"He needs to get married and I've said I might do it."
"You what?!" Lee was shocked, not only was Lucy considering throwing her life away, but if she was married he'd have no chance of ever being with her as a couple, and that saddened him.
"Lee, did you not hear what I said? He's going to be deported! And he's had such a tough life already."
"But you hardly know him! He's got nothing to do with us!"
"Why do you care anyway? It's my life!" Lucy shouted back. Lee paused for a moment and looked away, unable to think of a valid reason other than 'because I'm in love with you and I don't want to lose you'. "Exactly! The only thing you're worried about is not having somewhere to live where all the housework and cooking is done for you," Lucy said when Lee didn't respond.
"I just don't want to see you throwing your life away like that, you deserve better," Lee sighed, upset that Lucy always thought the worst of him.
Lucy was confused by his sudden change in mood. It made her feel guilty because she'd shouted at him, but she was still annoyed by his reaction, and this frustrated her. "When did do start caring about what I do with my life?" she asked, sounding irritated.
Lee shrugged. He wasn't going to tell her the real reason but he had to think of something to say because he didn't want to give up on stopping her getting married. He turned back round so he was facing her again. She looked quite annoyed as she stared at him expectantly, but she was still beautiful. They were standing quite close and it took everything for Lee to not reach forward and kiss her. "Well, you my landlady aren't you?" he mumbled.
"So…" Lucy was really confused. She'd also noticed that the distance between them was probably closer than it should be for your average conversation, but for some reason she found herself unable to move back.
"And, we live together…and you're my best friend's sister…surely I'm allowed to care about you," Lee said in a quiet voice.
Lucy didn't quite know how she was supposed to respond and so she just continued to stare at him, her expression softening. It was very unlike Lee to say something like that. Her feelings were now very confused because she thought she should still feel angry but Lee's behaviour was stirring up new, different feelings.
Lee, on the other hand, stood still, getting lost in the way she gazed at him with no intention of moving. All he wanted to do was reach down and kiss her but he knew this was definitely not a good time.
After a moment Lucy realised that they'd been staring into each other's eyes for a strangely long period of time. Panicking, she looked down, mumbling sometime about how she hadn't made any definite decisions yet, but she wasn't going to be influenced by anyone else. She glanced back up at Lee, who, still in a daze, slowly nodded at her, before she walked away to her bedroom.
Lee watched after her, aware that he could still smell the sent of her perfume drifting away. He sighed as he thought about what Lucy was considering doing. He was going to do everything he could to stop her, and thinking of his first plan, he went to pick up the phone…
