The Song

Part Fifteen

FLASHBACK CONT…

I woke up the next morning, stretching out in Aston’s arms. It was weird to be lying there with him, he was famous and I was nobody.

“Hey sleepyhead,” I giggled, pinching his earlobe gently.

“Hmmm…”
“Let me buy you breakfast.”

“I’m still sleeping!” he yawned.

“I gotta go to work later, so either you get up and eat with me or I’ll leave you here and eat by myself.”

“Charming,” Aston said as I climbed out of bed, still in my jeans and t-shirt from the night before.

“You coming?”

“In the same clothes as yesterday?” he asked.

“Who cares?” I shrugged, digging out a spring dress and some clean underwear to wear for work.

“Fine I’ll go,” Aston sighed, stretching out in bed as I went to the hall bathroom and freshened up. Brenda was nowhere to be seen and I surely hoped the guy that was in our apartment the night before wasn’t going to be a regular.

“Ready?” I asked Aston fifteen minutes later. I’d sent him to the hall bath to clean up while I’d gathered my things for work.

“One second,” he said, grabbing my hand and sitting me down on the bed, “I just wanted to check that you’re ok with everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Us,” he said with a faint smile, “I really like you Jess. Ever since I met you I haven’t been able to get you off my mind and I’d really like to get to know you better.”

“I like you too.”

“So you’re cool if we’re like, exclusive? I know it’s fast and we haven’t done much, but I don’t see any point in messing around. I want you to be my girlfriend.”

“I said yes last night Aston,” I replied, squeezing his hand gently.

“I don’t want to mess you around like those other guys.”

“So don’t.”

“It’s not always going to be easy,” he added, “Being with me I mean. I can be really busy, and I travel a lot.”

“Perfect, I’ll get a built in break for when I get tired of you,” I said.

“What?” Aston asked, a look of panic on his face.

“It’s a joke.”

“Oh,” he sighed, “I can’t tell with you, I’m too nervous.”

“Nervous? Around me? You’re the celebrity.”

“I said this before… you’re so not the type of girl I’d normally go for. But not in a bad way. And because of that I feel extra pressure to do this right.”

“You’re doing fine so far Merrygold,” I said cooly.

“Thanks,” he smiled, his nose crinkling up as his eyes sparkled. His fingers trailed up to my face as my eyes got lost in his, and he pushed a stray piece of hair behind my ear before cupping my cheek gently and leaning in to give me a kiss.

I felt that same sensation I had the night before, my heartbeat picking up as his lips lingered against mine. His kisses were about as close to heaven as I could get on this earth.

“Breakfast?” I whispered as I pulled my head back.

“One more kiss.”

----

That night I pushed into my flat still feeling in the clouds. Breakfast with Aston had been perfect, like everything else with him. We’d snuggled up in a booth at a cute café near my flat, taking bites off of each other’s plates and giggling away at nothing.

At work I’d hardly been able to focus, my fingers itching to play a happy song on the piano but my boss’ presence preventing me from leaving the front counter. To say I was in a daze was an understatement. I was smitten.

“Jess!” my flatmate Brenda said as I set my grocery bags down on the counter and started pulling things out to put away in the fridge.

“Yeah?” I asked. I was hoping she was about to apologize, but no luck.

“You didn’t tell me your friend was Aston Merrygold!”

“What?”

“The guy that was here last night, you didn’t say it was the JLS guy,” she said insistently.

“How do you know who it was? I didn’t say anything on purpose…”

“What the hell Jess!” Brenda said, an annoyed look on her face.

“Why does it matter?”

“He’s famous!”

“So?” I asked, turning to put some vegetables in the drawer at the bottom of the fridge. “He’s pretty normal to me.”

“But…”

“Bren what is this about?” I asked, still not impressed with her behavior the night before, the annoyance wearing my patience thin quickly.

“There’s pictures of you online.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, my forehead creasing as I followed her to the main room where her laptop was open on the coffee table. I did not like the sound of those words, not one bit.

“Look,” she said, clicking through a few gossip sites. Pictures of Aston and I eating breakfast that morning were everywhere. Someone must have spotted us through the window and snapped all sorts of shots of us, selling them to every paper in the country.

“Oh I don’t like this,” I muttered. It just felt wrong to me. I was no one and I didn’t want my picture posted so everyone could see. It wasn’t what I’d signed up for, going to lunch with Aston. I just wanted to spend some time getting to know him by myself, not with the rest of the country.

“They don’t know your name,” Brenda explained, “The articles are just full of speculation.”

“Still… It’s an invasion of privacy. I don’t like it.”

“You should read the comments,” Brenda said, pointing to a listing of comments at the end of one article.

There was everything under the sun down there, nice comments and nasty comments. I hated that they were all about me. I didn’t want people judging me by how I was dressed or whom I was with. I didn’t want people in my business at all!!

“So what are you going to do?” Brenda asked, shutting her laptop as I wandered back to the kitchen, my fingers shaking.

“I don’t know. I can’t stop them from taking pictures,” I said, “Aston is a celebrity, he’s used to it, he ignores them. He’s strong enough to not let the comments bother him. But I’m not. I don’t want them taking pictures of me. I don’t want people talking about me.”

“So…”

I stood and stared into the fridge for a minute as I thought things through. I actually felt a bit sick by the thought of being photographed without realizing it. My skin was crawling a bit and I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or lash out at someone.

“I think it might be best if I don’t see Aston anymore,” I said, “Stop this before it starts.”