DreamInColour
© 2004
“It’s for the best mate, she never liked me
anyway.”
“Birds never like you Dom.”
“That’s not what Kylie was telling me last
night.”
“Not something I want to know,” Orlando
laughed.
“I don’t think any of us wanted to know that,”
Elijah Wood grimaced, “Yet he gives us details all the same.”
“…she was this red head from…” Dominic Monaghan
continued.
“The funny thing is he doesn’t even realise we
aren’t listening,” Billy Boyd laughed, “He just keeps going.”
“Oh I realise it,” Dom stopped his rant and
smucked his friend in the back of the head, “So seriously Orli, she finished
with you?”
“About an hour ago.”
“Why now?” Elijah asked.
“Because I wouldn’t throw out photos of Mia and
myself. She said that if we were going
to stay together I had to remove Mia from OUR home.”
“Wait, wait,” Dom waved his hands in front of
Orlando, “She finished with you because of a mate of yours that you haven’t
seen in over a year?”
“That’s about it.”
“Not worth it mate,” Billy raised his glass.
“At all,” Elijah joined him.
“Besides we all know you want the Mia bird
anyway. Didn’t you two shag just before
you got this job?” Dom asked.
“Enough about me,” Orlando changed the subject,
“Let’s mock Dom instead.”
“Ooh yeah!” Billy clapped, “Let’s!”
“I’m game, let’s talk about Dom…how about the
fact that he’s staring at the bartender,” Elijah added.
Not breaking his gaze Dom protested, “I’m not!
I’m…appreciating the native scenery,” He winked when the woman caught his eye.
“Native scenery?” Billy scoffed, “You must
think we’re daft.” He stood up, “Let an old codger show you how it’s done.”
“Wait Billy no,” Dom got up to follow, “I’m baiting
my time to make my move…Billy…aww bollocks.”
“Don’t want to talk about Mia?” Elijah asked
once the two were gone.
“Nothing to say.” Orlando said absently, “So
you have to be in for feet tomorrow?”
If it killed him he was going to change this subject. His mind wandered back to the last time he
saw Mia.
“Is
she coming?” Orlando scanned the airport as his sister hoisted his bags onto
the belt.
“She said she’d be
here, she just moved to London last week I don’t see why she’d be late.” Sam
answered while handing his passport to the check in clerk.
“She’s going to miss
me if she’s not here soon.”
Smiling at the clerk,
who was trying to get a good look at her brother, Sam took his boarding pass
and grabbed his arm, “Orli, she’ll be here!”
“I just…” He trailed
off he just couldn’t talk about it. He was highly insecure about what had
happened between them three months previous. Accompanied by the fact that she
refused to talk about it didn’t help his security at all.
“It was bound to
happen sooner or later.” Sam said with an affectionate pat on his arm, “You’ve
spoken with her since Christmas and she’s come to see you hasn’t she?”
“Yeah, but we haven’t
really said anything about it, it’s like it happened and she doesn’t want to
talk about it,” He explained, “And now she’s distant, like she wants to tell me
something but she won’t.”
“I’m sure you’re just
nervous about this job, sweetie.” Sam tried to reassure him then smiled, “See
there she is.”
Mia ran through the
airport stopping abruptly in front of him, “I’m sorry I’m late I…uh,” She
looked up into his eyes, “I’m sorry.”
He put his hands on her shoulders,
“You’re here now.”
She
couldn’t take it, looking down she mumbled, “I’m going to miss you.”
“Are you?” He tilted
her chin so she looked at him.
“Of course,” The tears
were sitting in her eyes, not yet falling.
“What aren’t you
telling me love?” He asked.
She debated with
herself for a millisecond then put on a smile and wrapped her arms around his
neck, “I’m so proud of you,” She said into his ear, “You’re going to be great.”
“You know you can
trust me right?” He wasn’t giving this up.
She gulped the tears
then pulled back to look at him, “With my life,” She put a hand to his face,
“Go, do this for yourself,” She lightly brushed his lips with her own, “You’ll
be famous.”
He looked at her, deep
into her eyes, she wasn’t telling him something, but he just didn’t have the
time to force it out of her. He smiled
and tapped her nose, “Only you think I’ll be famous.”
“Hey!” Sam protested,
“I do too.”
“Birds fawn over him
already, it’ll be insane after this.” Mia said with a laugh happy for this
break in serious conversation.
Orlando blushed,
“You’re both daft.”
“We’re both right.”
They said in unison.
“I’m sorry Mia I wish I could keep her longer but
my sister just went in for surgery.”
“It’s okay Tish,” Mia cradled Cassia in one arm
and smiled at her neighbour, “I’ll just have to take her to Sainsburys with
me.”
Tish waved as she left. “Bye my little Cassie,”
She called.
“Looks like you get to come with your mam.” Mia
nuzzled her daughter’s face. Twenty minutes later she was walking down one of
the stores aisles trying to decide which new fruit blend of baby food she was
going to purchase.
“Mia? Love is that you?”
Her blood ran cold, she looked for a place to
escape but she was stuck, she couldn’t exactly grab Cassia and take off at a
dead sprint! She turned slowly, “Sonia!”
“My word!” Sonia exclaimed, “Liza never told me
you had a baby.”
Lifting Cassia out of her carrier Mia held her
close and tried to get away, “I asked her not to.”
“Why in the world would you do that? Who’s the
father? Is he that lad you worked with?”
“Umm well no…”
“Come Mia,” Sonia got close, “Let’s have a
look.”
She really had no choice she passed her
daughter over to Sonia, “Her name is Cassia.”
“Oh she’s absolutely lovely,” Sonia grinned at
the child, “Hello Cassia don’t you have the most beautiful eyes and her hair’s
so curly, she’s absolutely…” Sonia trailed off.
Mia was sure her teeth were grinding in
anticipation of the impact.
“She has a beautiful complexion Mia, a bit
darker than yours.”
Mia cleared her throat, “Yes she does.”
“The father Mia, who is he?”
She was stuck there was nothing she could say,
literally, it was like her tongue was stuck all she could do was stare at
Orlando’s mother with wide eyes and desperately wish she was somewhere
else. Oh why did Tish’s sister have to
have surgery today?
“Mia? Hunny?”
She wasn’t going to cry if she thought hard
enough she could…oh bollocks this wasn’t going to work she just nodded, it was
all she could cognitively do at that point.
“Oh Mia,” Sonia’s voice held emotion as she
looked down at Cassia with a whole new appreciation, “Why didn’t you tell him?”
Finally giving the woman eye contact Mia
shrugged heavily; “I couldn’t bare to be the reason he didn’t take this
opportunity.” She sniffed forcing the tears back like she always did, “He needs
to do these movies.”
“He also needs to know about his daughter Mia,
you must tell him,” Sonia urged.
“I don’t know if I can,” Mia accepted Cassia
back and smiled down at the contended baby who seemed completely oblivious to
all that was going on around her. She
was thoroughly fascinated with a key ring she’d been chewing on.
Sonia sighed and placed a hand on Mia’s arm,
“You have to love. I do not mean to be harsh, but if you don’t…I will. Please
come round soon Samantha will want to see her niece.”
It took every ounce of her strength to get out
of the grocery store and back to her flat without any incident. She even managed to feed, change and nurse
Cassia before putting her to sleep.
Then the emotion took over, she sat on the sofa in her living room drew
her knees to her chest and cried, like she usually did, alone.