Norman crept into his guest bedroom, after opening the door slowly. Partly because he didn't want to wake up his friend.

Elaine was already awake and she lay on her side with the support of her elbow. She was facing Leonard and slowly stroking his cheek gently with her eyes staring at him lovingly yet longingly.

He walked in and she was startled as she sat up immediately, struggling with her expression.

"Hey, Elaine. You're up?" He pretended he hadn't seen what she was doing.

"Y-yes," She stuttered as she got out of the bed. "You're still an insomniac?" She let out a little chuckle to lighten the mood.

"You think I'd be able to sleep a wink with you two in here?" Norman made no effort to take her joke.

Elaine forced a smile.

"I'd be right downstairs. You could freshen up or do you want to wait till he wakes up so you can take a shower together?" Norman asked with every intention of upsetting her.

She gave him a look that told him if she had a knife, she'd stab him right away. "I don't think that'll be necessary." She walked to the bathroom

Norman watched her with a smug smile on his face. He took one last glance at the sleeping and clueless Leonard before walking out.

A few minutes later, he heard footsteps and he turned to watch Elaine descending from the stairs. He put away his phone. There was still no message from his wife.

"Leonard isn't up yet?" Norman asked standing up.

She smiled politely. "He had a little too much to drink last night." She took a few more steps down until she was on the same level with Norman.

"You still love him," he uttered bluntly.

Elaine was taken aback by his sudden statement. "Norman..."

"You keep hurting him and pushing him away when the truth is just as glaring as it always was," he said walking closer to her.

Elaine bit her lip. "You are unbelievable. Why are you acting like this isn't what you want?" She scoffed. "At the very least, you hate the fact that he feels anything at all for me."

Norman smiled never taking his eyes off this woman he knew he should've gotten rid of a long time ago. "Yes. Because he's too stupid to realize that you're a sick woman and you don't deserve any affection from him or anyone."

"There is only one sick person in this room and we both know it isn't me. Get some help, psycho." One would easily think they were having a decent conversation because they kept smiling at each other.

He chuckled lightly. "Leonard is married now and his wife is carrying his baby."

Elaine glared at him. She looked both hurt and angry at the same time. It was obvious Leonard hadn't told her the full story yet.

He moved even closer to her and pat her shoulder. "He's in love with someone else now. If I were you, I'd stay far away from him." He pointed out all his words.

She swallowed hard and was about to reply when the door was swung open and Beatris stood there with her small travelling box in her hand.

"Norman?" She gasped, confused as her eyes travelled from her husband to the woman who's body was almost touching his.

Elaine smiled. "I'll see you," she said, further sealing the gap, she stood on her toes and placed a kiss on his cheek before walking out. All the while, Beatris was standing there with her mouth hung open.

Norman turned to face her. He didn't know why she was pissed. After all, she'd spent one whole week at God knew where with God knew whom.

"Norman, I'm just gone for one week... One week and you already start bringing women to your house?" She yelled, quite pissed.

Did she just say women? He didn't even consider Elaine a human being let alone a woman. "Where are you coming from?"

"Do you have a right to ask me that?" She yelled. "You know what. Screw you! I'm so done with you!" She said angrily before turning and walking out of the house.

"Fuck you, Tris!" He yelled after her, running his hands through his hair and then he sighed before walking to the chair and slumping into it.

A few minutes later, Leonard walked out fully dressed up.

"Elaine left?" He asked looking quite worried.

Norman frowned. "That's my shirt!" He got up.

Leonard smiled. "I... I kinda liked it. Does it look good on me? I shouldn't ask. Everything looks good on me."

"Take my shirt off!" The angry man walked towards him with his hands stretched out and had paused right in front of him and dropped his hands.

Leonard smirked. "You wanna take it off, huh?"

"Y-you pervert. You know what? Just keep it." He gave up.

His friend laughed. "I'll see you," Leonard said as he walked out.

The empty feeling consumed him once more as he watched the closed door.

----------------------------------------------------------

"Oh my God! Tris!" Sara exclaimed as she embraced Beatris, leading her into her house. "Are you okay?"

Beatris obviously wasn't. She was crying bitterly and just couldn't utter a word.

