Role

Chapter 15

Ouch, how it stung, Oirwn remembered. Hearing those words from the man whose
affections she'd tried to attain for so long.

"I like you pretty well...but I'm sure you know that," he told her one night
in the garden behind the Eternal Star, "But its mostly as a friend, pretty
sure."

Of course, the thief had always played hard to get, but that Oirwn could take
as a challenge, a dare to just keep trying, for one day her machinations
might bear fruit. But for Leric to finally admit to Oirwn that she wasn't
getting anywhere was something of a change. In Oirwn's head, after Leric
let loose those damning words, eons seemed to pass, but she spoke up almost
instantly.

"Unrequited. That's the word. I am sorry I've tormented you."

It was in those moments, in those long millenia inside Oirwn's head that she
realized there was nothing she wouldn't do for this man. That must be what
time and familiarity does to a little flirt. It grows up, it matures, and it
turns into something wholly surprising. And so, since it was already trouble
enough for Leric to tell her this, and because he was so concerned that he
might upset her anyway, Oirwn decided that she would let him go.

He continued, "A while ago, someone told me they thought I was the man they
wanted to grow old with. Not you, I don't think you ever said it that way."

"That would've been unfair if I had," she replied with a helpless shrug. A
while ago, Oirwn wouldn't have said such a thing. She'd told him, in a huff
one day that he needed to make a decision about all the women who were
apparently pursuing him. She told him to choose, or at least figure out
what it was that HE wanted. So he had chosen, one of the other girls (and
hearing that stung, too), and it had all backfired on him.

"Yes, so we both feel pretty awful," he told her. "You are still like...my
best friend. Which I know probably still hurts to know."

Oirwn offered a slight smile before saying, "That'll do, Leric. And I will
never betray or hurt you, that much I can promise. I will always be your
friend, even if I can't be more than that. And yes. It does hurt, since
we're being honest. But not so much that I'm going to let it come between
us."

And what Oirwn didn't say was, "Because I think I might actually love you,
and that's so new and wonderful and ridiculous that I couldn't stand it if
we didn't stay, even if only as friends, always close."