Overlap

Van

In Covent Garden she was quiet, sort of pensive as we wandered through the back streets together, hands in our pockets, both of us dressed a little to warm for the weather. I kept glancing at her polo neck, the way her hand had hovered around her neck more than once that morning and more than once the night before.
I kept thinking about how sad she'd looked despite her smiling and giggling on the settee with Bondy the night before. Kept thinking about how she'd jumped this morning, hiding herself beneath the blankets, thinking I didn't notice how careful she'd been not to look at me from certain angles.

And then I thought about the flat we'd just been to. How dark it had been. The kind of darkness which takes a couple of days to gather, the sort of darkness you don't just get by closing the curtains, but by being dark yourself. By shutting the curtains and locking the doors, and stewing in your own thoughts for several days at a time. You had to sink so low to get there.

I caught her looking at me from under her lashes, wondered how long she'd been watching me stew in my own thoughts, my own worries for this girl who meant so much to me despite how little I knew her.

So i forced a smile, forced myself to look up and around at where we were.

"Where dya wanna eat?" I asked but she just shrugged her shoulders, a small smile telling me to choose. I hoped she didn't feel like she owed me but I knew her well enough at least to know that she definitely did.
I chewed my cheek for a moment, tried to think of somewhere but I didn't really know anywhere myself. We might have moved to London over a year ago now but we hadn't actually spent all that much time in London. We hadn't actually spent much time in one place for a long time.

I'd questioned why we'd bought the flat in the first place but Larry had insisted and Bondy had nodded along with every word he'd spoken. So I'd shrugged it off, said it would be good to have somewhere and I suppose now, we had a good reason to have somewhere of our own.

I knew Nina well enough to know she wouldn't have reached out to Bondy on the steps to his hotel.

"You don't know anywhere do you," she bit back a smile, looking down at our shoes before she dared to meet my eyes. When she did however I was knocked out by the sweetness glistening in them. Her whole face lit up when she smiled, even when she still looked pale and shaken and preoccupied. Her smile lit her up and she was sharing some kind of joy with me. "Theres a little place round the corner, they do cheap pizza and good cocktails..." she started trailing off when she caught me laughing at her, "What?" she asked a grin already slow forming in the corner of her mouth. I saw the beginnings of a dimple popping in her cheek.

"You," i chuckled, "youre not seriously telling me you want a drink today?" i grinned and she did too, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well I don't know," she giggled, "its been a big mornin for me Van," she was trying to tease me but the truth in her words made it difficult for me to smile as once again my mind returned to her hand hovering over her neck. Her eyes darkenning in the moment she remembered too. "Van," she stood on tiptoes to whisper in my ear, didn't understand what the proximity of her lips to my cheek did to me, how hard she made it to breath, "stop staring at my neck,"

"I'm not staring at your neck love," I tried to lie, tried to smile and reassure her but she was smarter than that.

"You are!" she split a smile taking my arm, "I'm not stupid Van youre about as subtle as me brother with your pouty face and your mardy eyes, come on this pizza place is only round the corner,"

"ey I am 10 times more subtle than your brother believe me," i shot back, smiling along with her though I found it a little odd to be competing with her brother over who cared less.