Wildflowers; After the long wait

chapter 10

"What happened, did you guys talk?" Dawn asked.

He was standing next to Alice's desk staring down at her. She had barely made eye contact with him since he came into her office fifteen minutes ago, he could only deduce two things. One, she was hiding something from him, two she was stressing about something and she was trying her very best not to break down. He would go with the latter.

"Nothing and no we didn't," Alice mumbled pulling open the cabinet next to her desk, shoving the files she had in her hand into the drawer. It was around two in the afternoon when Dawn came rushing into her office. She had taken the past two days off after Emma had gotten her ear infection, and her work had piled up on her. She had several invoices to send out and this week's salary slips to fill. The workers down at the construction site got paid on a weekly basis. She also had to make sure the timesheets were filled out before the end of the working week and sent down to the head office to be processed. Friday evening pay was normally sent to the bank, there were several workers that still preferred their pay given to them in cash though. She welcomed the distraction, the past two days had taken its toll on her mind and heart, Dwayne tried his very best to ease the tension that had built after their little confrontation but she still had a lot on her mind. They were clearly hurting each other and she didn't know what to do about it.

"I've been your best friend for how long?" Dawn asked, his eyes zoomed in on her and his brows knit together, "nothing you say." He walked over to her, grabbing her chair and spinning it around to face him. He bent over to her, his face was inches away from hers. Alice gazed up at him guilt clearly written across her wide brown eyes. "Talk now," he said firmly.

"Do you want details?" She smiled up at him wickedly, trying her very best to deflect his attention, even though she wanted to pour her heart out to her best friend and let him solve all her problems like he usually does, but she knew that Dawn couldn't help her this time. This was her marriage, and these were real issues that plagued her life, it was up to her and Dwayne to figure it out.

"Hell yes," He said firmly, knowing exactly what she was trying to do, he wasn't buying it. He twirled her chair a full rotation. Letting the chair go one more round before he grabbed it stopping her from swiveling around the third time. She was facing him once more, she looked up at him and he inhaled. She wasn't going to open up to him that easy.

"Now look me in the eyes and tell me what's troubling you," he straightens, stepping away from her as he demanded answers.

Alice sighed, he wasn't going to let her slide by, "Dawn I think it's best for your brother and me to divorce." Dawn frowned; he was pretty sure that the decision wouldn't make either of them happy.

"Why? I thought you were going to try with him," he asked perplexed.

"I have tried but there's something holding me back." A flash of sorrow passed over her eyes and Dawn felt helpless. He wanted to help her heal, she had been in a lot of pain for such a long time. Alice stood up and she walked over to her office window, her back to him, "I need some sort of closure." He walked over to her and she turned to him. He smiled down at her. He couldn't fix her problems for her but he could put a temporary band-aid on it. She needed a change.

"I know what you need. First, you need a big hug from your most handsome best friend." Alice laughed for the first time in two days as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"How does that feel," he asked after a while.

"Good your hugs always give me strength." she sighed contented looking up at him.

"Great, would you like to go out with me?"

"I can't, I have to take the baby up this evening, did you forget?"