My "n" key is faulty and you have no idea how many times I had to change "girlfried" to "girlfriend." Horrible imagery comes with "girlfried"...
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"Come to London with me."
"What?"
Jamie looks at me from across the table. We are sitting in Sienna's, an Italian restaurant (to humour Jamie's claims we'd never been on a "proper" date, though I disagreed) and I was half finished with my enormous plate or tortellini.
Jamie places his fork down, blue eyes sparkling in the light. "I said, come to London with me."
"London? Didn't you come here to avoid London? Are you having second thoughts?"
Jamie laughs at this. "Of course not! No, I received a call this morning from my dearest mother, she misses me, and wants me to come up for her birthday, and you said you had a work break coming up."
I suddenly feel guilty that I didn't know anything about his family. "Oh, are you sure you want me to come with you? Does your family even know I exist?"
Jamie smirks. "I may have mentioned you in passing..."
"Jamie! How much did you say?"
"Oh, only that I have a god-awful girlfriend that insists on going everywhere with me...." He glances at my expression, which must be saying something because he stops. "I'm joking Heidi, I only said that I had a girlfriend."
I scoff. "As if! Mothers always interrogate on this matter, so what did you say?"
"I kept it as generalised as possible, I played the privacy card on her."
"Hmm," I'm not amused.
"She wants to meet you, and the rest of my family."
"She does?"
"Yes, and I want you to meet her, and try her chocolate pudding."
I pause. "Wait, you didn't make up with me just because you didn't want to turn up with no girlfriend in tow, did you?"
Jamie looks offended, eye wide, mouth open. I keep my face perfectly still for a moment, but my focus breaks. "I'm kidding."
"Never say that again." Despite the sincerity of his words, he's smiling.
I smile back sheepishly. "It's payback."
"So we're even?"
"We're even."
And so it was that, after I walked out of the hospital for the last time for a week, that Jamie helped me pack my bags and we set off to Perth International Airport to depart to from Perth, stop in Hong Kong, and continue to finally land in London, the day before his mother's birthday. It was still summer in Australia, which meant it was winter in London, so I had had to go out and buy some rather warm clothes. As much as I hated the cold, I figured it's probably easier than dealing with the heat, and, maybe I would see the snow for the first time. I tell Jamie this as we settle into our seats on the plane after a rushed hour running around the airport. I wasn't familiar with Perth International and Jamie was practically useless in that sense, too.
Jamie looks surprised. "You've never seen snow before?"
"Nope," I say.
"You know, most Londoners see the snow so much, they hate it. But I've found I never get bored of it, in fact, I've kind of missed it."
The plane has taken off, and the lights have dimmed since it's a night flight, and people are sleeping, so our voices are hushed.
"Why?"
"I don't know, London's such a grey place all the time, all rain and clouds, I think I just like how pure and fresh the snow looks - at least, before it get's all slushy and dirty."
"All good things come to an end."
"Except for you, hopefully." Says Jamie in a hushed voice.
I can feel myself blushing, so I say nothing, but reach up to turn my reading light off. Jamie glances over at me.
"Are you going to sleep?" In the darkness I can only see the outline of Jamie's head, hair hidden inside a beanie.
I sigh, and close my eyes, it was an eight hour flight, after all. "Yeah."
The rest of the flight to Hong Kong was a blurry pattern of waking up to the thrum of the plane engines and dim lighting, re-positioning, and dozing off again. At one point I felt the weight of Jamie's head against my shoulder, the fabric of the beanie brushing against my neck, as it seemed he too had fallen asleep, but on me. It was like Jamie prison all over again, - this time without the dead arm - and so I only woke him the next time I woke up, we'd almost landed.
Bleary-eyed and disorientated, Jamie and I wove our way through the crowds of people at the Hong Kong Airport. If Perth hadn't been confusing enough, Hong Kong was something different altogether. But, because it was such a popular lay-over spot for long distance travelers, there were plenty of places for Jamie and I to sit and eat. Since we were using one flight company the whole way, we didn't have to worry about our bags, we just had an hour and a half to freshen up and prepare for the huge thirteen hour flight ahead of us.
