❀❃❀❃❀
chapter twenty eight
shakespeare
I squealed when I saw Clay waiting for me in the terminal. I had just arrived from New York and yes, all I needed and all I wanted was sleep in my bed, "I missed you!" I said as I hugged him.
"I missed you too. How was your flight?" He grabbed my luggage.
"Why people always ask about that? Flights are always boring and stressing." I kissed him, "Remember me to call your parents, I have to say hello."
"I will. Hey, I saw you in the newspaper." I frowned, "I saw the pictures of the exhibition you restored, did you know that Avengers was being filmed in New York?"
"Oh, yes. I know that. The streets were closed."
"Didn't you see any famous people?"
"No, not really." I just spent two days with them. But it was something I wasn't going to tell him, "I was stuck in the museum the whole time."
"Oh, well. Where do you wanna go, your place or my place?"
"My place. I need to do something and I want my bed." He smiled. We went for dinner and then he dropped me off. I threw my stuff next to the couch and walked into my bedroom, I began to unbutton my blouse and throw it to the floor, my eyes met the floppy stuffed bunny with huge ears on the top of the pillows, "Aww, Clay!" I grabbed it and read the note next to it.
Welcome home! Stop leaving the spare key on top of the door frame. Love, Tom.
I gasped and immediately covered myself with the stuffed bunny and looked around in search of any sign of him. I thought it was from Clay. I began to feel paranoid and put on a tee before grabbing my phone and call Tom.
"Hi, Oaks." Thank God he wasn't in my flat.
"Should I say thanks or should I call the police?" I heard him chuckling, "Awww, Tom this is so sweet of you!"
"Did you like it?"
"Yes, I loved it. It is so huggable!" I hugged the bunny, "It's so cute." I said staring at it.
"What about the other present, did you like it?"
"What other present?"
"It was under the bunny, it's a small box." I walked into the bedroom again and I saw the pink small box.
"Oh, sorry I didn't see it before, I just arrived home and I was changing my clothes when I saw the bunny, I read the note and freaked out, I thought you were here!"
"I broke into your flat, two days ago. I had an interview and I remembered you said that you'd be at home on Saturday." I narrowed my eyes. Clay was at my place just yesterday, and he's not that blind to ignore a stuffed animal in the bed, "I'll be back in London this, Mon-ednesday."
"Oh, Mon-ednesday?" He chuckled.
"Sorry, sorry, just do me a favour. Don't open the box until you hang up, okay?"
"Why?" I examined the box, "What's inside?"
"Just don't open it or someone's gonna die."
"Ha-ha, sure. So, you'll be free this Wednesday?"
"I'm free. What are we going to do? Do you have to work?"
"Sadly, yes. But I'll be working from nine to two in the afternoon, I'm free the rest of the day. Who's that in the background?" I heard someone making some sort of sound.
"It's Chris Evans." I snorted, "Do you wanna say hi?"
"It sounded like a sheep. Is he near?" I giggled.
"No, but I can call him."
"No, it's alright."
"Now go to sleep, it's late. I'll call you soon."
"Okay, bye."
"Bye, good night, Oaks." I hung up. He never said where he was. I smiled.
"He's in England." I sat in bed and opened the small box. It was an Empire State charm and there was another note.
Don't tell me how to spend my money. Love, Tom.
I smiled whilst shaking my head. Lila called me to say hi and to tell me that I had to be at the museum the next day at ten in the morning for a quick meeting and she sent me and email with some of the information and the topics they were going to talk about.
So I stayed up late. I arrived at ten and it was the middle of the night. I was reading something about the new exhibition and catching up with it, when I heard the spare key in the lock. Who was the only one who knew about that? My flat is on the second floor and I'm the only one living in there. Not even Clay knows about the spare key.
I turned off the lamp that illuminated my room and covered the pillows with the sheets before hiding behind the door. I heard him walking slowly and he opened the door. I was biting my lip to contain the laughter. I saw his silhouette leaning over my bed.
