Brick by brick, Achara works on rebuilding her life. Her thirties are going to be different, she tells herself. Her twenties? A fucking mess. But now she has her apartment, a fresh coat of paint, and â Caleb, her morally questionable roommate and undeniable best friend. Philia like the Greeks used to say. She crows with gratefulness when he returns with the drinks. She raises a glass to him, to her, to them.
âFuck! Is that this week?â She exclaims when Caleb brings up the holiday. Thereâs an unending history of slammed doors and raised voices there for her. (Mania, if theyâre still speaking Greek.) Pizza, beer, and good company sounds heavenly in comparison. âI mean, me and my Barcelona shirt will be fighting for my life in some Chelsea pub â but itâs Valentineâs Day. Donât you have plans to con your way into some poor, unsuspecting girlâs heart?â
She cracks a grin over the rim of her third shot (second, long gone). Brick by brick, shot by shot, Archara forgets things like Valentineâs Day and the people she used to owe such days to.Â
ââTis the seasonâ as they say. Or am I just quoting you?â
Her life - itâs all still a mess, just a more tolerable shade. Achara should know better though, than to assume that speaking the devilâs name is his only invocation. He appears then without her saying a damn thing.
It had been five years since Boone last spoke to his wife.
Say what you wanted about the man, but he was a true romantic at heart. Time and separation did not halt the passion he felt for her. Boone thought about her often. Kept tabs on her too. It really wasnât hard. There werenât very many Achara Hannigans in London after all. Come to think of it, Boone was only able to find the one. Sheâd gotten a new place, but still had the old one. For what reason, Boone didnât know. The old place didnât look lived in, however, the new one did. He knew this, because Boone was partial to dropping by every so often. Only a handful amount times throughout the years, he wasnât stalking her. Whenever the longing felt too long, whenever he just needed a glimpse, Boone would linger outside her new flat. How long? Minutes, sometimes up to an hour. Thatâs all.
Though what happened between them happened, though Achara fucking lied like she did for all those years, Boone still cared about her. He still loved her too. These are truths Boone didnât accept head on. Instead, they were manifested through action. Heâd been thinking of her more lately than he had in years. The more he thought of her, the more he dropped by. Â However, a few months ago, during the first drop by in a longtime, Boone saw something in her window he couldnât have prepared himself for.
A dude. Her dude?  Her new dude.
No, he didnât barge in the door and bash the guyâs skull in, even though he could have. Even though he wanted to.
Tonight, Boone found her because he knew where to look. Since the discovery of her dude, he couldnât get Achara off his mind. So these drop bys stopped being  drop bys, and started being follows. He learned her routines, some new, but some werenât. Truthfully, after that one occurrence, Boone never saw her dude again.  The man thought he was in the clear.
When Boone entered the bar, when he saw her, when he saw him, her fucking dude, an insidious rage took over the man. The kind of rage that filled his chest and made a fist out of his grip. The kind of rage that just made him want to bash a motherfuckerâs skull.
Boone bolted over. When he reached them, he only looked at her. âAre you kidding me, Char?â he shouted at her, just like he used to. âAre you fucking kidding me? What kind of janky ass, tough guy wanna be, downgrade is this? If you missed me so much, pick up the phone and call. You didnât have to settle on some cheap ass, knock off.â
Achara knew him well, and perhaps too well but as of yet, that had not proved to be a bad thing. The two of them got on like a house on fire. In the beginning, it hadnât taken long for Caleb to seek Achara out as if she were prey to him, but somewhere along the way, he didnât use her quite like he did with almost everyone else in his life. The two of them soon became fast friends, bonding over shared interests - a couple of bottles of one thing or another - and good conversation.Â
âIâm working on it,â as he always was, âbut I can still find time for you.â His face held a cheeky grin which was always a playful one around Achara.Â
He raised his drink to his lips, but as he was about to take a sip Caleb paused at the sound of an approaching voice. The grin was quickly replaced by a puzzled, yet concerned frown as he took in the sudden hostility of the approaching man. Then it quickly changed back to an amused look as he chuckles at the supposed insult. The guy had gotten the wrong idea and yet it pleased Caleb to no end to see how aggravated this guy was.
âHey, relax. Why donât you take a seat.â Caleb spoke so casually as he pushed one of the free chairs at the table out with his foot causing the wooden chair leg to scrape along the floor towards the angry guy. âJoin us for a drink. Achara and I were just talking about plans for Valentineâs Day.â Â How far could Caleb go? How much could he press his buttons and antagonise him before he snapped? Caleb bet it wouldnât take much judging by the balled-up fist and anger in his eyes.Â