A little romance...

Disclaimer- I own zilch

Facing the Rain

The rain rattled against the glass making her shiver as she cast her eyes over the cold and the clouds that seemed to fall across San Francisco in a wintery haze. People were rushing about the streets their umbrellas held high- he stood out like a sore thumb strolling amongst the crowds drenched through. His blonde hair was dulled by the lack of sun, his suit had turned from a dark grey to black but still the smile crossing his lips didn't seem to fade. She found herself captivated by him as watched the skies with a look that seemed to say 'I know'.

He was dazzling. He was different. He was a shooting star amongst an empty night sky. And without wanting to she found herself thinking that she could love this man. He could be anyone she wanted him to be. He could be a poet looking for a muse, a historian with nothing but books for company or he could be just like her- another broken heart. She could picture an ending different to the one she was escaping, to the very man she was running away from. Gil- his name was across the screen the phone in her hand- the number of calls attempting to save the crumbling relationship they had built. But she didn't care for reality; not any more at least.

The man on the street had disappeared out of sight but still the small sense of recovery seemed to burn through her blood. Carefully unfolding the corner of her book - 'Jane Eyre' – a battered old copy she had been given for her twelfth birthday, the story she had always turned to for comfort. Maybe, like Jane, after all of these years she would find the place that she needed to be. As she cast her eyes over the city that surrounded her once more she realised that she would not miss it- she had simply just been drifting there. All of her life she had lived like a ghost and it was strange how the one time that someone wanted her to stay, the one time someone would be sad to go she couldn't wait to disappear. She wanted to start again.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" He stood before her with a nervous smile and a raspy voice; it took her a few moments to process his features, all 6" feet of him. Their dark eyes met and a small amount of remembrance seemed to linger in the atmosphere. She gave a small nod turning her attention back to her book not wanting to think of the number of years that had passed since they had last seen each other. "You haven't changed at all Sara" He muttered as he sat down besides her folding his newspaper, the water dripping onto the floor, the headline almost unreadable as the ink pleaded on the drenched page. She gave a laugh, shaking her head as she attempted to respond to his presence in a way that could have been deemed acceptable.

"You have" Sara replied her brown eyes studying him with an analytical gaze that made shiver; not that he would ever confess to such a fact. It had been seven years and still she seemed to steal the breath from his lungs and leave him feeling speechless. "You look good Greg" It wasn't a lie. She couldn't deny that he had gotten better looking as he'd gotten older. He's become more charming. More suave. Just more...

"Yes...soaked to my socks- it is a look I often go for" He shrugged, pressing his lips together, a frown furrowing his brow as he kept his eyes focused on his unreadable newspaper. She had always loved his offhand sense of humour. She'd loved a lot of things about him, most of which seemed to come flooding back to her in that very moment. He had a box of cigarettes tucked into his pocket like always, his tie loosened thankful for the end of a long day, the watch she had given him for his thirtieth birthday wrapped around his wrist. It was the small details that made Greg Sanders; the tone of his eyes, the line of his jaw, the husky low voice in which he spoke.

"So where have you been for the past seven years then Sara?" He threw a smirk her away and she found herself lapping up all the attention that he was giving. Taking the newspaper out of his hand she dropped it to the ground, turning to face him as if to prepare for the tales she was about to tell. It had been a long seven years. Many things had happened but still she found herself stuck to only one sentence.

"I got divorced" Sara told him as if it were just another thing that you did. But in a strange way it was. They had lived in Las Vegas had they not? "What have you been doing?"

"The same old" Greg gave a shrug. Wasn't it strange how they both had gone down in flames? How after all of the years of searching for happiness they had found themselves stuck at the very point in which they had started. It was a lonely square one. But neither of them could deny they had become familiar with it. They knew the sense of emptiness, longing and belief that there was something more to their existences than the fulfilling the simple role of strangers on the street. They were just people with stories with no one to tell them to.

"Tell me a story..." She asked as if it were a common request. His eyes turned to her with a shake of the head he pressed his lips together. "Okay... I'll tell you a story... I wore my heart on my sleeve for too long and it took me over twelve years to realise it had been in the hands of someone else along... and not only that but it had been broken for far too long. So I packed my bags and decided that I could live without a heart. Mind over matter"

"That's a sad story" Greg muttered attempting to figure out where all of this would go- where they were going. She pulled the lighter from her pocket flicking it open and closing it enjoying the clicking sound. It had been so long since she'd had her last cigarette. She could remember it with all of its fine detail as if it were a precious moment; the sickly taste of red wine, the smell of summer, the feeling of grass between her toe as she stood looking out into oblivion.

"It's a true story" Sara responded watching as the road and the train passed them by outside the window. He took her hand in his own. The feel of his ice cold skin surroundings hers but still it seemed to more than anything had done in the past seven years.

"I waited for seven years for this girl to come back... I'd been in love with her from the moment I met her... It was as if everything had fallen into place, she had me at hello, but she was in love with someone else so she walked away. But I never gave up... I'd always knew that one day she would come back... or it would be fate" He whispered to her, the words meaning so much more when kept between the two of them. Their eyes met for a moment and they were like stars colliding- everything seemed to slow, to still as their foundations were disappearing.

"Where is she now?" Sara asked tracing patterns on the back of his hand.

"She's where she should have always been...She's next to me" Greg pressed a kiss against her forehead as she rested her head against his shoulder.

"I missed you..." Sara confessed. It had been far too long.

"But isn't that the best part about being apart..." He smiled as he watching the other passengers on the bus wondering where they were heading- what stories they had to tell. "I feel like I know you better now than I did seven years ago... I know your favourite place to smoke, the exact way you like your coffee, how much I love the sound of your laugh..."

"You should have forgotten me" She looked up to meet his eye, her voice low as the truth seemed to present itself like cold air between them. Greg shook his head with a smile that seemed to say so many things at once.

"No" He tucked her hair behind her ear. "How can you forget your soul mate?"

"I know that you wear that ridiculous Paco Rabanne aftershave, that blue's your favourite colour, that you only drink tea on Sunday's..." Sara told him- she hadn't forgotten him- she had far from forgotten him. He had always been her rock. He had always been the one to save her and over the past seven years she had needed saving so many times.

It felt like moment but it had been hours; they had sat in silence beside each other as small sense of content had made itself known. The bus slowed the world stopping outside as they made a pit stop to recover. The sun had cleared the skies above them the heat rising from the ground up, quivering in the horizon.

"Let's disappear" Sara turned to Greg. They looked out at the town they had stopped at. It was a town without a name but it didn't matter. He didn't say a word pulling himself to his feet offering her his hand. They stepped out into the light with their suitcases as their sides; their lives left behind. All of that didn't matter- not for the next few hours at least.

They had breakfast at a cafe; they were strangers in the corner hiding from the rest of the world. They weren't going to be caught out. Not just yet. They made love in a low key hotel as if they were two lovers with nowhere to go. They stayed wrapped up in each other's arms as their heat beats told them not to let go. The smell of their sex heavy in the air and the weight of the feeling of disappoint knowing that this was coming to an end. They shared cigarette watching as the smoke gathered like clouds a storm forming above their heads. It was a cigarette she would remember.

"Don't go" He asked her as they stood at the bus stop once again their suitcases as their sides.

"I have to" She shook her head.

"Where..." Greg asked wanting more than anything to know that these past seven years waiting haven't been completely wasted. Sara took his hand in her own, and stepped closer to him; their bodies brushing in the dim lighting but her eyes were as bright as the moon above them. She whispered in his ear, the words as delicate as the breeze that passed them by.

"I'm coming home..."

The End