Chapter 27

The taxi stopped at Old Compton Street in Soho. Archie had never visited Soho before although he had heard from passing conversations in the Ardley offices about it being quite the popular nightlife spot in London. A melting pot of cultures, with immigrants from earth's four corners, as it was expected Soho was very much alive with everything those cultures brought to the place. Music, dance, food, a cornucopia of sounds, moves, flavours and tastes, there was something for everyone here and everyone was accepted. The street was buzzing, even if the time was getting close to midnight.

They came out of the car. He stood on the pavement, looking hesitant to move and looked at her opening her bag, looking for her keys, while the taxi sped off. She lifted her head up, and met up with the questions in his stare.

"Come on", she said, prompting him to follow her.

Three doors down the road, she stopped. Put the keys on the door and opened it. A dark staircase stood right at the entrance, leading to an even darker room upstairs. She flicked a switch on the tiny hallway corridor. A couple of wall lights were switched on.

The sound of her heels echoed after her light tread on the wooden stairs. She turned her head back. Bewilderment was all across Archie's face who stood frozen at the bottom of the stairs, the door behind him still open. His previous spur across the dance floor, his sheer determination to make her acknowledge him, had given its place to a stream of questions which looked like they had no end as the time was getting by. With her every move, more would be born inside his mind.

"Close the door and come up Archie...", her words came out almost as an order to him and he followed them exactly so, thinking that the answers would have to come sooner rather than later. Or he would go crazy.

They reached the top of the stairs to a glass door. The word STUDIO was spelt with big, fancy, gold letters on it. She pushed it open. A narrow but rather sizeable room was revealed. The full moon on the sky multiplied in its reflection within the mirrors on the wall which stood opposite the big windows. Bands of its silver light crisscrossed the wooden floor.

"Sorry, there are no lights still in here...", she turned and said to him.

Archie, looked around, taking the place in but...what was the purpose of him being brought there, he had no idea. His eyes stopped back to her. With his sight having got used to the moonlight, he could see her more clear. He could see the curves of her body as if they were sketched by a silver line, the same way they were shown on her stretched shadow on the floor. His heart had come to his throat. He kept silent, just looking at her.

"It's my own dance studio, silly!", she exclaimed. "Not ready just yet though...That was why", she said.

Passion resonated in her voice. He couldn't help but be drawn to her. She was young, free-spirited, making her own path in life, on her own terms. He stepped into the moonlight, stood in front of her. The blue in his eyes sparkled the same way the sea does under the afternoon sun.

"You disappeared..." He completed what she was to say. His voice was enough just to be heard. Her effect on him was like nothing he had ever felt before for any woman in his life. He was burning up.

"I know..." she replied, sounding mellow and warm in his ears. Her eyes kept his stare locked on her face.

"That is why I brought you here...to show you this." She said and turned her eyes away.

He brought his hand on her flushed cheek, feeling smooth under his touch. He turned her face to look at him. The moon and her dreams were held inside them. He had heard enough. Realised, there was nothing that could stop him be with her. Whatever control he may felt he had, it wasn't there. With her, his whole life up till that point disappeared. There was just him and her and nothing before or after them. His lips brushed hers, hesitant, hoping this dream doesn't go up in smoke within the big bright moon up in the sky.

"I missed you." He managed to say to her, before his kiss blossomed and grew in intensity. She hadn't rejected him. Instead, her fingers were on his neck, lost within his hair, gripping it, throwing more fuel into their kiss. There weren't half measures with this woman, in everything she did and felt. His lips left the trails of his desire on her slender neck, over her collarbones, when at the same time, both could feel each other over their clothes. His hand went up her dress, feeling the garter on her thigh. He heard her sigh.

Between the shadows and the light, they lay on the floor, peeling each item of clothing away, feeling each other in every possible way. He held her hands into his, having her arms stretched over her head. She felt the pressure of his weight on her. He had covered her naked body with his. He could feel her nipples brushing against his chest. Her breaths fell short and hot on his lips.

With their every move, they were becoming one, perfect in unison, their rhythm was turning harder, faster, more primal. They held on each other. She wrapped her legs over his waist, pushing him further inside her. Her hair smelled of jasmine and he was feeling insane. His soul was ready to escape inside her steamed up embrace, her skin glowing in the moonlight. They cried with their release and kept holding to each other, long after the waves that had travelled through their bodies uninhibited, started to subside.

