Eastern District School

Chapter 92 - Do you love him?

So it was, that Rose ended up telling Benny most of the past few days happenings, in detail. Benny made a lot of noises of shock, appreciation, happiness, anger, sadness. He gave all emotional responses she could have asked for. He even occasionally shook his head in apparent wonder and sympathy. Why was she telling him everything...she wasn't sure. Perhaps it was just a way to get it off her shoulders, or perhaps she wanted someone to tell her what she should do. Throughout the past couple of hours Benny had simply responded in sounds and head movements, occasional shoulder shrugging too, he didn't however respond in words. So when he eventually did talk, it was apparent that he had given it a lot of detail as to what he was going to say to her. Rose on the other hand had to indication of the shock she would feel at his verbal response. 

"Do you  love him though?"

That was something she had been trying to reason at the back of her mind as she worked with Benny that morning. It was easy to talk and work when she just had checks to do around the site. The same question kept flagging up, and every time she thought she heard it, her modest side of the brain...the side that relied heavily on logic and sense shouted 'You barely know him!'

It was her time to shrug away now, and Benny gave a rather loud sigh in recognition of her answer.

"Pah, how can you even question it?"

"It's quite clear really," she said as they walked back down the stairs. She paused half way at a junction to stare out the large window halfway up. "I have only known him a week. Besides I thought you weren't keen on him. I remember you telling me to be careful around him and how you kept checking up on me."

"That's because I could see this happening." he said slightly under his breath as another worker passed them on the stairs. The protective sheeting crinkled under his feet as he walked past. 

Rose whipped her head around to look at him. "Ha! Yeah right... you saw this happening?" What was this exactly? She was hoping he wouldn't be so vague with his words. This was a time for clarity...not more questions,

"Well not all of this. But I could see the way he looked at you, and how you coloured up under his eyes. I was just looking out for you Titch. I have nothing against the guy. Look how he's looked after you. And when I saw him watching you that time you read those paired up letters in the photography room...hell Rose he ached. I could see the pain in the fella's eyes!"

A lump formed in Rose's throat as she listened to her friends clear words. He was very clear on what he was saying right now, but the first thing she could think of was...

"I don't colour up!"

"You're doing it now! You're blushing because every time you hear someone tell you that he loves you it sinks in more and more. If your own father, who hasn't been directly around you all the time figured it out. Why are you still in denial?"

"Because it's not right!" She snapped. "It's not right that within the space of a week I meet this kind stranger; we work really well together, we seem to have a relationship with each other's families already. Benny that doesn't happen in the real world. He's been through hell this weekend, loosing his Grandmother, and he wasn't even the last one with her, it was I...the stranger. That isn't right. It's not right that my father has worked hard all these years and yet still the final piece of the puzzle is that I am to be married. He thinks he is helping me, it's clouding his judgement. Yes okay, he may love me Benny, but now he has this heavy burden on his shoulders, as though he feels responsible for me, as though he is the one who has to take care of now. It's just not right. And what exactly do I do.....?"

Rose's voice was elevating as she blurted out to Benny, and he simply waited for her to continue, with just a slight raise of his eyebrows.  In a silent response. What do you do?

"I fall in love with him. That's what I do!" She blinked faster in response to her own words and it seemed she had to swallow a few times to clear her throat. "I love him!" She said to Benny, sounding shocked at her own words. 

Benny's huge smile would have warmed her any other time. "Yes Rose, you do! So when are you going to tell him that?"

"I'm not Benny, because no matter what I feel, it isn't right. We just need a little distance. Once all this is over," she gestured wildly with her hands around her. "We will go back to our normal lives, and he will forget about me, and I'll eventually forget about him." She sounded as though she were trying to convince herself more than her audience. She was well aware of this. 

"And you think that'll work?" Benny laughed and shook his head again. "Gee Titch, you ever heard of the saying 'distances makes the heart grow fonder'? I'm telling you...that is a bad idea!"

"So you have a better one?" She spat out, more in response to her own feelings than her friend's. She turned on her heels and retreated down the rest of the steps, not giving Benny a chance to even suggest one. 

"You gotta talk to him Titch!"

Just then her phone began to ring, she hadn't placed it on silent since this morning when she had relied on the alarm to get her up early. She should have realised that she wouldn't need it. 

"If that's him, you gotta go find him and tell him, don't be a coward and tell him on the phone!" Benny said, taking full advantage of friend privileges of freedom of speech. 

Rose frowned at him as she pulled away and answered her phone without looking at the caller I.D. They had been talking about him for so long, she had convinced herself that it was Rich, which is why it came as such a shock when there was another voice on the end of the line. 

"Don't make out that you're talking to me.. Just pretend that you have a Client on the phone."

"Okay, I'm speaking." Her eyes darted about the yard as she exited the main building from the side entrance. She was trying to recognise the sound of the voice on the other end of the line. 

"He came to see me the other night. We had a good chat. He's a good man!"

In just a few short statements it became clear who was talking to her and who he was infact referring to. 

"Oh. He did, did he?" That made sense now. Complete sense as to where Rich had been last night, it didn't make sense why he had gone. "And why exactly are you calling me up to tell me this?" There were other questions that shouted in her head, such as 'how did you get my telephone number' , but she thought that such a stupid question for someone who had worked in and against secret services for so much of his life. 

"Because I know you're going to give him a hard time. I can see your mother's influence has struck well with you."

And there was Rose thinking that trait was from her father. What exactly did he want her to do then? What was his point? She sighed. 

"I'm not giving him a hard time!" she said simply, but even as she spoke her words she knew they weren't true. "I just think he's rushing into things. He's just trying to look after me."

"Isn't that something you do to people you love?"

The line went quiet between them. 

"I have to go darling. I just wanted you to know that he didn't know the plan. He didn't know that marrying you will set you free."

"What do you mean 'he didn't know', why on earth did he come to see you if not to talk things over?"

No sooner had she asked the question, the realisation hit in. 

"No, he didn't come for information Rose...he came to ask for your hand!"

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A/N: Another one finished in less than 24 hours. 

Blame the insomnia!

Hope you enjoy the read. 

Please don't forget to comment and vote.

Thanks for reading. 

Emaleen 

#SpontaneousEm