"Thirteen hours." I muse. "That's an insanely long time to fly in a plane, how did you survive getting to Perth?"
Jamie and I were sat at a small Starbucks. While there was Starbucks in some states, there weren't any in Perth, and I was curious to try a drink. I had ordered a caramel frappuccino, and Jamie had bought a black coffee. Between us, we were sharing a warm muffin.
"Hmm," Jamie looked up thoughtfully, and went to take the first sip of his coffee. "I think I was-OUCH!"
Jamie had taken a sip of his coffee and almost dropped it, now his tongue was out, and he looked betrayed. "I bur-ma-tong."
"You burned your tongue?" I giggled.
Jamie nods sadly. "Now everything is gonna taste weird, I've burnt my tastebuds off."
"I hate the taste of burnt things, perhaps I shouldn't kiss you for a while."
"I don't think that will be necessary."
"Oh but I think it will..." I tease him.
Jamie crossed his arms. "Fine, but I know you can't resist this," he winked at me and clicked his tongue, "you'll be begging for me."
I arch a brow. "Yes Jamie, you're the height of sexiness after just getting off a plane with mussed up hair and a wonky beanie."
Jamie yanks his beanie down lower in defiance. "Meanie."
I laugh, and take a sip of my frappuccino. "Here, why don't you sooth your tongue with some of this." I push it over to him. He takes a sip obediently, swallows, and gags.
"Darling, I drink black coffee, this is way too sweet for me."
This time it's me crossing my arms. "Well aren't you just a sophisticated hipster."
"I don't think 'hipster' and 'sophisticated' can go together."
I smile. "I guess..."
Once we've finished our drinks, Jamie and I wander the airport for a while, and then walk to our terminal to board. This time I'm lucky enough to have a window seat, and as we take off I watch the buildings of Hong Kong slowly shrink until they're covered by cloud.
Jamie, having recovered from his burnt-tongue incident, is back to himself again, and this is proved when the airline stewardess addresses the plane for the safety drill.
Jamie leans over and whispers in my ear, "I like to pick the prettiest one and try to get her to look at me so I can wink at her." As he says this, a second stewardess - or should I say steward - walks to stand in front of our aisle.
"Are you going to wink at him?" I ask.
Jamie's mouth twitches. "I'll ask him for a high five."
And so, as the procedure finishes and the attendant walks back, Jamie leans and gets his attention.
"Are you in need of assistance, sir?"
Jamie flashes his teeth in a winning smile, meanwhile, I'm trying to hold in my laughter.
Jamie holds up his hand "No sir, I was just wondering if I could have a high five."
With a bewildered expression, the attendant gives a half-hearted high five to Jamie, straightens, and continues walking.
Jamie and I explode into peals of silent laughter. I watch the way his face lights up as he laughs, eyes screwed shut, teeth shining, nose scrunched up adorably, it was a face you couldn't help but smile and laugh with, too.
Since we slept on the first plane trip, Jamie and I are wide awake, and it's daylight, so we watch the plane movie together, arm rest flipped up, under a blanket the airline provided.
"This isn't unlike our usual hang-outs," remarked Jamie.
"Yeah," I agree, resting my head on his shoulder as the opening credits roll. "Except this time we're thousands of meters up in the air and thousands of kilometers away from home."
"Killjoy..." mutters Jamie, shuffling to get comfortable. "The next movie we're watching is a comedy, to lighten you up."
"You think I'm fat!?" I mock-sob.
Jamie gives me a knowing look. "Heidi."
I return the look, still mocking. "Jamie."
Jamie glances at the movie screen. "We're missing the start."
"Well, maybe you should stop talking," I sass.
Jamie says nothing, and smiles instead, still looking at the screen.
Two movies, four meals, one book, and two music albums later, I glance out the window to see the shining lights of London from the sky as we begin to descend. My heart flutters with a kind of nervousness, here I was, about to land in London with a boyfriend in tow, to meet his family. I've never been this far from home.
