Isobel

Isobel Pt.6

Time passes between the friends and not a word is said about their feelings towards Isobel. Not by Brendan, not by Raymond and certainly not by Isobel. They loved her and she loved them both the same or so they thought.

Brendan is helping Isobel move her stuff into her new flat.
He carries a box into the room. "Where do you want this?" He asked Isobel.
"Just over here," pointing to the corner of the room.
He puts the box down on the floor.
"It will be great whenever I move in here," she said. "I have never had a place of my own before, it's exciting."
"You will have the freedom to do whatever you want," he said.
"I don't have much with me, but I won't be long getting things together."
"I can borrow a few things from my mother. We have a spare T.V. and stuff."
"Thank you. You know without you I don't think any of this would be possible," she kisses him on the cheek. "I'm going to go for that job interview tomorrow."
"Good."
"Then I'll be able to afford to live here and not have to scrounge of you."
He moves closer to her. "I don't mind you scrounging."
Suddenly, there is a loud bang as they both go over and lean out of the window.
Raymond has fallen over and is lying on the ground with a box on top of him. Both Brendan and Isobel laugh out loud.
"I could be hurt you know!" Raymond said.
Brendan shouts down to him, "Come on up!"
Raymond gets up on his feet and hurries upstairs.
"I'll just go down and get the rest of the stuff," Brendan said to Isobel.
"Okay," she replied as she goes into her bedroom.
Brendan meets Raymond as he goes down the stairs and nudges him playfully.
Raymond comes into the empty living-room.
He glances across the room and looks at the reflection in the mirror, Isobel in the bedroom with the door half opened, she is undressing. He sees her but she doesn't see him. He looks on without her knowledge. When she comes out of the bedroom, he looks out of the window.
She walks towards him. "Raymond, you silly Billy," she said.
He is feeling awkward. "I like your new place," he said.
"Why thank you. You seem very quiet, is everything alright?"
He nods. "Yes."
She smiles at him, rubbing his cheek playfully and kissing him on the other. She sits down and crosses her legs; it lifts her dressing gown up to her thigh. He glances down. She looks up at him at that moment and taps the sofa for him to join her. He sits down beside her. He feels awkward as Brendan enters the room.
"You two look very comfortable sitting there. Won't you help me carry these boxes?" Brendan said.
Raymond jumps up immediately. "I will!"
Brendan hands him a box and is somewhat surprised at his enthusiasm.
"It's wonderful for a girl to have two men who will do things for her whenever she wishes, I feel like a princess," Isobel said. She notices the picture isn't straight on the wall.
"Brendan, will you fix that painting, it's crooked?"
He fixes the painting for her. "Is that okay?"
She gestures for him to move it. "That's fine a little to the side," she said as she lies down on the sofa.
Raymond looks at her and then at Brendan, waiting for a reaction.
She is still looking at the painting. "That's a strange painting, don't you think? I mean you don't know if the girl is happy or sad, it really is hard to tell."
"I think she really doesn't know herself..." Brendan said.
Isobel examines the painting. "She's not alone there are people around her but she's lonely. She's looking at something or somebody, or maybe she's thinking about someone, someone she's loved or lost. Then she's a woman in a room full of men but she doesn't feel afraid, she's got the greater advantage, being that while she's not looking at any of them they are all looking at her, and she knows it. She can have any of them in a flash if she wants, but what she wants is an elusive thing. It may be love or a feeling she's lost, or forgotten, an innocence that truly can't be returned."
"You see a lot from that one painting," Brendan said.
"All you have to do is open your eyes," she replied.
"Maybe she just wants to be left alone," Raymond said.
"You could be right, sometimes the simplest answer is staring us right in the face," she said as she yawns and stretches her arms out.
"We'll leave you be and let you get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow night," Brendan said.
She lies on the sofa with her eyes shut. "Thank you, both of you," she said.
Both Brendan and Raymond take that as their cue to leave.
She lies on the sofa smiling to herself. Suddenly, she opens her eyes having remembered something and gets up and hurries to the window pushing it wide open.
Brendan and Raymond are on the street and both look up at the same time as she calls out their names. "Remember to bring back some food when you return, I'm starving."
"Don't worry I've remembered, I'll not forget," Brendan shouts. He waves to her as he walks on with Raymond.