Dancing With The Devil (part two)

Chapter 23:Damn!

Astrid's eyes blinked open slowly at half six the next morning. She didn't move: she just looked up at the ceiling, thinking about what had happened. She kept replaying the events of the night before in her head, not quite believing what had happened.

Jim had said that he loved her.

He actually said the three words.

It seemed out of place since they hadn't seen each other for over three years, but Astrid knew what she felt and it was definitely love.

It had always been love.

She just couldn't get him out of her head.

She had tried to think about the plan and what they we're going to do that day. She thought over scenarios in her head and all the possible ways it could go wrong. Her mind was clearly somewhere else. She just couldn't stop thinking about Jim.

Jim.

Astrid didn't realise how long she had been thinking about him until she craned her neck to look at the clock on her bedside table and it read five minutes to eight. Astrid's eyes widened at the realisation that she had been thinking about Jim for nearly an hour and a half. She laughed half heartedly and lazily swung her legs over the bed and got up. She pulled a jumper over her head and put on a pair of leggings before slowly making her way downstairs.

when she got to the bottom of the stairs she was greeted by her two giant dogs jumping up at her excitedly. She laughed and sat on the bottom stairs, letting them give her their routine morning wake up. After a short time she stood up and walked towards the kitchen, the dogs in tow bouncing up and down joyfully.

When she arrived at the kitchen she saw Seb and Jim sat opposite each other. Seb was biting into a piece of toast as Jim was sipping on a hot cup of tea. She smiled awkwardly and dug around in a cupboard for dog food. After she had the hounds settled, munching on their breakfast, she put two pieces of toast in a toaster and clicked the kettle on. Not ten seconds later, Faith came into the kitchen and said hello to the boys before joining Astrid at the kitchen counter.

"You okay?" She said and Astrid twitched her head and Faith chuckled, "wanna share?"

"We can talk about it later," she decide, "we'll take Luna and Lucy out and I'll talk to you about it."

"Talk about what?" She said as she took out a bowl and began to pour some cereal into it. The kettle came to the boil and Astrid tapped the side of nose, before pouring hot water into a tea cup. Faith chuckled as she finished making her cereal and sat down next to Seb. She muttered something to Seb as Astrid placed her tea down next to Jim.

Astrid went back to the counter and placed the two pieces of toast that had popped out the toaster on two separate plates. She messily spread jam on them and placed one of the plates in front of Jim and the other in front of herself as she sat down next to him.

Jim muttered a small 'thanks' followed by a quiet 'no problem' from Astrid. The four sat in silence until Astrid took a sip of her tea and began to talk.

"I really hope this plan works," she said as she swallowed down the hot liquid, "I've been thinking about it all morning. I just feel like somethings gonna go wrong."

She cleared her throat and continued, "You and Dom go down in his car, Faith. Jim, you follow in Seb's car and Seb and I will take mine."

"Didn't know you could drive, Jim."

"Shut up, Seb." Jim said quickly and Astrid frowned.

"Can you drive, Jim?"

Jim laughed, "of course I can drive."

"Just checking." she nodded her head and they simultaneously took a bite out of their toast.

There was a few moments of awkward silence before Faith whispered something to Seb about letting them be alone for a bit. Seb nodded his head and stood up, the two left the room not before Seb could give Jim a deathly stare. Faith quietly scolded him and pulled him out of the room.

There were a few moments before either of them said anything.

"I'm scared." Was all that Astrid could think to say. She twisted her head to look at Jim, "something about this doesn't feel right."

Jim wasn't sure what to say so he just nodded. Astrid quickly took out her phone and fired a quick text to Dominic, telling him to come over at midday. She put her phone down on the table and tapped her finger anxiously on the desk. Jim lifted his hand and put it over Astrid's, who turned her hand over, intertwining their fingers. She leant her head on Jim's shoulder and sighed.

"I meant what I said yesterday," he confessed, "It's been true for a while to be honest."

"For three years?"

"More like four."

Astrid smiled, "yeah, me too." She laughed, "more like since I met you."

Jim nodded, "I'd say it's a stain on my reputation, but I don't exactly have one of them at the moment."

Astrid laughed and sighed, "you wanna know what I though the first time I saw you?"

"Enlighten me."

"Damn."

Jim let out a laugh as Astrid lifted her head up and looked him in the eyes, she moved away so that they could both fully see each others faces. Astrid brought up a knee and rested her elbow on it and then rested her head on her fisted hand. They continued to look at each other. The edge of Jim's lips twitched up into a smile.

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?"

Astrid smiled back, "not to my face."

"That's what I thought the first time I saw you."

"Really?" She smiled and laughed after he nodded, "who knew the great James Moriarty was actually a hopeless romantic."

"Well, I'm not exactly the great James Moriarty anymore," he ticked his head to the side, "I'm just Jim."

"Well, I like you as 'Just Jim'." she smiled and tilted her head, "you never told me why you were in the pub that day. The day we met."

There was a small pause.

"I wanted a drink." He said and Astrid raised her eyebrows, "Seb was in there on a job the week before and he told me he saw you taking out some drunk guy who tried to touch you."

Astrid's eyes widened, "so you knew who I was before that day?"

"Not really." Jim said, "Seb just told me about a pretty blonde server that had a skillset that could take her beyond bar-tending."

"Aww, Seb thinks I'm pretty," Astrid chuckled, "I'm honoured."

"Anyway, I just had to see for myself," he smirked, "I wasn't disappointed, that's for sure."

Astrid smiled, "I love you, Jim."

"I love you too."