t w e n t y
" fake it 'til you make it "
-

-

Simon couldn't keep himself from looking over to where Adela, and very soon afterwards the man with her, had disappeared to. Clearly, she was upset and that wasn't nice to see, but what could he even say to her to make any of it better?

Catherine seemed annoyed as they sat down. She sighed, looked over her shoulder once and then looked back to him.

"If you're that desperate to see how she is, just go after her," She snapped.

"It's not that easy," Simon said, looking down at his hands. If he could've just gone after her, he would've, but that guy went after her instead and he wasn't about to get in the way of whatever Adela had going on. As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't have a leg to stand on when it came to 'moving on'.

"Yes, it is. Go in there and tell her exactly what we're doing here," Catherine persisted, her temper getting the better of her as she put her foot down with him.

"What are we doing here?" Simon questioned, tracing his finger through the spilt sugar on the wooden table. "Besides, I don't think she wants to see me anyway. If she did, this wouldn't have been the first time we'd seen each other since the last."

"We are here as co-workers, nothing more, nothing less." She took a drink of her coffee, enjoying the warmth and the break from talking to someone who clearly had something more important on their mind than her.

"I'm not here to talk about an ex-girlfriend, even if that's what's ended up happening. If she'd content with whoever that guy is, then fine, whatever. I'm happy for her."

"Doesn't sound like it."

"I don't think that matters," He snapped, then relaxed into his chair as he realised how worked up he was getting over something that might not even be true. For all he knew, Adela was doing the exact same thing as him: getting coffee with a friend. It's just that he thought he knew all of her friends and he had never in his life seen this man before. She was probably thinking the same thing. "Sorry," He apologised, tapping his fingers on the side of the mug.

"I guess we're even," Catherine replied, clearly not hurt by his outburst. "Besides, they do say fake it 'til you make it."

"What?"

"Fake it 'til you make it. Pretend you're happy for her until you really are happy for her." Catherine's phone buzzed, but she ignored it. Looking right at him until he nodded.

"Right, yeah," He said in response, but all that went out the window the moment Adela and the man emerged from the toilet, where they had been for a considerable amount of time. He handed her the jacket she'd left hanging on the back of the chair and called over one of the employees to put their coffees in to-go cups.

Again, he caught Adela's eyes, but she turned away before he could offer a smile. Instead, she smiled at her companion when he returned, handing her the coffee, putting an arm around her shoulders, comfortingly so, and walking from the café like it.

Simon watched them go, not looking away until they got into his car and drove away.

"Like I said, fake it 'til you make it," Catherine reminded him, lifting the mug to her lips and taking a huge gulp.

Simon had barely touched his coffee.

-

-

Adela felt awful. The entire ride home, she sat in silence just revelling in what she just saw and how she'd reacted. The way she'd reacted was far from noble, and she wished that wasn't one of Lewis' first impressions of her. Her make up was stained by tears, smeared, but cleaned up as best she could. And she kept welling up as they drove, luckily he didn't notice this, but she still wished it would stop.

"Thank you," Adela managed to breathe, pushing the car door open. She paused for a moment, looking into the car. "I'll...I'll see you soon, ok?"

"Take care," He told her, meaning it, pairing it with another of his perfect smiles.

She forced a smile and closed the door, didn't stay to watch him drive away.

-

A week later and she was still thinking about it. Thinking about it enough to call him up and apologise, for both breaking down and for not calling him in almost over a week. She was awful when it came to phoning him, even though she knew he's be nothing but sweet to her. It was just the 'what if' that made her put it off.

She didn't dare tell Alice about anything that happened. She only told her about the nice walk in the park, which got cut short by the rain and declined to tell her the events after the downpour.

But Adela knew exactly what her best friend would say about her fear of phoning Lewis, which was why she finally decided to call him up that morning as she made herself a mug of tea. It was her day off, her mum gone and Alice was off with her boyfriend. Maybe hanging out with Lewis would be a great way to spend her time.

For her, he'd come into her life just in time. She needed someone like him; someone who just wanted to get to know her, not her drama with Simon. It felt like he genuinely cared.

With that pleasant thought in her mind, Adela dialled his contact and waited, biting her lip as she stirred the milk into her tea.

It rang a few times and Adela didn't know if he was even going to pick up, but finally his chirpy voice came through.

"Hey, Adela," He greeted, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hi," She replied, a smile spreading across her lips in a wave. "I just wanted to apologise to you about completely breaking down last week."

"It's fine, honestly, you had more than a right to," He told her; she could hear the truthfulness in his voice. "I'm really sorry, I have to go. I'm kind of super busy this morning."

"Oh, ok," Adela said, her stomach dipping in disappointment. Her smile slowly slid off her face. "I can call you back, if you want?"

"No, um, maybe we could go out for late lunch? I'm free all day after one," He asked her and the smile all but jumped back onto her face. She let out a quiet laugh at the sight of herself in the window's reflection.

"I'd love to," She agreed. It would be nice to get out this afternoon. It would be a good way to relax after meeting with the owners of the apartment she was intending to rent.

After saying goodbye to Lewis, she took the time to drink her tea as she got ready for the day. Doing her make up was always something she enjoyed doing.

Simon always used to complain at how long it took her if they were going out for dinner or even just to the store, but she loved doing it so ignored his whines. In the first few months of their relationship, he used to sit with her when she did it, but that slowly stopped as he grew impatient. Adela would just tell him to go without her, which would shut him up because he never knew what to buy.

For the first time in a long time, she smiled in memory of what they had.

As she sat back and glanced around her room, there were still remnants of him. Old clothes were the main culprit. Adela spent the rest of the time she had at home packing his old clothes and photos into a cardboard box, her tea going cold.

-

-

Lewis knew it wasn't a date, even if he was the sort to go on dates, but he couldn't help but count down until he could leave work and get to lunch with her. Not only was he absolutely starving, he also wanted to see Adela.

He knew she was the guilty sort who would feel bad about anything. He was surprised she didn't apologise about the rain that cut their walk short when, in reality, both of them could've comfortably spent another hour or two just walking and talking.

As soon as he got out, he called her and she said she was almost done talking with the people she was going to rent her apartment from, she would meet him in ten minutes.

It was good to see her smiling at him when she approached, five minutes earlier than she'd said, and he considered pulling her right into a hug. They hadn't known each other long enough for that kind of greeting, he felt.

"Hey," She said, her brown eyes shining beautifully. People rarely appreciated brown eyes, most thought them boring, but he thought hers were wonderful. They were deep, murky and yet telling of so much emotion and even an edge of seduction. If she really wanted it, a look was all it would take.

"Hi, how're you?" He replied, cheerfully, hoping his staring wasn't noticed or taken to be unsettling. "I know you said before you were meeting with the people from the apartment you wanted to rent?"

"Yeah, it went good. I should be moving into there very soon, which will be good because living with your mum at twenty-four isn't exactly every woman's dream." The tone of sarcasm caught him off guard. He didn't know she was the type to use sarcasm, but he liked it either way. It was refreshing to know she wasn't a flimsy girl, reeling from heartache and defined by said heartache.

"Well, if you need a hand moving anything, I'd be happy to help. Don't want your books to fall in the road again," He joked, nudging her as they walked down the street.

She laughed, it was wonderful, and said, "Actually, help would be great." She nudged him back, her head tilting to the side as she grinned at him. "Thanks, Lewis."

"No problem," He replied. "Always happy to help."

-

1722 words
no chris again... oopsies