DreamInColour
© 2004
“Mia love would you come down and help your
mum?” Liza called after her daughter.
“One minute!” She called back as she checked
her image in the mirror for the umpteenth time that night.
“You look lovely dear.” Her mom’s voice
startled her so she jumped.
“Mother! I wasn’t…” She blushed.
Liza smiled, “I’m sure he can’t wait to see you
either love, now I really need you to help me.”
With one last glance Mia nodded, “Right, I’m
coming.”
An hour later there was a ring at the front
door, which made Mia’s heart starting pounding somewhere near her throat. She’d spent the better part of five years
telling herself that he wouldn’t affect her anymore and there she was, heart
racing, sight unseen.
Liza answered the door with a smile and a hug
for her friend Sonia, “It’s been yonks since you’ve been round,” She exclaimed.
Sonia laughed and kissed the air on either side
of Liza’s face, “Life’s been busy. I’ve just been up to London to see Orli in
his latest play.”
“Ah yes,” Liza at him as he entered the home a
step after his mother, “And how is school, all right?”
He mimicked his mother in his greeting of Liza;
“It’s all right.” His answer was absent minded as he looked over her shoulder.
Mia heard his voice and almost didn’t go into
the front entrance of the home, she almost ran upstairs, but Sonia noticed her.
“Mia! It’s been too long, let’s have a look.”
She reached for the girl and turned her around
in front of her, “She looks more like you every day Liza.”
Liza laughed, “I think she’s far more striking
than I ever was.”
“Mother stop.” Mia said feeling the blush creep
up onto her cheeks.
“She’s right,” Orlando interjected, “You are
beautiful, come here.” He reached for her and wrapped his arms around her
waist.
Shocked by the instant contact it took her a
moment to respond. Wrapping her arms
around his neck she laughed when he picked her up and spun her around, “It’s
good to see you again Orli.”
Setting her down he stepped back and tapped her
nose, “Let’s not do this five year thing ever again.”
“Let’s not,” She agreed.
“Brilliant,” He said in a way that reminded her
of that time long ago when they sat on the swings together.
Later on that evening Orlando and Mia found
themselves outside walking in the damp weather. They wanted to catch up and had been slightly bombarded by their
mother’s constant babble.
“So where’s Sam?” Mia asked as the headed in
the direction of Sonia’s home a mere couple of blocks away.
“In India, her new boyfriend is from there and
they decided to go on holiday this week.”
“So it’s just you, your mom and Colin for
Christmas then?” She asked.
He nodded, “He had to work tonight, but he’ll
be all about the festivities tomorrow.”
A silence followed. The two mates who had known each other practically forever
couldn’t think of a word to say to each other.
Then it started to rain.
“Bollocks!” Orlando grumbled then grabbed Mia’s
hand, “Come we’re closer to mine.”
She didn’t say anything just tried in vain to
shield herself from the downpour as they raced down the street. It was funny by
the time they got to his mother’s. Mia
blew wet hair out of her face and giggled, “I’m soaked.”
Orlando ran his hand through his wet hair and
laughed with her, “You and me both, you know I think Sam still has some stuff
in her room. Let’s get dry.” He kept
firm hold of her hand and pulled her upstairs to the bedrooms.
In passing the linen closet he pulled out two
towels and handed her one, “Here.”
She just smiled and accepted the towel trying
not to notice how gorgeous he looked with water running down his face.
After rooting through a drawer for a bit he
pulled out a t-shirt and some old jeans, “They aren’t much, but they’re dry.”
Accepting the clothes Mia smiled, “Thank you.”
He grinned, “No trouble, now go change I’ll
meet you downstairs.”
She was slow in changing out of her clothes,
because she was still trying to catch up with the feeling of being around him
again. Bundling her clothes into a pile
she made her way down where he was making a scene in the kitchen. “Go ahead and
throw them in the dryer, I was just on the phone to our mams, said we’d return
when the rain lets up.”
