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The worst person for making decisions was, without a doubt, Laura Spielberg. However, this time she had definitely agreed with herself that she had made an excellent decision. Although, at first it was quite a harsh decision but she couldn‘t have lived with it any other way. You see, when Laura was seventeen she had fallen in love with her boyfriends best friend. She had actually fallen in love with him when she was just fifteen, but her feelings had been re-ignited when Laura and her boyfriend Jonathon got together and she started hanging out with him and his best friend Michael. Their relationship was excellent, without a doubt, Jonathon was like her best friend, in fact, Jonathon was her best friend. It was just whenever Michael was around, he would melt her and her heart would beat so hard, her legs would feel like they were unable to hold her up. But just like when Laura was in school, Michael would not give her the time of day. She really could not understand it, it was like he was permanently in another world.

The decision she made was to stay with her boyfriend, because she did love Jonathon a lot, but she was in love with Michael. The only way that she could stay close to Michael was through Jonathon. So she swore to stay with Jonathon forever.

For two years Jonathon had treat her like she was a queen, they were in love. And so when he proposed to her she had said “yes!” without any hesitation. Although Michael was still on the scene, she no longer felt any feelings for him and she was focused on building a family with her fiancé.

“Morning baby.” Jonathon smiled, with the same glint in his eye he had when his eyes met his beautiful fiancées.  Turning over smoothly on her front, Laura rose up and softly kissed him on the lips and smiled. “Morning.” Then collapsed on his chest.

“You know how we got engaged? I’ve been thinking… How about we have an official engagement party, and we can announce the date of the wedding to everyone then?” Jonathon smiled, kissing his beloved on the forehead. Laura squealed with delight and kissed him hard on the lips, jumping out of bed. “When?” She returned, standing in the bathroom door. “Whenever you want. Of course we’d have to discuss the wedding dates together. Although, I was thinking. It’s July now, wouldn’t it be lovely to marry in December?”

“It would be perfect.” She beamed, tears came to her eyes. “I’m so happy.” She came over and sat back on the bed, close to Jonathon. She could feel the warmth of his body, and taste the salt of her own tears of joy as their lips met yet another time. He held her. And the embrace soon turned to passion. 

Laura and Jonathon had arranged for the party to be held on Saturday 14th, which was in two weeks time, and had also set their wedding dates for 20th December.

The two weeks leading up to the party was simply a case of Jonathon and his fiancée sending the invitations out, and ringing up Michael everyday to push him to write his speech. Jonathon had always wondered how it was that Michael could still possibly have his own apartment because of his alcoholism, but surprisingly he had a well-paid job in which he worked from home and wrote articles for local newspapers and had his own slot in a magazine which he wrote about new, and existing rock bands. He also had the most beautiful talent of playing piano. Although he was a writer, he still had to be dogged about the speech, as Jonathon had learned from experience. It saddened him that his best friend had become an alcoholic, but there’s a line as to how far you can go to help. He loved spending time with Michael though, he and Laura had agreed that they would have their weekends together and then a weekend apart. She would go off and spend the weekend with her best friends Alexia and Michelle and he would spend his time with Michael at the pub getting drunk. It had been that way for the past two years, yet it had never got boring for them. He had always felt relief when he returned home early Sunday morning to find his wife still waiting up with another drink for him and sometimes pizza. She wasn’t an early bird though, both had been known to stay out all night. But they trusted each other a lot to be able to do this.

“Hey Michael! You okay?”

“Hey Jonny!” Shouted Michael drunkenly down the phone, “I’m good, yourself?”

“yeah, good. So have you wrote that speech yet?”

“Course I have, I finished it up yesterday. Though, I’m going to have a sleep, and read it properly when I wake up.”

“Hey man. You don’t think you could do us a favour? Try and stay sober for the engagement party tomorrow. It’s important, and I want you to remember it.”

“Sure. No problem. Hey, and Jonny, thanks again for letting me be best man.”

