A Beautiful Forever

chapter 7

Elliot

I’m kind of feeling a little like a stalker, as I’ve started waiting for Paige after work most nights. It’s not like I’m hovering for hours

outside the salon being creepy – it's just that my train gets in maybe ten minutes before she finishes work so I wait for a little bit and

say hi before she heads back to Heathrow. I figure when she's staying at the flat as well then we can walk home together. I just

makes sense to me, why wouldn’t I wait ten minutes for a friend?

Paige

“Oh look, lover boy is outside waiting for you,” Andrea teases as she reconciles the receipts from the till and counts up the day’s

takings.

I look up from the pile of stray hairs I'm sweeping up and look outside to spot Elliot, trying not to let my mouth grin as much as it

wants to. I have to admit it’s nice that he’s always out there, waiting to have a five-minute conversation with me every day. Andrea

enjoys it too; she practically molests him with her eyes every time.

“If I wasn’t stepping on your toes, I would so be chasing after that boy. He is all kinds of delicious.”

“I assure you Andrea; my toes will not be squashed. Go for it,” I tell her flatly as I focus on attacking a stubborn piece of hair that won’t

move out of the grout in the tiles.

When I look up, she’s watching me with her eyebrows arched high on her forehead, “That broom and I both know you’re into him

Paige, you’re only trying to convince yourself.”

Choosing to ignore her comment, I finish sweeping and deposit the small pile in the bin before I move over to wash out the basins.

“You can go home now Paige. He's waited long enough,” Andrea says winking at me as she walks the bundled-up cash to the back

room to put into the safe.

I roll my eyes and laugh at her, “I’ll see you tomorrow then,” I call out.

I hear her make some sort of agreeable noise and collect my bag and coat from the cupboard in the front counter before heading

out the door.

“Hi Elliot,” I say as I exit the salon and walk towards him. A smile creeps over his face as he sees me, and I inwardly shake my head.

I don’t believe for a second that he isn’t interested in me.

“Hi, listen – We are having a get together tomorrow night to farewell Petra, and since you’re the new house mate, everyone wanted

me to invite you along.”

“Oh, ok – where is it?” I say, stopping a good metre away from him.

“Not sure, it’s dinner at a restaurant, and then they want to go dancing afterwards. You can come with all of us. I’ll walk with you to the

flat after work if you like,” he offers.

“Alright, tell everyone I’ll see them then. Bye Elliot,” I say as I back away from him heading off to station entrance. I look around as I

go through the gates, not really meaning to, but I can feel him watching me. A small smile curls up the side of my mouth as I shake

my head to myself. I’m going to have to watch out for this one.





Elliot


So here I am, in my stalker position again, waiting for Paige so we can go out with everyone for Petra’s farewell. It’s not that I’m glad

that Petra is leaving. I'm just happy because it means Paige is coming to stay in the flat. Having her living across the hall from me is

going to make it a hell of a lot easier to get to know her than seeing her for five minutes a few times a week is.

She walks out of the salon a little later than normal, but she’s changed into a long-sleeve wrap around dress and a pair of heels. Her

hair is straight and shiny and she only wears a tiny amount of makeup which I really like. I'm not a fan of women with big black lines

around their eyes and thick lipstick. It just looks fake to me – like they’re trying too hard or hiding themselves. I like it when they look

like they’re supposed to.

Stopping in front of me, she puts her hands on her hips, “Wow, you look gorgeous,” I say, actually no, I’m an idiot – I just gushed

about how gorgeous she is.

She raises her eyebrows, “You need to stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?” I ask holding my hands up, feigning innocence.

“Like you want to eat me,” she deadpans.

“What? You look gorgeous; I paid you a compliment.”

“Elliot, number one, I have a mirror, when my hair isn’t done, I look like a demented witch. When it is done, I still look like a witch – it’

s the eyes. Number two, me moving in isn’t going to change anything here – you’re not going to find yourself in me Elliot Roberts.”

I start laughing, for some reason that kind of sounded dirty to me. “Number One, you’re gorgeous and you know it, so don’t put

yourself down, and number two, I like you Paige Larsen, deal with it.”

