chocolate and strawberry with fresh strawberries
Story: Timeless { backstory | index }
Title: At A Loss
Rating: G
Challenge: Chocolate #2: rivalry/jealousy, Strawberry #30: pillow
Toppings/Extras: fresh strawberries
Wordcount: 454
Summary: Verity Ashdown feels that she is losing her husband to Pia Rees.
Notes: This angle was surprisingly fun. Fresh strawberries: a scene from the Oscar Wilde play, An Ideal Husband. You know it makes sense.
Verity didn’t know why she went towards the part of the Tower her husband was staying in. She found herself drifting that way as though she were something fragile caught in a breeze-though when the gleaming door slid away and glamorously revealed the scene within to her, she froze on the spot, instantly stilled.
Curled up quite happily in the sofa, watching something on the television screens which had been baffling and astounding just one month ago, was her husband and his ‘guide’, the obnoxious Pia Rees. She had dyed her hair again, this time a violent white-blonde, ends of her hair shattered into splinters by the bleach. Pia didn’t care. She never cared.
Whatever was on the screen was taking up their attention nicely. Pia was giggling like an idiot and Ashdown was watching with some doubt on his face.
“Why go to such extremes?” he asked, eyes glued to the screen, unaware of his wife standing in the doorway.
“Just watch,” Pia insisted. “This is the best bit.”
Her legs were resting on his lap-she was spread out like commoner royalty across the sofa while her husband leaned back happily into the white backrest. There was a sudden barrage of male screaming from the television screen-which, being on the wall she had just walked in through, Verity could not see-and Pia gave a groan of pain and rolled her head back against the sofa, grinning broadly all the while.
“Too extravagant,” Ashdown said, although he was clearly impressed by whatever gory sight was playing out in front of him. “All anyone needs to extract information is a handful of iron nails…”
“Eddie, shut the fuck up! You’re ruining the mood!” Pia threw a cushion at his head for good measure.
Verity couldn’t help but hate it. The closeness they shared. How Edward, her Edward (although he’d never been hers, not really) laughed and batted the cushion away and shoved Pia’s legs from his knees with such an easy air between them. It made her feel a little ill. Delicate brows furrowing, Verity clasped the doorframe with one hand and her husband’s gaze suddenly snapped towards her.
His mouth opened and then closed; he had fine lips, thin but perfect in colour. But they never, ever kissed her.
“Verity,” he said, smiling awkwardly. “Care to join us?”
Pia regarded her through cool, arrogant, spite-filled eyes like the shadows of emeralds. She knew. Everyone knew she was sleeping with Newson. Everyone but her husband, apparently. The strange queasiness returned.
“No, thank you,” she replied, lifting her chin. Her gaze darted back towards Pia before she left the room.
She tried not to hear the silence that she left behind her.
Title: At A Loss
Rating: G
Challenge: Chocolate #2: rivalry/jealousy, Strawberry #30: pillow
Toppings/Extras: fresh strawberries
Wordcount: 454
Summary: Verity Ashdown feels that she is losing her husband to Pia Rees.
Notes: This angle was surprisingly fun. Fresh strawberries: a scene from the Oscar Wilde play, An Ideal Husband. You know it makes sense.
Verity didn’t know why she went towards the part of the Tower her husband was staying in. She found herself drifting that way as though she were something fragile caught in a breeze-though when the gleaming door slid away and glamorously revealed the scene within to her, she froze on the spot, instantly stilled.
Curled up quite happily in the sofa, watching something on the television screens which had been baffling and astounding just one month ago, was her husband and his ‘guide’, the obnoxious Pia Rees. She had dyed her hair again, this time a violent white-blonde, ends of her hair shattered into splinters by the bleach. Pia didn’t care. She never cared.
Whatever was on the screen was taking up their attention nicely. Pia was giggling like an idiot and Ashdown was watching with some doubt on his face.
“Why go to such extremes?” he asked, eyes glued to the screen, unaware of his wife standing in the doorway.
“Just watch,” Pia insisted. “This is the best bit.”
Her legs were resting on his lap-she was spread out like commoner royalty across the sofa while her husband leaned back happily into the white backrest. There was a sudden barrage of male screaming from the television screen-which, being on the wall she had just walked in through, Verity could not see-and Pia gave a groan of pain and rolled her head back against the sofa, grinning broadly all the while.
“Too extravagant,” Ashdown said, although he was clearly impressed by whatever gory sight was playing out in front of him. “All anyone needs to extract information is a handful of iron nails…”
“Eddie, shut the fuck up! You’re ruining the mood!” Pia threw a cushion at his head for good measure.
Verity couldn’t help but hate it. The closeness they shared. How Edward, her Edward (although he’d never been hers, not really) laughed and batted the cushion away and shoved Pia’s legs from his knees with such an easy air between them. It made her feel a little ill. Delicate brows furrowing, Verity clasped the doorframe with one hand and her husband’s gaze suddenly snapped towards her.
His mouth opened and then closed; he had fine lips, thin but perfect in colour. But they never, ever kissed her.
“Verity,” he said, smiling awkwardly. “Care to join us?”
Pia regarded her through cool, arrogant, spite-filled eyes like the shadows of emeralds. She knew. Everyone knew she was sleeping with Newson. Everyone but her husband, apparently. The strange queasiness returned.
“No, thank you,” she replied, lifting her chin. Her gaze darted back towards Pia before she left the room.
She tried not to hear the silence that she left behind her.