Title; That Healing Thing
Disclaimer; Nothing in this story belongs to me...
Chapter Three
It was fun to meet Angelina and Oliver again, George couldn't quite remember the last time that he had seen Angelina, but last time he had met Oliver was about three years ago when Percy and Audrey got married. At that day was the first time that George noticed that Percy and Oliver actually were the closest thing to a best friend both had.
George showed up a little bit over half an hour before he was supposed to, figured that maybe he had Alicia would get some alone time together, but that wasn't the case since Oliver pretty much lived there and Angelina had arrived a few hours earlier to help Alicia with the food, George was the last one to arrive.
He had brought a bottle of wine from Rumania his brother Charlie had given him last Christmas; George weren't much of a wine drinker so the bottle had just been sitting there in his kitchen for months. Alicia smiled at the gift and gave him a hug as thanks. "It's very thoughtful of you." She said.
Jamie was happy to see him again, she was even happier to see him when he gave her a chocolate bar of the same brand as he had offered her when they first met. But Alicia quickly took care of it, "Not before dinner." She said.
The eating area was set up in the dining hall of the inn; it was one of the few areas that didn't have any signs that construction was still going on. But the place looked pretty much done; it had a very homey and warm feeling.
"How's Percy?" Oliver asked after the dinner when the two women were in the kitchen to get the dessert ready.
"Oh, he's..." to be honest hadn't he met Percy in a long while, but decided not to divulge that he was trying to avoid his brother as much as he possible could without arising suspicion. "He's good, last time I heard from him."
"That's nice to hear, I figure that he's very busy these days." Oliver answered, shifting in his seat so that he'd sit more comfortably. "Unfortunately I haven't met him since the girls were born."
"Yeah." George responded, it had been about ten months since Percy and his wife became parents to twin girls. That was the reason that George was avoiding him, he couldn't help but to feel a bit... uncomfortable around him.
Although it had been worse for Percy, the day that he was told that it was twins he had been terrified of how George would take the news. That he was going to have twins when he thought that George blamed him for that fact that he didn't have a twin anymore. But when George heard the news he had smiled and pointed out the irony that Percy, who had suffered the most by the hands of Fred and George, was going to have to deal with twins for the rest of his life.
Later that night when he came home he cried, more than he had cried in years, he found it unfair that out of all his brothers Percy would be the one who'd have twins. That there would be another pair of Weasley twins and soon Fred and George would be forgotten and it would only be George. Now, over a year later, he realized that this was how his mother must have felt when Fred and George were born. He also learned how to live with it... almost.
"She's horrible..." Angelina muttered when she came out of the kitchen to them with dessert plates.
"What did she do now?" Oliver asked with a smile on his face. "Don't feel bad that she kicked you out of the kitchen, it happens to everyone."
"Yeah, Oliver also said that my mum is a bossy b..." Jamie started to say but Oliver interrupted her.
"Okay Jamie." He said to her. "I think that we understood what you meant. Don't you also remember what I said about ever repeating that word?"
"What word?" Jamie answered confused, looking up at Oliver with big quizzical eyes.
"Never mind." He muttered in response.
"I'm gonna go into the kitchen and see if I have any better luck." George said and stood up.
"Good luck." Angelina said. "You'll need it."
George smiled for himself and walked over toward the kitchen, when he entered Alicia had her back turned against him.
"I told you Angie, I don't need help." She said when she heard the swing door shut. "Go back out."
"Okey, then I'll walk right out there." George responded and turned around, he hadn't taken ill to what she had said, but instead found it amusing.
"George." Alicia turned around, stopping him from leaving. "You don't need to go. You can stay."
He nodded and walked up to her.
"Okey, just though that I'd see if you need any help." He said to her, standing quite close to her beside the working bench she stood by.
"No, I don't need any help." She muttered without looking up at him, she hadn't not noticed how close to her he stood, but she went back to working on the cake for dessert, all that was needed was the frosting for it, which was practically done, and since Alicia was a bit of the master on making things harder than it should be normally, she applied the frosting on by hand.
One she was done with the frosting she put down the sprits and turned her body more toward him, closer to him, after a few seconds she looked up at him and saw the want in his eyes, the reason that he was right there in front of her. He was much taller than her so she needed to stand up on her toes to even be near his face.
He now stood closer to her, their bodies touched, but their hands remained away from each other. Both of them were nervous as their faces slowly came closer, so much excitement and anticipation laid in the air between them. But at the moment their lips were about to meet the kitchen door opened.
"Mummy." Jamie had appeared. "When we have cake?" She didn't seem to understand what she had just walked in on.
Alicia and George had taken distance from each other when they heard Jamie. Alicia smiled at her daughter while George looked away. "Right now, I'm just done."
Jamie nodded and walked back out of the kitchen.
"So um..." George started, not so sure on what to say.
