A Beautiful Forever(40)

Paige


My alarm sounds and I roll out of bed, yawning and stretching the kinks out of my back. It’s time to get ready for work. I don’t feel much like using a lot of product so I twist my hair up in a bun and pull some curls down to frame my face, before I apply some moisturiser, mascara and lip gloss.

I wear my black work pants, a white fitted singlet top and a grey asymmetrical cardigan that hangs long in the front and short in the back. Grabbing my keys and the salon keys, I get in my car and head off to work. It’s my morning to open and prep the salon today, so I pick up some breakfast on the way and eat it there.





Elliot


“Well, hello stranger!” Jolene calls out to me as I wheel my bags towards her.

“Hi Jolene, thanks a lot for coming to collect me,” I say, she leans up and gives me a friendly hug hello and kisses my cheek.

“It’s no trouble, I got picked up when I arrived, so it’s kind of a karmic thing to pay it forward,” she explains.

Driving to the flat is kind of surreal after being back in Sydney, but it feels like I’m going home. The big letdown is that Paige won’t be there, but I feel so sure that I’ll find her. I realised on the plane that she would have needed to find another job, and that means she would most likely have used Andrea as a reference.

The first thing I do after setting down my bags and saying a quick hello to all the house mates, is hand over the bag of Tim Tams I brought with me and then take a walk to Stylz.





Paige


It’s almost lunch time, and I’m so close to finishing the extensions in my client’s hair. This has been a very labour intensive morning, and I’m looking forward to the half hour I get to eat and sit down. I’m working with three other stylists today, and we’re booked fairly solid all day long so besides my break. I won’t be getting much time to rest my legs.

Finally finished with the extensions, I style my client’s hair to blend in the new hair in with the old. The sound of the blow dryer muffles the voice of Brooke, one of the other stylists, as she speaks to me.

“Paige!” she calls over the top of it.

I shut the dryer off so I can hear her. “Sorry,” I say turning to face her. “What’s u– ” I don’t need her to tell me because he’s the only thing I can see when I look up. I shove the dryer into Brooke’s hand and mumble something about needing to do something incredibly vague.

Wrapping my cardigan around my middle, I walk towards him, not entirely certain that this isn’t some sort of dream.

“You’re here!” I exclaim, not really sure what else to say. I want to jump into his arms and kiss him, but I don’t know if I can.





Elliot


Paige is standing in front of me, staring at me like I’m some kind of apparition. “I really thought you’d be harder to find,” I tell her. “One quick conversation with Andrea and here I am.”

She looks me up and down, her arms wrapped around her waist defensively. “Here you are.”

I hold out my hand to her, craving her touch. “Can we go and talk?” I ask gently. She looks at my hand like she did that time on the plane, like she’s really unsure as to whether she should take it or not. Just like I did six months ago I tell her, “I’m not going to bite.”

She keeps one arm round her waist as she slips the other one in my hand. The moment we touch again I get this charge travelling through my body that reignites the life that I've felt lacking since I left her here.





Paige


I've become all heady being near him, and I can’t really think straight. I'm just kind of following along blindly behind him, not questioning where we’re going.

“Stop!” I say suddenly snapping myself out of it.

“What? What’s the problem?”

“What are we doing? Why are you here?” I ask. The last thing I expected this morning was to see him. This is all so surreal; I don’t know how to act, or what to say.

He stops and takes a step towards me, hooking his finger under my chin and tilting my head towards him. “I’m here for you,” he whispers as he brushes his lips against mine, shivers run through my body as I forget what I did to him and my guard falls away. I whimper a little against his mouth as I part my lips and allow his tongue access. Oh, how I’ve missed the feel of him in my mouth! The taste of his tongue as it slides sensuously with mine! I reach up and wrap my arms around his neck, pressing my body against him as want takes over my senses.





Elliot


I’m lost in the sensation of her mouth as I pull her closer to me, our bodies meld together, and I can’t help but notice a … bump? My eyes pop open and I immediately stop kissing.

Staring at Paige’s face as she slowly opens her eyes I slide my hands around to her waist and over the firm mound that is now where her flat stomach used to be. Her eyes widen as she jumps away from me and wraps her cardigan back around her waist, trying to cover up.

I shake my head, “No, no, no, do not cover that up.”

She releases her cardigan, and it falls either side of her protruding bump. I look from it to her, pointing at it as I ask, “At what point, were you planning on telling me about that!?”

Her lip starts quivering and her eyes fill with tears, “I…I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t want you to feel like you had to come back. It doesn’t have to be your problem.”

“What!? How can you say that? How could you keep this from me? This is my child -right?” I glare at her, still pointing at her stomach. She squeezes her eyes shut and tears start to roll down her face as she nods quickly.

“Yes it’s yours,” she barely even whispers.

I stand there and glare at her, trying to think of what to say without ruining everything completely, feeling so hurt and angry right now.

I close my eyes and press the pads of my thumb and index fingers against them, “What time do you finish work?” I say as calmly as I can.

“Six,” she answers.

“Alright,” I say as I nod my head and walk away from her. I need some time to deal with this. I need some time to calm down.

“Elliot!” she calls after me. I shake my head without turning around. “I’m sorry!” she calls after me. I put my hands on my head, it seems to be the only thing I can do right now to stop it from exploding. What the hell just happened?





Chapter 33


Paige


He’s waiting for me when I walk out of the salon, standing up against the wall with a stormy look on his face. I don’t say anything to him, I just stand in front of him, then incline my head to tell him to come with me.

He walks beside me with his hands in his pockets and his brows tightly knit together. As we get into my car, we still haven’t spoken and continue on that way until we arrive at my flat. I let us in through the front door and hang my bag and keys up by the door, before leading the way to the living area where he pauses, looking around quietly.

I move about the kitchen preparing some tea and sandwiches. I don’t drink coffee at the moment, and since it’s usually only me or my mother and Daniel, tea is all I have.

When I walk out holding the tray, he looks up at me, a framed photo of he and I together in his hand.

“Is it strange that I have them up?” I ask him as he places the frame back on the bookcase and moves quickly to take the tray from my hands.

Shaking his head he says, “You should have seen the wall in my bedroom while I was home. I had this whole collage thing going on.” Giving me a sad smile, he carries the tray over to the coffee table in front of the couch and sets it down.

He clears his throat, “This is all very English of you,” he points out, as we sit next to each other on the couch. I laugh a little through my nose and take a sip of tea, enjoying the warmth of the liquid as it slides down my throat. I don’t know what to say, I finally have him here with me, and I’m really not sure how to act. I want everything to be exactly how it was before. I want to touch him, kiss him, be with him. But instead I’m sitting here, sipping tea.

“When were you going to tell me Paige?”

I place my mug back on the tray and turn towards him, meeting his eyes. “Soon, Elliot, I was going to tell you soon.”

“How soon? Tomorrow? When the baby was born? When it was 20 and came looking for me? When?”

“Elliot, I understand that you’re upset with me, I haven’t handled things very well between us at all. But please understand that I didn’t want you to feel obligated to come back to me. If you were going to do it - I wanted you to do it on your own. I was going to tell you very soon, I was just… waiting, I guess.”

“So you were testing me?” he asks.