FRIENDS

Every man that saw her turned his head to look at her. If you looked at her she looked like she was just turning twenty.

I could not blame them though. Her skin was clear like that of a baby. Even in the long hideous clothes that she wore her body figure could still be seen.

Maybe it was because of her mother's strong genes that did not make her age at all and made her look that good. At twenty-seven years old all she wanted to do was get a permanent job.

It had been hard to get jobs if you did not have a man on the inside and she wondered if all those years she had spent studying would go to waste.

She cm locked her house and was ready to go to work. She had to go to the coffee shop for her shift first before she went to the hospital in the evening.

It was a tiresome routine but she had already gotten used to it.

"Good morning Erin, "said the blacksmith as she passed by his shop.

She had known him since she was little. He had been friends with her father so she had seen him around a lot of times.

He tried to take her in when she was little after her parent's death but she did not want to be a burden to him. He was already having a hard time providing for his family.

Most women her age had already been married and had kids. She always thought that everyone was career-oriented like her.

All she wanted was to be addressed as a doctor and not miss. She had worked so hard for that dream that she could not wait to correct anyone who called her to miss.

"Good morning Erin", said Curtis Arlington.

They had become friends after years of Erin working for them and they quite enjoyed each other's company.

It was more of a platonic relationship even though in the eyes of other people they thought that maybe he was courting Erin.

As if the son of the governor would ever want someone like her. He was seeking to marry a girl from a rich family and not go to the garbage and pick out the flower that was blooming.

"Good morning Curtis, what are you doing here ?", she asked him.

"Nothing I was just around the neighborhood and thought I should come by and say hi ", he said as they started to walk towards the direction of his carriage.

"You can't tell me that you came from Shallot town and thought of coming to this pit stack to say hello ", she said.

"I know it is hard to believe but I did. I haven't seen you in a while ", he said.

"You saw me last week ", she said.

"Well that is a long time given the fact that all the people I meet are old people who piss me off", he said.

He had always admired her. He would never have achieved the things that she had done if he was all alone. She always pushed through whatever obstacles came her way.

There was no way someone like him would be in love with someone like her. There was no way his father was going to support him.

He wasn't even sure if she liked him. She always treated him like a platonic friend. He did not know what was wrong with him though.

There were thousands of girls who wanted him but somehow he was still fixated on the one girl who did not want anything to do with him.

It was better to love her from a distance than tell her and end up rejected. What he didn't know was that loving someone from a distance hurt like a hell.

Seeing other people that wanted her making their moves pissed him. He was the one who deserved her not anyone else and he thought that maybe if he spent a lot of time with her he would scare away the suitors.

Not even a prince would drive away a man who wanted someone.

"You seem like you are deep in thought is something wrong ?", Erin asked Curtis.

"Nothing I just wanted to breathe and you are the only person I can talk to but it looks like you are busy ", he said with a grim look on his face.

"Would you prefer to sit in a coffee shop than your room?", she asked him.

"Yeah if it means I get to talk to you I don't have a problem ", he said smiling at her.

To her, it was just a friend looking out for another. He was glad he had someone like her on his side to listen to him.

Did she find him attractive? Yes but that had been a long time ago. She had buried those thoughts far away because she knew that nothing would ever happen between the two of them.

There was no use in fantasizing about something that you could not have. She was okay with having him as just a friend.

"Okay then let's go ", she said.

"Wait when did you start to work at the coffee shop ?", he asked her as he held her hand and helped her up the carriage.

People stared at them but it was not something they had already been used to. Women whispered to each other wondering what he saw in her.

"Two weeks ago ", she said.

"And you didn't think that it was important to tell me ?", he asked her.

"I don't think that it was that important", she said shrugging her shoulders.

"Everything you do is important, if you needed help with bills you know you could have just asked me right ?", he asked her as he met out a frustrated sigh.

He had offered her help a lot of times but she always declined it every time. She never wanted it to look like she was taking advantage of his status.

"Yeah I know ", she said.

"Then why don't you ask for help? You can't work for eighteen hours your body will give up ", he said to her.

He had offered help to her and every time she said no when he knew that she needed all the help she could get. She always said no because she somehow thought she would do it all alone.

She could but it was not good for her and he wondered why it was so hard for her to accept help when she knew she needed it.