Things Are Not Clear Cut Part 35

It's been about a month since Jamie's disappearing and no contact act. Ellie has been getting on with her life and luckily it has been so busy she hasn't had time to think about Jamie so ignoring him has come with ease. He is contacting her at least once weekly. He was discussing her work with her and hadn't mentioned Kate's death to her. He knew he'd have to but it was more of a face to face conversation. Somehow he dwindled the conversation to meeting up at the bar at 7.00pm on a Friday night. Ellie had the whole weekend ahead of her to get lost in her stories so it seemed opportune time. Jamie knew it was only fair to drop one bombshell at a time so tonight he'd tell her about Kate and at their next meet up would reveal his feelings for her. If he revealed Kate's death after he would look like he was hiding things. He didn't want to do that. Not before he had to in any case! He didn't want this to be an over-riding factor before their relationship even left the marks.

Ellie got to the bar promptly. She expected Jamie to be late but as she made her way into the bar she realised he was already there with the usual drinks sitting in front of him. He didn't even see her for a few moments. She pulled up into the table before he noticed her. 'Hi,' she said tentively. He put his hands on top of hers. She looked in his eyes. Her fear was evident on her face.

'El, you know I was away for a few days about 4 weeks ago?'Ellie nods. 'And I went to a place with no signal, so I could think?'

'I didn't know that's why you did it...' she murmured.

'Well, my boss Kate, the woman you walked on in with me she....died,' he said his voice getting lower with every syllable.
'Oh God,' Ellie said and stared into the glass of her drink that she hadn't yet touched. Ellie thought of how selfish she'd been. Thinking it was all because of her. There are bigger things that happen in life. She needed to get that into her head. She wasn't all that went on in his life, as much as she wished life could be that simple she knew it wasn't. There were a million things that went on at once which most of the time worked well together but sometimes gave catastrophic consequences like that. She had been so wrapped up in her own head that the fact that other things went on in his peripheral vision didn't even cross her mind. She picked up her glass and slugged down about half in one gulp. She didn't know what to say. That explains a lot. He'd been distant since the first few days of January which must have been when he found out. She asked just so she could confirm it to herself. She drank the rest of her drink in silence and then left to get back to her books. Jamie was left on his own. Jamie got up and went to the pub nearest to his work where he fround Max drinking himself into oblivion. He stayed, keeping his company until the early hours and made sure he got home.

Steph

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