The Taste of Silver | Fortune's Fool #2

13 | change is good

It wasn't wrong of me to need time for myself to recover. But it was wrong of me to rip the entire carpet out from his feet and then expect him to manage.

A stinging lump formed in my throat as words played back through my head. My knees felt weak as I thought about how different and cold he looked. Mature. Gabriel was never mature. That was the last thing on the list of his character traits.

But my life so far had given me a tonne of experience in dealing with ghosts. Well, at least I had practice. It was now a question of whether I could bring one back to life.

God, I hoped I could. Because the few words that were exchanged between us  had already told me that this was going to be hard.

Louisa, you have got to stop freezing up wherever he is around. You froze up six months ago and you froze up during the Ball.

I was working on that.

I snapped myself out of it this time.

"Lex, you need to talk to him. I can't have you and Prince not getting along. I'm sure he wants a chance to explain. Give him that."

Pin straight walnut hair briefly covered the sides of her face as she looked down. "Yeah, maybe." I noticed how her shoulders sagged a little. She'd been deflated and disappointed about the things Prince had said about her in the past.

Pierre didn't have much idea what was going on yet he'd begun piecing things together rather fast. "I'm staying with Prince as my exchange partner. How about you come with me when I go back to the house? It will give you a chance to talk."

She silently nodded.

It didn't take too long for me to get to the office. The city train line wasn't too busy as it was a Sunday and most people weren't working.

A weird feeling formed an orb in my chest as I entered the corporate side of London. The last time I'd come here had been the time I'd seen my father with a Lexi. A repulsion filled me at the thought but I reminded myself that people change. I'd changed so much too that I'd be a hypocrite to not acknowledge that the same happens with others.

Glancing at the large glass building that looked the same as those around it, I pushed open the double doors and went to the receptionist. I hadn't been here enough times for her to recognise me.

She was fairly young as if she had just graduated from university and this was her first job. "Hi, how can I help you?"

"I've got a meeting with Mr and Mrs Darling. At 1 pm."

Curiosity filled her eyes as she jumped between me and her computer screen in a repetitive cycle. It wasn't every day that she saw somebody meeting the founder of their company. "Here. Take this card and go up to floor 53 and- oh my god, you're their daughter, aren't you?"

A trace of a smile flickered on my face, "Yes, I am."

This was the first time in far too long that I wasn't ashamed to have them as my parents and it felt good.

Change is good.

"I see it now. Your cheeks and lips are like your mothers whilst your eyes are like Mr Darling," she commented, studying me kindly before breaking out of her daze. "Anyway, take this card and go up-"

"-to floor 53," I completed with a smile. "Got it."

Her mouth broke into a youthful grin as I held my nude handbag looser on my shoulder and began turning. "Thanks for your help. Have a good day."

"You too."

When I entered the room, the pair of them were discussing some future projects that other teams had pitched to them and were deciding which would be most effective. It had been a few months since I'd last seen them.