Forget you. (For dontthinkabout)

[anewshade]

Ari was in almost a state of shock the days following Arthur's arrival and subsequent departure. Like she couldn't believe it had happened. But it had and from what she could tell he just walked out of her life and didn't look back. Five days after, when shed barely left the apartment, barely stopped crying over everything, she woke up and just

Comments

[dontthinkabout]

Just as Ariadne had done, Arthur went right back to working. With his reputation, he didn’t have a hard time finding jobs. It was one right after the other and although it was tiring and consuming at times, it kept his mind off of other things.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t think of her. He did, actually. Often. And he’ll admit that he’d been keeping tabs on her. He heard about the job with Eames from the forger himself. He heard about her going back to her apartment after. (He’d need to tell her to be careful next time. To make sure she wasn’t followed.) But he didn’t meddle. At least not until he heard about the latest job she was going to be recruited for.

It was with an extractor called Simmons. He burned out the people on his team, always going through new people and Arthur didn’t want her mixed up with him. And that was why he was in front of her building now buzzing her apartment.

[anewshade]

She looked up from her laptop where she was pouring through real estate listings with a slight frown. She wasn't expecting anyone and she hadn't ordered food.

She got up and went to the intercom.

"Hello?" she said, pushing the button to talk and letting go to hear the person on the other end.

[dontthinkabout]

“It’s important. Can we talk?” He said quickly before she got the chance to disconnect from the intercom. She didn’t have to invite him up. Hell, she could talk to him through this for all he cared, but he just needed to warn her.

[anewshade]

The different emotions that passed through her at hearing his voice were too numerous to catalog. Part of her wanted to run down there and throw her arms around him and beg him to come back and the other wanted to go get the gun he'd left behind and shoot him with it. She stared at the call box, trying to figure out a more realistic option.

She pressed the button.

"No," she said simply and cooly before walking away from it.

[dontthinkabout]

He quickly pressed the intercom button again. “I wouldn’t come to you unless it’s important, Ariadne. You know that. Just let me talk and then I’ll get out of your hair.” If he’d have to, he’d wait outside of her building for days.

[anewshade]

And she was just going to ignore him. She sat back on the couch, although she didn't go back to her real estate listings. There was no way she'd be able to focus on anything now.

[dontthinkabout]

He groaned when there was no answer so he pressed the button again. “There’s a man-an extractor,” he said quietly, hoping that no one else was listening to him. “He’s bad news and he wants you to be his architect.”

[anewshade]

She leaned forward on the couch and pressed her hands to her eyes. Of course the only reason he was here was for business. Why would she ever think otherwise? She begrudgingly got up from the couch and moved back to the call box.

"Well, thanks for the heads up, mom," she said ruefully. "It was real nice of you to stop by."

[dontthinkabout]

He looked down at the ground. The way she sounded made his chest ache. Lifting his hand, he pressed the button again. “You’re welcome. If he does contact you, don’t take a job with him. Don’t meet him, don’t do anything. Call me if he persists. Bye.” He stayed at the door for a few seconds before he started walking away,

[anewshade]

Like he had any right to tell her who to see or not see or which jobs to take. It made her angry that he could just suddenly come back and act like be cared. After not a single call or email.

She hit the button again and told him "fuck you" in French before she left the call box again to go curl up in her room.

[dontthinkabout]

That made him laughed. It was childish, but it was still an Ariadne thing to do.

Arthur got to the end of her block before hailing a cab back to his hotel. He’d be gone tomorrow afternoon for a job in Manila.

[anewshade]

And while he laughed, she cried, and she didn't find a new apartment that day and she didn't answer any other emails.

She did however get dragged out of bed and to the bar by her concerned friends and manage to get herself wasted.

[dontthinkabout]

Arthur didn’t do much after he left Ariadne’s building. He went back to his hotel room to check his email and if he had any messages. Just one from his mother asking how everything was. He told her everything was fine.

Later in the evening, he found himself down the street at a bar, mostly just drinking his troubles away in a booth in the corner. He already has two whiskeys on the rocks with a third one in his hand.

[anewshade]

Ari supposed she was having fun. There was a cute bartender that kept flirting with her and giving her free drinks and her friends kept telling her that she needed a rebound. And she was incredibly tempted, but as the night wore on, her ability to keep up the fake, flirty demeanor waned with the alcohol and she found herself on the curb outside the bar wondering what Arthur was up to instead. It made her almost hate herself.

[dontthinkabout]

Arthur was still seated in the booth in the corner of the bar he was at, but now he was on his fifth whiskey. And the alcohol was starting to affect him. So much so that he took out his phone and almost dialed Ariadne’s number, but he stopped himself. He shouldn’t bother her. With the way she addressed him back at her apartment, he figured she didn’t want anything to do with him.

[anewshade]

Earlier in the night when drunk dialing or texting him had seemed like a good idea, one of Ari's friends had confiscated her phone to "save her from herself." So if he did call it would either go to voicemail or he'd get one of her friends.

Meanwhile Ari was trying to psych herself back up to go seal the deal with Mr. Bartender. If Arthur didn't want to be with her then she'd have to move on eventually right?