#fadingfronticr

The blind date with the guy had gone really great to her standards but after a couple of days she hadn’t heard back from him and she hadn’t really texted them either. She’d blame the vet being opened for long hours, the new students needing too much oversight, the delivery truck being late and ten million other things but the truth was she was rusty and was used to be alone. It was easier to keep people at arm’s length and somehow during that date she had talked about her brother. She didn’t talk about her brother, not to strangers. She had stopped short of telling this guy about those dark days when they were kids but thankfully she hadn’t gotten that far. 

It scared her in a way, feeling so comfortable around someone she barely knew and was thankful that the dude hadn’t been interested in her enough to text her back. It was safer that way, wasn’t it? 

          “Hope you made room for me, it’s a two hour flight and I’m not the quiet type,” she warned as she made it through the nearly empty seats around them. In her hands were glasses and those tiny little liquor bottles she grabbed from the private stewardess, notably giving her a wink as she left, a cute one for sure, but the one she was going to was that brand of gorgeous that you claw over a dozen cute stewardesses for. One she had snuck over to New York for at the other’s latest show to appeal to her personally. Not that she expected Isabel to turn down the request of Scotland’s Princess, but she had wanted an excuse to get away from her mother’s nagging and to make sure she’d have her favorite designer under contract. As her Queen Mum kept telling her, there was the ball coming up and all eyes would be on Faye. She needed a good centerpiece around her neck for everyone to talk about for ages, and that’s where Isabel came into play.

          The woman was talented, the envy of all her friends, so to wear one of her pieces and to do so exclusively would have been a huge get. Something to brag about for ages and would make the other royals and alike green with envy. Didn’t hurt that the designer in question was, as established over, gorgeous. As soon as Faye saw the head of raven dark hair, she smiled, reaching toward her seat and sitting right by her. “Wish we could’ve sneaked an actual bottle of whisky, but,” she said placing the glasses down and opening the first of the tiny bottles, “Beggars can’t be choosers, though I rarely beg at all.” The smile still remaining as she poured into the glass, enough for one bottle each, sighing as she kicked back in her seats and took her first drink. “Not bad for miniature... Plenty more where that came from.”

Kara had known what they were doing was wrong from the very beginning, and she had tried so very hard to resist the enchanting pull of being with Cole. They had even insisted one more than one occasion that it couldn’t happen again, but nonetheless, they would find themselves back in each other’s arms not long after. Cole was an incredible man; kind, humble, funny... He was everything she longed for. It just so happened that he was already taken. But so far, they had managed to get away with their ‘friendly’ catch ups, with him coming to the ranch to paint just as they had in their earliest days of knowing one another before the fateful first kiss. 

But this time, things were different. 

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Aaron replied with a soft yet small smile accompanying his features, as he took off his coat and hanged it in the rack by the door. He was understanding, or so he liked to believe, and even though he had noticed Bea’s attitude throughout the night, he had chosen not to comment on it until she was ready or unless she wanted to bring that up. He was well aware he wasn’t one to share everything inside his head. “I get that.” a beat, as his eyes searched for hers. “I do,” he repeated, offering her yet another soft smile.

“Is everything alright, though? Anything you want to talk about?” he tried, walking towards the kitchen as he pointed with his fingers towards the couch, to invite her to sit down. “Take a seat. Do you want to, uh, drink some more?” he chuckled, a rapid count of their wine consume throughout dinner came into his mind. “Or maybe just some water?”

Bea pursed her lips as Aaron replied with such gracious empathy that made it all the more difficult to process her feelings. They had been having fun this whole time, much more than just fun and that’s what she had to dwell on. She hated the conversation but defining what exactly was happening between them would perhaps settle her at least a little.

“How about both?” She suggested at his offer. She could have done with drinking more water, but she definitely need more alcohol too. Shrugging her own jacket off, she hung it up with her handbag before taking a seat on her usual spot there before kicking her heels off and pulling her knees up to her chest. “So firstly I just need you to know you’ve done nothing wrong - in fact you’ve done everything right so far and that’s...I guess...what scares me a little.”