George changed.
Carla doesn't know when it happened, how or even where, but he has. He's not the same man she fell in love with five years ago.
Lando's the one who noticed first, the thought whispered to her when George had plucked the wine out of...
Title from: It's Okay If You Forget About Me by Astrid S
1st March 2024 Lando
Ουπς! Αυτή η εικόνα δεν ακολουθεί τους κανόνες περιεχομένου. Για να συνεχίσεις με την δημοσίευση, παρακαλώ αφαίρεσε την ή ανέβασε διαφορετική εικόνα.
She's here.
I knew she was going to be here, Max had warned me she was going to be here, Pietra too. Multiple times. Still, the warnings didn't stop me from doing a double take when she first caught my eye ten minutes ago. The warnings didn't stop the thrum in my chest or the surprised parting of my lips that's been happening over and over because...she's here.
Carla is here.
I thought she wasn't going to show up. I had convinced myself she wouldn't, that instead some lame excuse would be offered to Pietra of how she couldn't come because of something last minute. Maybe she was sick with a headache that she so often gets, or stuck at work in some sort of fabric emergency, or drafted in last minute to dog-sit for her friend Megan. Because if I knew she was going to be here, she must've known that I was going to be here too.
There are people everywhere chatting joking around with each other. Banners line the room along with various lights which flicker on the walls in different shades of pastel colours. I think at any other time I'd be impressed - Pietra has only been in the UK a year and she's managed to gather a room full of people so excited for her birthday that they'd show up to a party and fill a whole room on a few days notice. Only I can't appreciate it fully because every time my eyes explore the room I find Carla.
And I can't move from her.
Her hair is longer and brighter than it was. It's no longer blonde in the way that it catches the light and shimmers golden under the sun. No, it's lighter and brighter in a way that makes me stare in surprise at the drastic difference compared to when I last saw her. It's still different to when I first met her, when the platinum strands drifted down her back. The style is older and more mature, a muted honey tone of blonde which looks like the sand in Monaco than white soft cloud. And it fits Carla perfectly.
I haven't seen her in so long. I wonder if that's why my heart feels as though it's about to rip out of my chest? September was the last time, in Zandvoort where I kissed her until we were both breathless and desperate for more. After that we only spoke after George found out and she was too devastated to have a full conversation much less give me the answers I was looking for (or wanted).
I hated George for that. I hated that he upset her to the point where we couldn't talk. I hated that her love for him made her forget about me (an idea that I know is completely hateful and selfish in itself). Most of all, I just ended up hating myself for hating George.
The combination of George and Carla resulted in me moping around for the last 2 months of 2023. That was until Daniel slapped me on the shoulder whilst we were sat on the porch of his Perth home and told me to 'get it together man'. Turns out the words were what I needed to hear. Realising that everyone in my life and been tiptoeing around my misery was the reality check I needed.