She stands there looking at me, “I’m not starting anything with you.”

“I can like you and not f*ck you Paige – last I checked that was called being friends,” I’m not normally this blunt, but it seems the best

way to communicate with her.

Regarding me thoughtfully for a moment, she nods her head. “As long as we both know where we stand,” she says.

“You have made yourself loud and clear Paige, and just for the record, just because a guy is being nice to you, doesn’t always mean

his trying to get inside your pants.”

“That’s not my experience,” she says before hooking her bag over her shoulder and walking toward the exit. I follow along, quickly

catching up to walk next to her. I make sure to keep my distance, not wanting to give her the wrong impression.

Although, who am I kidding, she has the exact right impression.





Paige


Dinner is at some Indian restaurant. The food is superb, and it gives me a good opportunity to get to know some of the other house

mates – especially Naomi, who I’m to share a room with.

I pay as much attention to her as I can, asking lots of questions about her life and complimenting her at every opportunity, I don’t

want her to see me as someone who is vying for Elliot’s attention. I want us to get along.

“So what made you become a hairdresser?” she asks.

“I just kind of fell into it. Do you know how hard it is to actually create your hair colour?” I ask her, steering the conversation so we’re

focusing on her and not me.

“Really?” she says, “I’ve never done anything with it. I was actually thinking of becoming a red head, you know that nice auburn

colour?”

“Oh no, don’t do that your hair is amazing,” I tell her. She has light, natural blonde hair, a little longer than her shoulders. It’s streaked

with different shades of red, brown and caramel. We try to recreate that natural blonde look for women every day, but it never looks

as good as the real thing, I explain this to her. I can see her exhibiting a new appreciation of her god given colouring – and I think I’ve

just made myself a friend.

“You do that a lot, don’t you?” Elliot asks quietly at my side.

“Do what?” I question him, not understanding what he means.

“Deflect.”

Shifting uncomfortably, I meet his eyes, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He leans forward on the table and speaks in a low voice that only I can hear, “Sure you do – someone asks you a question, and you

give them a cryptic answer that leads to a question about them. You missed your calling as politician or a journalist maybe. It’s an

impressive skill.”

“Hmmm,” I don’t have anything else to say, so I just smile and wink at him (I have no idea why I winked. It just seemed like the thing to

do in that moment) before I turn away and begin a new conversation with Shane and Petra, who are seated on my other side.

When dinner is over, I try to beg off so I can go back to my hotel but the others won’t hear of it, “You can’t go home now,” Naomi

says, “the fun part hasn’t even happened yet! You can stay with us on the couch tonight if you’re worried about going back to your

hotel alone. You’re moving in tomorrow afternoon anyway.”

“Thanks Naomi, but I still have to go back there to pack my things and be out by ten in the morning.”

“No problem, we’ll get Shane to drive you out there and collect your things – he won’t mind,” she insists.

“Naomi, it’s…” I watch as she rushes over to Shane and asks if he can help me out in the morning. They both give me a thumbs up

and nod their heads, letting me know everything has been sorted.

Elliot moves in next to me, “Gee, you’d think she’d know you well enough to let you make your own choices, especially after you

shared so much about yourself earlier,” he comments, the sarcasm practically dripping off his words.

“What, and you know me so much better?” I say in retort.

He shakes his head, “No, I don’t know anything about you.” He walks backwards, watching me for a few steps, before turning around

and catching up to the other guys as we walk towards the night club.

Petra and Naomi fall in either side of me, “You are going to love this place Paige,” Petra gushes. “There’s always great music and

tons of people, we go and get drunk and then dance until we can’t walk anymore.”

“Sounds great,” I laugh.

“It’s better than great,” Naomi points out. “We booked a table on the mezzanine level, tonight is going to be epic, and since you don’t

have to worry about going back to your hotel, you get to cut loose with us.”

Sneaking a few glances, I watch Elliot as he interacts with the other guys – I’m not sure if he’s annoyed with me or just teasing.

Either way, I feel kind of lonely without him next to me – he’s kind of been growing on me this past week.