The Side You Don't Hear (1D)

Chapter 15

-Six Months Later-

Alice's POV

                "Thank you," I said with a small smile to the waitress that had just served our drinks.  It was a Friday night and I was out to dinner with a wonderful man for the first time in God knows how long.  I had slowly but surely started to make my way out of my apartment again, for the sole purpose of finding a job to keep me from getting kicked out.  Every day I walked down the London streets with my eyes peeled, looking for any sign of Clark, but I knew it was futile.  I hadn't seen my son in so long, but it didn't mean I had to stop hoping.  I sighed, trying to shake those thoughts from my head as I looked up to meet the eyes of the man on the other side of the table.

                "You alright?" Peter asked with genuine concern.  I gave him a nod and a smile, looking back down at the table setting in front of me.  To my left, and between Peter and I, was a third table setting that was still empty.  Peter had been fidgeting nervously for ten minutes, and I knew that the emptiness of that chair was the reason why.

                "So when is this guy planning on showing up?" I joked with Peter, who smiled back at me.

                "I have no idea! He's fifteen minutes late!" he laughed nervously.  He was so adorable when he was all frazzled like this.  I smiled, thinking of how excited he had been to invite me to dinner to meet his new boyfriend.  They had been dating for about a month but Peter thought that I needed a proper introduction, not just a passing hello.  So here we sit, waiting patiently for this man I know nothing about, not even his name.

                "I don't know about this guy, Peter," I say, causing him to look at me with a fear and sadness in his eyes, "It doesn't make a very good first impression to be late." I finish, keeping eye contact with him.  Then I break and smile at him to show that I was only joking.  He sighed in relief then went back to watching the door.  His eyes lit up just as the cool gust of air let in by the open door hit my back.

                "He's here!" he exclaimed happily, standing up and walking over to the figure at the door.  I stayed at the table, waiting for them to come back.  "Alice," Peter said, returning to the table.  I turned and met his eyes before moving them to the man next to him, "This is Braden."

                Braden was a small, intense looking man.  He had straight blonde hair that he kept fairly short and dark brown piercing eyes hiding behind thin framed glasses.  He had a warm smile, but there was just something off about him.  Maybe I just didn't like the fact that he was stealing my best friend from me.

                "I'm Alice, nice to meet you." I said shaking his hand.  It was rough against mine and he shook it just a little too tightly.

                "Nice to meet you as well, sorry I'm late." He apologized before taking his seat next to both of us at the round table.  The rest of the night was filled with mindless chatter and getting to know each other.  Peter clearly wasn't nervous any longer, as he keep an easy conversation going while including both of us.  Braden, or B, as Peter called him, seemed nice enough after the first impression, but he was very awkward.  He averted his eyes when directly spoken to and was hard pressed to release any work related information.  All I knew was that he was a private investigator, but he wouldn't give us anything else, probably part of contract I suppose.

                What I made sure not to let my face tell was that I saw through Peter's plan.  I knew him better than he gave me credit for, but I let him believe he was sly the entire evening.  It wasn't until we sat in the car driving home that I even brought it up.