Louder Than Words // Andrew Garfield

iii. real life

FLORENCE DELAYED MOVING INTO TOM'S FOR AS LONG AS SHE COULD. Despite voluntarily deciding she'd move out and let Ben stay at the house as they carried on with lockdown. She knew she had to leave early into their quarantine because as much as it was mutual, she still loved Ben and they were still the best of friends. Florence also knew that, that shit was going to be hard and living with your ex whilst you're confined to your house wasn't going to end well and she didn't want to end up resenting him in anyway.

The brunette had been settled into Tom's house for three weeks now and so far so good, being trapped in the house with Tom, Harrison and his brother Harry hadn't been a total terrible experience. I mean there was an abundance of wet towels on the bathroom floor but she was going to get through to them about it, sooner rather than later. Although Florence was sure that with time that she'd want to bash her head against a wall, or  their heads against one once they started to irritate her because lets be real here; she loved them boys but she had also known them a long time and they knew how to press her buttons and not in a good way!

Florence would be lying if she said she hadn't sat and thought about Ben whilst she settled into life with the boys as they navigated themselves during the pandemic. It was a lot of puzzles, a lot of wine drinking, a lot of starting a work out with Tom and then very quickly bailing because the boy was literally insane and she couldn't keep up.

It was a lot of pondering on life and if she had kept her relationship a secret would they have weathered the storm that was the internet's opinion. Ben was a completely private person but neither of them saw the harm in commenting on one another's social medias or a photo every now and again. But it felt that as soon as the public found out, the hounds were out for blood and they didn't want Florence anywhere near their internet boyfriend.

Florence understood to an extent. When she was growing up, she loved Zac Efron and when he started dating Vanessa Hudgens, Florence was heartbroken. In no way shape or form did she jump on an internet forum (remember 2006 was pre twitter and instagram) and send hate to the girl and she would never dream of doing it to anyone now, no matter what was going on.

The response to her relationship had been wild to say the least. Especially about their age gap, which to be perfectly honest she didn't really understand because she had friends and knew of couples who had bigger age gaps and it didn't bother them. So the fact Ben was twelve years older never bothered her nor him and it never even crossed their minds to bother them, so the fact it so called effected everyone else was always lost on them.

Until it wasn't. Florence doesn't think she could pin point when it happened and if she asked Ben, he probably couldn't either but one day recently the two of them were going about their day and the two of them shared a look, that they just understood. They loved each other but they knew their time together had run its course. Florence cried. Ben cried. But they vowed to still support one another, to love one other and most importantly still be the best of friends because at the end of the day, that's what he was. Ben was her best friend.

So as she curled her feet underneath her bum and drifted off into the memory of their last goodbye, Florence hadn't even realised she had completely left the facility until Tom was putting a good ole' cup of Yorkshire tea in front of her and pulling her into his arms.

***

Descending the stairs of her shared home with Ben, her final suitcase of clothes in hand. Her brunette beau raced up the final few stairs and took it off her hands before returning to the bottom of the flight of stars and waiting for Florence to join him. Muttering a small 'thank you' as she reached him before finally looking up and meeting his eyes.

Reaching out to entangle their hands, Ben sent Florence a sad smile as he pulled her close and enveloping her into his arms. Florence immediately wrapping her arms around his middle as she looked up into his big brown eyes. "This is the goodbye isn't it?" Ben whispered and before Florence could get a word out, Ben's hands were cradling Florence's face in his big hands and pressing his lips to her in a soul crushing kiss.

Pressing up against him, Florence tried to get as close as she could as Ben said goodbye. Her hands almost instantaneously reaching up wind up in his hair at the back of his neck as she said goodbye to him too. Upon pulling away from one another, Ben's lips pressed against her forehead immediately there after the fact they'd shared their last kiss.

"I'll love you always Florence Falcone."

"Me too, Ben Barnes. Me too."

Pressing a kiss to the handsome man's cheek one last time, Florence slipped out of their house and into Tom's awaiting car as he drove her away from the man she thought she'd spend the rest of her life with.

***

Tom placed the cup of tea on the coffee table and pulled his best friend into his arms. Florence hadn't even realised she had tears silently streaming down his face until Tom's hands were cradling her face and sweeping his thumbs across her cheekbones and wiping them away. "You're thinking about that day again, aren't you? It'll get better. I promise." Florence managed to crack a small smile, as he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.

"Yeah, I hope so."

{author's note} This will probably be the last chapter that is centred around Ben. We're just warming up and setting the scene for Florence and now we're going to get into her and her first encounter with Andrew and getting into the story. I'm not sure how it's going to go, I've got ideas for chapters but they're for in the middle of the story, like the two of them have already met etc. so it's then getting there before they can get to that point you know.