"Um... What?" Alicia asked but she didn't look up at him; she was cleaning up on the working bench. "Look," She turned around toward him, looking him in the eyes. "I think it's for the best that this... us... didn't happen."
George wasn't surprised to hear this, deep down he knew that if him and Alicia happened, it would be too good to be true and good things didn't happen to him anymore.
The rest of the evening continued less pleasant than before. All he could think about was that Alicia didn't respond to his feelings, but he tried his hardest to make sure that nobody would notice his change of mood. What bothered him the most was that Alicia seemed fine, perhaps now even happier than before. Maybe it was for the best that it didn't happen.
He didn't want to seem impolite by being the first one to leave, but after a while he just didn't care at all, he couldn't stand being close to her when he knew that she didn't want to be close to him.
He excused himself by saying that it was late and he needed to get up early tomorrow for work. And of course they understood and George was free to leave. He thinks that at least Angelina had noticed that something had happened between George and Alicia, or that almost something had happened, but she didn't say anything about it.
Summer still lay in the air over Diagonally when he appeared; instead of going home he headed to a bar not so far away from where he lived. He knew who he'd find there, he'd find one of the only few people who'd be more than willing to help him forget the evening, at least for a while.
Her name was Cassie, he didn't know her last name, maybe she had told him at one point but he couldn't remember now. Their relationship was nothing more than sexual. Maybe she was still in this because she wanted something more than this, but he didn't really care.
It was easy to get her to his place; it had taken nothing more than him asking what she's doing tonight. This thing between the two of them hadn't gone on for longer than a few months, they hadn't known each other that well before this 'thing' started, and he preferred if they didn't know each other. It made things easier if there were no emotions involved.
The girl before Cassie was named Lisa, he really hadn't know anything at all about her because one day out of the blue she had ended their 'thing' by telling him that she was getting married.
They hadn't wasted anytime when they came over to his place; neither did they waste any time going to the bedroom. They hadn't spent any longer than a few minutes at his place when George faced the unpleasant need to get away from the half-naked woman in front of him to open the door because some idiot had decided to ruin his night further by coming and bother him.
Frustrated he tore himself away from the half-naked woman sitting on his table to open the door, he didn't bother to put a shirt on which was something he would come to regret.
"What?" He asked in a rude tone when he opened the door.
It was Alicia.
"Hi." He changed his tone and started to wish that he had put his shirt on.
"Hi, I know it's late." She said, trying hard not to look at him. it had been so long since she had been close to anyone that she was afraid she wouldn't be able to say what she needed to say if she kept looking at anything but his face. "I just didn't want to leave things the way they were with you, it's not like I wouldn't want to, I just..." she stopped talking once her view into the flat and realized that he wasn't alone. "I should have known." She muttered low to herself.
"Alicia, it's not what you think." George answered her; he couldn't believe that he had screwed this up again.
"George. You don't need to explain. I shouldn't have come here, it was a mistake." Alicia said and turned around to leave.
"Alicia!" He called out to her and closed the door behind him; he didn't care if he had to run out on the street after her in only his pants, he needed to talk to her.
Luckily for his she stopped when he called out to her, but she didn't turn around.
He just stood there, not sure of what to say. There was so much that he wanted to tell her, but he couldn't find the right words.
"I should have known." She said when she turned around. "You did say 'alcohol and special female friends' and you probably don't want to be with 'me', you want to be with the girl you knew in school and I'll never be her again."
George saw the hurt look on her face, he didn't know if she said these things to convince herself or him that things were this way and wouldn't change. What he knew was that she paused to give him the chance to say something, but when he still hadn't said a word she continued.
"Besides, I can't just give in to something because it's what I want; I have to think about Jamie and what's good for her and the person you've become is not the kind I want my daughter to be around."
She still stood there when she finished talking, but as he still hadn't said anything she gave him one last look before she left.
He didn't chase after her and made her promises that he'd change and become a better man if she just stayed with him, he didn't do this because he knew that those promises would be hollow and empty. He didn't know if he could change the man he'd become.
When he came back into the flat he saw that Cassie had dressed herself, she had probably heard the whole conversation through the half closed door.
"I'm sorry about that." He didn't know why he felt the need to apologize.
"You know..." Cassie said. "A girl knows when the guy is looking into her eyes but doesn't really see her."
"I'm sorry." He whispered another apology, and again he didn't know why.
They both stood there silent for a few seconds. Neither of them saying anything or even looking at each other.
"I'm gonna go now." She said. "And I think that it would be best for the both of us if we don't see each other again."
And with that she walked out, leaving George completely alone... again. At that moment it hit him that this is how he might have to spend the rest of his life. Alone and miserable.
Authors Note; I'm not going to ask you to review because according to my statistics, barely one percent of those who read this do and thirty-three percent only put up as an alert... You see my logic? And soon perhaps you will see my lack of interest...