"Don't leave me this time", she heard his voice, soft trailing her damp neck. She wasn't going to, though where all that would end, Isabelle didn't know. She wasn't going to think of it, that night however. This man inside her arms, laying naked and vulnerable, wasn't going to be just a night's fuck. She knew that much. She turned and looked at his flushed face, looking so young, having shed every single anxious feeling and thought from his mind and life at that particular moment. She laid her lips on his, in a kiss, soft and light like a butterfly's wings. Same butterflies flew in her belly to the thought of his body still laying on hers.

"I won't..." she reassured him, and a shy smile was drawn on her face. He took a deep breath. Archie felt for the first time finally happy.

—

Candy and Terry came out of their taxi. It had stopped in front of her house. Scrunched inside her hand was his handkerchief. He had given it to her as they were approaching their destination. Her sobs had subsided. They both looked and acted numb. The closeness and warmth they had shared for that brief ride had dispelled in the night breeze. Terry asked the driver to stay there.

He didn't know what to do. To stay or to go, was a decision which he couldn't take on his own. She hadn't said anything either. To impose his presence for more than she wanted or was comfortable with, it was something he would rather not do. And then, was he prepared to hear things he may not want to hear?

"Look...I can stay for a while only if you want me to" he said with a low voice, keeping his stare at her face.

She was desperate for some company right that moment. To just push that day's events back for a little while. Till her heart was calm. Whether his company would be good to have however, she was not sure. With Terry, nothing was certain. But he had shown control and restrain that night, more than he had ever shown in all the years he had known him before, his initial behaviour at the gallery notwithstanding. She had come to understand it. The irony, she thought. Terry had grown and had changed as much as she did but only now they seemed they had swapped places. He looked like the one who had his act together and she...had taken all rules off the table. Perhaps now she was paying the price. The look on his face, hesitant to overstep whatever unspoken boundaries reality had laid down. She remembered the warmth of his voice inside the car. The smell of him on his jacket draped still over her shoulders. She shuddered. A chill had spread on her bones. She tightened his jacket on her.

"Yes, I do..." She finally said. It was the first time she spoke since she had asked him to take her home. Her voice came out numb and hoarse after the tears had dried on her face. "If it's not much to ask...for a drink at least."

The taxi groaned away and she opened the door. He felt strange walking in her house. He had played this moment many times in his head since he had her address in the letter sent from Pony. Whatever images he had conjured in his mind on times of leisure however, were light years away from the real one that was unravelling right then. A feeling of regret washed over him. Not having the guts to contact her earlier. Now, he was stepping inside her home and her life, just as a guest from the past.

She switched the lights in the hallway on and led him to the sitting room through the narrow corridor.

He was looking around as they walked. Her home was like her. Warm and inviting. The air smelled of roses. It wasn't very big but really well put together. She switched a couple of floor lamps on in the living room. Soft light diffused and spread on the blue marigold wallpapered walls.

Several paintings, of various sizes were hang all over. Photographs of her life, her past and present were placed on the mantlepiece. His stare met with the Candy of his past, all contained in black and white within the silver photograph frames. Standing outside Pony's home, wearing the white nurse uniform, with all the kids around, wide smiles and goofy faces, clear gazes. He turned and met with her stare. Terry was catching up with her life till then and she didn't know what she felt.

"That was five years ago", she said with a faint shudder in her voice and pulled her stare away, as if looking for something. Lately, she had stopped reminiscing, staring at old photographs. Having Terry look at them gave her the jitters.

"Drink?", she asked him with her back to him, standing in front of the drinks trolley.

"Please." He replied. "Still a nurse..." She heard him comment.

"Whiskey or gin?", she asked next without elaborating further on his comment.

"Whiskey." He replied. His stare had stuck on the photograph.

"Your hair was long then." He added and turned to her as she stood next to him with his glass of whiskey.

"I cut them when I arrived here in London..." she explained. His fingers grazed hers with the passing of the glass. Inside her, a tremble rushed like a wave on the shore.

"Cold?" he asked her. Her cheeks felt hot under his blue stare.

