To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead,’

- Bertrand Russell

Chapter Thirty

Azelie sat in the uncomfortable leather chair opposite her therapist, Dr. Robertson, who had her glasses perched on her nose as they usually where. For the past thirty minutes, they had been talking about Ted, and how everything over the past week had effected her. Azelie had explained that it had been hard at first, with everything that had happened before. Her parents, grandparents, aunts.... Haley. Azelie said how she was sure that she had lost Ted. That she was alone again.

The therapist sat opposite her, frequently nodding her head as she jotted down some notes on the note pad she was holding as Azelie spoke, with periodically saying something, or asking a question to keep her talking.

“And Cole, you said he appeared at the hospital. What happened there?” Dr. Robertson asked, looking over at Azelie. Azelie paused for a second, trying to think of what she could tell her. She didn’t want to tell her about the kiss. That was something Azelie would rather keep from her. Something private and personal. Something wonderful. The memory was still forever playing on her mind like it would never be erased. Not that she wanted to forget it. It was like one of those bittersweet moments. Moments that mean nothing; and everything.

“He appeared at the hospital after hearing about Ted. He knew that I would need somebody so he tracked me down... and I told him,” Azelie spoke, her memory playing back to when she had turned around to see Cole standing behind her. She had somehow known that it was him without even looking, she just needed to check that she wasn’t going completely insane.

“Told him what? Told him about Ted?” Dr Robertson questioned, looking up from the notepad she had been writing on, her full concentration on Azelie at that point, her hazel eyes burning for an answer.

“No... about my family...” Azelie trailed off, trying to tell herself that it wasn’t a big deal that she had told anybody, when she knew that it was a big deal - it was a huge deal for Azelie to open up like that to somebody and she knew it, as much as she would like to ignore it. The thought of telling anybody - especially Cole - had been something Azelie just have just laughed at, it was ludicrous for Azelie to even think of it. Cole had just been that guy who was annoying her, who would just fight her on everything she said or id. So how had he become so huge in her life? What had changed between them? The idea of Cole being this close to her... it made her feel things that were on two ends of the same spectrum. Sometimes, she wanted to run away from it all, from him. The thought of being this close to somebody was something that Azelie just wasn’t comfortable with, and yet something kept her from running, and that was the other end of her feelings. The feeling that she loved having a home, having people care about her and really just having an actual life. She felt as if there were no consequences for anything, that she was free, and at the same time, that all the consequences were coming, trapped up in the clouds waiting for the right time. Azelie was waiting for the first lightning strike to hit; Ted had been a lucky escape.

“All of it?” The therapist questioned, her eyes wide in shock. Cole had been better for Azelie that she had previously thought. It had taken her weeks to crack Azelie; whereas that boy had managed to get her to tell her the story without even trying. “You told him everything - your family? Aunts? Uncles?”

“Almost, I didn’t tell him about Haley because if his sister, and he figured it out about my aunt so I didn’t tell him, but I want to tell about Haley. I plan on telling him at least,” She babbled, thinking aimlessly back to when she was telling him. How he had listened, he hadn’t looked at her like his heart was breaking for her and everything that had happened to her. Instead, there was another emotion there, an emotion that Azelie was unfamiliar with.

“And, how did it make you feel, telling him everything?” the therapist asked, smiling proudly over at Azelie, happy that she was now opening up to people.

“It felt weird... I don’t know how to describe it because I was messed up with Ted at that point,” Azelie answered, ‘and from the kiss’ she added silently in her head. “But afterwards, when Ted was okay... It was just..,” Azelie added, ending the sentences as she trailed off, trying to think of the right word to use. “I don’t know how to describe it really... It was good to tell somebody who really didn’t need to know.. I don’t know why though, I still couldn’t imagine telling somebody like Kelly or something. Just telling him... it felt good,”

Her therapist just smiled in reply, realising exactly now she was feeling. Poor girl, didn’t even realise that she had fallen head over heels for her best friend.

“Hey, how was it?” Cole smiled as Azelie walked into the gallery, his eyes lighting up as he spotted her walking towards him. She had told him earlier in the morning that she had attended therapy since the start of summer. He had just laughed slightly in reply, and told her that he had already known.

“It was fine,” Azelie answered, walking up the to the counter of the cafe as she scanned around the room. It was empty for now, but it would soon be lunch time and they would be busy with people who would pop in for a coffee and piece of cake.

Azelie had banned Ted from even stepping foot in the gallery until he was given the all clear from the doctor, and so for the meantime, she was covering his Saturday shifts and they had hired a few waitresses for through the week so they wouldn’t have to close altogether. One of the weekend waitress had been covering the morning while Azelie was in her therapy session, but now that she was here, it was her turn to do the hard work. Ted had complained about it, not wanting to leave the gallery in the hands of other people; but Azelie gave him no choice in the matter at all. Running the gallery would just be far too stressful for him right now. “Anyway, you ready for your first day of work?” Azelie added, looking over at Cole. He had volunteered to help her out for the day, knowing how busy the gallery would get on a weekend. Although he really didn’t mind the fact that he would be rushing around for most of the day,

“Yeah sure!” He said as he followed Azelie around the other side of the counter.

