CONTAINS SWEARING .

Chapter 25 - Small Progress

['Keep close what you value, because if it slips away you'll only have yourself to blame...']

I stormed into my room, slamming the door behind me. My emotions were in a turmoil and I was glad that no-one had followed me up.

I wanted to call Stacey but I knew that if I did I'd let my secret slip and I couldn't afford that. There was no other choice but to bare this alone.

Not ten minutes later, Adrian knocked on the door. Reluctantly, I opened it several minutes later (don't ask me why), but by then he'd gone. There was a note left on the floor. I picked it up.

Meet me in the drawing room in three hours, it read.

Something within me wanted to throw it away; burn it, but another part of me wanted to go and find out what he wanted. After everything, I still cared for Adrian - our being Destined meant that I could never escape that. It was both a gift and a curse.

Seeing as I was going to be the mother of his child I knew I had more of a duty to make this work for the sake of our child, which really left me with one choice.

I got ready.

Two hours and forty five minutes later I was finishing tidying my hair when there was another knock on the door.

I opened it to see a young maid stood there holding what looked like a silk blindfold. It matched my red blouse perfectly. 'Can I help you?' I asked her as I eyed the material dubiously.

The girl blushed. 'I've been asked to lead you to the drawing room to Master Frazer.' When I pointedly looked at the blindfold again she blushed a deeper red. 'It's... meant to be a surprise.'

I instantly nodded my head in understanding and let her in. Ten minutes later, I was being guided into the drawing room by the same young maid who had knocked at my door.

She sat me down on a seat and left, leaving me to wait for further instructions. Or for Adrian.

The room was empty, that much I knew.

'You can take your blindfold off now.' Adrian whispered against my neck, causing me to jump. Heart  pounding, I did as he said and pulled the scrap of material away from my eyes.

When I looked around a hand flew to my mouth.

The room was dimly lit by various cream coloured candles which were scented, and the table was decorated with various bits of food that I adored -- including a tray of Kit Kat's.

My mouth watered.

But that wasn't all. In front of me stood a massive canvas and painted on it was a picture of me riding my old horse, Crystal and painted on the wall opposite was a snapshot of me dancing alone.

They both looked stunning.

'Wow...' I turned to see Adrian watching me intently.

'Do you like them?' He asked me.

I nodded. 'Did you paint these?' I gestured to the two paintings in front of me and towards the other paintings around the room.

He gave a small nod, a shy smile twitching his lips. He pointed to the smaller painting on the wall. 'The first one I did a while ago,' his gaze looked far away as he regarded his own work. 'When I saw you dancing so beautifully that one time, I just knew I had to paint you.'

His heavy gaze landed on me. 'And it was the best thing I've ever done.'

I looked back up at the painting which hung on the wall. In the picture my arms were thrown up and my head was thrown back, causing my long hair to trail down towards the floor like a silky black curtain.

In the second, I looked ethereal; the soft colours of the painting gave a glow to the picture that made the image look that much more delicate. It was as equally beautiful as the first and everything about it seemed... Well, light.

My heart swelled at how long it must've taken for him to complete them with so much precision.

'You're very talented.' I breathed out as he took a step towards me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

He cupped my chin so that I was facing him and his minty breath caressed my cheek as he spoke. 'I'm glad you like them.' My eyes were focused on his lips much to my slight annoyance.

Gently, he squeezed my waist tighter. 'Indigo,' my eyes flicked up to his. He leaned in closer. 'I'm sorry about everything I've done. Please forgive me.'

My heart stuttered. 'It will take time, Adrian.' I sounded hesitant even to myself but he could hardly blame me. 'I don't know if I can forgive you straight away.' I told him.

He nodded earnestly, pulling me even closer to him. His eyes sparkled with hope -- something I'd strangely, never seen before. 'I understand.' He said.  'It will take time and I know this - I just, I'm sorry.' He pulled away slightly to take in a shuddering breath. He sounded resentful and angry. 'I hurt you, and it kills me Indigo.'

I held in my breath.

'I can never undo what I did, and it kills me. I'll wait for you.' He said as he ran his hand through my hair before pressing his forehead to mine. 'I'll do it, I'll wait.' He whispered.

I nodded, releasing the breath I'd been holding. 'OK.'

After we'd eaten, he sat with me for a while and we spoke about anything we could. I was surprised about how easy I found it to be in his company, and when it reached midnight he took me to my room and stayed there with me until I fell asleep.

The next morning Stacey called me.

'Hello?'

'Indigo! How about we have another shopping day? Preferably one where we don't have an encounter with the mean girls.' She gushed.

I smiled. 'Yeah ok. I'll meet you in --'

'Twenty minutes.'

I blinked. 'Excuse me?' It took longer than that for her to get here.

From the other end, I could hear Stacey laughing. 'I'm already driving.' She said. 'I'll be there in about twenty minutes. Be ready.'

I shook my head at her forwardness. 'And what if I hadn't agreed to go with you?' I beamed. Despite her forward attitude Stacey was my best friend and when she did things like this I just loved her all the more for it. 'What would you have done then?'

She sounded nonplussed when she answered. 'I would've made you, obviously.'

Laughing loudly, I promised I'd be ready when she came, and twenty minutes later I opened the door to see a sunny-looking Stacey stood on the doorstep.

She beamed at me before pulling off her sunglasses and bringing me in for a hug. 'You ready for some fun?' When she wiggled her eyebrows afterwards, I nodded eagerly before allowing her to lead me out.