"A bit...", she replied. She left her gin on the fireplace. "I'll throw a wood to lit a fire just to take the chill away." She rushed to the next task, not wanting to stand still with him still quizzing her over photographs.

He asked whether he needed his help, but she insisted it wasn't that big a deal. In truth, she needed just five minutes to gather herself and the stream of thoughts from the past that rushed, like a babbling stream in her head.

Next to the armchair by the fireplace, stood a tall floor lamp. Above it, on the wall, there was a small painting which drew his attention. It was another painting of hers done by Christian. His heartbeat quickened inside his chest. This was the woman he had loved all those years ago with every cell in his body. With the green valleys in her stare. The rhubarb coloured cheeks and lips so inviting to kiss them, he had to stop himself from staring at them too much. Hair like wild fire was framing her face. Innocence and passion inside her side by side. With Candy in the Scarlet Rose, he had been scandalised. With this one though...this one had knocked the air out of him for a brief moment.

"I'm sorry I dragged you in this...," He heard her voice soft, next to the first crackles of the fire. It was still young, the flames had only started to lick the chunks of wood inside the fireplace.

"It's ok Candy, you don't have to apologise for anything." He said when he turned to face her. She had sat down on the carpet, in front of the fire, having her legs tucked under her thigh. Still wearing his jacket, with the glass between her hands, she took a sip of her gin-Rickey, staring to feel more a little calmer. Green flames were flicking inside her eyes.

"But I have to...we've only just met, after so long..." She insisted. The guilt was present and real inside her. Never had she expected to see Terry again. He had showed up on the one day she felt she had stepped inside the guts of a tornado. Without her wanting it, he had been swept by the same headiness she was experiencing, the same unexpected turns that day had taken.

"Ten years..." She heard him say. She thought he was talking in her dream, a memory having waken up insider her. But he wasn't a memory. He was real. He was there with her, flesh and bones and everything else that made Terry the person she once knew, and loved.

"Ten years..." Her voice came out almost a whisper. She didn't even want to say out loud how many years had passed. Ten years was that long a time, like a canyon had spread deep between them. To say them out loud, it would be like she recognised the distance.

London had started burning down the last bridge with her past, letting her escape the memories that weighed her life down. Those memories Terry brought back in the space of few hours. They were peering through the haze of the years, one by one having left their stamp on her. Her heart at times felt like the pages of an old book, all having that deep yellowish tint, smudged, with their tips marked whenever her life had taken another direction, big or small.

Nothing came after, no other words between them. He had sat at her armchair. He knew it was hers because it smelled of her. She had always smelled like summer to him. Tall grass, flowers, the radiating heat coming off her body, after she had decided to come down from whatever tree she had climbed. Back then, he used to call her a freckled monkey. Never failing to make her furious.

In silence, the images of their past, grew taller in their minds, like the shadows on the living room walls. The ones that danced to the rhythm of the whip like flames from the fireplace. The fire made the wood split and snap.

Such a snap, took Terry out of his brief reverie. He took a swig from his whiskey. The heat in his throat brought him right back to where they were. Before he broke the silence between them, he let his eyes rest on her for a moment. Candy too had been deep in whatever was playing in her mind, the fire mirroring inside her still gaze. There was no way denying it. Even if he had to keep it hidden, he did have feelings for her. Feelings that even a decade could not have taken away. He cleared his throat before letting himself feel more than he should.

"Care sharing what happened between you two?" he asked her lifting his eyebrows with concern.

She sighed. Christian...she wondered what he was doing right now, where could he be. He hadn't followed her. Sadness darkened her face. She didn't want to shed more tears. She didn't want to relive that minute she opened the door of that room. Nor did she want to start with the questions either, because the whole evening was one big question for her. His disappearance. Even at the party, he hadn't been altogether there. No, she'd rather talk about anything else. Surely, she could chat with Terry about things that didn't involve their drama. Catch up maybe. They would have to tiptoe around a number of things, but where Candy was emotionally right that moment, this option seemed to be better to her than talking about Christian. Especially with Terry from all people.

"No Terry, I'd rather leave whatever happened behind me for now," she turned and said to him. Took a sip from her drink. He didn't reply. Didn't look too convinced either.

