Cross the Line

Part Fourteen

Naomi was in a daze as she allowed him to lead her back into the castle, “I just need to clean myself up. I’m going to go upstairs, then I’ll go and find him.”

She eventually found the hotel room and let herself in through the door, as she was rooting through her bag for her makeup she heard a noise behind her.

She turned to see Conor emerging from the bathroom, his shirt and tie undone, his face dark and sad.

                “I thought you’d left.” He barely lifted his eyes to acknowledge at her.

She shrugged, “if nothing else we have to work together next week, we need to get on. I can hardly ignore you and run away.”

                   “But you tried.” He laughed self deprecatingly.

                “Do you honestly blame me?” She marched up to him and dug her index finger furiously into his chest.

He groaned, “You have every reason to hate me. I hoped you wouldn’t see her...but she’s toxic.”

Laughing she shook her head, “you just had to trust me, warn me...instead you make another wrong choice. By doing right by everyone else you do wrong by me. Does that make you happy? Cos it doesn’t me! It makes me feel cheap, and used. I may not be the love of your life, but I thought we were friends Conor, you don’t treat friends like that!”

He came towards her, “my mother doesn’t deserve any more pain, I hoped that I could manage the situation...but that meant dancing with her, tolerating her ways...I was trying to get rid of her, but she has skin like elephant hide.”

                “Your mother is old enough to know the truth, at the end of the day, from what I hear, she knows exactly what Orla is all about. You can’t manage every situation that is thrown in your path...saying that I don’t know whether to be insulted or pleased that I was bottom of your list of things you needed to control!” As she laughed ironically, she saw his face crumple; he was barely holding things together.

She touched his hand, “Patrick explained...about Orla I mean. All that happened. It would ruin most men. I just wish you’d told me. Shared that with me yourself. I really wish you’d let me in. But anyway, you got through it, that’s the main thing. We can get over this, we can still be friends.”

He gripped her fingers earnestly, “He shouldn’t have told you that!”

She sighed, looking into his dark, stormy eyes, he wanted to resist everything, she could tell. “No he shouldn’t, YOU should have.” She placed a finger firmly on his chest again. “You owed me the truth, and you should have trusted me. You brought me into this lion’s den Conor, I had no idea of the role I was really playing, and that’s your fault. Saying that, it explains a lot, and I think I understand you a bit more now.”

                “I couldn’t tell you that...” he dropped his eyes, “I don’t talk about it.”

She sighed, “you had a baby, you lost him,” he snatched his hands free of hers and turned away from her, but she wasn’t stopping. Placing a hand on his shoulder she pulled him around to face her, “without the actions of that bitch that is more than enough for anyone to deal with. But you can’t carry that burden alone forever. Before you can trust someone, you have to let people in. This castle is full of people who love you, but you can’t see that. All you fear is that bitch hurting you or them again. And in doing that you push everyone away, friends and family. She’s winning every day that you do that! Can’t you see?”

Watching her intently it was a few long moments before he answered, “You misunderstood me earlier, when we were outside. I haven’t been this close to anyone since Orla. I swore I’d never get involved again, never want more than casual acquaintances, I’ve been happy on my own for so long that I didn’t think I’d ever open up to anyone else. But you’re different; you’re making me question everything. And it is scary, and then she was there, and she’s poison, and I wanted her to leave. ‘One dance’ that’s what she wanted, thinking that she could use her body to charm me...she can’t believe that I loathe every inch of her. I don’t want to lose you over this Naomi, but I know that I’ve done things wrong. I just hope you’ll give me chance to prove it.”