Merlin and Sliding Doors don't belong to me.
I just love the film Sliding Doors and decided to Merlinise it. So enjoy.
The real life will be in normal writing while the what if is in italics.
When Two Paths Meet
Gwen groaned when she looked at the clock, she threw off the covers and run to the bathroom. It was 8.30 and she was late for work.
Jerry watched her rush around the flat and almost felt sorry for her, she was really trying and it wasn't her fault that he no longer loved her, although to be fair he doubted he ever had. Jerry was a user and lazy into the bargain. When they had met a year ago, he had been drawn her because she was beautiful and more than willing to take of him. it didn't bother her that he didn't work, that the bestseller he was writing wasn't getting done – he hadn't written a word in months, and she was willing to wait until they were married to consummate their relationship, in spite of the fact they now lived together – he had had to give up his flat when he couldn't make the rent.
In short, Jerry had it made.
000
Gwen entered the office and made her way to the boardroom where the meeting was being held. Management as she called the five men who run the advertising agency, was watching her and not for the first time Gwen felt as though she was missing something. Something major.
Henry, the head honcho opened the liquor cabinet and asked her, "did you drink the last bottle of Champagne?"
"Yes," Gwen replied, opening a box she had brought with her and showing him three bottles, "it was my birthday on Friday and we drunk the bottle but I brought these to replace it."
The silence that followed her words was deafening.
"So I'm out, am I?" she asked, she had attended many such meetings to know what the silence meant.
"You stole from us," Henry told her.
"I took a bottle of Champagne and I am replacing it," Gwen said.
"I had some important clients here on Friday night," Henry said, "and I was embarrassed when I had nothing to give them."
Gwen looked at the rest of the men on the board but none came to her rescue yet she knew for a fact that they had all been guilty of taking a bottle or two from the liquor cabinet and sometimes they hadn't even replaced them.
She had lost her job. What else could go wrong?
000
A little girl was playing on the stairs and by the time Gwen was able to go around her, the train had gone. The voice on the PA announced that there was a problem at Victoria and that the next train would be delayed for an hour. Of course, Gwen thought to herself, why would the trains be working when she needed them? She walked back up to get a taxi.
000
Gwen walked slowly to the underground. She couldn't believe that she had lost her job; after working so hard she was being let go for theft. It was ludicrous.
A little girl was playing on the stairs; when the girl's mother saw Gwen she pulled the daughter out of the way and Gwen was about to make it into the train in the nick of time.
"Hi," the man seated next to her in the tube said to her.
Gwen ignored him but the man insisted on talking to her. "Have we met somewhere before, you look so familiar." She couldn't believe his nerve, here she was on the worst day of her life and some random – albeit good looking guy – was trying to pick her up.
"We met just now, in the lift," the man said. Gwen looked up from the book she had opened and realized that she had seen him in the lift. He had picked up her earring when it had fallen in the lift.
"You picked my earring," Gwen said, "thank you."
"So do you work there?" The man clearly wasn't going to keep his lovely mouth shut.
"I did do," she replied. "I was just given the sack."
"I'm so sorry," the man was very apologetic.
"It's okay," Gwen told him, "it's not as if you did it."
Finally silence, Gwen thought to herself when her neighbor didn't say a word for the next few minutes.
"Sorry," he said to her, "I'm going off at the next stop and I don't know if you are too, but in case you get off before I do I don't want you to think that I'm following you."
Gwen was surprised at his sensitivity and ashamed of having been very short with him so when the train stopped, at her stop as well, she hurried after him.
"I'm sorry I was rude just then," she told him, "my name's Gwen."
"Arthur," he replied. "So where are you off to then, seeing as you have no job?"
"I'm going home," Gwen confided, "I live with someone."
"Okay then," Arthur smiled at her, "see you around."
000
Gwen walked to the taxi stand and waited for the taxi to draw up. A young man dressed all in black came towards her and tried to grab her purse. In the struggle to keep her purse, Gwen was thrown to the ground and the young man stepped all over her. The taxi driver helped her to her feet, the little punk hadn't been able to take her purse, and drove her to the hospital.
An hour later, Gwen was released and she went home. Jerry was in the bathroom and when he saw her, he couldn't believe what had happened to her.
"Why didn't you call me?" he asked her.
"I did," Gwen replied, "but I couldn't go through."
"I guess my battery's dead," Jerry replied, thinking how lucky it was that he had remembered to switch off his phone. Vivian would have been mad if it had rung while she was here.
000
Gwen opened the door to the flat and was bombarded by the sound of Rihanna's Disturbia. If she wasn't sure that she was at her flat she would have walked out again. Gwen really liked Rihanna but Jerry couldn't stand her music.
"Jerry," she called out. "Jerry?" There was no answer.
Gwen walked into the bedroom and found Jerry in bed with a woman. Gwen wanted to scream but instead the words that came out of her mouth were, "who is she?"
"Vivian," the woman answered.
"Would you like a cup of tea?" Gwen asked before picking up the lamp and throwing it at them.
She needed to get out of there.
000
What do you think?