"Honestly, I prefer it that way." She added and left her eyes linger into his, in an effort to dispel the worry inside them. She reached for her cigarette case. Took a cigarette out and offered one to Terry too. He lit his first, and leaned down to reach her midway as she had stretched her body towards him, offering to lit hers too. She took a drag and blew the smoke out when she returned back to how she was sitting before. Through the smoke of his cigarette, he was examining her in silence.

"You have changed so much Candy..." his voice deepened with the thoughts his statement carried.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Terry..., I hope you're not going to lecture me right now."

He laughed out loud, letting the tension melt from his face. He felt amused to the thought of how the roles had been reversed since they were students at St. Paul's. "I was going to say about you smoking, that was all." He admitted once he stopped laughing. "But me lecturing you?" He asked her with a playful glint in his eyes. "There was a time, Candy, when lecturing was all that you did with me." He reminded her with a raised eyebrow and a teasing smile.

"I will not deny that Terry!" She admitted it, with the memories of her telling Terry off about his smoking being as clear as her laughter caused by his words. He could be teasing her, but she could turn playful just as well. Her heart lightened up for the first time perhaps that day. "You've changed too...", she said back to him, her words wrapped up in her wide smile.

"Ah...Hair isn't as messed up", he raised his finger to make a point. He was the image of a delinquent all right, back to the day, not caring for a thing in the world, certainly what he looked like. He wore his college tie loose, shirt half tucked in his trousers. Not wanting to get into painful memories, he kept only the funny parts. How he seemed to be allergic to the barbers. His hair at some point resembling a mop, falling in front of his eyes, rendering him almost blind at times. He even had won detention from headmistress Sister Grey, for his appearance. All that started to change slowly once she came into his life.

"It's not that," she said after a second wave of laughter had died down. "As a matter of fact I loved your hair...", she added with a wide smile. Their eyes kept in contact, rejoicing for the light banter. It was so welcome after the intensity the evening so far had carried on its shoulders. They used to be so good together at that. Whenever, his mood permitted, they were able to have a hell of a time. Candy was quick to her words, with a wit and a readiness to talk back like no other woman he had met. He loved her for that too.

"You showed such control earlier, Terry." She commented, sharing the surprise she had felt prior, when Archie and Christian were almost at each other's throats. "Compared to Archie who acted like an ass tonight."

Terry took the last gulp of his whiskey, letting the fire come up to his stare. Lit another cigarette. "Archie is Archie." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Do you remember my fights with him?"

"Oh, how can I forget!" She said, rolling her eyes with a mock despair. Their laughter bounced off the walls in her living room. It felt a bit wicked to laugh about Archie, but Candy especially had a lot gathered inside that made her angry with her cousin. Not only concerning Christian but Terry too. When he was dancing with Marion. Archie's remarks were snippy but they rung true. She had felt jealous not being Terry's centre of attention. She never have thought in the past of having a female ego like other women. Sure she could feel jealousy but old Candy would rise above it.

"Where did he go by the way?" She wondered out loud.

"Oh, I saw him run behind a woman!" Terry noted and a fresh round of laughter ensued.

"Archie plays the good society card with me, but he runs behind Isabel like a puppy!" Candy exclaimed while laughing away.

"Isabelle?" Terry asked her. "Some French dance teacher, he met at a tango club." Candy replied.

Terry stood impressed. Did Archie grow balls to leave the doormat for a wife he had? Annie wasn't a bad person but Terry never really had warmed to her. She reminded him too much of Susanna. That sick needy quality of them both...

Their laughter quietened down once more. With only the sounds of the wood crackling and splitting being consumed by the fire, the room started feeling smaller for the both of them. It was as if there was no distance at all between them. Nervousness rose to the surface. She took the last gulp of her drink and stood up.

"Mind if I put some music on?" She asked him, wondering what his thoughts could have been right at that moment she caught his stare resting on her.

"By all means...", Terry replied. He also stood up. He was hot. It could have been the lit fireplace in June, or the alcohol running in his veins, or the fact he had felt so relaxed with Candy and it felt so surreal and desirable at the same time to manage to have that with her after that long time apart. The way they were behaving for the last half hour, it was as if time had stood still...sweat gathered under his collar. He loosened his tie and opened up a couple of buttons from his shirt.