"What are you thinking?" A soft voice asks me.
I turn to Jamie, who had taken his headphones off, and is gazing out the window of the plane. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
"It is," I agree. "I just can't believe I'm here. I'm...nervous." I admit.
The plane angles downwards a little more, in a minute, we will be on the ground.
Jamie's eyes soften. "Nervous about what?"
I glance down. "Call me cliché, but what if your family doesn't like me?"
Jamie's warm, slender hands take mine. "Think of it this way, my family like me, I like my family, you like me, so you'll like my family, and my family will like you. Logic says, they're gonna love you."
"That's pretty smart coming from a drama kid," I say, jokingly. But under the joking, I feel more confident. Trust Jamie to calm me.
"But they won't like you if we never leave the airport," Continues Jamie. "C'mon, get ready, we'll be able to get off the plane in a minute."
I scramble to pack my headphones and book away as the overhead speaker announces we've arrived in London - current time; 10:30pm.
"Are we going to wake your family up?"
Jamie laughs. "No, we're staying in a hotel tonight, and we'll see my family in the morning when we look decent."
"Ooooh, a hotel....saucy."
Jamie rolls his eyes. "Interesting choice of words, but oh so unfortunately I could only book two single rooms."
I laugh. "Ah, tragic. I don't mind - means I can have a ridiculously long shower without you judging me too much."
We stand with our bags and file off the plane, into the busy London airport, and go to the luggage claim area. Twenty minutes later, I'm watching Jamie signal for a taxi while I stay with the bags, and one trip later we're inside the hotel lobby. I glance around as Jamie talks to the receptionist and receives our keys. It's a decent hotel, nothing fancy, but it wasn't shabby either.
Jamie walks over to where I'm standing, holding out my key. "Our rooms are across the hall from each other, second floor. Let's go." I can tell from his lack of humour he's tired, as am I, so we silently ride the lift to the second floor, and walk down the hall way until we find our rooms, across from each other, as promised.
I turn to Jamie. "I guess this is goodnight."
Jamie takes my shoulders and pulls me closer. "Goodnight, gorgeous." He says as he presses his lips to mine for a second. "Sleep well."
I blush. "You too."
With that, we turn to our own rooms, and I waste no time showering and ridding myself of my travel clothes. I pull my pj's out of my suitcase, change, and I'm about to turn the light out when there's a soft knock at the door.
I pad across the room and pull the door open to Jamie, wet hair curled by his face, in his boxers and a loose singlet.
"I thought we already said goodnight," I say, surprised.
"I know," says Jamie, glancing at the floor and back at me, grinning shyly. "But I just wanted to make sure you had settled in alright."
I was silently screaming inside at the adorableness of what he said.
"Well, I'm fine."
Jamie pauses, but I can tell from his expression he still has something to say. "I also found our goodnight kiss rather unsatisfactory." He confesses, grinning.
I raise my eyebrows. "Oh."
"Yes, can I come in for a second?"
I giggle, opening my door wider for Jamie to step inside my room. "You know," I say, "we probably won't be able to show as much...PDA, with your family around."
Jamie nods. "I know," he pauses and draws closer to me, hand cupping my cheek, and I gaze into his beautiful eyes. "So I'll steal all the extra kisses I can get," he whispers, and he closes the space between us, I tilt my chin up for my lips to meet his. As always, they're soft and sweet, and as the kiss deepens I can taste the minty toothpaste he's used. My hand comes up to stroke his wet hair as his hands cradle the small of my back, pulling me closer. I feel my head spin as I relish in the sensation of Jamie's lips on mine, until finally, he draws away, looking into my eyes. "Goodnight, Heidi." He whispers.
"Night Jamie," I squeak, as he leaves, shutting the door behind him.
I scramble into bed, and turn my light out. As I shut my eyes, I can feel my pulse still racing from the kiss, as I surrender myself to my dreams.
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So, this was a pretty chilled chapter, more focus of Jamie and Heidi than the plot. Jeidi? Hamie?
Don't forget to vote, comment, drop a follow.
Hope you enjoyed! x