Chapter 50: Rivals, Part 8

Michael

It’s chilly up here on the roof garden, but the view is astonishing, with a full circle panorama right across the City as far as the mountains one way, and to the sea the other. Charlotte wants to watch the New Year fireworks and there’s not a better viewing spot than this.

She leans over the wall looking down…. way down….

How high are we? Thirty stories? More?

“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” I say. “It’s an awfully long drop. You’re not Rapunzel, you know. Letting down your hair isn’t going to produce a handsome prince.”

She grins, “Just watching the world go by….” Then she hooks her arm into mine, leaning into me, her head on my shoulder. “As for princes….”

There’s a warm glow inside me. I wish this could last and keep lasting. But then, that gnawing ache returns….

I’m going to lose you….

…. to him….

I realise that she’s not looking out or down anymore, but at me. Although she’s trying to hide it, she’s watching me from the corner of her eye.