For anyone following January 9th, I'm sorry - part three is coming! I've edited, rewritten and re-edited a million times and the ending just isn't... right. It's frustrating, but it's coming I promise!
Anyways, I'm the meantime... here's a little pining for you! Super short, but it's something.
He said there was no pressure. That she didn't have to accept his invitation. He was going... and he thought she might enjoy it. But she didn't have to come. It was very last minute, after all.
But still, he watched the door as if it were the most interesting thing he had ever seen.
The New York City library was packed with people. The crowd was filled with devoted fans from all over the state - the country, even - gathering for a once in a lifetime event. A reading from her favourite author. An author who was not Castle. An author who, since the sudden success of his first novel, had seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. Until now, that is. Now, he is coming out of hiding, out of his safety zone for a one-off reading of his new, highly anticipated novel.
Surely she wouldn't miss this. Surely.
A new group of people were herded into the already overcrowded room. He scanned their faces, none of them familiar.
Maybe she had seen how crowded it was and decided it wasn't worth it.
Or maybe she just didn't want to come. With him.
That feeling sank, heavy, to the pit of his stomach. With him.
Maybe she didn't see the significance of this. Maybe, unlike him, she wasn't overanalysing their every interaction, overthinking each word spoken between them, and those that remained unspoken. Maybe he had been reading too much into each lingering look, fleeting touch. Reading too much into them.
Because 'them' was something that didn't exist. Just because he remembered an offhand comment about some author... just because she was the person he instantly thought of when he received his two promotional tickets to this event... just because he so desperately wanted her to be here with him, doesn't mean she felt the same way. Not yet. Possibly not ever.
The event host stepped up to the podium. She begins to speak, but he's not listening. He shouldn't have been so nonchalant. He shouldn't have handed her the ticket with a 'just think about it'. He should have picked her up. Or agreed to meet outside. That way she would have had to give him an answer. A yes or no. Definitive.
None of this uncertainty.
This waiting.
This anxiety.
"Hey." A hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality, the fog of doubt steadily diffusing. "Sorry I'm late."
She slipped through the people around them, taking her place beside him. Her rightful place. She was so close - possibly too close - he had to look down to meet her eyes. He never had to look down to meet her eyes... not when she stood at a work-appropriate distance. But this wasn't work.
"You came?"
She smiled. That smile was everything. He would die a thousand deaths if it meant she would never lose that smile.
"Of course. Where else would I be?"
Nowhere. There's nowhere else. Just here.
Just them.