Learn to Love Again | George Weasley

39. Just Like Old Times

"Lee Jordan, professional Quidditch commentator and life long friend of this git. Pleasure to meet you."

Dhani let out a laugh and grasped his hand firmly, "Dhani Sarkar, Dragonologist and good friend of Charlie Weasley. It's great to meet you too."

At that same moment the bartender set Lee's drink in front of him, again proving that luck simply wasn't on George's side that night.

"Well, while I'd love to stay and chat, I've got a table full of lovely ladies waiting for me to keep them entertained. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around, Dhani." Lee smiled at him before hopping up from the seat and giving George a strong pat on the back as he walked by to return to their booth.

Instinctively Dhani's eyes followed Lee's path, seeing him join four women at the table. Though he couldn't see two of the brunette's faces, he did recognize Verity who was sitting next to a woman with long dark braids. Despite noticing that a curly head of blonde hair wasn't amongst the group, Dhani decided it was none of his business what George was up to. The two of them didn't really see eye to eye, through no fault of Dhani's of course, but he was smart enough to not pry into the man's business.

At least that was until the bartender placed two drinks in front of George. Knowing that he had bought a drink for one of the women at the table, Dhani simply couldn't bite his tongue anymore.

"How's Eloise?" he asked suddenly, before George had the chance to get up from the bar.

"She's fine."

"That's good. I was hoping to see her while I'm in town." Dhani said casually, keeping a careful eye on him to gauge his reaction.

George couldn't prevent himself from clenching his jaw slightly. Even though he and Eloise agreed that they were better off as friends while he figured his life out, that didn't stop him from feeling jealous over her new friendship with Maxwell. Dhani waltzing right back into the picture on top of it certainly wasn't helping make matters better for him.

"As far as I know she's leaving for France after the weekend, so I'm not sure she'll have time to see you." George said bluntly.

"I'll still send her an owl anyway just to see if she's free. Can't hurt, right?"

"I suppose." George muttered.

Just as if the night couldn't get any worse, over Dhani's shoulder George saw Alicia get up from the booth and make her way over to them. The woman who was probably just tired of waiting for her drink really didn't know the butterfly effect her meeting Dhani could potentially cause.

The horrible scenario was already playing out inside George's mind.

Alicia would casually introduce herself to Dhani, none the wiser to his past with Eloise. Dhani would send an owl to the blonde, asking to see her before she left to spend the holidays in France. The two of them would meet up, maybe to get coffee or dinner - it didn't really matter what. Eventually, the conversation would lead to George. Dhani would casually bring up running into him and Alicia at the Leaky Cauldron. Knowing George and Alicia were spending time together without her knowledge, even if it was purely platonic, would cause yet another rift between them. In the end, George would be left trying to desperately clean up another mess he'd caused, one he could have easily prevented by being honest with her in the first place.

Maybe he should have told her what his therapist said about reconnecting with people. Maybe he should have told her he was planning to spend more time with Alicia, as friends.

But there was no way of stopping any of this now, it was too late. Telling Dhani to not tell Eloise that he saw them together would be stupid. It would look incredibly suspicious even though he really wasn't doing anything bad. All he wanted to do was avoid any more unnecessary confrontation with her, especially if she was going to be France for several weeks with no way for them to resolve anything.