Sara led her to a seat gently and put her arms around her, letting her cry on her shoulders.

"It's okay. Baby, it's okay."

After some minutes of trying to calm her down, Sara finally succeeded and Beatris stopped crying.

"What is it?" Sara asked with care in her voice.

"I'm so sorry. It's just...I don't have anywhere else to go and..." She sniffed.

"No. It's totally fine. It's fine."

"Norman is cheating," Beatris said as she sniffed again before taking out a tissue to clean up her messy face.

Sara was shocked at her statement. She leaned forward so their eyes could meet. "Are you certain about this?"

"I spent the last one week beating myself up, trying to find reasons to go back, but he didn't even care. He left me no calls, no texts, nothing. And as stupid as I am, I went back, just to find him kissing some other woman."

"Oh my God," Sara exclaimed as her mouth hung open.

"I don't know why it hurts so much to realise that he doesn't care and I've just been deluding myself, thinking I meant anything to him. As if all he's done to me isn't enough. I hate him. I can't take this anymore!" Beatris started sobbing all over again.

Sara embraced her tightly. "Oh my poor baby. It's okay. It's okay." She consoled her.

---------------------------------------------------------

Sara stood at the door to her guest room and watched Beatris sleeping soundly. It had been so difficult to get her to rest. She really felt so bad for her.

She closed the door gently so she wouldn't wake her up and then turned to go to her own room but Leonard had suddenly walked in.

"Hey." He smiled.

Sara smiled a little. "I guess you were busy at the office or..."

"I was at Norman's house," he said casually.

Leonard's words had hit her hard. He was lying to her. No wonder they said birds of a feather, flocked together.

"You're lying to me," Sara concluded, getting pissed.

Leonard was confused. "His wife is out of town and he just invited me over... Sara?"

She folded her arm across her chest. "Norman's wife is in there," Sara said pointing at the guest room.

He widened his eyes. None of this seemed to make any sense to him.

"She was at his house this morning where apparently he'd invited a few women over," Sara exaggerated dramatically. "Don't make me think you were doing the same thing somewhere else, Leonard!"

Leonard would have had a fit of laughter if only Sara wasn't so serious about this. "I don't... I don't understand what you're talking about." He scoffed.

"What I'm saying is, Norman is cheating on Beatris. She walked into his house this morning and caught him kissing some woman!" Sara was really pissed right now. "So where the hell were you because you weren't there," she said.

He shook his head. This was unbelievable. "That's not possible. Norman wouldn't do that..." He thought for a moment and was even more confused. "Give me a minute." Leonard said, walking away leaving a dumbfounded Sara who sighed and sat down.

He walked into their bedroom and took out his phone, dialling Norman immediately.

"Norman, are you crazy? I know you are crazy but..."

"What is it?" Norman interrupted him.

Leonard had to stop himself from laughing. "What happened between you and Elaine?" He asked. He knew Sara's story was ridiculous.

"Uhm...we..."

"You what? Did you kiss Elaine? Are you stupid? You think kissing Elaine to make your wife jealous is going to solve anything?" Leonard was obviously not making any effort to hide how pissed he was with Norman's reply.

"Calm down, man. I don't have anything going on with your mistress. She kissed me. On my cheek. T-that stupid woman I got married to conceived what ever idea she wanted," he said defensively.

Leonard chuckled. He knew he wasn't supposed to be laughing but it was hilarious. "Beatris thinks you're cheating on her."

"I'd handle her."

"Norman, no. I don't want you to hurt her. Just tell her the truth," he said.

Norman hesitated before replying with a very calm voice. "The truth? We both know what that'll cause."

He sighed deeply. "I won't let you lose her because of me. It's all my fault and I'm not going to let you pay for my stupidity!"

"Leonard, stop! Sara is pregnant. You can't just tell her you're screwing around with someone else."

"I'm not screwing around. My relationship with Elaine is just..."

"It's complicated. But trust me, she wouldn't understand," Norman said in a serious tone.

"You don't deserve this!" He said.

"You know who doesn't deserve this? That baby that's growing inside of Sara. You know what we had to face as boys. I can't... I can't have anyone else go through that. Not when I can help it. I can't."

A/N
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