Again she merely nodded and went to put her wet
clothes in the dryer. The jeans fit her
rather nicely, so did her shirt which didn’t bode well since her undergarments
were being dried at that moment. She
shook the thought out of her head, this was Orli her friend and mate for years,
that’s it.
He regarded her when she returned, “Why so
quiet Mia? I seem to remember a Mia that I could not get to shut up and you’ve
said close to nothing to me all night. Have I offended you in some way?”
“No, no I just…it’s just taking me a moment to
catch up to the fact that you’re really here.”
“Well,” He walked up to her and patted her arm,
“I’m really here and I made a fire, come on.”
Taking her hand he pulled her into the front room, “Have a seat.”
She sat in front of the fire and leaned back on
her arms to take in all the warmth, “Mmm,” She murmured with her eyes closed,
“I didn’t realize I was so cold.”
“I did,” He muttered and sat down next to her.
“What?” Her eyes flew open.
He didn’t look directly at her just smirked and
changed the subject; “Do you remember Kyle McGovern?”
“Creepy Kyle?
The one who was constantly trying to look up girl’s skirts?” She asked.
Orlando laughed, “Yeah, that Kyle, I ran into
him at a pub a few weekends ago. He
asked after you.”
Mia shuddered, “He used to follow me home
whenever you had footie practice.”
“He almost followed ME home when I told him I
was seeing you,” Orlando said with a chuckle, “Practically begged me to let him
come along.”
“I always attract the wankers,” Mia said with a
shake of her head.
“Thanks a lot!” He exclaimed.
Sitting up Mia turned to look at him, “What? I
never attracted you!”
“How do you know that?” He sat up next to her
and raised an eyebrow.
“I was your mate. You weren’t attracted to me,
only those tarts with large knockers and blonde hair.”
“What was I going to do? Speak with you about
fancying you?” He said with a laugh, “that wouldn’t have done at all now would
it?”
“You fancied me?” She asked incredulously, “You
must be joking.”
He placed an arm behind her and leaned on it so
he was inches from her face, “Do I look like I’m joking?”
“Orli,” Mia said with reservation trying to
lean away from him, “Don’t do something you’ll regret.”
“I’ll only regret it if you don’t want me to.”
His breath was on her cheek.
She could hardly breathe, “I want you to, I
just…”
“Good enough for me.” He leaned in and slowly
covered her lips with his own. She had imagined him kissing for so many years
now she couldn’t think of one dream to compare it to, either way it was
complete heaven. She’d never believed in the ‘one thing lead to another’ excuse
until that happened to her. She found she couldn’t have stopped it if she
wanted to try. She wanted him and he obviously wanted her so she had no
intention of telling him to stop. He was like a dream come true, it was a
beautiful surreal moment that she had never thought would be hers.
It was three months later when he found out he
had been cast in Lord of the Rings as Legolas one of the principal
characters. It was also when Mia found
out she was pregnant.
“You have to tell him.” Liza advised her
daughter.
“Mother I can’t tell him. He just got the role
of a lifetime you and I both know that he won’t go if he knows and I can’t let
him do that. He can’t miss out on this opportunity mother. He can’t.”
“He should at least know.” Liza argued.
“I’ll tell him, when the time is right and not
before.” Mia said firmly, “Please mother I can do this.”
“Oh love I know you can.” Liza hugged her,
“You’ve got a fantastic job and you certainly aren’t a teenager anymore. I just wish you didn’t have to do this alone
and I think he’d want to know.”
“I know he would, just not right now.” Mia
conceded, “He needs to focus, I’ll tell him soon enough.”
She really had intended to tell him, at least
before Cassia had been born, but by then he was so in love with his life in New
Zealand and had found himself a wonderful girlfriend. Mia couldn’t bring herself to upset his life when it was going so
smoothly for him. Cassia was a great
baby, calm, bright and absolutely beautiful.
Mia knew that part of the reason she didn’t tell him was because she
wanted him to be able to live his life.
She also knew that the main reason was because she was afraid and she didn’t
even know what she was afraid of. Cassia was almost eight months old and Liza
was strongly encouraging Mia to tell him.
The question was could she get passed her fear?
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