Greg sat down heavily on the couch, staring at the ground in confusion as his collared shirt suddenly felt all too tight around his neck.
Bee turned to go, but even as she apparated desperately away she heard Greg's voice through the swirl.
"Wait."
.
.
"Okay, so your plan to fix Bee's love life epically failed. You didn't honestly think it was going to work did you?"
Adam was sprawled on Greg's couch, attempting to make sense of the pale-faced who had stuck his head in Adam's fireplace and muttered something about Rafi and Bee and love and just bloomin help me dammit Adam.
"I mean, I considered that she just might not like him but I didn't expect it to backfire quite this much Adam!" Greg's voice was high-pitched and anxious as he sat on the ground.
He was leaning his back against an archchair, his panicky face turned towards Adam in annoyance and more than a hint of desperation.
"Look mate, this is not a hard equation. If you're into Bee romantically back everything's fine and dandy, if you don't... then you don't. It's that simple."
"It's not that simple, you buffoon. If I tell Bee that I feel the same - which means 'in love', not into her, not crushing on her, in love with her - then things will be fine and dandy. Literally anything less than that and my life will never be the same!"
Adam struggled to hold back a laugh at Greg's melodrama, but he held it together and put on his most soothing voice.
"She'd understand Greg. She'd understand if you said that you want to date and see where things go, not everyone goes around harbouring feelings of deep romantic love for potentially a decade and not saying anything."
.
"And if I don't feel the same at all, everything will change. Our cooperative, our nights out…"
"True, if that's the case then I guess you can thank yourself for the end of your social and professional life, all because you backed her into a corner and went way too far trying to marry her off to someone else."
Greg threw a cushion from his armchair at Adam, "That's not helpful!"
"Well you haven't given me any information about how you feel, so there's not much to be helpful about is there? She will understand if you don't feel the same, we'll get through this."
Adam paused emphatically, "But you have to answer the question, do you feel anything romantic towards her?"
The question hung in the air like mist, ensconcing Greg in panic and silence.
.
He tried to answer it, tried to form words, but all that came out were a series of muttering sand false starts.
"Well, I…"
"It's..."
"I don't…"
After a few more seconds of nothing answers Adam sighed, "Maybe you need to sleep on it and I should leave you to it…"
"Wait! It's just hard because I've never let myself think of Bee like that. We've been platonic, like really platonic friends, for almost 14 years and since we started working together? We have even more boundaries. We don't discuss work outside the physical limits of the shop, we don't banter or joke around there or talk about personal stuff, and when we're not working everything is just… natural. She talks to me about her struggles with her family and I know it's been hurting her for a really long time. And she knows everything about me, how clumsy I am, what a clean-freak I am, she knows my parents - it's hard to just make this instant shift in how all of those interactions and our relationship suddenly has this different meaning."
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"Sure it's hard to make that shift instant, but you have to have felt something beyond surprise, when she said it. Were you happy?"
"I don't know, my heart just started wildly beating and I just got worried, and then she left so suddenly even though I told her to wait-"
Adam interjected, "What would you have said to her if she had stayed?"
Greg's eyes were back on the ground, "I don't know!"
"Well just pretend she's here now. What would you tell her?"
Greg looked up, "Well no offence, but you don't really match her description."
Adam scoffed and threw back the pillow Greg had fired at him, "Use your imagination, you dolt."
.
Greg took a deep breath and let go. "I'd say how unfair it is that she never told me… I feel like there's all this meaning I didn't know was there. Like I've been missing out on this whole life, that was meant to be mine."
Adam nodded, breathing an internal sigh of relief that Greg was finally getting somewhere beyond a giant ball of anxiety, "And are you disappointed you've been missing out on knowing? Why would you have preferred to know?"
"Because she kept it a secret, she kept that life from me and I wish I had known sooner because then I wouldn't have brought some poor chap out from Bangladesh."
Adam almost rolled his eyes with frustration, Greg was still avoiding the question.
.
"Why did you want her to stay? What did you really want to say to her?"
"That I care about her. That it was killing me that she was so upset about her parents and that there isn't anything wrong with having someone take care of her for once." Greg's heart was still beating out of his chest, his flight or fight response was still kicking.
'This isn't a matter of life or death you ridiculous body' Greg groaned to himself.
"Do you mean Rafi? Or do you mean you?" Adam held his breath, waiting to see if Greg would finally admit something that might actually address the issue.
"I mean me. What's wrong with letting me help her? Letting me take that pain away? She was so angry Adam, she was so mad that I brought him-"
"She wasn't mad at you trying to help her, she was mad that you did so with another wizard. A wizard that wasn't you."
