The Falling Man

Chapter 27

Ethel POV

Me and Tommy go over to a table in the back of the small tea room before a sweet older woman brings over a kettle and a selection of teas for us.

"Okay. So there is a gypsy practice, where you share tea with a person, usually there are specific ingredients you put in the tea, but this will do, and you sit in silence and you think together. You only speak if you feel moved to, like the words are important. No small talk, no questions. You don't give a response to the others statement so as not to create conversation. They say this is a way to connect with your ancestors and they will send you messages as you think. So let's see if theirs more to becoming worm food, eh?" Tommy tells me. I nod with a slight smile as we prepare our seperate teas.

This is quite cute of Tommy I think to myself. I wouldn't expect him to know this practice, let alone want to participate in it. We sip on our teas in silence and it feels somewhat tense, I notice. Both of us waiting for the other to say an important statement. It's very quiet in the small tea house and as I look over at Tommy both of us staring each other down, this practice feels very, very erotic almost.

We slightly smirk at eachother. I wonder, as I look at him, what is on his mind. What thoughts are taking up his bruised head.

Tommy's POV

The first thought that enters my mind is the thought of not wanting to go home to Small Heath. To my tiny home and smoke filled chaotic dirty streets. To the loud shouting of my family. Rather stay here in London with the woman sitting across from me. Not that London was much different, just cleaner and bigger. I think about the life I could have if I hadn't begun and carried out the dangerous business of the Peaky Blinders. I could sit in Ethel's apartment with her and kiss her each night I returned home from a normal job. We could spend our weekends in bed with the sunlight beaming through the windows. No worries of me bringing badness into her life. It sounded like paradise. I chose not to speak these thoughts rather keep them to myself, ignoring the gypsy practice.

Ethel POV

Tommy is staring slightly up at the ceiling I can tell in deep thought, all though he doesn't say a word. What's he thinking? I want him to speak as I desperately want to know the answer to my question.

I take a deep breath. Trying to focus on my thoughts more than Tommy's thoughts. I take another deep breath as a thought comes into my mind. "I sometimes worry that I wouldn't be as happy in my life if I had smaller tits." I state to Tommy. Tommy slightly coughs, surprised by my statement, before he bows his head and stifles a laugh. I smile to myself at my joke but it truly was an honest thought.

After around 20 more minutes of sitting in silence, we decide to leave the tea room. Tommy not expressing a single thought and me expressing no more thoughts as I waited for him to speak first.

As we walk out Tommy looks to me and says, "Well, it's good you felt something." "Is it?" I ask jokingly. "Your ancestors moved you." He replies as I laugh at his statement. "I'm not sure I needed to hear from them to discover that about myself. What were you thinking?" I ask dying to know. "Well, I was thinking about a peaceful life and then, for some reason, I was thinking about your tits, which sort of ruined it." He says smiling over at me. "Oh, my tits ruined your peace?" I ask him. "Yeah, you could say that." He answers. We both chuckle at eachother before sharing a smile and a look which causes an influx of sexual tension.

"I should probably head to the pub actually, uh..." I state breaking the tension as he says at the same time, "I've got that meeting actually in not too long...Oh, can I walk you?" He asks me. "Uh...Oh. Uh, yeah. It's a bit..." I say getting sidetracked by his slight smile and intense eye contact. "What?" He asks me. "I-It's a bit of a long walk from here." I state. "That's fine." He says before we head off in the direction of my pub.