Scarlet Rose

Chapter 17

He was tapping his foot on the mahogany parquet floor like a woodpecker tapping the bark of a tree for food. Only he wasn't hungry despite sitting at a table in the Savoy hotel restaurant waiting for his companion. He was rather anxious. This was the first time he had asked a woman other than his wife to dine together. But he had gathered courage. Or rather, it was the loneliness he felt - especially after his fallout with Candy. It fell heavy on his heart, his shoulders, his chest. As if he had lived for the last few days at the bottom of the ocean. It could even feel it in the quietness of his room. Too quiet. That loneliness pushed him little by little.

He would just call her for dinner. Not anything formal. At the hotel restaurant. Not that he knew places in London anyway. He needed so much to speak to someone.

The raspiness in her voice hit his chest when she answered the phone. For a moment he lost his words. Just when she was about to hang up, he spoke. Apologised profusely for his inexcusable attitude the other night. Would she have minded having dinner with him at the Savoy? He was in such a desperate need for some company. For her company...although he kept this thought private.

"Archie...I do not think this is a ...", she had said in response. But he cut her before she had finished.

"Please!", he had almost cried on the phone and cringed immediately after. "Please Isabelle", he repeated in a much calmer tone, "Will you do me the honour of being my dinner companion?". There was silence from the other end of the line. Archie took a deep breath. His stare travelled in the distance, through a mist, beyond his suite window and was lost within the London skyline.

"I don't think I can face one more day alone"

So there he was, having stripped his reserved self over a phone call. Under other circumstances, he would have found such behaviour humiliating. London it seemed, had the power to change everyone. Even him. She had accepted and he was waiting. With his foot tapping to no end, measuring the scale of his nervousness. He touched his thigh, giving an end to his nervous tick. Straightened the tie on his corn blue shirt and smoothed the white linen jacket of his suit. Having had a haircut also, he felt much better than before. Concerning his emotions, he may have been in the dumps, but at least he looked decent. He was good at façades. Plenty of experience. Then he saw her, talking to the maître d'. With a rainbow coloured silk paisley scarf, tied over her hair like a hair band. Her appearance was modern and sleek, wearing long, dark grey high waisted trousers and a white shirt with rows of white pearls hanging around her elegant neck. Their eyes met in the distance. His heartbeat matched her walking towards the table. He got up just as she approached.

"You came", he said to her with an air of relief in his voice. She sat down, with mellow eyes and a reassuring smile on her face. "Did you worry I wouldn't?, she asked. He rested his eyes on her for a moment before lowering them down. Did not want her to see the embarrassment and strife casting their shadow on them.

"I wouldn't blame you if you left me hanging here, not showing up...I had been such an asshole that night...to you", he apologised. She put her hand over his. "Don't fret about it Archie...let's enjoy our dinner" she said. Her response made him lift his head up. His eyes were like dark seas when they met hers. "What do you say?", she added with a smile. Light slowly sipped back in his stare. "You are right...", he responded and returned her smile with an equally heartfelt one.

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The tangerine coloured dusk sky above the city of London was mirroring inside Candy's eyes as she sat behind the wheel of her dainty car. Having spent those few days away from Christian, made her reflect on her relationship with him. Not an easy task by any means however. If her life and past experiences were a straight forward line, she would have been already at his home, apologising for her stand. For her inability to love him back, or her anger over his criticism of Terry's actions. Poor Christian. He hadn't even met Terry, nor was he there when her world collapsed. He did not know. Regardless of that, she flew off the handle. Did he deserve such a response? Fair as it was, he was entitled to his opinion. Or maybe, he came as close to a truth she had denied for more than a decade to see...making that young relationship with Terry into a myth. Locking her memories of him into a glass cabinet, putting them on a pedestal. Regarding them as something pure and unreachable, just for her to stare and reminisce. Meanwhile, the world was passing her by. Christian's love was doing the same. Passing her by. Eventually, that love too would go away.