Detective Inspector Robbie Lewis entered his flat that evening and slammed the door behind him, the action removing only a slight bit of the anger he had built up inside. Anger was only one of the emotions he had felt over the last few hours. Since Laura had told him about her date with Franco, and he had found out that James knew and had kept it from him, he had felt upset, angry, hurt, betrayed and much more besides.
The pain in his chest, in his heart to be precise, had worsened as the day went on and now was threatening to stop him breathing. He poured himself a glass of single malt and taking the bottle with him, threw himself back onto the sofa. Why did it hurt so much? He knew the answer of course but chose not to admit it to himself. But why did she do it? Didn't she love him enough not to want to see him hurt like this again? He had hoped that she did, that she always would, even though he could never risk loving her back because of the hurt it would inevitably bring.
When he heard the phone ring, he realised that he had consumed a good few glasses of drink and to his surprise found that it was only just gone 7.00pm. "Lewis" he slurred. "Dad" came the concerned voice on the other end of the telephone, "are you alright, you sound strange." Robbie tried to shake himself a bit before replying. "Fine pet, just had a long day that's all. How are things with you?" His daughter chatted for a bit, filling him in on what her little family had been doing over recent days and he listened the best he could, making the appropriate noises in response to what she was saying. "Anyway, what about you, Dad? I called to see how you are and what you had been doing. How is work? How is James? And what about Laura?" The final question, the mention of her name, snapped Robbie out of his 'pretend composed and sober fatherly state' and for the first time in a long time Robbie's daughter heard him sobbing quietly into the telephone. "Oh Dad, what is it? What's happened? Tell me." Suddenly Robbie had the urge to tell his daughter everything and so for the next hour he poured his heart out.
Lyn Lewis had given her father three pieces of advice which he had promised her he would act on the minute he ended the telephone call, the first of those being black coffee! When did she start being the parent in this relationship Robbie wondered? As he drank the thick, black liquid he thought back to all the advice he had given his only daughter and the advice he had failed to give her. Still, she had turned out just fine without his missing advice, in fact more than fine he would say. Her second piece of advice was a good shower and as Robbie stood under the cool water, he let some of the stresses of the day wash away too. Spending far too long in the shower, he realised that he was just putting off his daughter's third suggestion; deliberately trying to wriggle out of what he knew needed to be done. Yet he had promised Lyn, all three would be done and he knew that she would be calling him tomorrow to check. He turned off the water, wrapped himself in a towel and walked off to get dressed.
Robbie dialled the number slowly, the pain that had existed in his chest being replaced by butterflies fluttering madly. The sound of her voice as she answered the call made his breath catch in his throat. "Urhh, Laura it's me, Robbie" he said, cursing himself for babbling in an inarticulate fashion. This was not a good start. "Umm, are you busy? Right now I mean. Would you be able to call round? I need to talk to you and it's quite important. I would come to you, it's just I've had a drink and..." Pausing, as he realised yet again that he was babbling, Robbie waited for a response. "Yes, ok Robbie, just give me a few minutes to get myself together and I'll be there" she replied with an air of anxiousness and curiosity in her voice. Robbie hung up the phone and breathed, was that the hard bit or is that yet to come he wondered.
He had paced the room several times over by the time the doorbell rang and he opened it to come face to face with the beaming smile of the woman who had caused him so much anguish over the last twelve hours. He smiled back nervously and invited her in, quickly offering her a glass of wine which she happily accepted. He chose a glass of water for himself, deciding that he still had enough alcohol inside him for one night. Joining Laura back in the lounge, he sat at one end of the sofa turning to face her as she sat at the other. "What's this about Robbie?" Laura asked, nervously sipping on her wine as if some part of her didn't want him to answer that question. "It's about...well... it's about..." Robbie exhaled deeply and could hear his daughter's words in his head. "It's about the fact that I'm in love with you, I have been for a long time, I can't bear the thought of you being with anyone else, I've felt sick all day at the thought of you and him last night and even if you don't feel the same about me I need to have told you." Robbie hadn't paused for breath once during his speech and the butterflies inside him were now a thousand times worse as he waited for her reply for what seemed like an age. Her eyes looked at him and were wider than he had ever seen them, she looked frozen with shock but what he couldn't tell was whether it was good shock or bad shock. "Laura, please say something I..." She cut him off mid-sentence. "I'm sorry Robbie, it's just a bit of a shock to hear you say those things after all this time, I guess I just never expected...never thought..." Now it was her turn to struggle with her words. "Yeh, well like I said what you did last night was enough to bring me to my senses, that and an hour of counselling with our Lyn. I explained to her that my heart hurt so much that I could hardly breath and she told me that if I didn't say all this to you soon, then I was going to have to get used to living with that pain." Laura leaned over and touched his cheek gently with her hand. "Robbie" she began softly, "last night, my date, any date, they never compare to when I'm with you, how I feel, how you make me feel." He looked into her eyes, beginning to let himself hope that this could be good. "I have waited so long to hear you say what you have said tonight, or even a tiny bit of what you've said tonight. People have told me that I'm crazy, to keep waiting, to keep hoping. I have let people's advice lead me to pointless dates with pointless men who were never going to be right because they weren't you. I have only ever loved you and I have always known, deep down, that if I couldn't have you then alone I would stay. I'm sorry that I hurt you today Robbie, but you see I was hurting too, hurting because night's like last night always just left me reminded how much I wanted you and how I couldn't have you." He put his hand on her cheek and moved it up into her hair, stroking her lovingly. "And now, can we now stop hurting each other and try to make up for all of that by being together?" he asked quietly, holding her gaze. Laura didn't answer; she just moved her mouth towards his and kissed him passionately, wrapping her arms around him tightly. "Shall we go to bed?" she asked, minutes later when they finally broke apart. "I'd like that very much." he replied, grinning happily at her and taking her hand to lead her out of the room.
Six months later, Robbie had met his daughter in a busy shopping street and the two were gazing into a shop window discussing which would be the right purchase for Robbie to make. "Dad, I am telling you, go with the first one you chose, it's perfect and you liked it straight away. She'll love it and there's no way she is going to turn you down when she sees it, not that she is going to hesitate over her answer anyway! Go in and buy the ring, has my advice ever let you down before?" Robbie smiled and turned to head into the shop, his daughter was right, her advice had never let him down, quite the opposite in fact, and he would always be grateful to her for it.
Reviews for this would be lovely, not sure I have got the characters quite right!