✓ | GOLDEN LIAR ↠ Thomas Shelby.

24.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

              LEANING ACROSS THE BAR, laughter spilled from Felicity's lips as she kept herself busy and entertained with the brunet who just so happened to be one of the two people remaining in the Garrison. Freddie Thorne had taken to spending his days trailing through Small Heath in feeble, frequent attempts to find a job that would take him and his notorious communist reputation. . . yet, not to Felicity's surprise, he would often find himself wound up in the bar, drinking to escape the search and to get away from Ada's pestering. More often than not, it was he who kept Felicity company in the lonelier hours of the day, and although she wished he would just go out and get even the smallest of jobs to keep him and his wife afloat, she was glad for the idle laughter and tales that they would share over the drinks and shiny wooden top of the Garrison's bar.

"I'm just saying!" Freddie tilted his head back to disperse of the final few drops of beer that remained in his glass before he continued with his loud words. "I may be bored out of my God damn mind but that doesn't mean I'm about to walk through those fucking doors again and grovel for my old job back. We're desperate, sure, but not desperate enough to deny everything I ever argued over."

Felicity shot him a glare that was only half serious. "You're pathetic," she declared after a moment. "Freddie Thorne, you are a prime example as to why men can be so bloody useless. . . you know that, right?"

"You are not serious, Tia."

The girl shrugged. "Sure I am!" She said. "You're all the same ― stubborn 'til the end, but you have the audacity to go and blame it on family pride. I say that's bullshit: your family would prefer it if you throw down a loaf of bread on the table rather than have you hold your head up high and refuse a job. Pride my ass."

Freddie huffed. "And to think that I used to see you as the kindest soul of Small Heath," he sighed, and nudged his glass over towards her once again.

Felicity raised an eyebrow at him. "No," she decided immediately. "You've had enough ― that was clear a while ago, actually."

"Fill it up again and I'll go out and get that fuckin' job afterwards, alright?"

She pursed her lips together for a mere moment before sighing. "Yeah, right," Felicity laughed eventually, as she obliged and filled the glass up once more from the small gathering of beer bottles beside her.

"Ta."

Felicity nodded before returning to her thoughts. She still could hardly believe that this was what she had come to, that this was her life now and it wasn't all a bizarre dream that had come to be in the most restless of sleeps. More often than not, she awoke in her beloved's arms and whilst recently he had a more distracted way about him than normal, that hardly mattered. Tommy repeatedly assured her that if anything were to happen, if he were to discuss something with John Woods, then he would alert her before anyone else. That was the deal. . . and even though that didn't stop the anxieties from creeping upon her every so often, it meant he was less worried about her. Not that he wouldn't still privately agonize over her safety if he ever thought her to be in danger ― Tommy Shelby didn't think that that would ever happen. And whilst he kept telling himself that she was alright, little did he know that Felicity Woods was doing the same over him.

The door opened with a heavy crash against the wall and as Felicity was startled from her mind, her eyes fell upon the man that had just emerged through the pub's threshold and her breath immediately hitched in her throat.

"Fred," she hissed. "Can I have a moment?"

The man simply nodded, and so she took his arm hurriedly and pulled him behind the bar and through the door, towards the backroom. Her heart beat wildly ― far too fast to be normal, far too fast for her to not pay attention to it, but she pushed through and avoided agonizing over it. Instead, Felicity turned from the door and towards Freddie.