In which a girl attempts to outrun her past only to catch the attention of the ruthless leader of the Peaky Blinders.
or
In which the arrival of the new brown-haired barmaid at the Garrison should have been the canary in the coal mine for the trou...
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Elena
Elena was truly miserable. It had been a few days since she confronted Tommy and the pair had barely talked to each other since. The first day after the office encounter she had pleaded, begged, and tried to get him to say anything, but she was met with the same distant cold responses. On the second day, she tried to meet his ice with fire, she screamed, yelled, and tried to get him to feel anything even if it was anger but he merely acted like she wasn't there. By the third day, she remained silent. For as much as Tommy and Elena were forced together in the last few days they orbited around each other like the Earth and the Moon, two objects forced in close proximity but with hundreds of thousands of kilometers of space between them.
Despite all of this, Elena knew deep down that he still cared for her. If Tommy really didn't want to be with her he would have broken things off by now. If he didn't care about her he wouldn't have insisted he came along to the doctor's appointment and he certainly wouldn't have belabored the doctor if she was really ready to be out of a sling. She could see it in his eyes, no matter how cold he appeared to her she could tell it pained him. What she didn't understand was why he was pretending not to care. She would get to the bottom of it, but even knowing this it didn't make his actions hurt any less.
Elena tried to shake these thoughts out of her head so that she could focus on work. She had a never-ending pile that seemed to grow by the minute. Turns out taking over numerous clubs and bars came with a lot of paperwork. Luckily at least for the time being she was guard free. She had promised to work at the betting hall at least until John arrived which had appeased Scudboat enough to leave her for a few blissful hours. If she had to hear about Scudboat's beloved donkey, Daisy, one more time she was going to lose her mind.
"We're not open for winnings yet" Esme called out from outside the betting hall breaking Elena's last bit of focus.
"I'm here to see Thomas Shelby." a female voice called out piquing Elena's interest "I have an appointment"
"Come in," Esme said entering the betting hall a woman at her heels. Elena's composure almost slipped as she observed just who had arrived. This was exactly what she didn't need today.
"May Carleton" Elena announced getting the woman's attention as she stared her down.
"Mr. Shelby has his proper meetings in his other office," Esme added glaring at the girl. Esme was not a big fan of outsiders and maybe for once, Elena was grateful for Esme's standoff nature.
"This was the address that he gave me" May responded adjusting her hat. Even Elena had to admit her outfit was absolutely flawless.
"He gave you this address?" Elena asked in disbelief.
"He said it was a gambling den. I told him that I'd wanted to see one since I'm always reading about them in the papers. Quite the big scandal in The Telegraph lately. Anyway, he said that I could come and have a look." May muttered as she avoided Elena's intense stare. "And now I feel like a bit of an idiot because I'm early and he's late and I have no idea how to behave."