"One more drink?" He asked her, making himself at home, as he walked towards the drinks trolley.

"Don't mind for one more." She said and turned to see him just as she let the needle of the gramophone touch the record. Music filled the room, a slow number. Terry thought he had heard the song before.

"It's too hot in here Terry, I'm sorry..." She apologised when he gave her drink.

His eyes smiled. "No, it's fine." He said. "You forget I'm used to spending summers in New York". She admitted she had forgotten that. She gave him an apologetic smile and walked towards the fireplace. She sat down at the carpet as she was before. Terry followed her. With his back leaning on the armchair legs, he sat down too, facing her while she kept staring at the fire that was starting to weaken. Neither of them spoke for a while.

"Honestly though...is it that bad?" He heard her asking him, breaking the silence.

"What is?" He asked back as a response to her unexpected question.

"That I've changed..."

He chuckled. This was a question, he had to raise his eyebrows for, before taking a cigarette out of its case. "The jury is out on this one Freckles", he teased her.

Her eyes widened with his response. "Oh! Come on, Terry!" She protested and punched his knee, playing with him. He turned his head up and his eyes dived into hers.

"It's different." He admitted. "Give me some time to get used to your new you."

It could have been the many drinks she had or the quiet way he spoke. To the sound of his last words, a sweet chill made the fine hairs on her arms stand up. It didn't matter whether it was a day, or ten years, or even longer than that, she came to realise that he would always be able to affect her. She would never feel indifferent to Terry.

"Now, you sound annoyed Terry", she said in turn, in an attempt to continue the teasing tone of their conversation.

His eyes looked more green than blue the way the fire reflected in them and they looked frustrated by her words. He pushed his hair back, not believing what he was hearing. "By God Candy! Give me a break!" He said, raising his voice, "I find you the way I did and you're telling me I sound annoyed?" He continued with a question he didn't expect an answer. His eyes stuck on her face.

"I'm a man, not a saint, you know..." His last words came out slow, having pulled the breaks on his sudden outburst.

Candy felt her whole being turning red. She hadn't expected him saying all that. Hadn't even realised how much, finding her again, had affected him. She didn't know what to say back. She decided to let this statement of his pass by. Turn the atmosphere which had started spreading heavy between them, back to neutral. "So you'll stay for a while." She said sounding quieter than before.

Terry took a deep breath. "I will", he confirmed it. He looked at her, searching for clues, wanting to know whether his admission was a welcome one or not.

She turned towards the fireplace. She started poking at the pieces of the burning wood. "Someone will be over the moon..." She said without turning to see him.

He shifted from his place. Candy never failed to push his buttons, even after so long. "Who do you have in mind Candy, please tell." He sounded impatient, though trying to keep the flirting going. There had been enough tension for both of them that night.

"My friend...", she explained, with her gaze kept still over the whipping flames.

He realised Candy was throwing him a bait. His lips curled up and his stare sparkled. He too could play this game. "Nice girl..." he admitted trying to sound honest.

"Yes" She commented, her voice sounding dry, "I realised you approved of her right away."

"May I perceive this as annoyance from your part, Candy...?" It was his turn to poke her the way she had poked the fire a little while ago. "Or may I say Rose...", he added, raising his eyebrows once more.

She turned and looked at him. Her green eyes were gleaming on her flustered from the fire face.

"Was this name change part of your life change plan?" Terry continued with the questions. He had been curious from the beginning to ask her about that. To change her name, it was certain to him, it meant something to Candy, much more than just a caprice from her part.

She looked like she was thinking about her answer. But a whole other story path would open up to reveal parts of her life he hadn't known. If he had asked her earlier that question, perhaps she would dismiss him with silence or she would think of something clever to say, but it was late, she felt mellow and she had to admit it, he had been a good company to her. Million miles away from how he had behaved at the gallery. She shifted from where she was sitting. She brought her legs forward, wanting to stretch them a bit. Brought her knees to her chest and hugged them before letting her chin rest on them. Her face blanked out, her stare focused on the carpet but she was looking much further than that.

"When Albert died, I felt stuck at Pony's home, Terry", she started. To Albert's name, the green valleys in her eyes stirred like grass in the summer breeze.

