Dawning (Dysmorphia Series #3)

Normality

"Breakfast is served"

Florence awoke to the pleasant fact that she had slept better than she had in weeks, partly because she hadn't been alone in her childhood room with just her memories for company and partly because her heart was now at ease, Andrew was back where he belonged and like clockwork all the pieces of her life were slotting back into place.

Take now for example, he'd been away for a month doing incredible things and still had the energy to make her breakfast and wear a beam of adoration on his face as he set it down, her parents wouldn't even be awake at this time and he'd managed to make her two slices of toast, and open a yogurt and sprinkle blueberries on top along with a steaming cup of coffee, Andrew was no chef but frankly he was the most adorable person she'd ever met.

Florence sat up stretching luxuriously and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

"Careful!" he half-laughed as he gestured to the mug that was in danger of toppling over.

"What did I ever do to deserve you Andrew?" she asked as he set the tray down on the bedside table and sat down beside her as she began to eat.

"I wonder the same thing everyday, a charming good-looking fellow like me could have done so much better than a bestselling not to mention drop-dead gorgeous author, I really am wasting away"

She laughed at that trying not to splutter out unattractively.

The proximity of him made her realised just how foolhardy she'd been, the two of them were getting married in less than a month, he was perfect and all she'd been doing was chasing a dream that would never, ever exist.

She didn't even want to consider Cole at this very moment, their lives were so very different but his life was also looking up, he was going away to a job, that was his dream and she was living in comfort with a man she could never have guessed she would end up with, her life was great and she wasn't planning on jeopardising it.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Florence had been so distracted by the normality, by the crunching sound the toast made on her teeth that she hadn't realised how intently Andrew had been staring at her, his eyes practically x-raying her, she shifted and then fixed a relaxed smile onto her face, she wasn't going to pinch her forehead with worry or bring up awkward topics.

Andrew it seemed didn't want to do the same.

"So I know about the memorial, Levi actually forwarded an email to me, I didn't have time or the internet to read it in Johannesburg, but Flo that isn't the problem I would never try and prevent you from going anywhere that was important to you, heck I would love more than anything to be by your side, but why didn't you tell me?"

Chase's memorial, tomorrow, she'd shunted the fact to the back of her mind like so many other things and she'd forgotten, how had she forgotten?

The food she'd just eaten weighed heavily in her stomach.

He took her hand in his.

"Flo I thought that me and you didn't do the whole keeping secret thing, we're completely straight with each other right?"

She couldn't meet his eye.

"I know you loved Chase, its a simple fact of our relationship that I was never the first, but I've been happy with the fact that I will be your last if I have anything to say about the matter, I know I've been gone but I want everything to go back to how it was, I love you and I want to marry you but is there anything else you need to tell me I swear I'll understand... Flo?"

Florence had been hiding behind a curtain of hair, she didn't want to admit to anything because there wasn't really anything to admit, she hadn't done anything but she'd thought a lot about doing things, but was thinking a crime?

"Andrew I swear the memorial completely slipped my mind what with the tour and you finally coming back and I would love you to be there, please come with me, I'm sorry if I've seemed distant or a bit offhand the only thing I can put it down to is stress, there's really nothing that I'm keeping from you"

He nodded and she wondered why she felt so rotten, until she realised his face had gone dark and his expression had turned serious.

"You're lying"

She was stunned.

They didn't argue, she and Andrew didn't argue, ever since there first meeting outside their creative writing class the two of them hadn't argued, they'd debated and had heated discussions but never about things that mattered, he was sweet, intelligent and attentive and Florence could read him like an open book, always.

Right now she had no idea what he was thinking, was he still talking about Chase... or was this accusation something to do with Cole?

"Amelia Doncaster, you don't know her, she was on the trip with me and she's quite the fan you should have seen her face when I told her who my fiancée was, and she follows you on your social media, and there was a video going round, gathered quite a few hits online that she happened to show me one day, I thought nothing of it because I trust you Flo, implicitly but you can't meet my eyes and while you were sleeping your phone buzzed with five texts, I was worried that they might be from Cooper, that something might be wrong with Amberly, but they weren't from Cooper"

Oh God.

"They were from Cole Flo, Cole Roberts who I've stupidly never seen as a threat, not until Amelia showed me a video of you stuttering on stage and then your knight in shining armour appearing to save the day, he gave quite the speech about you with the same kind of look in his eyes, the look I know well and if you'd just admitted to that on the phone to me that day this whole situation would have looked a whole lot less suspicious"

She opened and closed her mouth like a fish gasping for air.

"You've got this all really wrong Andrew, I know how it looks but you've got the complete wrong end of the stick"

He didn't look angry anymore, just defeated and tired.

"Go on then Florence, explain away but please don't think I'm stupid, you wrote a book on the guy after all, tell me everything and when your done we'll decide what to do"

Florence gulped, that sounded like an ultimatum.