Learn to Love Again | George Weasley

42. Countdown

George rolled his eyes. Of course he wanted Alicia there, but he wanted Eloise as well. He looked over towards the kitchen where she and Charlie were setting up all the drinks. Unable make out what they were saying, he watched them smile and chuckle at what the other way saying. They seemed to be getting along well enough, almost everyone seemed to be mostly fine with Alicia's return into George's life. Everyone except for Verity who did very little to hide her disdain.

While it frustrated him to no end to know one of his closest friends would never be accepting of this particular choice, part of him couldn't help but wonder if she was the only one who was looking at the situation realistically. Or maybe Verity simply couldn't let go of a grudge. The girl was the most loyal person George knew, any time someone wronged a loved one Verity rarely forgave them.

Still, George knew it was selfish to crave the attention of both women, he wasn't that oblivious. But it was beginning to look like it would never work out that way anyway. Eloise seemed like she wanted very little to do with Alicia, and honestly that was completely fair. Picturing both women together in one room was far fetched, it was as if one couldn't exist at the same time as the other.

That's why George had carefully omitted certain information when he invited Eloise to the party.

It was a foolishly naive plan but George told himself it would all be fine if Eloise didn't know about Alicia until she absolutely had to. The backlash hadn't crossed his mind, even though it didn't take a genius to know the potential of it ending in disaster was rather high. All he wanted was to have Eloise around again, he missed her desperately. Even if it meant he wasn't the one to comfort her anymore, even if it meant he had to watch her spend the entire night with Maxwell, that would be fine. Just being in the same room as her was all he wanted.

After laughing at something Charlie said, Alicia looked over and made eye contact with George. She gave him a kind smile as she set down a bottle of firewhisky on the counter before walking over to where he was standing with Verity.

"It really does look incredible in here." Alicia praised as she gazed up towards the ceiling.

"Thanks." Verity replied curtly before brushing past her and joining Charlie in the kitchen.

"Don't mind her." George tried to reassure Alicia as her face fell into a frown.

"I know we weren't really close before but I feel like everyone has been kind to me or at least civil since I came back. Everyone but her."

"She's very good at holding a grudge. But I think she's also a bit annoyed with me tonight, so try not to think about it too much."

Alicia gave him a slight smile with a nod, "Okay."

The door to the flat opened a moment later and Ginny walked in with Luna who brought along a homemade cake of some sort that had been wrapped up nicely in a light pink box. The gesture was kind, but the baked good smelled curiously of lemons and smoke which caused some hesitation from George.

"Oh, uh... thanks Luna." he muttered as he reluctantly took the box from her hands.

"You're welcome!" she smiled brightly, "It's a recipe my mum wrote when I was little. I think she might've mixed up the ingredients with some research she was doing on fire-breathing potion, but I always make it for special occasions."