I have returned

My absence was medical-related, and now I'm back - and optimistic that things will get better now! So if you've been waiting for an email, DM, or ask response, I've actually got enough spoons to write! We have two new chapters on the way this month, so I cannot wait to get those finished.

Until then, have this weird fun little snippet from something I never really did anything with.

He’s sitting at his desk, working on the family financials when he hears their conversation - Bella and Alice. “You never fell in love?” Bella is curious, and the question - or at least, the ones that will follow - has been waiting to burst forth. It makes sense that she’d be curious. Alice is the last person anyone would expect to be alone. “I did once, but it didn’t work out,” Alice’s response is light and unexpected, and he immediately freezes. She doesn’t talk much about her life before she met him, and she’s certainly never mentioned any love affairs or a broken heart. “They weren’t interested.” “Oh, Alice,” the pity in Bella’s voice is cloying, and he can feel the embarrassment drift over Alice. “It was a long time ago, Bella. It’s not something that I think about very often. I know that they are safe and happy, and that’s all that really matters in the end.” There is definitely sadness in her voice now, and he wonders who it was. Who turned their back on her and left her alone and unprotected. “But didn’t you see that it wouldn’t work out?” He wants to ask Bella to stop talking, to leave Alice alone, but he is transfixed by this secret side of Alice, this secret history that not even he knew. “I saw us together and happy. And I got impatient, and decided to go to them early. I just wanted to skip to the good part, I guess. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”