As I saw what she'd driven in I whistled loudly. 'Your parents got you a new BMW?' I asked her in disbelief? OK, so I was a vampire princess who was slightly more loaded than my friend, but I didn't have the latest BMW. I pouted.

She laughed at my expression. 'Well, since I don't have you to keep me occupied anymore, my parents decided to give me a new distraction so that I wouldn't drive them crazy.'

I was incredulous. 'This is their idea of a distraction?' For the thousandth time I inwardly cursed myself for not having parents like Stacey's.

She had the decency to look sheepish -- rightfully so, I might add Before nodding.

I decided to let it go, and when I climbed into the passenger seat I groaned at the feel of the plush leather seats. As I sat deeper into the seat, I had to resist the strong urge to bury my face in the seats to absorb the scent of new leather.

Stacey gave me a strange look. 'You look like you're constipated.'

I giggled. 'Just drive.'

When we arrived in town we parked on the high street and roamed a few of the shops. Since it was a nice day, I forced Stacey to window shop with me along the high street and after about an hour and a half of doing this non-stop, Stacey finally cracked and ordered for me to take a break.

'Seriously,' she groaned as she sat on a bench, rubbing at her feet. 'We've been walking long enough to give me blisters!' I smirked at her stroppy expression and watched as she pointed to her foot dramatically.

'Well at least we've spent some quality time together.' I told her.

She snorted.

After some more feet-rubbing we eventually decided to go and sit in a small cafe which was just off the corner of the high street.

Stacey being Stacey, flirted with the handsome waiter that took our orders and I had to repress a giggle when he winked at her and she beamed. She was just as bad as the boys she lusted after -- including Greg who she'd recently broken up with for being a dick.

'You look like you're about to attend a funeral.' Stacey said after a few moments silence.

I raised my eyes from my hot chocolate that had just been handed to us and frowned at her. 'No, I don't.' I told her. Trust her to be,dramatic.

I expected her to laugh it off or give me a cutting remark, but she did neither. When she continued to look at me I actually shied away from her glance and focused on the  cup in my hands.

'What are you not telling me?'

I took a sip from my drink. 'Nothing.' I lied smoothly.

She bit her lip, brows furrowed. 'Indigo-Rose, there's something you're not telling me. You've been off all afternoon.'

The hand that was holding my cup shook a bit. I quickly let go. Despite my earlier performance I'd always hated lying and wasn't comfortable with lying to my best friend. 'Stacey, stop being silly. If there was something going on, I'd tell you.' Liar! I screamed inwardly.

My friend looked sad for a moment before giving a reluctant nod. My heart squeezed at the notion. 'I'll trust you'll tell me one day.' She said. I knew she knew I was lying -- the fact alone made me feel terrible. But I couldn't tell her about the baby or anything else. Not yet.

We sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments, which for us was a first. Things are changing, I thought to myself sadly, and I didn't like it.

But as I'd learnt, when it comes to change it can't really be avoided. It would happen eventually one way or another, and it was better just to accept it.

Stacey quickly changed the topic to burst the silence. 'How are things with you and Adrian?' She didn't smile as she asked this. Whenever she mentioned Adrian she'd smile or at me teasingly. Now she didn't.

I looked at the passers by to distract myself. They all looked so focused; busy. For a second I wanted that -- to be submerged in the crowd focused only on the simple tasks of life. I wanted to become anonymous; lost to the world. Or more precisely: lost to the problems that faced me.

I chose my words carefully as I spoke. 'We're... Improving.' That at least was true. Last night's acts from Adrian had shown me a side to him that I hadn't seen in a while. It had reminded me of our first "date" and it filled me with hope for our future.

Stacey nodded, taking this in. 'That's good.' She sounded hesitant. 'Look, I'm no expert Ind, but I think that despite your difficulties you can both make this work. I think you both just need to work on your communication and build it up from there.'

I gave her a reassuring smile. 'I hope so.' That was an understatement.

Before becoming pregnant I had been free to leave -- well, it had been an option at least. Adrian would've found me but I could've left him for good. But now I had a child on the way which meant I couldn't just up and go.

It wouldn't be fair to our child and they would always need their father despite my relationship with Adrian. I couldn't take that away from them.

Also, knowing my parents, the minute they found out I was pregnant, leaving Adrian wouldn't be an option. Not unless our relationship was extremely dysfunctional or was unsafe for either of us. Basically, I was screwed, .

The only thing I could do was to try and make it work. I just hoped that was enough.

Stacey seemed to notice there was an internal battle going on with my thoughts and spoke up to distract me. 'I know it's hard, Ind. But it can work, I know it.' She placed a hand on mine. 'Despite what the two of you might think, there's a certain type of chemistry that could develop and expand into something beautiful if you'd both just let it.'

Her words warmed my heart. 'Thank you, Stace.' I said.

She squeezed my hand. 'You're welcome. Now, I'm just going to go to the toilet.' I nodded and watched as she stood and left.

Looking around me and at the passers by once more, I didn't notice when a shadow suddenly cast itself over the table. I glanced up to see the very girl I thought I'd never have to see again.

'We need to talk.' She said. Her face looked grim.

Ashley.

I quite liked the romantic Adrian.. Also, what do you think's going to happen between Indigo and Ashley? The next chapter reveals it all so stay tuned...

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