“Its fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, bye.” Michael hung up the phone and let out an elongated sigh. He ran his fingers through his hair and then looked across to a photograph of himself, Jonathon and his girlfriend. He moved closer to the picture and took it with him to his armchair. Michael had always wondered where he had gone wrong. When he had been younger he had always felt that him and Jonathon had been quite similar in both looks and personality. In fact, in personality he had always thought that it was Jonathon that shadowed him. Yet here he was, with this beautiful woman, and where was Michael left? He was left alone. Where was his beautiful fiancée? He ran his finger across Laura’s face. But then, feeling guilty and confused as to why he had done it, he threw the photograph across to the sofa. It soft landed, face-down but still he could not help staring at it as he sipped his last glass of whisky. He blacked out.

“You know that dress looks so good on you, Laura, yet I had it on like two minutes ago and it looked like crap.” Smiled Alexia.

“Probably because this dress is meant for curvy people, not for people that have nothing but bones.” Michelle mocked Alexia, who threw a piece of paper she found at her. Laura laughed at them both. “I want to look sexy.” Laura whined. “Laura you always do look sexy. And while we’re talking about sexy… please tell me your work-mate is coming. What’s his name again, Paolo?” She made a noise as though she was eating Paolo, as she would a piece of chocolate cake. “He will be. I said he can bring a friend too. So be prepared for heartbreak, Chelle.” Laura giggled.

Laura woke on Saturday morning and she knew that she had a very busy day. She had an appointment at the hairdressers at two and the party started at six, which left her with just four hours to get ready and deal with any problems that the catering staff had. So she got up at nine, showered and cooked breakfast for Jonathon, before going upstairs, getting ready and leaving to pick up her best friends from their apartment. At the hair dressers, which so happened to be Chelle’s salon, she decided to go for big hair. She had massive curls in her chestnut brown hair, and already she looked fantastic. She got home and she went with a sexy little red dress to wear that she had bought with Alexia and Chelle, with her new platform black heels and black leather bag. She accessorised with just a silver cross necklace and matching silver bracelet that was a gift from Jonathon, for her birthday last year. Michelle had decided to wear a black dress that was a lot longer than Laura’s, and Alexia’s dress was white.

“Hey baby.” Jonathon beamed. “Well don’t you three look amazing?!” He walked over to Laura and pecked her cheek. “Mm and you smell amazing too. It feels like I haven‘t spoken to you in ages.” He kissed her again. “I have to go and pick up Michael now,” he paused to pull a worried expression “I really hope he’s sober…Which one of you lovely ladies is giving the speech then?” He asked smiling. “Neither of us,” Chelle smiled, “It’s the chief bridesmaid that does that.” Jonathon’s phone began to ring and he quickly left the room to answer it. The three women pulled a few expressions at each other, smiling, putting on their make-up with music playing in the background. Jonathon returned.

“So, have you spoken to Rebecca?” He asked Laura. “Mom and Dad said she’s getting a lift down to The Lounge with them.” She paused for a minute to finish fixing her bag, apply more lip gloss and to spray a little more perfume. “Okay… Well we best get down to The Loft. We have an hour to sort out any problems. I really, really hope there aren‘t any problems ha-ha.” She laughed nervously. “It’ll be fine babe don’t worry” Chelle reassured her, looking up at her best friend through the reflection in the mirror as she applied more mascara. Michelle was so good at doing hair and make-up, and that was why she had her own salon. Because of Michael interviewing rock stars all the time they had managed to hook her up with a few celebrity, or celebrity-linked clients and  so her business was booming. Alexia surprised them all because she too seemed to be interested in hair and beauty, but had ended up doing a teachers degree at university and had ended up working with children in a kindergarten, she was such a lovely person though, she always put other people before herself, unless she was hungry. Laura had her own business which was a nightclub, The Loft, and hotel, each had a joined catering company, which she also owned, that was the company that was organising their engagement party at The Loft. Jonathon was the manager of a massive magazine company, which turned out excellent for Laura because she got a boat load of designer clothes coming in.

