when worlds collide [george russell]

Chapter 39

"How...How was it?" George asked as Willow sat down in the passenger seat next to him as he picked her up from her first therapy appointment. On their way there he had brought her into the building and waited until she was in the room with the therapist. He used the time during her session to get some groceries so she wouldn't have to join him in case she didn't want to be in public after her first therapy session and so they could go straight home together now.

"It was-," Willow thought about it for a second, "It was nice. I like her. She made me feel really comfortable." George placed his hand on her thigh and mindlessly stoked her skin with his thumb. " That's lovely to hear" he said then and gave her a quick smile before he had to focus on the traffic again. When they were parked in front of his place he still had his hand on her thigh, turned to her and pressed a kiss on her lips. "I love you." Willow blushed at him with a smile forming on her lips. " And I'm proud of you".

Three weeks and three therapy sessions later things were looking even brighter then before all this. Willow was finally joining George for a race weekend the coming weekend, they had gotten back to playing tennis together every chance they got and the rest of the time Willow was drawing in the middle of Georges living room which she had made into her atelier now with canvases everywhere and tubes of paint laying on every surface. The painting helped her additionally to the therapy, it helped her express her feelings when she couldn't do it with words so George didn't mind her occupying the whole living room.

Willow woke up to an empty bed on a Tuesday - their usual tennis day. After a look at the alarm clock which displayed 9.30 she quickly got up and changed into her tennis skirt and athletic shirt. "Shit tennis is in 30 minutes. Where is George? Why did he not wake me?" she thought to herself as she quickly got down the stairs to see George talking to someone on the phone, wearing something far from his tennis clothes - he was actually dressed rather formally, definitely more fancy than his usual jeans and white shirt.

When he spotted Willow coming down the stairs he reached out his arm he wasn't holding the phone to his ear with, signaling for Willow to come into his embrace. She made her way over to him, slightly sceptic of why he wasn't dressed of tennis, but wrapped her arms around his torso, put her head on his chest and enjoyed the moment when George wrapped his one free arm around her and caressed her naked arm.

"Yeah, that's alright! We'll come by in an hour" George said to the person on the phone. Willow couldn't hear what was being said on the other end of the line but the George said "Perfect, see you!" and hung up so she moved her head to look up at him with a curious look on her face. George put his phone on the counter beside them and wrapped his second arm around her before pressing a kiss on her lips. 

"Hey!" he said and Willow was still confused. "Its 9:45 are we not going to play tennis today?" George chuckled and a big smile formed on his lips. "We're doing something else today." he let out another small breathy laugh when Willow still looked at him with a questioning look, "I might have a little surprise." After pressing another kiss on her lips he continued, "Put on something pretty and then we'll go." 

"But- breakfast-?" Willow tried to get more clarity on what was happening as George already pushed her towards the stairs to get changed. "We're leaving in 20 minutes.." he called after her when she got upstairs.

15 minutes later Willow got back down in the green long silk skirt she wore on their first date and a grey cashmir turtleneck. "Gorgeous as always." George said when he grabbed his car keys since he was already wearing his shoes. 

"Will you tell me now where we are going?" Willow tried once again when they were in the car. "Be patient, love, you will see soon enough. I can't ruin the surprise now." George kept his secret well.

They parked a few blocks away from her apartment and George grabbed her hand and started walking with a clear destination in mind. They walked for ten minutes and as Willow almost got lost in her thoughts, thinking about a friend, who's apartment they just walked by, George suddenly stopped and let go of her hand to shake hands with a guy Willow had never seen before. She watched the two men interact from slightly behind George, as the stranger gave George a key and they shook hands again and the man left.

George turned around to her, looked into her eyes for a second and without saying anything he grabbed her hand, opened it and put the key in it. Willow was just even more confused now, until George wrapped his arm around her shoulder and turned her around so they were looking at an empty shop right in front of them with a sign saying "sold" in one of the large window fronts.

"George..?" was the only thing Willow brought over her lips.

"Try the key" he said with the biggest smile on his face, clearly proud of himself and his surprise.

Willow went up to the door in disbelief, hesitantly putting the key into the lock, almost surprised when it actually unlocked the door. She looked behind her to find Georges eyes, who approvingly nodded for her to go in.

She stepped in a few slow steps, looking around at the gorgeous open and well lit space, before she turned around to George, who was leaning in the doorframe, hands in his pocket, bright smile on his face, eyeing her reaction. 

"You.. you did not?" she said, not believing her eyes.

"Yes I did. Welcome to your very own gallery space." George said in his calm manner as if it wasn't a big deal.

Willow felt her eyes tear up and before she couldn't speak anymore she screamed out "I LOVE YOU" and ran over to jump into Georges arms who caught her and twirled her around the room.

As he sat her back down he tried to remove her tears but Willow was now wrapped even tighter around his and pressed her head into his chest. He only heard a muffled "I can't believe it. You are unbelievable" as he too wrapped his arms around her again.