It's been two days since the first class, since laying eyes on the woman, who I now know to be called Elle. She won't leave my thoughts. Taller than most women she was statuesque, and yet she hunched her frame to appear shorter. Her body was outrageously curvy with little dips at her hips- another curve for me to love. Despite all her beauty and grace, there was a deep plaintive mourning to her gaunt face and tearful eyes.

This woman is calling to me, even if I can't be with her, I have to help her.

Rubbing my face with my hands, I stand from the bar and excuse myself to Vidar. I tell him I'm going to a bar in town to look for a woman to pick up, I highly doubt he does in fact believe me. A bar is not my destination, I found her address on the gym membership so I could return her bottle, now it's an insatiable temptation.

The bike roars alive underneath me as I speed off along the winding backroads until I find my way to the smooth, cared for roads. The nearest town isn't hugely overpopulated, but it's a welcome rest bite from the silence of the forest.

Her apartment complex came into my view and I sighed in relief. I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing here, I just wanted to see her again. My chest hasn't stopped aching since she closed the door on me. One things for certain, I will need to have a chat with Vidar about how he felt when he found Astrid. Maybe he felt the same as I do now.

I take the stairs three at a time. A man in a hoody dashes down the steps past me. He doesn't stop, even when he knocks into my shoulder. I call out in indignation, he turns his face slightly as my anger and I catch a glimpse of his face. Shaking my head, I continue to walk in the steps until I reach her door. Before my brain can talk my heart out of the idea. I knock.

The door is answered after a few seconds and I'm met with her tear stained face and trembling lip. "Elle..." I whisper softly so as to not frighten her. "Are you ok?" I ask even though I know the answer.

Slowly, her head shakes and the door opens slightly wider.

"I might be crazy, but can you come in?"

Relief washes through me as I smile lightly at her. The entire hard woman demeanour I met from a few days before has melted away, the shaking girl I see before me looks as pale as anything.

"I should probably introduce myself." I say after I clear my throat to break the tense silence.

"I know who you are," her voice is measured and yet wobbly, "the women at the gym won't stop taking about you. Ironic Mouse they call you."

I chuckle at that, we've moved to sit on the sofa. I sink down into the faded and sagging material, she perches on the edge as if it's not her house we're in.

"My non-ironic name is actually Derek. You can call me that."

She sniffs before speaking.

"What's the point of having a fake name if you tell it to every woman you ever meet?"

"Actually, you're the first to know."

Her light chuckling stops and her head whips around to face me. "Why would you tell me then?"

I move ever so closer towards her trembling form. Finding a blanket on the floor and hauling it over her shoulders, I murmur. "Because you're special."

Her head shakes with sobs and she turns her face into my chest, feet tuck under body as she curls into my arms. "This is crazy, I'm crazy. I don't even know you!"

It's true, I feel how she's feeling too. "And yet it doesn't feel wrong, does it?"

Her head shakes no and she nuzzles even closer into my chest. "Why were you crying when you opened the door?"

It's a bold question to ask her, it could either reap fruit or lead her to shut me out. "Nightmare." Is her one word response.

"A bad one?" I broach the topic slightly more. She shrugs before replying 'ex'.

Anger pulses through my blood like oxygen, an ex causing a nightmare; never a good thing. Deciding, however, that she's probably said enough for today, I leave it at that.

"I'm surprised there wasn't a bat to greet me this time."

"I knew it was you, you're not cruel."

"Never." I reply as I cautiously wrap an arm over her shoulder- I've never felt so nervous or uneasy in my life before. It's a complex sensation because I feel as if I'm simultaneously drowning and drawing my first breath.

"Thank you for sitting with me, stranger."

"We're hardly strangers, this is our fourth meeting after all." Another uneasy chuckle leaves my throat, I hope this feeling will leave.

"Yeah, I guess. But still thank you. I know I don't matter in anyway, but your kindness is appreciated."

"Don't matter?" I query.

"Well yeah, I'm just a fat useless lump to all who know me."

That anger grips at my chest once again and clouds my eyesight with black spots of just fury. No woman should ever even think those thoughts. Let alone by a person they love and trust. No wonder she believes them, cruelty always hits harder when it comes from a person of trust. I will kill him for even hinting at her.

"I don't want you to ever even think of those lies again. Promise me? Please."

She nods her head at my tone, it was probably harsher than I intended.

"I'll try."