It had been hard for Rumald to drag himself out of bed the next morning, wanting to stay with Belle in his dreams. He had gone to sleep, wondering what could have happened in the car, if he had not caught Gaston spying on them. Most of his night had been spent tossing and turning: dreaming of them kissing, speculating what had happened once they closed the front door, living it over and over again. The one thing he was sure of though, with all of his musings about it, Belle had not been about to pull back from him. Rumald could only think she had wanted it too, desiring to feel his lips upon hers, and that was a killer. Without saying it, Belle had given herself away to him and now it drove him mad, because it was up to her. She had all of the power and he was left wanting her, while she muddled her way through. The only thing, Rumald could hold onto with certainty, was there was a chance for them to be together, picking him over Gaston. It was a long shot, but Rumald always enjoyed favouring the underdog, even better when the underdog was himself.
He was meant to be listening to the Mayor, prattle on about the fun fair on Saturday, urging them to attend and support the sisters in reaching their total. Rumald could not care. They could go homeless for all he cared about them. All Rumald cared about as he sat there listening to them, was knowing whether she would have gone through with the kiss. His hand was in his pocket, rubbing furiously at the bobble in his pocket, but it did nothing to stem his thoughts of Belle. His fear called him a coward as he pondered over, whether she would have returned his kiss or would she have pushed him away. He tried to groan his annoyance out, bursting to know the answer to his question.
"Mr Gold?" The Mayor called his name, bringing Rumald back to the meeting.
"Yes?" He asked sitting up straighter in his chair, gazing round at the other faces at the table.
The Mayor gave him a questioning look. "You were groaning."
"Sorry," Rumald lied to Mayor. "I stubbed my toe under the table."
The other six members around the table stared at him. Rumald was disinterested in their looks, settling back into his chair. The Mayor gained everyone's attention by moving the meeting on, bringing up the subject of the school budget. He wondered why he even attended these meetings, when all they ever did was bore him. The agenda was always the same: discussing civil matters, budgets for this and that, and deciding colour schemes for future holiday events. The only reason, Rumald had gotten himself onto the council, was to have some sway with council officials.
"Are there any other matters to discuss?" The Mayor asked everyone, his hand posed to shut his folder of papers.
There was a unanimous 'no' from everyone occupying the table. "Then we will meet again in two weeks."
Rumald shot up from his chair, grabbing his overcoat from the back of it, and hurried out of the room. He fed his arms into his coat as he walked the corridor and headed down the stairs, pulling his coat up and over his shoulders, tugging at the lapels of his overcoat. Jogging from the last step of the stairs to the entrance of the Town Hall, Rumald pulled the door open and left the Town Hall.
Finally, free, Rumald checked his watch to see it was nearly time for their lesson at the dance studio. The thought of seeing her spurred him to increase his pace, walking back to Main Street to cut down to the dance studio. Reaching inside his overcoat, Rumald pulled out his sunglasses and put them on as he walked. He grinned thinking about her, feeling a spring in his step. There was no use in hiding it. Rumald was well aware of the stupid grin on his face and could not deny it. A peace settled over him, knowing in ten minutes, he would be back in her presence and holding her close as they danced, smelling her sweet perfume.
The corner onto Main Street was insight, so Rumald pushed himself to move quicker, while trying to maintain a walking pace. He gazed over to the library, expecting her to be leaving the library around this time. As he held his gaze on the library's door, Rumald missed seeing the figure hurrying across the road from the direction of his shop, but was well aware of them when they shoved him into the wall beside him. Rumald moaned at the pain in his shoulder, slammed hard into the brick wall.
"What was that about last night?" Gaston interrogated him, grabbing handfuls of Rumald's overcoat to pin him against the wall, holding him firmly in place.
"What was what about?" Rumald played stupid, buying some time to get his bearings.
Gaston tightened his hold on Rumald's overcoat, shoving him again into the wall. "You and Belle! What were you doing?"
"Giving your fiancée a ride home." He answered truthfully, while peering over Gaston's hold on him to see his sunglasses on the ground, one of the lenses was cracked.
"It was more than that!" Gaston lifted Rumald up onto his tiptoes, using Rumald's overcoat as leverage.
"That would be your guilty conscious talking." Rumald squared his attention on Gaston as he said. "Let go of me."
Gaston slammed Rumald into the wall behind him again. "Not until you tell me, what was going on last night!"
Losing his patience, Rumald grabbed a hold of Gaston by his shoulders and kneed the younger man hard into his chest. Instantly, Gaston let go of Rumald and stumbled a step or two backwards, clutching vainly at his chest, gasping for air. Taking a couple of steps away from Gaston, Rumald yanked at the lapels of his overcoat and ran his hands down the front of his coat, chasing away the wrinkles Gaston had made. As he watched Gaston try to gain his breath back, Rumald considered maybe it was his height that had made people think he was an easy target. It had been a frequent thing as he was growing up, getting bullied and attacked by other boys, which was why he was very adept at looking after himself and why Gaston was now winded.
"You stay away from her!" Gaston wheezed pointing his finger at Rumald, trying to stand up straight.
"I don't think so, dearie." Rumald shifted his gaze down to his broken sunglasses.
Gaston took a step towards Rumald with a hand pressed to his chest. "I'm warning you!"
"Warn all you like," Rumald was growing tired of the conversation and began to walk away from Gaston. "I'm not staying away from her."
As he followed the corner of the sidewalk onto Main Street, Rumald pulled back his sleeve to see he was late for their lesson and hurried his pace. He was well aware, as he walked, that Gaston was following him, hearing his feet pound the sidewalk behind him. Rumald growled to himself, annoyed with Gaston for following him. It meant the idiot was coming to the class with him.
