It was strange how much Belle's life had changed within a week. After her talk with Rumald at his house, her life had fallen back into the old routine of working at Grannies during the day, tutoring Albert and Emma in the afternoon and spending her evenings by herself or with the girls, if they were having a night out. She had not seen Rumald. He did not come into Grannies when she was working and she did not go out of her way to find him. If this is what he wanted, Belle could accept it, she did not like it but she could live with it for now.
Daydreaming had become her only way of taking the edge off not seeing him. She played out scenarios where he would burst into Grannies, confess his undying love for her and engulf her into his arm, kissing her with a passion she only read about in her books. The other scenario was he would enter her room, slip into her bed to take her, claiming her again to be his and his alone, and countlessly disturbed her night's sleep. Alternatively, she dreamt about him pulling her to one side, asking her to forgive him for being such an idiot and take him back, because he loved her more than she could ever imagine. The idea of him, doing any of these scenarios any time soon, did not fill her with much hope.
Ruby had tried cheering Belle up by taking her out Friday night to the Rabbit Hole, claiming a night of drinking and dancing would take her mind off any man. The only problem with Ruby's theory was she had never been with a man like Rumald. Everything he said had a meaning behind it. Every action thought out beforehand. A touch or a kiss was heart felt and was not given lightly. When he committed himself to someone, he meant it for life not a one night stand.
Either way, Belle had thrown herself into Ruby's theory, knocking back the shots and drinks her friend had presented her. They had caused quite a stir, when they had taken to the dancefloor, dancing together with a huddle of men around them, who had been desperate to get in on the action. Belle had no care for any of them, as she imagined she was dancing with Rumald, feeling the beat of the music through her body. As her hands had moved over her body, she imagined it was Rumald, dancing behind her as he moved his hands over her and his hips in time with hers. It had left her with a bitter taste in her mouth, when she had opened her eyes to find Ruby and the group of men surrounding her, no Rumald in sight.
Their evening had ended on a high, as the two of them drunkenly sauntered back to Grannies, but silently Belle wanted to go and see Rumald. She wanted to proclaim to him and anyone who would listen, drunk or not, she loved him. Her realisation had dawned when she had read Emma's essay for their Romeo and Juliet assignment. It did not matter that they had only known each other four months and a week of that spent as a couple. Belle loved him. Now, her only regret was she had not told him, when they had been together. A naïve thought, that if she had, maybe he would not have believed her father so easily.
Shivering eerily at the thought of her father, Belle wiped furiously at the diner's counter, cleaning off the crumbs and water marks. She was grateful it was getting late and nobody was in diner, leaving only her and the cooks in the kitchen. There was never much business on a Sunday night, most people were at home watching some debut premiere of a television show or busy with readying themselves for school or work the next day. It was a chance for them to clean and restock the diner ready for Monday morning. So when she heard the blind on the door to Grannies clatter, Belle looked over surprised to see someone entering.
Albert came skulking into the diner and hopped onto a stool at the counter, smiling at Belle as she sauntered over to stand on the other side from him. "Hey Bae!"
"Hey." Albert said with a meek wave.
"What's up?" Belle asked, knowing there was something on his mind.
He leant his elbows onto the counter in front of him. "Emma and me just had an argument."
"Really?" Belle propped herself against the counter, giving him her full attention. "What happened?"
"It's stupid." He shook his head down at the counter.
"Bae, come on, tell me." She persuaded him, coming around the counter to take the stool beside him.
Albert took a deep breath. "She wants to go to this party at Grace Hatter's house. I can't stand Grace."
"And the argument was about…?" Belle trailed off, leaving Albert to fill in the remainder.
"Grace is Emma's best friend." Albert explained. "Emma didn't like the fact that I don't like Grace and started going on about, how I was trying to tell her who to be friends with. I don't care who she's friends with, as long as she's happy. I just don't want to go to Grace's party."
Belle pursed her lips in thought before laying her hand on his shoulder, as she said. "Sometimes, in relationships, you have to do certain things whether you like it or not."
"Like go to this party?" Albert groaned at Belle, using his arm to support his head onto the counter.
"Yep." Belle lightly slapped his shoulder and smiled at him, and then her smile grew wider when Albert smiled back at her. "Hey, do you want a drink or something to eat?"
Albert paused in thought before he said. "Coke."
