"Slow down, what?"
Kaia was sat by the fireplace in The Garrison that following Friday evening with Beth and Eliza. She'd barely seen them since switching jobs and in the time that had passed since they'd last met up, a lot had happened that she needed to fill her friends in on.
"You broke up with Calvin? Kaia are you crazy? He was perfect!" Beth sighed loudly, bewildered by her friend's decision.
"I know," Kaia leant back in her chair, "I know he was, he just wasn't perfect for me."
"What changed?" Eliza pried, pouring all three of them a top up of red wine.
It hadn't snowed in a couple of days in Small Heath and most of the ground was now clear, though rooftops still glittered in the sunlight and bitter air froze icicles from windowsills. Winter wasn't ready to depart just yet.
"Well," Kaia took a deep breath, sinking her teeth into her bottom lip as she tried to hold back a smile, her eyes glancing between her two friends.
"Oh my god," Beth said, covering her mouth with her hand, "are you pregnant?"
Kaia scoffed and rolled her eyes, any anticipation that was in the moment suddenly draining away at Beth's ridiculous assumption.
"For Christ sake's, no!"
"Then what? What on Earth could possibly make you want to leave Calvin Young?"
Kaia thought back to Christmas Day little over two weeks ago. Her imagination perfectly conjured up the scene of the horses racing around in the paddock, the sound of their hooves against the fresh snow and the scent of Tommy's cigarette was almost real as she recalled the memory so vividly.
The bell above the door chimed loudly and Kaia's gaze was immediately pulled up from her wine glass over to the man in the cap and dark coat.
She wasn't aware that she was staring, in fact, she wasn't aware of anything else in the world as she watched Tommy saunter over to the bar, pulling off his gloves as he walked and taking a bottle of whiskey from the bartender with a loud laugh that made her heart skip a beat.
"Kaia fucking Gold, are you serious?"
Kaia dragged her gaze from past her friends' shoulders to meet their eyes, both of them staring at her with raised eyebrows and smirks.
"What?" She said, unable to keep a straight face for more than a second when she realised that both of them had seen exactly who she'd been looking at.
She kept quiet, bringing the glass of red wine up to her lips and covering her mouth with it, taking small sips in between giggles as her friends gushed their inability to believe what they were seeing.
"God no wonder Lizzie has been much more of a bitch lately, you've taken her man." Beth said.
Kaia watched as Thomas disappeared into another room with the bottle of whiskey and his brothers. He hadn't noticed her but she didn't mind, he'd paid her more than enough attention last night.
Beth's words circled in Kaia's mind. She knew her friend had meant it as a lighthearted joke, but it planted a seed of doubt in the back of her mind. Had Tommy still been seeing Lizzie recently? If he cut her off a while ago, surely she'd have got over their relationship by now?
"Is she still hung up on him?" Kaia asked nonchalantly, trying to get more information without seeming overly intrigued.
Eliza scoffed, "Of course. You'd think they'd been married with the glares she gives him whenever he walks by."
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In The Bleak Midwinter | T Shelby
Fanfiction"You might as well shoot me, you've already ripped out my soul." [mature themes throughout]
