All of this past

On tour

I sighed as I fell down in my bed, who on earth ever came up with the idea of a week filled with long and boring meetings at unearthly times in the morning, followed by more meetings and interviews in the afternoon, and finally a few hours of rehearsals in the evening? I was dead tired after the past four days, and the fact that I had to come home to my own empty house rather than stay at Liam's and enjoy his company made it even worse. We had thought about me staying over at his for this week, but it was just useless, I would hardly ever be there, leaving early in the morning and coming back late in the evening, too tired to speak more than three words. I just hoped the next five weeks would be easier, knowing that I was further away from home so it was physically impossible to spend time together. Right now I practically lived for our phone calls every night, even if they consisted of nothing more than telling about our days and saying again how much we missed each other. It was so strange how close we had gotten over a little more than a week. I loved every bit of it.

I was happy the meetings were now finally over and I would be able to sleep in until noon before I had to get to the venue for the première next day, a final dress rehearsal and a short press conference was on the programme for the afternoon, and then I would meet up with Liam for dinner before the show started. I was pretty nervous about this show, as it was the first time there was so much of me inside my songs. The set list for the tour had been decided on weeks ago, and it consisted mostly of songs that were on the new album, that had been selling fairly well. I felt vulnerable singing those very personal snippets of my life in front of so many people, and I was really happy that Liam would be there when I first played them.

"Alright guys, thanks, if everything goes as well tonight, I'll be the one buying you beers after every concert on tour." I cheered at them as I put my guitar down in its standard and walked off stage to my dressing room. I put a few bottles of water in the freezer before I grabbed my phone and walked out of the venue to go and find Liam. He should've arrived by now, and was probably waiting in the parking lot. I had told him he could come earlier and get back stage but he had insisted that he wouldn't want to bother me and he would just meet me after the final rehearsal. I had just walked out into the parking lot when I recognised his red car driving a few yards away from me. He was behind the wheel, looking stressed out because of the London traffic at this time of day. Holidays were over now for most people, so everyday life was back on track, including traffic jams on Saturday evenings. I walked towards the parking space he had just pulled into, and waited for him to get out of his car. He was in such a hurry that he hadn't even noticed me standing there and he would've ran past me if I hadn't stopped him by blocking his way. A look of annoyance crossed his face for a second, until he recognised me and smiled, wrapping his arms around me as if it had been years since he'd last seen me. Not that I had any right to say something about it, as I gladly returned the gesture and buried my face into his neck, inhaling his familiar hazelnutty scent before he pulled away to kiss me forcefully on the lips. "I missed you." he breathed in between the lighter pecks that followed.

"Me too." I mentally rolled my eyes at the statement, because it was true. It had only been 5 days since I'd left him, and I had missed him like crazy. What would it be for the next 5 weeks? I took his hand in mine and enjoyed the familiar warmth spreading through my body as we walked out, our hands swinging back and forth between us on our way to the restaurant I'd made reservations for. It was quite early in the evening, so we were the only ones around. Most people would probably start arriving to eat when we were about to leave, as the concert started at 8.30. I didn't want to eat too much, I couldn't have anyway, because nerves were causing my stomach to twist and turn, so I settled with a bowl of soup and a spinach and salmon quiche. Liam ordered his food, which I really didn't catch, I was too busy trying to enjoy his company despite my nerves.

I found him smiling at me from across the table when I looked up from my glass of water. He grabbed the hand that had just set my glass down and squeezed it. "You're nervous." It wasn't a question because it really didn't need to be asked. I nodded and tried to smile, but failed miserably.