Nick bounded into the staffroom on Friday morning, making a beeline for me.
"Charlie!"
"Hi there. What's got you all worked up?"
"I just got the best news ever!" He announced, flopping onto the seat beside me.
"And what is this amazing news?"
"Imogen's coming home."
"Already? I thought she was there for another week." Nick laughed, looking happier than I'd seen him since Imogen left.
"They're running ahead of schedule and Imogen's job is pretty much done so they're letting her come home earlier."
"That's great news. When is she getting back then?"
"On Sunday. All things going well."
"Would you like me to watch Abby for a bit if she does come home? So you can, uh, reconnect?" I watched as his eyes lit up hopefully.
"Really? You'd do that?"
"I know Abby's probably missed her too but she'll survive a few more hours without her. You, on the other hand, might not." I teased and he laughed. "Does Abby know she's coming home early?"
"Not yet. Because it's not 100% certain yet, I didn't want to tell her. But-" He cut himself off and I was confused for a second until he pulled his phone from his pocket. "It's Imogen."
"Oh." He stood up and walked a few feet away to where I couldn't hear him but I saw the huge grin spread across his face and assumed it was good news. I watched him as he tried, and failed, to suppress a little happy dance and I smiled, he was so cute.
Wait. Cute? No, I couldn't be thinking of him as cute. He's married. Happily. And totally smitten, if the look in his eyes right now is anything to go by. I bit down on my lip and looked away, trying to think of anything else. But my usually hyperactive mind chose that moment to betray me and I could think of nothing else.
"What's wrong?" Nick's voice beside me brought me back to reality and I turned to face him.
"Nothing. Just thinking. I have a serious thinking face." I lied and he seemed to accept that, the concern on his face washed away by pure happiness in a second. "So, what's the news from Imogen?"
"She's coming home on Sunday. They just booked her flight."
"That's amazing. What time is she landing here?"
"About three in the afternoon."
"So, do you want me to pick up Abby before you head to the airport? Or are you going to drop her off?"
"You're sure it's okay? Imogen and I can find another time to..."
"It's fine. More than. I know how much you've missed her. I would be wanting someone to look after Nathaniel and Alexis if I was in your position." I admitted and he laughed.
"Hopefully one day I can return the favour to you."
"It's more like I'm returning the favour; you looked after Nathaniel and Alexis so much through the whole divorce thing."
"Fair enough. But back to the point, I'll drop Abby off on my way. Saves you from going out when you don't have to."
"Okay then. I'm glad you're so excited about this."
"More than. I haven't seen her in three weeks. The longest we've been apart since we got married."
"What about before that?"
"Hm?"
"Before you got married? What was the longest time you were apart?"
"Uh, when we were dating we were apart for a week at one point but that was only, like, two months into it because we both went home for Christmas."
"Wow. So you basically met and spent every day together after?"
"Yeah. Even in the beginning, we hated being away from each other for long periods of time." He looked a little embarrassed about that. "That makes us sound clingy, doesn't it?"
"No. I get it. When Ben and I started dating, I wanted to be with him all the time and that feeling never really went away, even after we got married. But we both had careers that meant a lot of time apart and while we were dating, I'd frequently fly home to visit my parents without him, mostly because they didn't approve of us dating."
"You never told me where you're from."
"Didn't I?" He shook his head. "I thought it was obvious. I'm from the Isle of Man."
"Wow."
"Wow, what?"
"You don't have an accent."
"Really? I get people saying I do all the time."
"Maybe it only comes out at certain times." He shrugged. "Why did you move here?"
"For university mostly. And to get away from the anti-LGBT world I was living in."
"The Island's got equality laws, though, doesn't it?"
"It does now. But when I lived there it didn't. The laws only came in the year after I officially moved here."
"Oh."
"Yeah. But anyway, back to the point, you not liking being away from Imogen for long periods of time doesn't make you clingy. It makes you in love. I'm sure Imogen feels the same way."
"It's what she tells me. She complains that the hotel pillows don't smell like me."
"What?" I frowned, not understanding what he was saying.
"Uh, it's a thing we do when we're apart. We hold the other's pillow as like a replacement."
"That's cute."
"Mm. Usually, if we're using the other's pillow it still kind of smells like them. Which is why she was complaining."
"Ah. That makes sense. You know, you've been looking so down the past three weeks, it's nice to see you happy again."
"It's nice to feel happy."
"I-" I was going to say more but we were interrupted by the bell ringing and he groaned.
"Thank god it's only one more day of this to deal with before I can really look forward to Imogen coming home." I grinned as I got up and followed him to the lockers. "Oh, I can't even sleep in tomorrow. I have to make sure the house is clean. I've been letting it slip a little while she was away."
"I'm sure she wouldn't care if it was messy. She'll just be happy to be home."
"I know. But it'll annoy me."
"Alright. I'll leave you to your stressing then."
"Bye Charlie." He waved at me as I headed out the door towards the music rooms to meet up with my first class of the day. Inside, I was fighting myself to ignore what I could feel bubbling up, feelings for Nick.
