Opportunity (Micah Bell x OC)

Chapter 8

The next few days, Elizabeth stayed at the camp. She had been asked to come in town by the girls a few times, but, somehow, she always had some chores to finish. Karen and Tilly just shrugged it off, not thinking much about it. Mary-Beth knew Elizabeth better and understood that Elizabeth probably did not want to go back in Rhodes just yet. She also believed that if she needed to talk, she would come to her, that it was better to leave her alone for now.

But the days quickly turned into a week, and Elizabeth was starting to get bored to stay at camp, and frustrated to still fear to go back into town. One afternoon, she sighted heavily as she sat on a crate near the scout fire. A bit further into camp, Micah was looking at her irritated face. He had noticed her reluctance to go out of camp. At first he was rather happy with it, it meant she would stay safe. But lately he also noticed she looked more bored, almost sad. So he got an idea to cheer her up.

"You busy?" Micah asked Elizabeth as he walked toward her.

"Terribly" she said sarcastically, not looking at him.

"That's too bad. I had a bit of free times and I thought we could use the afternoon to do some horse riding" Micah said with a fake hurt tone, a smirk appearing on his lips when he saw Elizabeth's head suddenly rose, her eyes already sparkling with excitement.

"Really?" she almost shouted.

"Yeah, but if you're busy then I guess I'll just..." he started but quickly got interrupted by Elizabeth grabbing his arm and dragging him toward Baylock.

"Just shut up and let's go" Elizabeth laughed, almost running to reach the hitching post.

***

Those practices became a regular thing between Elizabeth and Micah. She made a lot of progress, and now the trainings were more like an afternoon stroll. Elizabeth borrowed one of the camp's spare horses and they rode for hours together. Neither of them talked about the fact that Elizabeth did not need any more lessons and was now perfectly capable of riding on her own. It was just an excuse for them to spend time together.

***

One day, after one of their stroll, Micah invited Elizabeth to drink something, to celebrate her progress. She agreed and they ended in Rhodes' saloon. Micah bought two beers and took them to the table where Elizabeth was sat.

"It was a long road, but you can now ride a horse. You did it" Micah said as he raised his bottle.

"We did it. I wouldn't have done it without you" Elizabeth added before clicking her bottle with Micah's.

"To us then" Micah said, looking at Elizabeth straight on the eyes.

"To us" she repeated supporting his gaze, a smile smirk on her face.

They drank their beers while talking about this and that. Elizabeth asked Micah to tell her other stories about his job. She grew more tolerant to the graphic details by now. She loved listening to him talking about his adventure with a lot of passion. And in return, he also loved how she listened to him with such interest, her eyes sparkling as she looked at him.

When they both finished their drinks, Micah offered to go buy others, but Elizabeth was quicker to stand up, saying that this round was on her. Micah was a bit taken aback, but accepted the offer. He looked at her as she walked toward the bar, and then back at his empty bottle, smirking to himself. He really liked spending time with Elizabeth, it was never boring.

When she came back with two bottles of beer, Micah noticed the suspiciously big smile on her face. He looked at her quizzically as she sat down next to him. She looked at him with a confident smirk.