Call Me Lover - LN4 / GR63

10 / you got a man

If Carla's in this state I don't want her to be alone.

There's a frustrated voice in my mind which wants to point out that if George hadn't ditched her tonight there wouldn't have even been the opportunity for her to be alone in the first place. He should've been there! He could've been there, I'm not buying his story about getting 'caught up' at the office. Not at all. I let him know as much when he texted to ask that I look out for Carla tonight. Of course I got dismissed, told that I didn't know anything (as apparently I never do), to mind my business and that above all he's sorry - not that I needed to know that. I ended up replying to him with a simple 'I'll keep an eye on her', ignoring every other message and pleaded word. None of his words mattered. Nothing was going to heal anything for Carla, at least not tonight.

What mattered was the annoyance I felt towards George everytime I looked to Carla fighting her unsure expression. Everytime her lips wobbled with the threat of tears that his decisions were causing. What matters is that she needs to realise she can do better, because for all that George can bring her (money, security, [when he feels like it] love), he's taking away so much more. I get why Carla's friends hate George. I, as Carla's friend, am beginning to hate George a little bit too. I already dislike him in moments like this.

"I don't know..." Carla trails off unsure, her sniffling has subsided and instead her drunk lazy eyes just look into my own clouded ones. Before I shake my head decisively.

"Hey, mate?" I call to the driver, Carla's eyes are still stuck on mine and mine on hers. Something lurches in my chest with how she's looking at me and I feel myself grow warm with nerves at my next words. "Forget that first stop, just my place please." I instruct the driver who only grunts in response before taking a left. My heart thrums at the change of direction a wave of nerves hitting me. I can't be nervous for Carla to see my home, or rather Max's home that I steal every time I'm here (I own the place after all). It's just a half empty flat, nothing special. I hardly think that Carla will be in the state to judge my half-arsed interior design choices anyway- she certainly won't notice the rogue socks and Mclaren polo I left on the floor of my room before leaving this morning. She just needs water and sleep.

"I've never been to your flat here." Carla hums in thought. The pensive worried look has dropped from her face, as if she can't even recall our previous conversation, or at least not any of the uncertainty that came with it. I can't help the smile that grows on my face with her words.

"I wasn't aware you'd been to any of my flats?" The teasing words make Carla smile and relax into her spot. Her hands unwind from the fists they had gathered into and she falls back into the car seat from her previous tense position. She thinks over my words for a moment, as if checking mentally if she's ever attended a home of mine secretly.

"Well, no." She hums, there's a smile that rivals my own teasing one. Her whole body has brightened with the expression and it's the best thing I've seen all night. "I've been to your brother's house though." Carla adds and I can't help but laugh at her words. Of course, the stupid Christmas party.

"This year Carls, I swear!" I promise my attendance at this Christmas's party for the fiftieth time today. If I knew she was going to that party I never would've missed it. I wish I could properly remember why I missed it.

The rest of our cab ride goes like this. We tease eachother and tell jokes, at some point she snatched her bag back from my hands and whips out a bag of mini cookies. There's only seven in the packet, but we share them through giggles at how ridiculous it is that she always carries around snacks. 'George doesn't like to eat until late' was Carla's defence today, I didn't want to remind her that their reservation was at a normal dinner time. I enjoyed the snack too much.