If I Could

{59} - Normal

Gwilym and Belle looked at each other with confusion. Belle was nervous. She knew that her residency could easily come to an end just by the simple fact that Ben didn't get along with her.

"The man clearly has some problems outside of his job," Gwilym mentioned. "I couldn't imagine getting so stressed at such a privileged position."

"I thought he was really sweet when I met him. Now I see I was wrong," Belle uttered as she got ready to leave the hospital. She was in a bit of a rush because she needed to go somewhere after this. Gwilym nodded. Belle was still nervous. She needed someone.

Brian.

The fact that Belle missed Brian so much was normal, but she didn't have to suffer because of that anymore because Brian was coming back from the United States today and Belle was in the airport to pick him up.

"Belle!". Suddenly, Belle was enveloped in a big hug, and taken so completely by surprise that she almost fell over. Thankfully, the man hugging her was tall and kept her upright.

Belle looked up at the man, and it was Brian (who else would it be, she wondered), carrying heavy bags of luggage and smelling like grape soda.

"Brian, oh God!", Belle hugged him tighter for a brief moment as her eyes sparkled. "I missed you so much."

"Me too," Brian smiled as he brushed some of the rain droplets off of Belle's hair. "Talking over the phone was never enough. But at least we're together aga-

Brian stopped talking. He noticed something he had not noticed before. Belle's hair. It wasn't black anymore. There were a few golden strands of hair peeking out of her beret, making Brian unconciously remove Belle's hair tie to let it fall down.

Blonde platinum hair, it was a lot shorter now, falling just past her shoulders.

"Wow." Brian honestly couldn't formulate any other words. Belle grinned, then giggled, then burst out laughing as he continued to stare dumbfounded at her.

"Is it really that shocking?".

"Yes. I mean.. it's not black. I'm so used to pitch black. But I'm not complaining about it. It looks great," Brian assured as he took another sip off grape soda. "I'm sure Roger's gonna love it."

"R-Roger?", Belle nervously stuttered.

"Yeah, Roger," her best friend nodded. "Don't tell me you two got into an argument again."

"No, it's just that he's not here in London. He's been in Manila for three weeks supervising the construction of his new hotel and I don't know when he's coming back. I miss him, and we don't talk frequently because of the different time zones" Belle disentangled herself from Brian's grasp, throwing her arm over his shoulders as they walked to the exit. "But you have to tell me everything about your very long stay in the United States. How was it? Did you meet anyone interesting?".

"Not really. I didn't have much time to socialise," Brian shrugged. "It was all about my job this time. Hopefully I'll be back soon."

"Hopefully not. I don't want you to go again."

--------------------------------------------------

Belle and Brian were walking out of a high-end restaurant when Belle's phone rang.

The number was strange and unknown, but Belle picked up, and didn't say anything for a few seconds, in case it was just a spam call, but then she heard a deep breath and a deeper voice.

"Belle?".

"Um.. hi?", she replied, thinking through all the people she had given her number to and coming up blank. She couldn't recognise the voice.