Jerking open the door to the dance studio, Rumald entered hastily with Gaston close on his tail and bypassed Mal at the reception desk to head up the stairs to their usual studio. Belle was already in the room, sat on the floor with her book in her hands, eating up the pages of her book whilst she waited. He hated the fact, he had lost an opportunity to adore her from a far, with Gaston bursting into the room close behind him. Gaston shoved Rumald out of the way and stomped his way over to Belle, scaring her from her book to look up at her fiancé now towering over her.
"Look who I found outside." Rumald announced to the room to gain their attention and said to prevent Gaston from taking her away. "Gaston was just saying, he's been looking forward to coming to class today."
"You did?" Belle inquired, gazing up at Gaston from the floor.
"Wha…" Gaston was confused, looking between Rumald and Belle. "I…"
Belle climbed up onto her feet, grabbing Gaston's hand for support, as she said to Gaston. "I knew you'd come round to it."
Now it was Rumald's turn to feel winded, watching Belle tiptoe up to kiss Gaston on the cheek. While Gaston blinked at his confusion, Rumald ripped his overcoat from his shoulders and snatched his arms out of his coat, griping to himself that he should have floored Gaston. Being on the brink of losing his temper, Rumald crossed to the sound system and dumped his coat onto the stool without folding it. He stopped with his back to them, ignoring the lies coming out of Gaston's mouth as he explained how he had felt bad and wanted to come for her. 'Bullshit!', Rumald inwardly shouted at another lie leaving Gaston's mouth.
"You've missed a few dances." Belle explained to Gaston.
"I'm sure you'll be able to show me." Gaston said to her in a smooth tone.
Rumald shook his head as he removed his suit jacket to discard on top of his coat, as Belle said. "I'll show you later."
"Sure, babe." Rumald could hear the sickly grin on Gaston's face as he spoke.
He wanted to yell at the top of his lungs. He wanted to kick the living daylights out of the sound system, throw the stool through the window and destroy anything else he could get his hands on. Rumald's anger hummed through his limbs, itching to be released. His whole body felt ready to explode, taking out everything and everyone who got in his way.
"Mr Gold," Belle placed her hand onto his shoulder, defeating his temper and drawing his attention to her. "Are we finishing the waltz today?"
"Yes." Rumald answered her.
In her eyes, Rumald could see she was disappointed with the fact, Gaston would be joining them. It was strange to see she was disappointed, seeing as Gaston was her fiancé and as she had admitted, she had thought they could do these classes together to have a common interest. Instead, all the dance lessons had done, was ignite something in Rumald's heart, which he had long ago decided to deny himself. Nevertheless, seeing her disappointment, Rumald forcefully grabbed hold of his solace with both hands, telling himself he could get through this evening for her sake.
"We'll go over the steps for Gaston's sake." Rumald stated to the room, while holding Belle's gaze.
"Okay." She smiled at him.
Edging closer to the sound system, Rumald felt the heavy bereavement of losing her touch from his arm. He breathed in deeply to settle himself, sure she would not feed his need for her touch again that evening, and set the waltz playlist to play. Behaving himself and keeping things professional for her, Rumald took Gaston through the steps of the waltz, exchanging dirty looks with Gaston as the lesson progressed. By the end of the two hours, Belle and Gaston were waltzing around the room like they had been dancing all of their lives together. Rumald stood by the mirror glass wall, pretending it was him dancing with Belle. He did notice as they were dancing, she did not seem to smile as much as she had the previous lesson. After finishing the lesson, Rumald bid them goodnight and gave Gaston one last pointed look as the couple left together.
As Rumald put on his suit jacket, he thought about whether all this trouble was worth it. At the end of the day, was she really worth fighting for? He really wanted the answer to be yes. Maybe, it was loneliness after all, driving him to pursue another woman he could never have. Like he had told Belle, you cannot miss something, you never had in the first place. Stewing on that gloomy thought, Rumald collected his overcoat from the stool and put it on, running his hands down the lapels to make sure he was presentable. His chest felt tight as Rumald tried to decide what to do.
His phone vibrated against his chest and rung out disturbing the silence of the dance studio. Reaching into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, Rumald pulled his phone out and smiled seeing his son was calling him.
"Hey, Neal." He greeted beginning to leave the dance studio.
"Hey, dad." Neal returned the warm greeting. "How're things?"
"So, so. You?" Rumald returned the question as he descended the stairs.
"Not too bad. Are you doing anything Saturday?" Neal asked.
Rumald shook his head, whilst he pushed open the entrance door to the dance studio. "Nope."
"Mind if I come home for the weekend?" Rumald smiled at the idea as Neal continued. "We could have some dinner, grab some beers, bitch about mum."
"Sure, son." Rumald grinned crossing the road. "Whatever you want. Just be nice to see you."
He could hear Neal smiling as he spoke. "Great. I'll be there about midday."
"Can't wait." Rumald followed the corner of the sidewalk onto Main Street.
"See you then." Neal said and did not wait for Rumald to say bye, hanging up the phone on his father.
It did not matter to Rumald that his son did not wait for him to say bye, just hearing from him was enough to brighten his mood. He dipped his hand inside his suit jacket, underneath his overcoat, and returned his phone to the inside pocket, looking up in time to see Belle and Gaston further up the sidewalk. She was glancing back over her shoulder, while she was dragged along the path by Gaston. It would have been easy for him to fly into blind fury and demand that Gaston let her go, but… She was not his, she was Gaston's and that was her decision, he told himself ducking his head down from the sight of her.