*Chapter 26*

Urs turned round slowly not sure if he was hearing things. He looked up and saw Auds sitting halfway down the stairs. He turned and said to David “Can you see Auds as well or am I just imagining things?” David smiled at his friend and said “yes, I can see her as well.” He turned back to her then took a few steps towards her. Simon patted David on the arm and nodded towards the lounge door. David nodded and shutting the front door followed him through and said “Has she been here the whole time?” Simon nodded “When she came to see me, she was in a terrible state and she didn’t have a clue where she was going, just kept saying it would be somewhere Urs would never find her. I couldn’t let her leave in the state she was in as anything could have happened to her and we would never know.” he looked at David then said “I said she could come and stay with me until she was ready to be found.” David shook his head in amazement then said “but you’ve seen how much this has been hurting Urs, and you’ve known all along where she was.” “Yes, but she didn’t want him to know and at least if she was here I could keep an eye on her and make sure she was eating properly. I came home every night and told her how bad Urs was and I let her talk to me if she wanted to. If she was out there on her own somewhere I couldn’t have done that and I would have been as worried as you guys.” said Simon.

Out on the stairs things were quiet. Urs had sat down a few steps below Auds and was just looking at her, he couldn’t believe that she was there, in front of him. He took in how thin she looked, the dark circles under her eyes which were red from crying. He could still see pain in her eyes and it made him feel even worse knowing he was the cause of it. He opened his mouth to speak when Auds said “ I heard everything Urs, Jodie’s confession, how you really felt, everything. I was sitting in the kitchen, but I panicked when Simon told you to come in and I ran upstairs.” Urs nodded and said “he did look a bit confused when I came back .” Auds managed a weak smile and said “I don’t think he’s used to having a woman in his house, never mind one that spends most of her time crying and running away from him.” Urs tried to hide the grin that was appearing on his face by looking down at the floor. He looked back up at Auds again and said “I really am sorry, both you and David were telling me that Jodie wasn’t to be trusted and I was just being sucked in by her. I didn’t even notice that she never made any effort to be friends with anyone else.” He looked away again then said “this past week has been so hard, I got so bad that I even lost the will to sing. I did the last few shows in America so badly that I’m sure the fans could tell I wasn’t wanting to be there. My body was there, but my spirit and my voice definitely wasn’t.” Auds stared at him, noticing how pale he was and how he’d lost some weight from his face and his body. His eyes had lost their sparkle and their ability to drown anybody who got caught looking into them. “Have you not been eating? She asked him. He shook his head “Not unless I was being forced to, I have spent all my time when I wasn’t working looking for you, I never bother stopping to eat anything.” Auds sighed and said “I’m sorry as well, I sometimes wish that I had never got the job, because then I would never have met you and we wouldn’t be here now in all this pain.” Urs shook his head and said “Don’t say that, meeting you and falling in love with you has been the best thing to ever happen to me. I could see us being together forever.” he let the tears start falling again and he turned away from her.

He felt an arm go round his shoulder pulling him in close as Auds had moved down to sit beside him. He leant his head against her shoulder and she let him cry until he had stopped then she waited until he lifted his head to look at her and she said “I know that you love me and I still love you, I always will, but…” Urs felt his heart sink when she said that and he looked away. She brought his face back round to look at her with her hand and said “But…I don’t want us to go back to the way we were before. We never talked, we didn’t trust each other, that’s why we kept arguing and falling out. I want us to take things really slowly this time.” Urs smiled through the tears and said “I can do that, but how slowly are we talking about?” he asked. She looked at him then smiled and said “I want us to be friends first off all, we just seemed to go straight into being a couple, we never really got to know each other first. Simon wouldn’t take my resignation, just told me to take some leave and to come back when I felt ready. So I will come back to work, but you and me are only going to be friends and we are going to talk more and get to know each other properly and if anything happens after all that then maybe we are meant to be. But if it doesn’t then it doesn’t and I will still have a wonderful friend in my life.”

Urs nodded although he didn’t like the thought of not having Auds in his life as anything less than his girlfriend, he would do everything she asked him to do and just hope that they were really meant to be.

They sat there in silence for a while then Auds got up and went down into the lounge, Urs sighed and followed her. Simon and David looked up as the door opened and they watched as Auds then Urs walked through it. They sat down beside each other and Simon looked at Urs and said “I’m sorry I never told you she was here, but she kept saying she would walk away if I told you.” Urs looked at their manager and thought how hard it must have been on him to have known where she was and not be able to tell him. He shook his head and said “Don’t worry about it, I would have done the same, all that matters is that I have found her now.” David looked at Auds who was sitting quietly. “So, are you two going to be alright?” Auds looked at him and said “We’re not going to be a couple anymore. I want us just to be friends, get to really know each other properly and if we are meant to be together it will happen eventually.” David looked shocked at this and said “I am so sorry Auds, I should never have brought Jodie out to stay with me.” Auds shook her head and said “Its not your fault David, if anything, she made me realise how easily we fell apart. I thought that we were really strong but she showed me that we weren’t.” Auds looked at Simon and said “I owe you big time Simon, you let me come and stay with you this week knowing that you would have to go see Urs every day.” He smiled at her and said “I wasn’t going to let you just walk out of my office and disappear, the state you were in anything could have happened.” “Well, I shall just go and get my things and get out of your way now that I can go back to my own place.” she said standing up. Simon stopped her and said “Just sit back down, its far too late to start packing and leaving, stay tonight and you can go home tomorrow if you really want to.” Auds looked at Simon in surprise and said “I thought you would be glad to get rid of me, all I’ve done all week is cry and run away when you tried to talk to me.” Simon grinned and said “True, but I’ve kind of got used to having someone else in the house. I’ll miss it when you go.” Auds got up and gave him a hug then said “Thank you, but I really should go back to my own place tomorrow.” Simon nodded and said “That’s okay, I understand.” David stood up then and said “We really must get going as well, it is late and we’ve all got work tomorrow.” he gave Auds a hug and said “Will we see you at the office?” She shook her head. “I’m not going to start back until you start the Castle shows, so I have another couple days free.” She turned to look at Urs and said “I’ll talk to you soon, yeah?” Urs nodded and gave her a quick hug. Then Simon showed David and Urs out the front door.