“Okay, I’ll see you guys at the party then, because I’m afraid that if I don’t get to sober Michael, he might just turn into not-so-sober Michael.”

“Is he still drinking?” Alexia asked concernedly. Jonathon nodded, looking saddened, and his head slowly fell to the ground. “It’s a shame.” Laura added. She kissed her fiancée, raising his head, added more perfume, and the four of them left the house, and headed off to The Loft in cabs.

Michael sat rocking back and forth with a burning feeling in the pit of his stomach. “I’m not touching that whisky. I’m not touching that whisky.” He jumped up out of his armchair and rushed towards the whisky bottle. From here, he ran into the kitchen and smashed the whisky bottle into the sink, before sinking to the floor in tears. Containing himself, finally, he rose up, smoothed himself over and lit up a cigarette before departing the house. As he stood outside, smoking his cigarette, his stash bottle of whisky came into his mind. As he turned to go back into the house, the honk of a cab horn made him roll his eyes, smooth himself over once more and begin walking down his garden path. “You are going to be okay.” 

Alexia could see that Laura was a nervous wreck, and for some reason, she too felt slightly nervous, but she had uncovered that it was because of Laura’s behaviour why she felt so nervous. Alexia headed over to the bar of The Loft and bought herself, Chelle and Laura a drink. “Hey, they have it under control. You’re not at work. Sit back, relax, and get drunk!” Alexia grinned.

The three of them were soon much more chilled after a couple more drinks, and the catering crew had sorted everything out, just as Alexia had predicted. It was just a case of what state Michael would be in when him and Jonathon turned up, that worried Laura.

Jonathon, in the corner of his eye had noticed Michaels rash movements and him seeming uncomfortable. Almost as if he was telepathic, he answered Jonathon’s question as to why he was behaving this was. “It’s hard you know. I’d be okay if I could just have a cigarette.”

“We’re almost there. Hey man… if you’re not up to it you don’t have to do it.”

“Jonny this is the longest I’ve been sober in months. I’m up to it.”

They stepped out of the cab and Michael couldn’t help but feel the burning desire to drink, more and more so as he walked up the steps to The Loft. He was nervous. When he was pissed he didn’t care about the looks he’d get or how rude he was to that person. But now he was sober he’d have to face those faces that judge him every time he sees them. “I’ve had enough of them seeing me that way all the time, I’m going to show them me. Today I’m going to stay sober… I mean look at him, he’s a nervous wreck, he needs me.” 

Michael smiled at Jonathon and put his arm on his shoulder as they entered the bar. Jonathan felt a lot of relief and as he looked into the eyes of his best friend, he knew that everything about today was going to be okay.

