Ethan had a fitful sleep that night. He dreamt about beating George within an inch of his life—he woke feeling rather satisfied with that one. But then he kept dreaming about Rose. She just kept crying and yelling she would never forgive him and then shut a door in his face. Then everything went dark. His heart was pounding after that dream.

He dragged himself through the shower. The hot water was a welcome relief. He had been so tense all night. He let the water work its magic and stood under the hard stream for what seemed like an hour. Once he had relaxed a little, he turned it off and got ready to head to George’s. 

It was strange standing out the front of George’s apartment building. Ethan had been there so many times over the years. He even had a key, which he was playing with between his fingers. Hopefully George was home and he could quietly get in, punch his face in, then quickly leave, and everyone would be none the wiser.

Unfortunately, Ethan’s hopes were dashed when he found the apartment empty. As he looked around, he considered trashing the place, but opted for something even better. He grabbed George’s toothbrush and gave the toilet bowl a good, hard scrub, then put it back. He found the whole thing extremely satisfying. 

Ethan locked up and went back to his car. His only option now, to head to the hospital. It was a little more public than he would’ve liked, but it had to be done. George had disrespected his friend, and he had to pay.

Walking in, accident and emergency didn’t look too busy, which was good for two reasons. He hopefully wouldn’t be accosted by females and there shouldn’t be too many witnesses to his moment of madness.

He approached the reception desk and asked to see Dr. Woodham. 

“I’ll just check if he’s available,” the older woman behind the counter said in a no nonsense manner. 

As he waited, he noticed a few women smiling at him, but no one approached. Thank god. 

“I knew you’d turn up eventually, but I didn’t think you had the balls to come to my work,” George said as he sauntered towards him. 

Ethan met him in the middle of the waiting room, where they stood face to face. Then the moment a smirk spread across George’s smug face, Ethan smacked him one, right in the nose.

“What the hell!” George squealed as he clutched his nose. 

“That’s what you get for messing with my friend.”

“Outside now!” George growled as he avoided eye contact with the waiting people, still holding his nose. Blood appeared at the edge of his nostrils. 

“You piece of shit, if you go anywhere near her again, I’ll castrate you,” Ethan yelled once they were on their own at the side of the building. 

“Relax, I had my fun. I even made it to second base—under the shirt,” George replied, wiggling his eyebrows and pushing Ethan’s temper.

Ethan advanced on him and was about to kick his smug face in again when George put up his hands in surrender. 

“Hey, I’m working. I know you don’t like me, but I actually have to help those people in there,” he said, pointing towards the building. “Anyway, why should you care, aren’t you playing hide the weiner with Victoria? She’s hot by the way—seems a tad high maintenance though.”

“You know, you’re really making it hard for me to resist beat the shit out of you right now. And I’m not with Victoria!” Ethan shouted that last part. He was so sick of everyone throwing Victoria in his face every two bloody seconds. If he had’ve known how much trouble she would be, he would’ve stayed very far away.

“That’s not what Rose told me. She thinks you guys are still together.”

“I know,” Ethan ground out.

“Good thing I set her straight, then. Told her you were in love with her and that Victoria was just an easy distraction. You can thank me later.”

“You what?!” No wonder she acted all jealous and weird the night before. 

“Oh, come on Ethan, don’t sound so surprised. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to get into her pants. I admit she’s not to your usual taste, but I approve,” George said, leaning against the wall, inspecting his fingernails. 

“We are just friends.”

“Sure, and I’m the Queen of England. “

Ethan didn’t know why he even bothered. George always treated everything like a joke.

“I’ve said my piece. I’m leaving,” Ethan declared. 

“Go on then, but you can’t fool me. When was the last time you cared about someone enough to march down here and smack me one? Oh, that’s right, never. She’s gotten under skin. Admit it,” George yelled as Ethan walked away.

George knew nothing! Sure, he thought Rose was awesome, and they had lots of fun together—usually. But that’s as far as it went. And he thought she had the most amazing eyes, but that was just an honest observation. 

Ethan went back to his apartment. He wanted to make things right with Rose, but he also didn’t want to make things worse, so he listened to his brother and kept his distance. He had work to do, anyway. Hopefully that would help keep his mind off the situation at hand.

A few hours later he had barely achieved anything. He couldn’t stop playing his conversation with George over and over in his mind. It was completely absurd—him in love. He’d never been in passionate love in his entire life. He was too busy for love.

He kept getting out of his chair, unable to sit still. Maybe he should go see Rose? She would have cooled down by now, surely. Maybe she was hoping he would come by and make things right as soon as possible. Perhaps she was just as miserable?

Stuff it. Neither of them would get a good night’s sleep, leaving things the way they were. All this needless stress. No, he needed to go straight away. Stuff his brother’s advice—it was usually rubbish, anyway. Suddenly determined, he grabbed his keys and headed to Chelsea. 

Unfortunately, when he got there, no one was home. He hadn’t been expecting that, but then maybe Tilly had taken her out to cheer her up? Ethan pulled out his phone and texted Rose. Then, noticing the time, he wondered if they were out for dinner. 

He had nothing better to do, so he waited on the front steps. An hour had gone by and still no reply from Rose. Maybe he should text Tilly? But then just as he was about to write something, Tilly’s Town car pulled up, with just her in it.

“Don’t tell me she’s been inside the entire time?” He asked as Tilly got out of the car, looking slightly uneasy.

“Maybe you should come in for a bit, so we can chat.”

He was surprised; she wasn’t tearing his head off for treating her friend so abominably. Something was up.

“Is everything okay?” He asked, concerned.

“Everything’s fine, but I have some news. Come, I’ll make us a cuppa,” Tilly said. 

Once they were both comfortable with a steaming mug in hand, Tilly shared the bad news.

“She’s gone home,” Tilly said, looking at her tea.

“Wait... what do you mean home?”

“Back to New Zealand, her flight leaves in forty minutes.”

Ethan stood abruptly. “Is she coming back?”

Tilly just shrugged in response.

“But why?”

“You really hurt her last night. She cried on my shoulder until she was so exhausted, she fell asleep.” She looked at Ethan, annoyed. 

“I know, I feel terrible. I was stupid and angry, but I don’t want to be the reason she leaves.”

“Look, she’ll be in the air for a day or so. Maybe give her a ring once she’s back at her parents and apologise. She’s a good person, she’ll forgive you.” Tilly gave him a reassuring smile. 

Ethan put his cup, untouched, back on the tea tray and nodded. “I best be getting home. Thank you for the tea.”

Ethan sat in his car parked on the side of the road, watching headlights rush past him every few minutes. He couldn’t believe she was gone. He thought he’d go round there and grovel, beg, plead and then everything would be fine again. 

But she left and might not come back. The thought of never seeing her again was painful—physically painful. 

Her eyes, smile, her sense of humour, her kind heart. And what was he meant to do now? Wait? Hope?

Stuff that. There was only one thing to do, and he’d move heaven and earth to do it.