Bailamos? | Mark Owen [Take That]

Chapter 23

It was a cold afternoon but I decided to walk around the city all the same with my camera in my hands, hoping to clear my mind a bit, hoping that taking some photographs in the cold would have some chilling effect on my passionate feelings regarding Mark and our story together.

Every time I thought of what I had been without him, I convinced myself that being honest with him for once was the right thing to do. But the more I thought about it, the more I got scared: there was no chance I'd manage to tell Mark my truth without collapsing emotionally once again. I hadn't been able to survive the first couple of years after he had left nor our first two meetings, so why would I be able to succeed this time?

As I looked through the lens and disposed myself to take yet another picture of the Tower, I noticed something that caught my attention. A young lady was sitting on a bench next to a man who looked away from her. The girl's face showed sorrow and angst and the man just seemed to be uncomfortable, as if he wanted to turn back time and not make the mistake which had led them to that situation.

"Angie?"

"Greta! OMG... what are you doing here?"

"Sightseeing... my guy's working again..." she rolled her eyes and let a wicked laugh out "What you doing?"

"Not much... taking some pics..."

"You got yourself a new hobby eh?" she giggled and took out of her bag a funny thin cigarette -one of those ciggies which make you wanna laugh.

"Wooow... you smoke now?"

"Oh yeah... but I'm one of those social-smokers you know? Whenever I'm outta home I smoke"

"So you smoke like all day long..."

"Well, kind of...!" she gave me one of those broad smiles of hers, slightly lowering her eyes and voice afterwards to keep speaking about the real feelings she'd felt since our friendship became rusty, just because of the different ambitions we had "I miss you guys..."

Instead of saying something like 'I missed you too', I avoided replying to her. Of course I'd missed Gre and I knew that Liz had too, but somehow I had learnt to go on living without having her by my side. At first, it hurt like hell cuz I was going through one of the most difficult periods of my life and I needed my two best friends beside me. But then I got accustomed to carry on walking along that difficult path with Liz standing by me.

"You busy now? Perhaps we could go get a coffee or something?" I asked after clearing my throath and breathing deep.

"Sure... that'd be great" she half smiled and took a puff of her ciggy.

Whilst Gre and I walked silently towards a café nearby I started to recall the last time we were together back in the 90s. And I was sure that she was doing the same. It was stupid, the reason which had pulled the three of us apart was stupid. Liz and I had always believed that our friendship would stand the test of time, that we were going to be best friends forever, that nothing which could separate us was going to occur.