Ting ting ting.  Jonathan hit his wine glass with a knife he had found next to him, he told himself to breath, and began his speech. “Thank you everyone for coming here tonight. Me and Laura could not be happier. I know many of you are wondering why we’re having an engagement party when you all already know, but we thought you ought to know that we’ve set the dates and we’re getting married this December…” The room cheered. He laughed, taken back by the response, and continued, “Hmm…I tried to think of something funny to say last night as I made my speech and the best I could think of was this story, ha-ha, I’m actually pretty lucky to have my fiancée to be honest, I could have lost her to this drunken idiot I’m letting be my best man...” Jonathan slapped his best friend on the back, and took a sip of his wine. Everyone in the room appeared to be confused and just sat smiling, excited for Jonathan to finish his story. Laura froze. Michael froze. The whole room seemed to be closing in on Laura. Eyes. Michael took his first drink of the night, followed by another, and another and another, drinking more and more as the speech went on. He fixated on Laura. Laura flashed back to when she was just fifteen, she could see Michael hiding behind, practically the same emo haircut he had now. Laura believed the reason she lost her virginity to her first boyfriend Daniel was because of him. He was actually a big geek. And just so happened to be in her English class. Although, he thought that she had hated him. Even though several times Jonathan and Laura had told him how it was impossible that she could have hated him because she had had such a crazy crush on him, a fool could have spotted it a mile off. Lesson upon lesson she’d just sit and watch him scribble away in his little note pad drawing pictures of anime. He was so different, cool, quiet and weird it attracted her like a mouse to the trap. Quite clearly Michael never noticed her speculating, however, Jonathan did. Anyway, the virginity thing. Laura had heard a rumour that he had lost his virginity already and this made her think, “ wow, this geek that I think I’m in love with right now has lost his virginity before me, I better get my skates on in case these fantasies I’m having come true.” Which of course they didn’t. Anyways later on that year, the crush stabilised and she was able to stop herself from gazing at him or at least get it down to a minimum of once or twice a lesson. Come the second year she wouldn’t look at him at all, although she knew he was there and the butterflies would be almost unbearable. Then time passed, she left school in July and never saw him again until sometime in February the following year, where the feelings were found, and fought off again. She came back to reality, still staring in Michaels eyes. She smiled at him though and laughed it off with the rest of them. Michael didn’t laugh.

She started listening to Jonathans voice speech “ …Yep, for two years I sat there staring at this beautiful woman and she ever even looked at me once. Lucky Michael didn’t open his eyes, huh? ha-ha.” He again slapped his best friend on the back. “Finally though, I want to thank you Laura.” He said gazing directly into her eyes from across the table. “Thank you, for loving me, and coming back to me those two year ago. Without you I’d never have done half the things I’ve done. I love you.”  Tears filled both Laura and Jonathans eyes. Michael still sat stricken at what he had just heard. When the room began to get noisy again and people had left their chairs, Michael finally composed himself, he picked up the same knife, backed up his chair and headed to the bar. “Shot of whisky, cheers.” Down went the whisky. He felt in his pocket for the paper he had wrote his speech down on, pulled it out, and tapped loudly and a little OTT on his whisky glass. More sober than he ever was he began his speech. “Hey everyone. I’m the best-man-to-be…” He chuckled, and crumpled up the speech. Jonathan squirmed, eyeballing Laura, who pulled a nervous expression. “You know, I have to say I’ve never heard that story before. Ha-ha.”

“You have, but you were drunk!” Jonathan joked.

“Ahh well then, that explains it. I was drunk.” He pauses, everyone is staring at him, expecting him to mess up. “Laura, Laura, Laura, the most beautiful, intelligent woman on this earth. I am so proud that it’s you that is marrying my best friend, my… brother in fact.” He smiled, looking right at Laura. “You know, Jonathan…Jonny…Has been a brother to me, after my mother died I couldn’t have asked for a better shoulder to cry on. In fact, the two of you, Laura and Jonny, stood by me like a pair of crutches...bad metaphor… ha-ha. I’m sure everyone can see what I can see, the way their love and laughter fills up any room they’re in making you feel slightly happy yourself. Even if you‘re a lonely drunken ignorant fart… I guess it‘s why all the celebrities like me so much, huh?” The whole room laughs. “But, Jonathan…Laura…” He holds eye contact with Laura, though no one seems to notice. “I love you both. I really hope the two of you last forever, I’m sure that you will. Thanks.” The room applauds. He turns back to the bar. “Hey beautiful, another whisky.” He smiles at the bar maid. She melts and rushes to his command. “Hey man… that was awesome. You really took your time with that didn’t you?” Jonathan smiled.

“That, my brother, came from here.” He gestured to his heart. “Sober Michael.” He laughed. Jonathan man-hugged Michael and bought him a drink. They laughed for quite a while, Jonathan taking advantage of Michaels soberness. After he left, Laura approached Michael. There was a soft, slow dance song playing in the background which made each other a little bit more audible. “You never said anything.” He smiled at Laura, but the fake smile faded. “You never gave me a chance to. You never looked at me… nothing. Even back when me and Jonny were together, when I was seventeen. I thought I had feelings for you… but… nothing. You were like a brick… and then slowly the feelings disappeared.”

