Alicia spent the next week in a hazy fog of self-protection. She barely spoke to anyone – only Kalinda, Diane, and Courtney at the office, Peter and the kids otherwise. She'd avoided Peter as much as possible; he was pushing her to let him come home since "that infatuation with Will has passed."
Unfortunately, Alicia's feelings for Will were much more substantial than adolescent infatuation. A hundred times in the last week, she'd caught herself, phone in hand, ready to call him. Deep down, she knew she should exercise great caution, but waiting for Kalinda to find out the truth was killing her.
To make matters worse, she saw Will several times a day at the office. Diane had stepped in, reassigning Alicia to cases Will wasn't involved in, so they weren't working together, but Will made it a point to pass by her office as often as possible. Every time, Alicia's hands itched to touch him, to soothe away the broken, defeated look in his eyes. Even now, two hours after leaving work, she still had nail prints on her palms from clenching her fists in resistance of his tugs at her soul.
The doorbell rang, but Alicia took a moment to drain the final swallow from her wine glass. She was momentarily shocked to realize she'd nearly finished the bottle before she weaved toward the door. A delivery boy handed her an enormous bouquet of red roses, along with a smaller basket filled with stargazer lilies and pink tulips.
"Guess you've got your share of admirers already," flirted the boy as he handed over the flowers but Alicia paid no attention. She knew without reading the card that the roses were from Peter – he was great at the ostentations gestures; it was the little things he'd never been much good at. But that basket…
She'd received an identical basket the day she graduated from Georgetown. The card had read simply "All my best" but had been unsigned. At the time, she'd just assumed they were from Peter, but when she learned differently, days later, she'd had no other suspects.
Had it been Will? He'd never been the type to send flowers, but then again, his relationship with her had always been quite different from his with any other girl.
The roses dropped onto a side table, forgotten, as Alicia dug for the card in the basket. After three tries, her drunken fingers finally succeeded.
"A,
I'm so sorry to have put you through all this. I just hope one day you'll be able to forgive me.
Always,
Will"
Alicia smiled for just a moment through a fresh onslaught of tears. Will had always teased her for her somewhat unorthodox closing, but 'always' had suited her quite well.
She placed the basket on her coffee table and stole glances at the flowers for the rest of the night. She wanted so desperately to forgive Will, but after having been so publicly betrayed and humiliated by her husband, she knew she needed the truth about Will's involvement in the scandal. Otherwise, she'd never fully trust him, and she knew that was no way to maintain a romance or any other type of relationship.
Across town, Will continued to find reasons not to go home. He'd only been there twice since the incident with Peter, but without Alicia there, it no longer seemed like home. He felt her picture mocking him, swore he could still smell her perfume in his living room.
He'd done everything he could think of to make things right again, but Kalinda continued to maintain a wall between him and Alicia. She'd told him in no uncertain terms that she would continue to interfere until she found out the truth – but she wasn't taking Will's word for it.
So, like he'd done for most of the last fifteen years, he buried himself in his work. He slept very little – nightmares haunted by Alicia's heartbroken eyes stalked his every rest. He had even managed to resist calling Alicia, but after a week of being kept from her, he ached to apologize. He couldn't call - Kalinda would kill him if she found out – and email was too impersonal. But flowers… So Will had sent Alicia the basket, hoping his words on the card said enough for now.
