Under Control.

chapter forty.

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Fortunately for everybody involved, a few days prior to Nora's arrival Albert decides to decamp with Cat to his parents place, which was up for the taking while they're out of town.

Julian is well aware that managing to keep whatever it was that was going on between him and Nora a secret from Al was, at best, temporary. They basically lived on top of one another, both on the road and at home. And so he knew that, sooner or later, a discussion was going to have to be had. But for now, he was trying not to think about that. Instead, Julian was concerning himself with two things — the first being whether or not he was willing to stoop so low as barricading the hotel room door with a dresser, lest Al decide to return early. And the second, was Nora.

All things Nora. Always, Nora.

The big picture plan was to prove himself and convince her, somehow, that he was worth taking another chance on. And in the meantime, the small picture involved managing to get out of the hotel before anyone noticed him — lest he be dragged into another interview or something miserable of a similar kind — and making it safely across town in time to meet the newly arrived Nora at her friend's weird pop-up art show.

Julian absconding to get away from the potential for having his face committed to camera for literally any reason was not about to raise suspicions. It was more or less expected, at this point. And even the idea of him leaving to go and see an exhibition wasn't even that strange of a thing. But the problem at hand was more that, if he were to mention it — where he was going and what he was doing and with whom — then he might end up with some tag-alongs, and that was a no-go. Because the quickest way to end up with Albert knowing Julian's business, was by everyone else finding out, first.

Which, in the end, is the reason why Julian decides to scale a fence and hop out the back entrance, avoiding the hotel lobby and his bandmates and his woebegone manager, altogether.

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By the time Julian finds his way to the abandoned gymnasium, he is being chased by nightfall. It's a lavender kind of light, hinting at the dark more than anything, and the steaminess left behind by the unrelenting sunshine is still rolling in waves off the concrete city plains. But then, mirage-like, there's a neon-lined doorway, and a body just beyond it that he recognises.

Nora is eyeing up a mirror with a bunch of geometric shapes etched into it. She hasn't spotted him yet, and more than just that, she's off in her own little world. And so Julian has time to watch her for a second, to take her in, and to catch his breath.

She has a drink in one hand, loose in her grip but by the stem, with her head tilted thoughtfully to one side. Julian has seen Nora look at art this way, before — clear-eyed and curious, but with an unwavering sense of compassion and understanding — and more than just that, he's seen her look at him this way before. And so seeing it again now, even if her pretty grey eyes aren't pointed his way, makes his heart squeeze in his chest.

As Julian edges closer, still moving slowly across the sparse and quiet room, the details of Nora and the mirror both come into clearer focus. Nora is wearing a floaty dress, black with lace cutouts that dip along her sternum and over her arms, and her hair is loose and wavy, made curly by the sticky heat and the way she keeps twisting long strands of it around her fingertips. She's not made up or dressed down, she just is. And somehow, that makes her the most magnetic person in the room.

It's only once Julian comes to a stop beside her, his jacketed arm brushing lightly against her bare one, that he's able to finally make out the whole of what's scratched across the back-lit mirror which has so caught Nora's eye. He reads it and smiles, laughs, then smiles again when Nora looks his way and reflects back at him everything that he is thinking, and feeling.