“Just like that?”

“Yep. And lucky they did too.” She smiled, wide-eyed, almost mockingly.

“And what’s that supposed to mean…huh?”

“Well…nothing. Its just, I’m marrying Jonny now, and I’m happy. I‘m secure.” She smiled. Meaning, she‘d never be with Michael because she didn‘t trust him, relationship-wise, because of the alcohol. 

“I don’t believe you. I don’t know why but I don’t buy it.”

“You’re wrong. You said in the speech yourself, we’re in love. And we are!” Laura’s eyes turned serious, almost cold...hurt.

“…” Michael hesitated. Laura looked disgusted, eyeballing his whisky. “Are you drunk again?! You know what Michael, I’m sick of having this fucking conversation with you, over and over again. You’re hurting me. You keep digging up old feelings, and it’s okay for you because you just go and get drunk… but it’s me that has to bury them again. Speak to me in an hour when you forget the whole thing.” Laura’s eyes met his, they were apologetic… different. She‘d had shocked, but never apologetic. She hesitated, fighting to not apologise, and why should she? She knew that what she had said was out of order, but she thought he was drunk again, what did it matter? Michael was not drunk though, but very confused. “I don’t have feelings for Laura do I? Pft…no fucking way.”

Laura left. And as Laura‘s little sisters speech began, so did Michael.

Laura woke up, groggy. “Are you awake?” She asked Jonathan. “Yeah, babe. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She smiled, stroking his cheek, appreciating him. He suddenly looked excited. “Hey did you see Michael last night?”

“I Sure did.” She smiled, still thumbing his cheek. Going over how mean she was to Michael. Jonathan looked out the window, then back to Laura. “It’s great seeing him sober like that.”

“Sober?” She thought.

“Sober…?” Her world came crashing down. “Yeah. It was great. Didn’t you notice?”

“N-n-no.” She breathed. “Yeah he left around twelve.”

She smiled. “That’s great.” She buried her head into Jonathans chest so that he couldn’t see the guilt that lay upon her face.

Laura sat at the kitchen table with Jonathan. She pottered around making tea, putting dishes away, making toast. Occasionally, Jonathan would smile as he lifted his head from the magazine he had taken from the newspaper. “I got a text from Michael earlier.” He said pausing, and looking up completely from the magazine. “Last night, after he went home, he lost it. He text me saying he left the party and he had gotten annoyed, which made him drink. He got very abusive with the lady who owns the apartments and also a couple of the neighbours. Anyway, last night was the last straw. She wants him out by the end of the week.” He tilted his head on the side and looked at Laura, almost pleading she’d understand. “…what…n-no Jonathan. No. He can’t stay here.”

“Think about it babe, we could help him fully recover… He needs us.”  His eyes met hers, and melted her stubbornness. “Two days.” She gave. “Two months, babe, please come on. Its not like it will take him that long, the money he rakes in.”

She sat thinking going over and over in her head about how she felt about Michael. Telling herself that there was nothing there. She sat and did this until she could take it no more and decided to get a drink. She drank until she herself was pissed.

Michael sat, disgusted with himself. He couldn’t even bring himself to speak to Jonathan in the car. He entered the house. And as he was ordered to go first, he was the first one to hear the recognisable rock song blaring from the living room. He headed straight for it. He began opening the door, slowly, and then he put himself through the door. Laura hit him with something hard. “Ouch!!” He yelled. She paused the music. Because she was drunk though, she laughed at what she had done. “Sorry I though you were a burglar, ha-ha.” She turned the music on, but it was almost silent, she drunkenly collapsed to the couch, whisky in one hand and an empty glass in the other. Pouring a shot, and then another, but as she went to take the third one Michael stopped her, putting his hand to her arm. “What are you doing Laura?” He spoke softly. His hand remained on hers. Making her look up at him, with such love in her eyes. Michael noted how beautiful she was.

