Shining Stars

Chapter 16

Lying in her bed, staring at the alarm clock, Christine struggled to get back to sleep, but the sandman was avoiding her like the plague. Watching the digital numbers on the alarm clock she timed the seconds between it and her wristwatch, the watch was in the lead, changing numbers thirteen seconds before the clock did. Declaring her wristwatch the winner and the alarm clock the loser she threw off the covers, giving up on sleep completely.

In the living room she smiled at the rumpled cushions of her couch, remembering the hours they'd spent there, silent hours of companionship that meant so much to her. Sitting in that same spot he had been she reflected on the major change their relationship had just taken.

With one kiss they had gone from friends, best friends, to 'What? What were they now? Were they a couple? Were they friends that kiss occasionally?' Shaking her head Christine stopped that train of thought, needing to deal with the first, and most important question she should ask herself.

"How do I, Christine Yarra, feel about George Taylor?" she said aloud.

Thinking back over all the time they had spent together, the late nights at work, the lunch dates- both working and personal, the various nights and weekends spent at a charity event, and all the times in between, she couldn't help but smile. Sure they had gotten close, who wouldn't after spending as much time together as they did? But love?

Memories bubbling to the surface she recalled the times when they had finished each others sentences during a late night work session, bouncing idea's off each other like a ping pong ball off the paddle. She'd knew she would never forget the way he'd been so attentive when she'd gotten sick, risking catching it himself just to help her out.

He'd always been an attentive man, even back when they had just started to know each other, listening to her, heeding her advice when he agreed with it and trusting her when he needed to make a choice. But lately, ever since she'd fainted that day in the file room, he'd been over attentive, almost to the point of being annoying. Christine smiled. Almost annoying. He always seemed to know when he was getting on her nerves, drawing back before he actually did become annoying. It was as though he could read her like a book.

He read her almost as well as she could read him.

She could tell his mood just by the look on his face and the way that he stood that mood he was in. If George was amused, he leaned; tired, he hunched his shoulders; annoyed, he drooped one shoulder while lifting the other; angry or upset, he tensed everything from his neck to his knees. Christine was always there to help him through whatever was troubling him, from problems at work to problems at home. And he did the same for her, letting her cry on his shoulder the night Richards had beaten her down with his words and being there with her when she had been sick.

Closing her eyes Christine tried to imagine a world without George in it, a life without seeing him almost every day. After several moments she opened her eyes and stared at the picture of the three of them at the Charity Ball a few months ago. As hard as she tried, Christie could not picture a life with out George; she didn't want to. Warmth spread over her as she smiled at his picture, his handsome brown eyes staring back at her.

She was in love.

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