Usually Neal would complain about an obstruction of his New York view, there were very few sights that he preferred to the one outside of Peter's window and after having been away from it for over a month he had been looking forward to reminiscing. The obstruction this time however, was above it by leaps and bounds. The purple hues of an evening Manhattan melted away into hair the colour of toffee drops that he craved running his fingers through. An hourglass figure hugged by black fabric draped to make her curves look endless and he almost pictured fanning his hands over her hips and pulling her to him.
The silhouette, even in the dim out-of-office lights, was unmistakably Sara Ellis. The woman he had smiled at once as she'd said she would 'see him soon'. The one he'd spent nights thinking about while he was away, with an island paradise at his fingertips he would long to be in his apartment during a thunderstorm with her curled against him. They hadn't been dating for months before he'd left yet her absence only dawned on him once he thought it was too late. He was frozen on the spot trying to think of what to say to her, how to apologize for his departure this time, although he was sure she would forgive him. He smiled at the thought and finally closed the door behind him with a silent click.
The look on her face showed that she had expected to see him, it didn't particularly look as overjoyed as he had hoped, however.
"Neal. You're back." It was a statement, a cold statement that lacked any kind of emotion behind it and suddenly the conman was left two steps behind as he tried to figure out how to react. Reducing his 100watt grin he smiled.
"Sara. Did you miss me?" He asked, a cheeky smile played in his eyes and she smiled back at him, although it seemed sad.
"For a while. Where's Peter?"
Well that stung. He flinched slightly at her change of subject, any trace of a smile gone now, looking disheartened. "Sara, you know why I had to leave, I never wanted to leave y-"
"Don't. I don't want to hear another Caffrey Hallmark card, Neal. Don't make out like we were anything special." She shook her head, her arms were folded defensively and she did her best to stay away from his gaze.
"Nothing spe- Sara, stop it. I never chose this. It's you I've always wanted to be with." He was prepared for her to smile and walk over to him, maybe even for her to shake her head and look away. He hadn't been prepared for her to laugh, the sound was cold and bitter.
"That's not what Maya seemed to think." She didn't sound resentful, any anger in her voice seemed to be aimed at herself. He was about to cut in when she began talking again, walking towards him.
"I got tired of waiting for you, Caffrey. That's what happened here. When I heard you were back I thought maybe, just maybe there was another chance for us. Perhaps we could be that way again but I was wrong, wasn't I? You'd been on that island for less than a month before you had your sights set on another new lover. There's always another with you."
Again, he couldn't find any anger directed at him and he longed for her to change her tone, to yell at him and show some passion but instead her voice stayed quiet, a shell of its normal self, a voice that demanded attention.
"Kate, Alex, Sara, Maya. Let's face it, Neal. I was never a great romance. I was a bump in the road."
She stopped infront of him and smiled, the gesture was overshadowed by the glisten in her eye, tears that he knew she wouldn't spill infront of him. He wanted to tell her how wrong she was, how she'd been the only thing that he could tell was real for a while. That he'd enjoyed the routine he was settling into when he never thought he would. Work with Peter. Home to Sara. It was a pattern that he had been hoping to repeat for years to come but somehow it all seemed to be slipping from his grasp like sand between his fingers.
"I'm tired of waiting for people to decide that I'm good enough to stay for. Goodbye, Caffrey. Treat the next one better." She gave him a ghost of a smile as she kissed his cheek, walked out of the door and his life.