A Beautiful Forever

chapter 12

Elliot

“You’re awfully happy today,” my client, Agy, comments as she wipes her face with the towel I just handed her. “Is there a new love

interest making you look that way?”

Smiling, I simply shrug my shoulders. Agy is one of my favourite clients. She's in her late 50s and comes to the gym every day to

work out. She doesn’t come here to partake in any gentle movement either - she does full-on weights training and intense cardio.

She’s strong as an ox, and I’m betting she’s going to live until she’s at least a hundred.

Training her is always entertaining because she’s got loads of great stories to tell me about when she was a kid growing up in the

country, and she in turn, loves to hear me talk about Australia.

“Come on, tell me all about her. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten a dose of young love,” she presses.

“What do you want to know Agy?” I ask.

“Well, her name for starters – unless it’s a he of course, then you can give me his name,” she starts all very matter-of-factly.

I can’t help but laugh at her boldness. It's one of the reasons I like her so much. “Paige, her name is Paige, Agy.”

“Well that’s a lovely name. Now you can tell me all about her,” she asks eyes gleaming as she listens in rapt attention while tell her

about meeting Paige on the plane and some brief details about how she came to stay in the flat and how our friendship has been

progressing.

“She’s been making it really hard to get to know her, like she’s scared of her feelings for me. But we finally made some progress

last night and this morning, well, she just kept smiling and Agy, she’s beautiful when she smiles,” I finish, fighting hard to stop my

mouth from curling into some sort of goofy grin.

“That’s wonderful Elliot. I'm sure any girl who can hold the attention of a gorgeous young man like you is well worth the effort.”

“She is, Agy. I really think she is.”





Paige


“Let me guess,” Andrea says, looking at me with squinting eyes. “You took my advice and finally told Elliot you’re into him? Are you

dating now?”

I look at her briefly, trying to focus on cutting hair, but just the thought of actually being with Elliot causes a smile to creep across my

lips. “Not exactly dating, but things are good.”

“Hmmm, have you shagged him yet?”

I raise my eyebrows and look at her again as my client watches us closely in the mirror.

“No, I haven’t ‘shagged’ him,” I answer, using my fingers as quote marks.

“Just wondering,” she says before she turns back to her own work.

I shake my head, smiling my way through the rest of the day.





Elliot


Standing outside the hair salon waiting for Paige, I’m suddenly filled with nerves. I only have six weeks left in the UK. I don’t want to

waste any more time pretending it’s ok to just be friends. I want more from her, and I’m not going to let her push me away anymore.

Every time I lay my eyes on her the whole world just melts around me. She's all I can think about; I need to be with her.

When she emerges from the salon, she’s with her boss, Andrea, who gives me a little finger wave. “Hi Elliot,” she sing songs at me. I

smile and nod at her as I notice a look pass between them causing Paige’s face to go bright red.

“Have you been talking about me today?” I ask, grinning at her as she gets closer.

The answer she gives me is a coy smile, and a little shrug of the shoulders.

“Have fun lovebirds,” Andrea calls to us as she walks towards the station.

We both laugh as we say good bye and turn to walk in the other direction. I take a risk and grab her hand as we start to move,

interlacing our fingers and giving her a gentle squeeze. I’m rewarded with a smile and a body nudge as we walk quietly for a while,

hand in hand, enjoying our new closeness.

“So, Brian texted me earlier, he said everyone was heading down to the Hole to get some dinner and have a few drinks, you up for

it?” I ask her.

“Of course,” she smiles, meeting my eyes. The attraction between us buzzes through the air as it passes between us. We don’t say

a lot, we just walk together smiling stupidly. It’s hard to believe that something as minor as a hand hold would make me so

ridiculously happy, but it does.





Paige


The moment we reach the door to our flat, I drop Elliot’s hand, my disconnection causing him to look at me frowning.

“I feel kind of weird,” I explain.

“You feel weird?”

“I do - I’m sorry!” I grimace.

He sighs and lifts his hands to hold either side of my face. His touch causing a light headedness to overcome me, I have to fight to

keep my eyes open, so I can focus on him.

“Paige – this is your one and only chance to back out. Once we move things forward, I’m not willing to back off. It’s all or nothing

Paige. I can’t just be your friend anymore.”

His blue eyes are dark and serious, and I find myself staring up and him and nodding helplessly. My head didn’t even consult me – it

just started moving all by itself.

“What does that even mean?” he smiles as he watches my helpless nodding.

“Don’t back off,” I whisper.

“Then I won’t,” he says as he presses a kiss to my forehead before releasing me to push open the door, holding it until I step inside

before him.

We remove our coats and hang them on the pegs by the door, dropping my bag and his wallet and phone on the bookcase as we

pass in to the living area.

As per usual, there are bodies draped all over the couches and a mess all over the table. We say a quick hello to everyone, and I

take a look to see what they're watching on TV.

I laugh when I see it’s an Aussie soap called Home & Away. “You might as well all be back in Australia!” I tell them.

“I don’t want to miss out on the happenings of Summer Bay,” Naomi laughs without taking her eyes off the screen.

“But you’re going to be weeks behind anyway,” I point out.

Those watching, blow raspberries and wave me away laughing good naturedly, as I go into the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

“They probably don’t even watch it at home,” I say with amusement to Elliot as he follows meand leans against the bench top

watching me drink. I love the way he watches me, it feels like he’s caressing everywhere he looks from across the small space.

We both turn to the front door as it opens and Shane walks in with his girlfriend trailing behind him. “Hi,” she waves at me, I’ve met

her a couple of times, but I can’t for the life of me remember what her name is, it’s some sort of flower, or tree…

“Hi Shane, Hi Coral,” Elliot greets seamlessly.

“Hey,” Shane says taking off his jacket and hanging it next to ours. “How long til everyone’s ready to go?”

“They’re watching Home & Away so probably a good 15 minutes,” I tell him.

“Excellent, I’m busting for a dump.”

With wide eyes, we all grimace at each other after that stellar revelation from Shane.

“Way too much information,” I laugh as he disappears down the hallway towards the bathroom. I turn to his girlfriend, feeling the need

to change the subject. “So Coral, I don’t think you’ve ever told me how you and Shane hooked up.”

“Oh,” she says, making a face. “Nothing exciting, we just hooked up at the pub. I really liked his accent, so I was a pretty easy catch I

think.”

“He seems to like you a lot,” I offer. I'm shit at these conversations.

Coral just shrugs her shoulders looking slightly disheartened, I said the wrong thing – awesome. An uncomfortable silence stretches

out for what seems like forever before she shifts the conversation.

“How long have you two been together?” she asks looking from me to Elliot.

“Oh… I… we’re…” I stammer, freaking out a little about qualifying any sort of relationship at this early stage.

“We met on the plane over here,” Elliot puts in.

“Oh, you’ve been together a while then,” she comments.

“Seems that way doesn’t it?” I say eyeing Elliot, who’s standing against the bench grinning while he finishes off my glass of water.

Redirecting her, I ask a few more questions about her life while we wait, to be polite. She’s a little difficult to talk to, not wanting to

elaborate too much. It makes me wonder if that’s how I come across to people, thinking that perhaps I need to make the effort to

change that.