'd concealed there so he could anxiously check the time every few seconds without it actually looking like he was actually checking the time. It was 20:06, which meant she was late; or at least, it meant that she was a normal person rather than someone who the military had brainwashed into thinking that arriving for dinner at exactly 2000 hours was a mission-critical objective that categorically could not be failed. She was probably just fixing her hair, or having difficulty disposing of Kat, or standing out in the corridor fretting nervously back and forward worrying about absolutely nothing exactly the same way that he was --

    His cell phone buzzed, and Tom snatched it instantly, mind conjuring up all sorts of alternative possibilities that this new evidence might hint at. His shoulders sagged in both relief and frustration as his eyes skimmed the text from his sister.

    Need card deets 4 room service.

    Tom sighed and, slumping a little in his chair, set to work trying to reply with the annoyingly tiny touch screen keys.

  17. #37
    Alice was pretty sure that the last few hours she had endured at the hands of Katrina and Diana could be considered some form of torture somewhere in the world. It might have all been considered fun if she had been on her own and was just trying things. But when you were pressured into having every bit of you polished and fancied up by others... Well, it wasn't that Alice had been completely opposed to the idea, it just all seemed like a bit much. Painting your nails was one thing but for the last hour or so Diana and Kat had attempted their very best to make sure she looked nice through the means of every bit of makeup and hair-trickery they could come up with. The icing on the cake had been when they both had decided that everything Alice had brought was too plain and they discovered that yes, she would fit into things that Diana had brought with her and the redhead had just the thing.

    When all was said and done Alice did have to admit the result was impressive. Even if she'd never go through all the trouble on her own. Even if the dress was a little lower cut than she liked and she had found herself constantly wondering if it was too much.But the other two women had shuffled her on her way before she could figure out how to change into something more her.

    So there she was, fidgeting in the hallway and trying her best to not feel like an overdressed prissy thing and it wasn't really working. With a small sigh of resignation she slowly pushed the door to the restaurant open, trying to look past the others standing near the entrance waiting for a table. She tucked a strand of curled hair behind her ear as she glanced through those already seated. It was probably silly the way she still felt like her heart skipped a beat when she finally spotted Tom, but it was there anyway. The small crowd in front of her was navigated through and she gave a weak smile and a small wave as Tom finally looked up from his phone.

  18. #38
    TheHolo.Net Poster
    Has been a member for 5 years or longer Tom Harriman's Avatar
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    Whatever Tom had been expecting, it wasn't that.

    He stared dumbly in surprise for a few seconds, his mind struggling to process what he was seeing. He had never seen Alice like this, dressed to impress or whatever you wanted to call it. She'd never needed to: not just a lack of occasion to, but a genuine lack of need. The way she looked each and every day, shuffling around the apartment in whatever she felt like, hair styled for convenience and to hell what anyone else thought; the way she looked then could only be described by the breath-stealing, heart-fluttering feeling that Tom felt every single time, not by any sort of clunky, useless words. Tom didn't doubt for a second that today's efforts hadn't been entirely voluntary - the hair was a little too Katrina, the dress was a little too he wasn't sure what, and her body language was more nervous and uncomfortable than ever - but at least for once, he knew how to describe her with a word.

    The word was stunning.

    Faculties slowly ticking back online, Tom stood with enough distracted disregard to tip his chair precariously onto only two legs for a few seconds, and couldn't stop the smile from blossoming on his face.

    "You look beautiful," he managed to utter, feeling terrible for using such an inadequate word as he stepped out from behind the table, intent on fulfilling his gentlemanly responsibilities and helping Alice to her seat. Finding himself standing in front of her however he hesitated, just long enough to plant a single, tentative kiss on her sculpted-by-angels cheek. "You always do."

  19. #39
    She knew she was blushing... again. A timid smile couldn't be helped though and it went with that unconscious movement of raising a hand to gently touch where he had kissed her. Okay, so maybe it all had been worth it.

    The words "Thank you" left her, just barely. More out of a want to say something in reply but never really knowing what she were supposed to. Compliments had always been awful like that to her, but Alice figured that was probably some sort of universal truth.


    "I'm sorry I'm late..." She let the words fall away as she realized they both were standing there, somewhat staring at each other in the way that only people in their situation really could. It was so strange, they had eaten dinner together plenty of times, hell she lived with the guy and yet at that very moment it was like she barely knew how to even remotely act around Tom.

    A small nervous laugh left her as she forced herself to look away from him and finally found that they could go through the motions of him pulling out her chair for her and her taking the offered seat and so on. Even that seemed strange to her for some reason, not in a why the hell are we doing this way, more in that giddy way that made your insides feel funny. Not that Alice really needed anymore of that particular sensation at that moment, there was always that constant worry in the back of her mind of exactly what all this was doing to her...what it may have been doing to him.

    As Tom sat back down across the table from her she felt the same nervous laugh creeping back up. It had to be silenced and unfortunately it only was going to be with a super cliche question that she actually felt bad about asking but really was genuinely curious about. Better than an awkward silence at least.

    "So... what'd you do all day while I was at the mercy of spa-land?"
    Last edited by Alice Kelly; Sep 29th, 2013 at 06:49:12 PM.

  20. #40
    TheHolo.Net Poster
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    The advantage of Alice being so perpetually nervous was that she so seldom looked at him directly, and that made gazing at her without being noticed so much easier. He wouldn't have been able to stop himself even if he'd wanted to: every spare second he felt his eyes drawn to her like iron to a magnet, every fibre of his being demanding that he do more than just look, but at the same time begging that he never, ever stop. He knew every curve and furrow of her face; every wrinkle and crinkle when she laughed or smiled; knew it well enough that even with his eyes closed, her face was still there.

    And then when her eyes met with his for even the briefest of seconds, time froze. If he went blind, and her eyes were the last thing he ever saw - the only sight he could ever remember - that would be enough. He felt like he could spend an eternity staring into those crystal blue-green depths, and that even if he did it still wouldn't be long enough.

    But then, that split second later, he always wrenched his gaze away. It was impossible that she didn't know, and yet he still went to every length to ensure she didn't. He didn't quite understand why. Was he afraid that he'd scare her by staring too long? Was he worried that she'd mistake his longing gazes for something more sordid? Was he embarrassed for her to know just how utterly smitten he really was?

    It was during one of those moments of averted eyes that she asked her question.

    "I, uh -"

    He realised that she'd provided him with an excuse to look at her without subterfuge, but all of a sudden he found himself incapable of normal looking; a fraction of a second too long and every glance felt like an inappropriate stare. A nervous laugh of his own escaped, and he looked intently at his napkin.

    "Met a guy at the bar. Played a few holes of golf; spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the club house. I tried out their strawberry martini, it was pretty -"

    Tom's face quickly started to turn the colour of the cocktail as he realised he'd admitted to ordering Alice's favourite, just to make sure it was okay. Cocktails in places such as this could be hit and miss, and if he could manage to save her from potential disappointment at her favourite not living up to expectations, that was something he wanted to save her from. At least, that was the theory: presented with the scenario in hindsight, it suddenly seemed pretty damn embarrassing.

    His mind searched for something to say, but the knee jerk reaction - I missed you, though - seemed like a sure-fire way to dig himself into an even deeper hole. He suddenly realised that her hands were resting on the table, an easy reach away; he forced himself to hide his own hands under the table, for fear of indulging in any more stupid ideas.

    "Was the spa good? In spite of the company, I mean."

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