Smoke and Mirrors (Smoke #1)

[ 54 ]

Thursday had come around quite slowly and unfortunately for me had dragged on quite slowly. I wasn't exactly sure if I was more thrilled with seeing Marcus after a whole three weeks or terrified to know what was going to happen tonight. I opened my phone and saw that I had opened Marcus' texts from the other night and couldn't help but feel a little betrayed about our schedules unexpectedly clashing together.

Plans had changed to where I was meant to meet Marcus seeing as he had yet another media appearance - no surprise there - and thought it would be best to meet him there afterwards. Standing at the front door of Marcus' house, I could feel my heart beating rapidly against my chest. Tonight was the night that was either going to represent a dream and allow us to keep our relationship or a total nightmare that ends up with one of us overwhelmed with emotion.

I stood in my step and let out a sigh as I knocked on the door, awaiting for Marcus to answer the door. Silence. The cold wind brushed against me as I could feel a shiver rushing down my body, knocking on the wooden door once more. It was still silence - apart from the rustling of the wind - until I could see the door opening up to find a solemn looking Jack Redpath standing in front of the open doorway. I sighed before politely greeting the friendly male.

"Good evening Scarlett."

"Hey Jack." I replied to him as confidently as could but struggled as a million different scenarios of my meeting with Marcus rushed through my mind. I lifted my head upwards and watched a shy smile spread across his face.

"How have you been holding up?" He asked as I just shrugged my shoulders and kept my focus on him.

"I've been better but I guess there's nothing else I can do about it." I said, looking up to star studded night time sky. From the corner of my eye, I could notice the shy smile of Jack's had suddenly disappeared as I turned my attention back onto him.

"Please come in Scarlett, Marcus should be with you in a moment. He's just on a phonecall with the coach." He said softly as he gestured for me to come in and closed the door behind me before standing near me. The whole room was silent as the two of us stood awkwardly. Most times I would have loved to sit down and have a chat with Marcus' teammates but there was something about tonight that made me steer off that idea. With his hands in his pockets, Jack gazed around the room before chiming in.

"He should be done soon, uh I'm just going to head out and give you two some space.  In case I don't see you later on, hope you have a good night."

"Thanks Jack. I hope you have a good night too." I said as Jack just slightly nodded his head before beginning to walk off and stopped in his step.

"I just want you to know that I want you and Marcus to solve this issue between you two. Honestly, after working alongside with him at the club for the last few of years, you're honestly the best thing that has ever happened to the boys life." He said before continuing to walk away, leaving me with my own thoughts. Still wrapping my mind around Jack's words, I was suddenly distracted by a confused tone behind me.

"Scarlett?" The voice spoke softly as I turned around to find a more fragile looking Marcus in front of me. It was at this point I could feel my eyes beginning to water seeing as this is the first time in ages I was able to see my boyfriend face to face in a very long time.

"Marcus." I sadly added as I looked down onto the ground feeling quite emotional but holding back my emotions for Marcus' sake. He slowly begun to make his way over to the couch that was near by and sat on the leather arm. My heart had felt as though as it was slowly moving towards my mouth with each second passing, I could hardly wait for this conversation to pick up.