“Alright then, I’ll just put you on the till when we get busy because that’s quite simple and I’ll make all the food and drinks. When it clears out a bit, I’ll see if you can serve the food because it’s still easy but more time consuming that working the till and it’s easier to mess up,” She explained as she walked over to the till and telling him how to work the machine.

With in the hour, the cafe began to get increasingly busy as everyone arrived for their lunch. Cole had been able to manage working the till fine so Azelie moved him to making coffee, hoping that he could help out with that since she was falling behind with the orders. Unfortunately, Cole couldn’t make coffee to save his life.

“Cole! That is not how you make a latte!” Azelie shouted, as she walked over to where Cole was pressing random buttons on the coffee maker.

“I’ve made the bloody latte; it’s the espresso is what I want to make!” Cole reply, rolling his eyes at Azelie who had been correcting his mistakes all morning. He was beginning to regret volunteering to help Azelie at the cafe, but at the same time, he didn’t mind. He was spending time with Azelie and that was enough for him.

“Well, the latte isn’t right and your going to end up poisoning somebody with the damn espresso!” Azelie replied, looking at the latte as she raised an eyebrow at Cole, making a note to never ever let him make her a cup of coffee.

“How do you know that the latte isn’t right? It looks perfectly fine from here!”

“It’s cold Cole, it’s made completely from milk! There isn’t even coffee in here, Cole!” Azelie laughed, smiling up at Cole who now had a huge grin planted on his lips.

“I’m really terrible at this coffee making thing, aren’t I?” Cole replied, his voice light from the smile that had formed on his lips.

“Not terrible... you’re just better serving the cakes!” Azelie smiled, stepping forward as Cole moved out of the way to re-start the drinks that Cole had unsuccessfully been trying to make. Cole shook his head, trying to push the images flooding his head of Azelie smile. How could something so simple make his heart beat double? “Cole, can you get a slice of carrot cake out? I’ll finish the coffees and you can deal with the cakes,” Azelie instructed, Cole quickly agreeing as he grabbed a clean plate and finding the cake knife. While she made the coffees, he got the cake and loaded it all up onto a tray and giving it out to the customer whom had ordered it. They continued to work together for the rest of the afternoon, talking the entire time about whatever crossed their minds, huge smiles spread across their lips as they worked.

“So, I’m free tomorrow if you want to do something?” Azelie smiled, as she walked back to the counter from handing out the last order of the day. She looked over to where Cole was standing at the counter, watching her as she walked over to him

“Well, what would you want to do?” Cole asked, looking up at her, his soft brown hair sticking up all over the place making Azelie smile a bit more. It was cute, and made her want to run her fingers through his hair.

“I don’t know! I’m surprised you don’t have something planned to go find my fear or whatever!” She smiled in reply, her golden brown eyes looking to his deep green ones. “You usually do,”

“But, I don’t have anything planned!” He smirked. Azelie narrowed her eyes playfully at him for a second, before a smile broke out on her lips once again. Azelie always found it hard not to smile around him

“What? Have you, Colten Grey, finally given up on the endless search for my fear which does not exist?” Azelie questioned, quite shocked at the idea that Cole had given up. A bubble of happiness formed in her stomach at the idea of him giving up.

“No, no, quite the opposite! I’ve actually figured it out!” He replied, standing up straight from the counter, looking over at Azelie, his green eyes shining brightly.

“So what is it then?” Azelie said, rolling her eyes, not believing a word he was saying. How could he have figured how what she was scared of “Spiders? Unicorns? Things that go bump in the night?” he laughed at her reply as he slowly made his way across to where she was standing.

He stood in front of her, his body close to hers, the gap between them decreasing by the second as he leaned closer and closer, her heart thumping hard against her chest as she looked into his eyes, getting lost in the forest green of them. His hands were at her side, trapping her between his body and the mental counter as she tried to figure out what he was doing? Why was he so close? Was he going to kiss her again? Was he going to do something else? What? All Azelie knew that having him this close was madding, it was sure to drive her insane. He leaned past, closer to her ear before pausing and whispering into her ear,

“That’s for me to know; and for you to figure it out,”

Azelie let out a little chuckle, nerves running around her body from how close he was, how close his lips were to hers. Just a quick turn of the head and they could be kissing again. Would she stop, that would be the question then,

“You’re so sure that you’ve figured it out; and yet you won’t tell me?” She replied with a weak smile, her voice shaky with nerves. Her fingers were digging into the skin of her other hand, trying to stop herself from doing something she would regret later on. “Sounds like your lying!”

“I guess you will just have to trust me,” he smirked.

Uploaded a day early, don't say i'm not nice to you guys ;)

Anyhoo, that's all for now!

Unicorn out!