All Is Fair In Love And War

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the grass was soft to sit on. Bernard and Claire were sitting on a picnic rug which was buried under the remains of a very satisfying lunch. Looking at his girlfriend, Bernard knew he was happier than he had ever been before. Claire smiled as she leant over and gave him a long kiss. She swiftly cleared the rug of their lunch and they lay down next to each other. "The park is deserted," whispered Claire, "no one will disturb us.." and she slowly took off her shirt. As Bernard moved to kiss her again, the birds started to sound louder and less charming, until Bernard realised that the incessant beeping came out of his alarm. He should have known, really, because in reality, Claire had never been around long enough to actually finish a picnic lunch. In fact, the last time they had tried to have a romantic picnic, in the period that Bernard now called the 'unhappy time', some kids had recognised Claire and made her sign autographs all afternoon, which she had of course agreed to do because she truly loved her fans. "Kids..." Bernard grumbled, "Bloody pests."
The children, for Bernard, had done it. For the gentle man he was, he had a surprising amount of hatred reserved especially for children, and these children were, unknowingly, ruining his chances of spending some precious time with his already heavily engaged girlfriend. The one time a week he could really spend time with her, Bernard believed, she should understand he wanted to spend some alone time with her, but to her, her work and her fans would always come first. Not being able to break up with Claire because he knew he could not live without her, he chose a far more secretive and devastating - as well as slower - way of making sure their relationship would never be the same. Of course, at the time, he had thought life would become simpler and happier, but he had not accounted for the damage his actions would do to Claire's body and mental state, nor how much the guilt would change him.
As he stepped into his uniform and got ready to go to work, Bernard thought of Claire, or, as the whole world knew her now, Awesome Lady, and he sighed. The beautiful, tender feelings he had so carefully and unintentionally changed into guilt and - through the denial of this guilt - hatred consumed Bernard, or as the whole world knew him, Rubbish Man.
"I must have her!" He thought, "I must have her all for myself!" As he stepped into his Rubbish Van, ready to spread menace and pain, Rubbish Man started to form a masterplan, a plan that would be almost as terrible, and certainly as painful for Awesome Lady, as the plan that had destroyed their relationship so many years ago.