15 months down the line…
Still fired up and roaring to go, partly from the gallons and gallons of
coffee I’d downed during the night and partly from the high I got from making
so much progress with my paper, I arrived on Liam’s door step at about eight that
Saturday morning, freshly made jollof
rice in hand. He looked groggy and disoriented when he opened the door and
I felt a tiny-bitty twinge of guilt so I flashed my million dollar smile and
thrust the steaming dish under his nose.
“I come bearing gifts!”
I said airily and he smiled, his whole face softening. He looked like a sweet
little boy then, tousled hair and a shadow of a stubble.
“What would I do
without you?” he said planting a kiss on the crown of my head.
“That smells absolutely divine!”
“I take it was a long
night then?” I asked, taking in his really tired face.
“Yeah. At least, I have
the whole weekend off and you to take care of me.” he replied, pulling me into
the flat.
I made a bee line for the kitchen and dished up some of the food. For the
moment, I put aside my bit of news. I made him a mug of hot chocolate as well
and returned to the living room where he’d sprawled over the sofa, already half
asleep.
“Here. Eat up and then
I’ll leave you in peace to sleep.” I said scooping up a pile of mail from the
coffee table so as to set the tray of food on it. Absently, I started to flip through them.
“How’s Nan?” he asked.
“Haven’t seen her in a bit.”
“She’s good. Miffed as
usual that you haven’t been around, but good all the same.” I said without
looking up from the mail.
“I’ll charm her out of
it.” He said through a mouthful and I scoffed.
“You should know by now
that that doesn’t work on her. You’re still gonna get an earful.”
He groaned.
“I’d better come over
with you then to start my grovelling.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“Good excuse to spend
the day with my girls!” he said and I smiled.
“These are due.” I said
setting some bills aside and throwing the junk in the bin. “You should sort
them out. Plus you need to renew your car insurance.”
“Yes mum!”
“Seriously! Before the
end of next week.”
“Really? Next week?”
“Yep!”
I looked at him then and he had this baffled look on his face. I shook my
head laughing.
“Don’t worry, I’ll have
it sorted.” I said joining him on the sofa.
“What would I do without
you?!”
“Nuh-huh, don’t you dare
milk it!” I tore open another bill and scanned through it, making a mental note
to sort it out too.
He finished his meal and took the dishes to the kitchen while I attacked
the bills on his laptop.
“Card!” I yelled out to
him.
“Righto!” he replied
from the kitchen. A moment later, he tossed his wallet to me and wandered off.
I assumed he’d gone back to sleep and quite forgot all about him for a bit.
“Congratulations!” he
said so suddenly that I jumped.
“Wow, You sure know how
to make a girl’s heart skip!” I said and scowled up at him. “O-kay…my heart is really skipping now” I
said dryly, taking in the cupcake he was brandishing. It had a single lit
candle perched on its top. “What’s the occasion?!”
“Congratulations Candidate!” he said. “I’m so proud of
you!”
My mouth dropped open as I gaped at him.
“How on earth did you
know? I haven’t told a soul!” I said finally.
“Go on, blow it out!” he
said thrusting the cupcake in my face.
When I continued to gape at him, he blew out the candle himself and
skipped over the back of the sofa to sit down beside me.
“I’m so, so proud of
you!” he said giving me a crushing hug. “I knew you would smash it!”
I shook my head, trying to clear it. I’d wanted to tell him in person
about the results of my Orals. I’d only just got the news the day before and
he’d been on the grave yard shift again, so I’d had to wait. Seeing how tired
he was this morning and remembering that he couldn’t have had more than about
three hours of sleep before I arrived on his door step had made me push back
the news in guilt.
“How did you know?!” I
asked again.
“I just did.” he said
shrugging. “I had this dream that you had exciting news and I just knew my girl
had done it again!” he said setting the cupcake between us like a trophy.
If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he was mucking around with
me. But I did. He’d had another one of his out-of-the-blues dreams and had been
smack on point! I was speechless and I suddenly had the sudden urge to cry!
Somehow, he’d made it feel like much more than Orals and I couldn’t have felt
any better if I’d just been presented with a Nobel prize.
“Thank you!” I managed
to choke out.
“You deserved it luv.”
he murmured taking my hand. He kissed my knuckles. “Thank you.” I said, throwing my arms around him, not caring
that I was crushing the celebratory cupcake in the process.
* * * *
“We’ll have to get you another cake.” I said and she
laughed, pulling away from me to check out the mess she’d made on the sofa.
“It had better be a
proper one with all the trims!” she said dusting crumbs off the knees of her
jeans.
“Trims? It had a
candle!” I exclaimed and she laughed.
“I’ll clean this up.” She said making to get up.
I held on to her hand, stopping her halfway out of the sofa. In an
instant, everything changed. One moment, she was my smart-ass friend whom I
owed a big cake and a bottle of champagne. The next, she well, wasn’t. The expression on her face told
me she could feel the buzz too. It was like someone had flicked a switch and we
were back at Sorrentino’s almost two years ago, only this time I knew not to
mess things up between us. I gave a little tug and pulled her back to the sofa.
“Frankie,” I whispered
holding her gaze. I didn’t need a dream to tell me that this was how it should
be. I didn’t think, I just said the words as they came to me.
“I love you…”
* * * *
Then he kissed me and it just
felt so right. In that moment, it
suddenly became clear to me that I was totally and completely in love with this
man! If I'd been attracted to him before, now I was more than certain I was in
love with him. How or when or why eluded me at that moment and it felt like I'd
suddenly started awake and realised I didn’t just love and appreciate my sweet,
scatter-brained, intelligent friend, but I was so desperately in love with him. And just like
when I'd first set foot in my tiny attic room, I knew I'd finally come home.