She hopped off the stool and went behind the counter to get him a glass of coke. As she held the glass under the tap for coke, Belle heard from the kitchen a call of goodnight and looked to the hatch to see both cooks wave at her. When the glass was full, she glanced to the clock above her, placing the drink in front of Albert, and saw it was five to ten at night.
"Dad saw you the other day." Albert blurted out, bringing Belle's attention to him.
"He did?" Belle questioned, trying to figure out when he had seen her.
Albert nodded his head as he drank from his glass and said. "He was having a meeting at the Rabbit Hole and saw you dancing."
"Right…?" Belle raised her eyebrows at Albert, unsure why he was bringing this up.
"We had managed three days without the creep song." He informed her, surrounding his glass with his hands. "Until he came home Friday night. Sheriff Graham was called to our house at three in the morning, to ask dad to turn it off."
"Bae, he doesn't want to talk to me." She told him coming around the counter to retake her stool.
"I know. I'm just telling you." He said and took a sip of his coke.
Belle rolled her eyes at him. "I can't force him to have anything to do with me, Bae. As much as I wish I could, he has to do this on his own."
"I think I might delete that song from his phone." Albert said thinking aloud. "At least then, the neighbours will get to hear another song."
"Don't upset him." She insisted touching his arm.
Albert frowned at her, saying. "Why are you sticking up for him? He's being an ass."
"Simple." Belle said before she thought it through. "I love him."
"Really?" He asked shocked.
Belle giggled at the shock of saying it aloud. "I love your father more than anything."
"You two were only together for a week." Albert's eyebrows pressed together at her statement.
"Who are you to say that a week spent between your father and I, is any less meaningful than two high school sweethearts spending their lifetime together?" Belle questioned him, getting into tutor mode.
"I can't." Albert's face relaxed as he thought about the question she posed to him. "Are you saying you two are Romeo and Juliet?"
Belle laughed. "I hope not! They both die at the end!" She slapped her hand playfully against his arm. "But no, you're making that comparison. Not me."
"I hope he realises soon. I can't take seeing him like this. One minute he's okay, and then the next, I can hear him crying in his room." Albert told her, turning his glass of coke between his hands.
Belle glanced at the clock above the counter and saw it was nearly half ten. "Come on, it's getting late. I'll take you home. Otherwise, your dad will be worrying about you."
Albert twirled round on his stool and got off it, as Belle slipped off her own, saying. "I doubt it. When I left, grandma was giving him an earful."
"Gladius was telling your father off?" Belle questioned, raising her eyebrows as she locked the front door to Grannies.
"Yep." He said with a wide smile. "I rung her and told her he was being an idiot."
Belle rolled her eyes at him, as she bent down to turn off the open light sign. "Bae!"
"He is though!" Albert exclaimed with a chuckle. Shaking her head, Belle wandered off deeper into Grannies and turned into the corridor, which connected the diner and the B&B, flicking off the light switches for the diner to plunge it into darkness. Albert followed behind her silently as she turned things off and locked certain doors. They traipsed upstairs to her room, where she changed out of her uniform in her bathroom, whilst he waited in the main area of her room, moseying through a box of her things she had taken from the flower shop.
Leaving Grannies, Belle drove them over to his house, laughing and joking with Albert about everything and anything. As she drove up their street, Belle could see Rumald bent over by a large car, chatting to whoever was in the back seat of the car. She pulled up along the kerb and put her car into park.
"Looks like grandma is just leaving." Albert said from the passenger seat. The sound of Belle's car must have drew Rumald to look over to them. Seeing the look he gave her, Belle shrunk down behind her steering wheel, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze. Indifferent Albert clambered out of the car and walked over to where Rumald stood, stooping down to talk to Gladius in the back of the car.
After Rumald move his gaze to watch the interaction between Albert and Gladius, Belle unknowingly smiled at seeing Rumald in just his dress shirt and pants. She noticed he had his haircut shorter, his hair naturally spiked itself and his grey was not so prominent. The light stubble beard she had seen last Monday was gone, back to his clean-shaven look. She always found him handsome and attractive, but after not seeing him for so long, Belle wanted to run from her car and take him on the lawn. Sighing her thoughts away, Belle pulled the lever down into drive and pulled away from the kerb, and instructed herself to not look as she drove pass them.