A knot of sadness came up Terry's throat too. He knew Albert had passed away from cancer. It was all over the newspapers. At the time he had found out, he asked from Hathaway a few days break. He hadn't seen Albert for years. The last time they actually had spent time together was when Terry was in college and Albert was volunteering at the London Zoo, looking after the animals. They had met each other for the first time over a pub brawl where Terry had been involved, as a drunk teenager.

Back to the days when the life he was leading was practically over the rails. Determined to destroy himself. If he couldn't escape the shackles of his broken family, the abuse and the taunting from his step mother, the ignorance from his father, the mother who didn't want to know about him, what else was there for him? He felt like a stain in everyone's life. Life itself disgusted him. He used to be more drunk than sober those days. Just about when Candy had enrolled at the college. He was very much intrigued by her, her pious personality that came hand in hand with a rebel spirit, an inner strength he hadn't encountered in anyone he had met till then, man or woman, boy or girl. No one matched her.

It was early days however. He sneaked out at nights, looking for trouble. In a masochistic way, he liked being beaten up. At least, the physical pain masked the one he couldn't find a solution still. Perhaps if he was lucky, he could have found his death too and that could solve everything for everyone in a more permanent way.

Albert saved him from such a bar fight. They had become good friends after that. Instead of Terry camping inside pubs, drinking like a fish, he started going to the zoo, visiting Albert. Here was this guy who had seen the world. Had stories to tell. Was free to live his life as he liked. Slowly, Albert had turned to be like a mentor to Terry, without the latter recognising this till much later. As late as when he found out that Albert had died. With him gone, Terry felt like those nice London days of his past had died too. So, he gave Susanna some excuse and left for Martha's vineyard. Stayed for a few days at Eleonor's cottage. Alone with his memories of Albert and Candy, the only time in London he had come to cherish the memories of. He too thought of writing to Candy. To tell her he was there for her, should she need a friend. But who was he fooling? He never really managed to see her as a friend. His inability to overcome his insecurities too was detrimental. Why would Candy want to hear from him? He had her family around. Archie and Annie, Pony and a lot of other people who had loved her so, because Candy wore her heart to her sleeve for everyone she met.

He kept looking at her, narrating that part of her life, while he kept silent. Inside, he felt the bitterness of his remorse. He should have been there for her. The Candy he knew, the one that life could not manage to break, had reached her breaking point. It was dark days for her. No direction, nothing to look forward to, nothing to wait for. She became depressed.

"I know you can understand my loss, Terry. You lost Susanna...", she said. Her eyes had started welling up. "She was your life for more than ten years", she added.

He wanted to say to Candy that it wasn't the same but he managed to just say her name. Loosing Susanna didn't come even close. He had reconciled with the fact that his life would include Susanna. It didn't include love and in the silence of the night, while he stared the bottom of his empty glass, it hurt not to have love in his life, but he had come to accept it.

Not being able to give her anything back in physical intimacy, he had tried his best to support her professionally. To find her a purpose in life, other than her waiting for him to fall in love with her. With support and ample encouragement from his part, she had started to make a name for herself as scriptwriter for the theatre. She brimmed with happiness. Susanna always liked the attention to be on her. Although she had been too much of a mouse to say it out loud.

She died fairly quickly. It was during a flu epidemic in New York. Turned to pneumonia for her. She always had a weak constitution, health wise. He had brought the best doctors in the city. Was by her side morning and night. He shed tears in secret. He broke down when they were saying goodbye to her. She was too weak to open even her eyes. Labouring to breath. Before her last breath, she thanked him for having stayed with her. He was crushed beyond any measure. The conflicting feelings he felt were pulling him in opposite directions, wanting to tear him apart. Such was his guilt afterwards for everything he had felt and had happened, he didn't even give a statement to the press. Even so, with all that pain he went through, Susanna was no equal to what Albert meant for Candy. He didn't admit it to her.

"Then, I received a letter from your mother..." She said and looked at him for the first time, since she had started her journey to the past.

Her statement was most unexpected. His head moved back and his brows came closer, above the bridge of his nose. His mother had never mentioned sending a letter to Candy. "A letter? Eleonor?" he asked sounding very surprised. "Are you sure?" he asked again.