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"No, no. She said that I was trying to be a knight in shining army, that I was trying to… to save her from her own life. That it was patronising!"
"Well you did basically try to take over her life love, without her knowledge or consent."
"I know, I know I went too far. But that's because she never told me how she felt about me!. She never told me how we could fix her problem, which was for the solution to be me!" Greg shouted in frustration.
'He's getting there…' Adam thought silently.
Greg stood up angrily, "This whole time, she wouldn't have had to be berated or put down by her parents. This whole time she was struggling and I could have been there for her? And she never told me!"
"To be fair Greg, you didn't suggest it either-"
"I didn't think she'd ever see me that way."
"And she didn't think you'd ever see her that way… she still doesn't."
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Greg didn't reply. Adam could almost see his head ticking with possibilities.
And then he walked over to his fireplace and threw in some Floo powder, vanishing in a lick of Green light.
"Finally," Adam muttered to himself, with an eye roll.
'He should have apparated though,' he thought to himself cheekily.
.
.
"Bee, you did the right thing. He had to know why you were so against Rafi and it was the right thing to do, to send that poor wizard home."
Rose was boiling tea in Bee's kitchen as Bee moped around at the counter, feeling sorry for herself.
"I put off telling him so many times, I would have skirted around it if I could, but I just couldn't anymore. He backed me into a corner."
Rose smiled, "To be fair, you backed yourself into a corner by not telling him in the first place. He never would have gone to find Rafi if he knew you were in love with him."
"Yes, but then he would have known I was in love with him. You see my problem," Bee said wryly.
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"He went all the way to Bangladesh in an attempt to make you happy. That's not normal friend dedication, even I wouldn't have done that and I love you to the moon and back."
"Don't get my hopes up Rose. The truth is I've been hoping for too many years. If I'd just told him and he said no, I could move on Rose. But I didn't. I just held onto it and used it as an excuse not to date or get married and now it's finally over. It's a good thing really."
But Rose could hear the quiver in Bee's voice that signalled tears were about spill down her flushed, brown cheeks.
She reached for the kettle and was in the middle of pouring a mug of steaming black tea when they both heard a thumb in the living room.
Bee jumped up immediately to see who had entered through the Floo network.
.
Words started gushing out of Greg's mouth the minute he got up from the living room floor.
"I never thought you would think of me like that Bee, never."
Greg's heart was beating so wildly he felt he might collapse, but he knew he had to keep going, he had to get it out.
"If I had known, I would have never gone all the way to Bangladesh to find someone to love you because that person has been here the whole time. Believe me, I'm kicking myself that I didn't consider that an option, I just never thought you'd see me that way."
Rose put the kettle down and snuck down the hallway, trying to listen in as Bee stood transfixed in front of the fireplace, her hands clenched into fists.
"I love you so much, Bee. It's the only reason I went off to find Rafi, because I want you to be happy. And if you're telling me that what would make you happy is me? I would be an idiot to turn you down."
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Bee let out a cry of glee as Greg swept her into a hug and lifted her off the ground, but when he put her down he didn't let go.
Bee's hands went to his face and dusted the ash from Flooing off his hair and cheeks.
He smiled, "What are you doing?"
"Dusting you off first."
And then when he was respectably clean she leaned in slowly and hovered her lips over his.
"Am I clean enough?"
She giggled, "Yes."
"Are you sure?"
She nodded, grinning, and with that Greg closed the inch between them quickly, his hand reaching into her thick black hair to cradle her neck.
At this point Rose tip-toed back to the kitchen and finished pouring her tea… they looked like they might be a while.
.
Bee felt like she was still spinning from when Greg first pulled her close, her chest exploding with a pounding heart, gasping lungs, rushing blood and lips, tongue, teeth, tingling with fervent kisses.
She wrapped an arm across his shoulder and clung on for dear life as he kissed her deeply and longingly, gentle yet passionate.
Bee's lips were soft and full, Greg felt so consumed by the taste of her, the way she nibbled his bottom lip, how she flicked her tongue dashingly across his, daring him to capture it.
Her fingers stroked his cheek lovingly and he was overcome with emotion, "Bee," he whispered.
Not sure if he was calling to her or revelling in her.
When they finally came to rest, foreheads leaning on each other, Bee wiped away the tears that had finally made their way home.
.
"I'm so mad at you for not telling me," he muttered, perhaps to explain, perhaps to express.
"I know, I'm so mad at you for bringing me Rafi," she chuckled back at him.
"I know, I'm so madly in love with you."
"I know."
And then she kissed away more tears and held him to her, while they both finally breathed a fresh breath.