I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving. Thanks everyone for reviewing. *insert disclaimer here*
Cogsworth~
We were finally having a real conversation. I was so overjoyed to finally be getting to know Eveline. And even in silence it was not awkward. We kept eye contact with smiles on our faces. Finally, something was going right.
"You're turn," she said suddenly.
"Excuse me?" I asked, confused.
"What's your story? Why are you here?"
"I am unsure of what you mean, mademoiselle…" I replied nervously. I hoped she was not hoping for me to explain my life before working in the castle. That part of my life was distant past; I had no desire to bring it back to life.
"Why are you still here?"
I internally let out a sigh of relief, "I have nowhere else to go…" I started awkwardly, "and I have grown quite fond of it here. It is like a big family; I could never imagine leaving."
"Neither could I," she agreed.
"What changed your mind?"
"What?" she gaped at me, but even still she was beautiful.
"You said you changed your mind about the castle…what changed it?"
I noticed the color rise to her cheeks, which was not normally something I took note of. She looked at her feet and fiddled with her sleeve, "I—I—" She looked back up at me and gave me a nervous smile, "I found a reason to start enjoying life again…"
The way she looked at me made me nervous all over again. I had no idea how to respond to her statement. I felt the sweat bead on my forehead, "Oh?" was my lame response.
"Oh, I must sound so foolish!" she exclaimed.
"No," I said, not knowing where I was going from there. "No, I understand…I think I do anyway…"
Her gaze locked mine again, "Please tell me what you mean so I don't feel so foolish?"
I took a deep breath to gain my courage, "I care about you, Eveline. I know we have not talked much…well, not much at all before now, but I have been inspired by you, Eveline. You are so unique and I appreciate that and you are respectful even when you disagree, yet you are unafraid to let your anger out. Ma chérie, you are a delight and talking to you just proves that to me."
She bit her lip, "That just about sums it up…" she replied, clearly making an attempt to mask her excitement at my words…which I had never done to a girl before Eveline. "I care about you too, Cogsworth…and I would like to take you up on that offer of getting to know you better."
I smiled, "Would you like to dance?"
"Oh, non, I cannot dance!"
"You cannot be that bad."
"Oh, yes I am! I'll only dance with you if you don't mind getting your feet stomped on."
I grinned, "It's worth the risk."
She smiled at me shyly, "Very well then, consider yourself warned."
I never believed a forty year old man would have a chance to be dancing with such a delightful woman who cared about me possibly as much as I cared about her, but here was Eveline, proving me wrong. Her shy smile brought my confidence up. We danced until our feet hurt and she only stepped on my foot once…and that was only because Lumiere and Babette ran into us.
After the ball ended, I walked Eveline up to her room, "I had a wonderful time with you, Eveline…I hope to further our acquaintance more rapidly this time around."
"I say we are friends at this point, don't you agree?" she asked sweetly.
"Pardon me, further our friendship, mon amie," those words caused a beautiful sting to come off my tongue. After our evening together, I became more entranced by her and as glad as I was to be friends, I wanted more. Perhaps it was selfish or too fast, but I had been harboring my confused feelings for about ten years at this point.
"Au revoir, mon ami!" she replied, looking conflicted. Whatever the conflict in her mind was, she quickly decided against it and gently shut the door.
Just so you know, I don't dislike Babette as a character, but I feel like if I were in the company of her in real life she'd drive me crazy. So, I'm not trying to hate on her...Eveline is kind of a little piece of me, so she thinks similarly to me...probably more so than most of my original characters.:) I hope you enjoyed it!