"Of course I am," she confirmed it. "It was about your Hamlet", she added. "She sent me tickets to come and see you"

"What?!" he asked again pushing his fingers through his hair. His heartbeat quickened. He would have words with Eleonor when back in New York, that was a given.

"I think she did so to cheer me up...?" Candy wondered out loud.

Terry had lit a cigarette. "I don't believe my mother sometimes" he mumbled.

"She is a sweetheart." Candy said and smiled at him. "Nevertheless, I declined her offer, Terry", she continued her story. "I couldn't do it...Susanna...", her voice trailed off at the sound of Susanna's name.

For a minute no one said a thing. Candy omitted the fact that after declining Eleonor's offer, she wrote a letter to Terry, PSing it with "I loved you"...She never managed to send it. That end note would have been a lie. She still was loving him back then.

"What her letter did though...," Candy said coming to the conclusion of her story, "Was to set the wheels in motion for me" she added and crushed the cigarette she was smoking in an ashtray. She took a deep breath and looked at Terry again. In his face, the look of surprise lingered.

"I had realised that life wasn't waiting for me...it was passing me by. You were leading yours fine, your career was taking off." She said with a sigh. "Come last Christmas, I met with George. Albert's right hand and like a father to me. He knew of my plans to go away although I hesitated." Candy said. "His encouraging words was the last push I needed"

"So you came here..." Terry said having now known all the story which led to Candy coming here.

"Candy was to be no more though," she added. "I wanted to taste life in a different way, Terry." She continued and he felt the passion rising in her voice. "That's why I invented Rose White", she said and chuckled. "She is a lot wilder than Candy..." Her chuckles were turning into laughter. "Much more daring than Candy" she added.

"I can see that" he said, his voice coming out hoarse. Her eyes sparked with mischief. She wetted her lips. It was as if Rose was taking over. It was strange for Terry to see a transformation taking place. Candy had pushed all her bad memories in her old life and had left her back in the States. Rose was on the helm now. He realised he wanted to kiss her. Taste her mouth, her wet lips that glistened like honey. Desire was snaking up inside him. The air between them was becoming charged fast. You could feel it. Invisible strings were pulling them together.

The phone rung, shattering everything between them. The fire was dying out. She got up to answer it.

"Hi Christian", he heard her say. Her voice became almost a whisper. Terry didn't care hearing anything. If the phone hadn't rung, he wouldn't say what could have happened between them. There was a lot to digest from their catch up together. At least he had that. A few quiet hours where they could talk. There was a lot to think and a lot he was already feeling. He had to leave, as reluctant as he felt, he had to go. Leave her alone. She was too vulnerable there. And they had only met. Getting intimate with her, though it burned him, he had to resist with everything he got. It would only cause trouble for the both of them. Lost in his thoughts, he hadn't realised Candy had finished the phone call. He got up.

"You are leaving..." Candy already knew, before Terry had said anything.

"I am..." he said trying to sound not too deflated. "Did you say to Christian about..."

"You being here?" Candy completed his sentence. "I didn't need to...he already had seen us getting in the taxi"

"Oh...", Terry exclaimed, "I hope this won't cause any more problems...", he added.

"No...it's ok Terry" she said with a tired smile. "Christian has gone home...we will meet tomorrow"

To be honest, she had preferred him to come by her house. Kiss and make up. Close her in his arms and make her feel that everything was ok. Explain himself. She would understand. It wasn't as if she was the overly jealous type.

"In any case...I must be going too Candy", he almost apologised. "Will you be ok on your own?" he asked her.

"Yes, not to worry. I'm a big girl Terry." She added. They moved towards the front door. She opened it and he stepped outside. Her face glowed silver under the moonlight.

"I am glad we talked." She said.

"Me too." Terry agreed.

"We'll see each other again, yes?" She asked him.

"We will Freckles." He said feeling his voice turning heavy.

He leaned and kissed her cheek, feeling warm to the touch from his lips. He bid her good night. She did the same. She kept at the door while he was walking away. He turned one last time before turning the corner and waved to her. She did the same. With a heavy sigh, she closed the door and walked back to the living room. It felt empty now. Glowing embers remained in the fireplace. She felt tears coming to her eyes. What she didn't know, was why was she crying. She was still wearing his jacket. What she did know was that it had been a day she would remember for the rest of her life. For more reasons than one.