Chapter 7
The next couple of weeks were extremely busy for Alicia which she was grateful for. As she watched her husband make his statement reaffirming his decision to run as states attorney despite their separation she realised just how far their lives had moved in two weeks. Ironically they had communicated more in these two weeks than they had during the entire time Peter was in prison and after until she had decided they needed to be apart for a while. Peter looked tired but handsome in his charcoal grey suite and deep burgundy tie. She felt his weariness as he answered the same question in a different way for what seemed to be the hundredth time. "Do you not think this separation will affect your credibility"? one reporter shouted. Her husband, ever he professional (well not quite she thought wryly) looked the reporter directly in the eye and said confidently "ill let my work speak for itself whilst I was State Attorney. Though ill miss Alicias support ill not let the people down". That, Alicia was also sure of. Despite his past indiscretions she knew he was damn good at his job. She was interrupted from her thoughts by knocking on her office door. "Hi" she said as she muted the television. Will entered and sat down giving her a small smile. She had told him about the separation a couple of days after it happened, oddly in the lift down to the car park as they both got into their cars. He had tried not to look too thrilled but he was pretty certain Alicia had seen through that straight away. Now, two weeks later he was here to hopefully ask her to drinks or dinner or whatever she wanted.
They watched the muted tv in their own silence for a minute and saw the press conference end with Peter leaving the room. How are you holding up Alicia? She looked at him and smiled widely at him giving him his answer. You know today is the first time in god knows how long that your smile actually reaches your eyes and because of that we going celebrating." "Will no.." "Alicia im not taking no for an answer – c'mon a quick bite and a drink?" She looked at her watch and sighed. She was so used to saying no out of habit that she didn't actually process that actually she wanted to go for dinner and drinks with her friend. "Ok" Lets Go she said picking up her purse.
They sat in a popular sports bar in one of the quieter booths sipping on their beers whilst they waited for their food to come. Will looked more relaxed than she had seen him in a long time. They spoke about work a bit quickly moved on to them reminiscing about their college days both agreeing that the bar they were in was a lot like their university bar just more expensive and less smoky! No matter what had happened between them they could always just pick up their friendship despite all the other stuff. They both understood how special. As they ate their food and sipped on their wine (the mixing of drinks was already affecting Alicia bit) Will changed topics and asked something he had been meaning to ask all night.
The last place Peter wanted to go back to was his lonely hotel room or hotel bar to thrash out some details of his campaign. Tonight he needed to be in a place full of people and have a couple of drinks with his friends. He cancelled his meeting with his aides and called up two of his best friends to meet him at the sports bar.
"How are the kids?" Will asked tentatively. Alicia laughed to Wills amusement. They hate us, rather they hate me she said, the smile that was there had now completely disappeared replaced with a sadness. Will felt like an idiot for bringing up her kids but he wanted to try and figure our how things were at home. He said softly, "they don't hate you, they're just mad." She nodded and took a sip of her wine. "Do you miss him?" he asked. Alicia looked up at him then and answered as honestly as she could " I miss having a family Will". She looked sad again and Will again felt like a jerk. He leaned over and took her hand in his rubbing it slightly and saying "you've come such a long way Alicia, its going to work out you know?" She looked up and then, looking deep in his eyes and knew it would. So engrossed were they in each other that they didn't even notice someone walking up to their table and just as she was going to answer Will they were interrupted by a familiar voice but sarcastic voice "this looks cosy". She looked up to see Peters cold eyes. God how must this look. Will already had the presence of mind to remove his hand from Alicias as Alicia just sat there. "Peter" Alicia said "what are you doing here?" "Just came for some drinks Alicia" he said matter of factly. There was no mistaking the hurt in his voice. "We…we were just catching up after work" Alicia managed though not quite meeting his eyes. Throughout this whole exchange Peter hadn't looked at Will once. He turned his head then to Will, acknowledged him fleetingly by stating his name and then promptly looked back at his wife. He then merely nodded sadly and distractedly at Alicia as if he was having some sort of internal debate and walked back to his table. Will only realised he had been holding his breadth all this time when he finally exhaled.