In the end can they just pretend?
Ronald Weasley had hit rock bottom, his life as he knew it was over. He had lost everything. Well not everything, but it felt like the life he had imagined for himself was over. And his family wasn't helping him. Th...
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Adjusting to being back at the usual work-life balance had been surprisingly harder than Ron thought it would be. For in the short time of four days he had become incredibly adjusted to the way of life the high society lived. And he supposed it was easy to do so, it was like a drug having all the money he could think of to spend and no repercussions for doing so. He could see how people could become addicted to living the life of luxury he had the opportunity to dip his toes into.
Adjusting back to being boring old single Ron was also harder than he expected. Sure he barely did anything 'couple-y' with Claudia in their time at the wedding. But he had quickly adapted to having someone at his side again. And then it was gone. Perhaps he was developing some sort of unhealthy obsession with that feeling. Maybe it was just the severe loneliness he felt even when in a room surrounded by others. Whatever it was, he was not a fan, he knew that essentially this was supposed to be a business contract, that there was not supposed to be gained anything out of it other than mutual knowledge of not being the lonely one. Yet here he was, trying to find any excuse to see her again, to get those feelings back.
So early on, this couldn't be a good thing.
But his excuse finally came, when he could finally search her out to start his side of the deal. For his family wanted to throw a large family dinner that weekend, and he was told he had to bring someone with him. Ideally the person who had got him a ticket into the high society wedding the week before. And he was happy to oblige. Hopefully she was not that busy and could accommodate. But he would not know until he asked.
And that was how Ron found himself outside of an office he was sure he would only continue to get more and more comfortable with. Where he would get to know the room so well, he could tell where everything was. Upon knocking on the door he waited for the signal he could enter. He was unsure whether she would busy at this time of day, noting that it was roughly around the time most people had their lunch break. But he was not a Claudia expert yet, and could not tell if she would have her lunch break at a normal time or not.
"Come in." Her voice called and he supposed his question would be answered. And it sure was as Claudia sat at her desk, a Tupperware box open in front of her clearly half way through her lunch.
"Mr Weasley." Her words were accompanied by the raising of one eyebrow at his presence.
"Miss Parkinson, sorry to disturb your lunch." Ron fake apologised, he felt no remorse interrupting her lunch, he thought at least he wouldn't be interrupting her doing something important for work this way.
"No you're not Ronald. Come take a seat." Claudia waved his apology away as she beckoned him over to the chair opposite her.
"How's it going Claude?"
"About as great as it usually does." Claudia gave him a clearly fake smile with her words and he didn't really know how to respond. Her work as a lawyer was completely different to his work as a clerk over at the complaints desk.
"Oh no, like in the will have to spend the weekend at work kinda way? Or the 'I will need a glass of wine when I get home tonight.'?" Ron slipped his idea in gently whilst also being a little bit intrigued into how her job worked, what extent she took home with her.
"More in the people are idiots and I have to fix everything." Claudia sighed, she didn't intend to be so mean about the clients she had, but after a morning of fixing for hours and knowing she was behind on the other things she had to get done because of it, she was reaching her end.
"I think I might need a distraction this weekend after all this."
"Yeah what if I had something?"
"I'm listening Weasley."
"Oh Parkinson you're going to regret saying that. I've got a family dinner this Saturday and I have to bring a plus one." Ron leant back in his chair finally getting a little more settled.
"Will there be alcohol?"
"If you think I'm going to be sober around my siblings and mother you are wrong, I'll personally pick you up with a drink to go." Ron scoffed a little at his own words, his siblings weren't terrible. He got on with them most of the time, the issue was that they were just a lot. And everyone but him seemed to be relatively happy. And it made him feel horrible every time he left. And therefore, he didn't want to do it.
"Okay. Yeah what time?" Claudia had stopped eating for a while as she listened to the plan, her eyes going to the fact that Ron had started to wear the clothes she had brought him for the wedding in everyday style whilst at work. Taking in just how much better he looked in clothing that was properly tailored, that looked as though it was supposed to actually fit him and not something he had been passed down.
"It's going to be early like 11am."
"That works perfectly for me." With her agreement the conversation moved on, and it would last another nearly 30 minutes before Ron took notice of the time and the fact he was supposed to have been back at his desk a long time ago. Claudia would wave him off with her fork as she had been distracted from finishing her lunch as he scurried down the corridor back to the complaints desk where his desk buddy had been patiently waiting for him to come back. Hoping that his supervisor would not have anything to say about it. But who was he kidding as long as the complaints got filed in the right department and he remained nice enough to those placing said complaints they never seemed overly bothered about what he did. Or where he disappeared off to.
And he would spend the rest of his day daydreaming away, thinking of what his future would become. Thinking of what it could become. All of which started to mould to have a different female figure in it than before. Where he once dreamed he would have his high-school sweetheart by his side. He now seemed to dream of a privileged lawyer.
And she would only notice on her way home that evening, that her little fairy toadstool, was no longer alone. Rather a much smaller little one had been left close to it on her desk. Knowing that only one person had been in long enough to have left it. And she felt a true smile break out.
