One Black Tea | TH

Eleven - Family

The first few hours of the journey to Cornwall we unbelievably quiet. Nothing much was said other than the occasional chatter. But then I decided to fill the silence.

"So Tom I never asked you.." I lead on and he looked at me with raised eyebrows as I spoke. "Who am I meeting today? I never knew you had a shared place with your family. To he honest I don't even know what family you have..." I finished, not sure if I even worded that correctly.

"I'm quite a private person. I try not to tell people much when I meet them because I never know if I can trust them..." He started. I felt quite hurt to think that he may not trust me but then he continued. "The closer I get with a person the more I tell them. I want you to know more about me Annie but I find it hard tell people personal things because I never know what could happen. My family are the most important thing in my life and I wouldn't want anything to jeopardise that. My career can sacrifice a lot and the last thing I want to sacrifice is my family and my closest friends. It takes a lot for me to introduce someone into my life but when I do it feels great to have someone else important in my life." He finished, looking directly at me and then back onto the road.

I didn't really know what to say. Tom being quite a private person explained a lot. He had always been quite secretive around me and around other people too and I could tell that being famous was quite a difficult thing for him.

"I have three brothers. Sam, Harry and Paddy. Sam and Harry are twins and Paddy is the youngest of all his of us. My parents will be there and so will my best friend Harrison. He's like another brother to me." He finished looking at me with his hand clenched tightly to the steering wheel.

We continued to talk for a while longer before we arrived at a beautiful beach house not too far away from the sea. The house was fairly large with white panels for walls and had a beautiful range of plants surrounding it. There were a few cars parked in the driveway which presumably belonged to his family.

Tom got out of the car first before walking around to my side to open my door for me. I thanked him and made my way the the back seat to reach for my bag but Tom and already got there before me and had my bag and his in either one of his fists.

We walked up to the beautiful oak front door and Tom knocked a few times before it opened to see a lovely lady with red hair standing on the other side of the door frame.

"Tom, darling!" She announced as she pulled the brown haired boy into a tight hug.

"Hi Mum." He smiled before his mum slowly pulled away and adverting her gaze towards me.

"Ah! And you must be Annie! We've heard so much about you sweetie! I'm Nikki." She smiled to me as she pulled me into a tight and warm hug. I was surprised to hear that Tom had been talking about me to his family. I hadn't expected that. I looked over to Tom who was mouthing 'she's a hugger' in my direction and I smiled at the gesture before his Mum pulled away.

"Come in! Come in!" She gestured and we both walked in to the hallway and into a large and comfortable-looking sitting room where many people sat. I looked around the room to see most people looking at me and smiling.

Tom introduced me to all his family and I quickly got to know their names. I felt very welcomed into this warm home. We spoke for a while where I learnt about Tom's family and his friend Harrison. It was really lovely to talk to his family.

As it got dark, we made our way outside, into an outdoor fire pit area with seats and stools surrounding it. We continued talking there before a particular topic came up.

"Oh yeah Tom you are great at playing the guitar!" Harry spoke to his brother fondly as everyone else nodded in agreement.

"Why don't you play something for us?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah Tom, go on." Paddy chipped in.

"Really?" Tom looked at his mum and his brothers before looking over to me as if to ask if I really wanted to hear something.

I nodded at him with a wide smile on my face, quite excited to hear him play.

"Alright." He said and much to everyone's excitement he got up out of his seat and headed inside to grab his guitar.

A few moments later he came back out and sat back down across the fire pit from me, placing his guitar on his lap and slowly strumming his hand on the strings to warm up. He played with his rings for a few moments, figuring out what to play before his large hands were back in place and ready to play.

(Play Now)

A familiar tune started to strum on my ears and I recognised the beautiful rhythm in my head. Dancing in the moonlight.

I closed my eyes with a smile. I had always loved this song. I kept my eyes shut while I heard the melody Tom played so beautifully on the instrument. I opened them again to see Tom in front of my eyes playing it like it was a piece of cake.

I had never seen Tom his way before. His strong hand gripped tightly to the neck of the guitar while his head moved slowly to the beat to the song. His foot tapped slowly on the floor and a few of his golden brown curls had dropped down onto his forehead and moved in unison with his head.

He continued to play the song and as it came to an end I felt a tinge of disappointment to hear to beautifully played song stop. Tom looked up from the floor and looked at me. I returned the gaze with a soft smile, looking into his brown eyes. I mouthed the word 'wow' to him and he smiled back and me sweetly while he placed his guitar onto the floor.

What couldn't this man do? I asked yourself with a smile.