“Laura?!” Jonathan entered the room, surprised to see his fiancée drunk so early, and for no reason. “Mm… Hello you.” She put the whisky bottle down and kissed her fiancé sexily in a way that quite clearly aroused him and had quite the opposite affect on Michael. She turned her back to him. Picked up the whisky bottle and turned the rock music up to an ok level. She poured a shot, and then laughed at herself. Michael and Jonathan exchanged looks. “You know what?” She slurred. “I think I’m going to stop drinking this.” This made all three of them laugh. “Honey, why are you drinking?” Jonathan smiled. “I don’t really know. I just…felt like it. You don’t really need a reason to drink, do you?” She laughed. He smiled at her. “Right, Michael?” She said sarcastically, Jonathan didn‘t hear, Michael ignored her remark. “You should have waited and we’d have joined you.” He said nodding at Michael. “Yeah.” She said, suddenly uninterested, stood up and left the room quickly. Michael figured she went to bed.

“Hey, welcome home man.” Jonathan high-fived Michael. “Thanks. Hey, Jonny, is Laura okay?” He asked concernedly, staring at the ceiling. “Yeah…” Jonathan smiled, unsure in his mind. Silence. The phone rang. “Hey, Boss. We need you to come in tonight. Big problem with the Claxton and Hammer deal. We can‘t sort it.”

“Okay, Barry. Cheers.” He hung up.

“What’s up?” Michael asked. “Ah nothing. Just work asking me to come in tonight. Damn, I feel pretty shitty now. I wanted to welcome you in properly. Hey, we’ll catch up tomorrow okay, promise. Michael, this is your home now, do what you like. You can choose between either guest room, there’s four. But I need to shower. I’ll catch you…probably, tomorrow sometime? I don’t know. See you pal.” Jonathan rushed off and left Michael standing in the sitting room that stunk of Laura, as he had also mentally noted. “Fucking Ironic.” It was going to be tough living here. “I’m starving.” He thought. He flung his bag on the living room floor and took to the kitchen and raided the fridge for micro-food. He almost shit his pants when Jonathan came into the kitchen and boomed goodbye. He ate the micro-meal and headed back to the sitting room, turned off the stereo, picked up his bag and headed upstairs. “No way did Jonny pick those pictures.” He said to himself as he walked up the stairs and analysed all the beautiful pictures that were both perfectly aligned and suitable. First floor. He decided he wanted to be on the top floor so that the views were better. There were only two doors. One on the left hand side, and one across on the right. “Left for love.” He whispered to himself, laughing.

It was the most beautiful room he had ever set eyes on. The bed, was a giant white marshmallow, calling him. It was so open too, the windows were huge and you could see so much land, and part of the sea. But what he loved most about the view were the trees. He always found trees to be somewhat pretty, how they changed colour and just swayed calmly. He had an en-suite as he had guessed that most of the rooms in the house would have had. He had the money to get a house like this, but he had always set against it. At least until he had somebody. He didn’t bother unpacking and nor did he intend to he planned on gradually unpacking as he went through the days. Although he did set his laptop up on the desk by the window. He left the room and rapped on the door next door, and because there was no answer he let himself in. It was virtually identical to his. Though this time Laura lay on the marshmallow bed. For some reason, he was not afraid to be in the room and getting caught. He wanted to be caught. He wanted her to notice him.

He could not understand how for all those years he had not seen her looking at him, wanting him.

He sat on the bed. She was right in the middle of the bed which was in the centre of the room. She looked like an angel. She wore a small black vest top, with decor on the chest, and only her white knickers. Her body was snow white. Her legs were soft-looking. She had whisky breath. He laughed silently at her sudden smell of whisky. He touched her face.

Laura lay still, scared. She knew Jonathan had gone. She recognised Michaels smell. She could not stop that tear from falling down her face. He wiped it. Replaced it with a kiss on her cheekbone, one hand ran across her leg as he slowly kissed her, held it for a few moments, and left. Laura did not open her eyes, not even when he left.

As the days past, Michael became more and more sober. He was Michael again. Laura made a note of how much lighter he looked. She knew Michael was a dark character anyway, but the cleanse he was getting from staying away from drink was seeping from him, and she liked it. At the same time though she hated him for it, as he was recovering he was beginning to turn into himself again. Thus, the silly arguments they once had, had resurfaced.

“Will you stop it with the god damned hoover?” He pleased, frustrated. She took the little sucker that is designed for getting those hard to reach places and sucked him with it. He jumped up out the chair and chased her. She fell toward the couch, sucker still in her hand, he wrapped her in it and she fell down. He fell on top of her. The hoover, because it had stretched so far, it’s plug came out of the wall, filling the room with a silence. They stared in each others eyes, breathing, wanting…loving? Butterflies had intoxicated both of their stomachs. A small cough from Michael broke the silence. He shifted off her. Still she lay…shocked. “That, does not happen again. And what the fuck was the deal with the other day, kissing my cheek. Don’t look at me like that Michael, I know Jonathan had gone out. It was you. I don’t care why you did it, actually. Just make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

“I think I’m attracted to you Laura.” He said, it took a lot. She could see. “You’re too late…” She stood, hurt. He stood, hurt. “Fine. You be happy with your decision.”

“Michael…I made this decision a long time ago. This is my life now.”

“Yeah, and what a great fucking life, stuck at home all the time. What life?” He sniggered.

“You really have no idea do you?” She smiled, it was a fake smile of course, that faded almost the moment it occurred. “I’m home all the time because I need to prepare. Jonathan wants to start a family. We want to start a family.”

Michael left the house. 

“Hey.” Jonathan greeted Michael. “You alright? You seem a little annoyed.” Jonathan frowned. “Nah I’m good. Thanks. Hey…Jonny, you don’t think that maybe I’ll be able to bring my girlfriend home do you, this weekend?”

“Michael you filthy, filthy man.” Jonathan slapped him on the back. It was becoming an annoyance to Michael. “Sure you can. I’ll ring Laura from work and let her know, maybe leave it till Friday.” He smiled, winked and left the room. Michael smiled. “Michael one, Laura nil.”

He jumped when she entered the room. He wondered if she was naked under her dressing gown. Eyeballing her fantastic legs yet again. “That’s what happens when you become an alcoholic, you become a bag of nerves.” she mocked. He pulled faces behind her and followed her like a dog into the kitchen. He hadn’t notices the file she had been carrying, and very quickly became interested. “Breakfast?” She asked. He shook his head looking at the file. By the time she had turned back round the whole contents where sprawled across the bench. Stories, lyrics, poems, diary entries off years ago, her most private, sacred possessions. “What are you…wh-what are you even…you can’t just go through my file like that. It’s fucking private Michael. Both he and she panicked and began putting everything into a pile, then joining their two piles together. She left the room. He didn’t see her for hours. And even then it was him who had to come and make amends. She was hungry, he knew that. So he cooked her omelette and a glass of water. He knocked on the door. No answer. Then he entered. “You really have like zero respect for me…oh.” Stunned at the fact he had cooked her food.   

“Thanks. Hey, Michael earlier I went a little crazy…”

“It’s my fault I’m sorry I should never have gone through the file like that.”

She just looked up at him. Then she picked up the file and held it towards him. “Even Jonathan hasn’t seen it. Which is probably a good thing. I don’t think he’d appreciate the diary entries.”

“Oh. How come?” Michael asked with confusion across his face. “A lot of them mention you.”

Silence. Michael took the entries and began reading a few of them, until he could find his own name. After three or four he stopped, but he did not look up so soon, he sat for a while just staring. “I can’t do this.” He got up and left the room.