"HA!" I jumped behind him and he didn't scream, he just stood there like paralysed while I was dying of laughter and turning on the lights, "Oh my God, I wish I could've seen your face." I hugged him, he was panting and with his eyes closed, "Thanks for the bunny and the charm."
"Robin Nicole, you almost give me a heart attack!" He said sitting on the bed and touching his chest.
"Sorry. Here, hug him." I gave him the bunny.
"What are you doing at these hours? I supposed you were in town, you're not quite good at lying Tom." He smiled, "A part of me was expecting this." I smirked.
"I arrived this morning and I broke into your flat a little bit later."
"That doesn't answer why you are here at these hours."
"I couldn't sleep." We used to do that in college, go to the other's bedroom when we couldn't sleep.
"So the cast is here too?"
"Just Evans. Now, what are you doing up at these hours?" I crawled into bed, "You just arrived." I sighed and handed him my laptop.
"I have a frigging meeting tomorrow at ten, apparently it's something important. And I thought I was going to have a stay-in-bed day tomorrow. " He was reading.
"Interesting."
"No, it isn't." He continued to read the whole thing while I was reading a history book and taking notes. We made comments about what we were reading and then we switched, I gave him my book and he gave me the laptop. I smiled, "Hear this, both Egyptian men and women wore makeup, eye paint was usually green, which was made from copper or black, made from lead. They believed that the makeup had some kind of healing power." I chuckled, "I should start sleeping with my makeup on."
"Well, they used natural ingredients, and makeup nowadays isn't natural." He said.
"True." I looked at the clock, "It's two in the morning." I rubbed my eyes, "Aren't you tired?"
"I slept the whole day. But, yes, I'm tired. I'll try to catch some sleep." He got up.
"Where are you going?"
"To the couch."
"We've shared the bed before, and the couch isn't a comfortable place to sleep." I got under the sheets, "Just get in bed." He took off his shoes and turned off the lights. He groaned when he crawled into bed and buried his face in the pillow, "What are you, a bear? Shh!" We chuckled. I set the bedside table alarm clock, also the phone alarm, just in case. I turned to see him with the poor light of the phone over the table, he was hugging the bunny, "Give me my bunny."
"You could be more polite and let me sleep with the bunny tonight."
"No." He gave it to me. The phone's light turned off.
"Are you gonna name it?" He asked, "How, Bunny?"
I remembered Shakespeare, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." I said and he chuckled, "I don't have a name yet."
"Remember when we used to have sleep overs?" I smiled.
"Yep. I do remember that." I chuckled, "Especially when we decided to roast marshmallows with a candle in your bedroom and Sarah found us." He chuckled.
"She was so angry! She called mum and spoiled everything."
"And she sent us to bed. It wasn't a sleep over at all." I rolled on my side to face Tom, "Sometimes I wish I could turn back time and live those moments all over again." At this point we were whispering.
"It was fun. But, even if I could turn back time, I wouldn't."
"You wouldn't?"
"Yeah, I wouldn't because, that'd mean going to different schools again and not seeing you in a long time."
"I guess you've got a point." I caressed the bunny's ear with my thumb, "But it'd be amazing." I said, "I'd like to repeat so many things and avoid so many others."
"Me too." There was a pause. It was true, there were so many things that I wanted to do again.
"I'd like to see my mum again." I was still feeling guilty for not being able to say goodbye to my mum when she died, "I would do anything to be with her in that moment." Tom rolled on his side.
"You okay?"
"I'm okay." I smiled, not hoping to be seen by him as it was really dark, "Where are you?" I said, stretching my hand to feel for him.
"Ouch, my eye!" He cried.
"There you are." I said giggling and touching his face, "Stop smiling like that, I can feel your smile." He chuckled, "Your eyebrows feel hairier than they look." I chuckled and continued touching his face with my fingertips. His cheeks, his Cupid's bow, his eyes were closed, slightly blinking when my fingers brushed them. I ran my index finger on the bridge of his nose while my middle finger brushed his lips, "Tom!" I cried when he bit me.
"Did I hurt you?"
"No, you didn't." I squeezed his nose before stopping and hugging the bunny again, "Oh, and, if I could turn back time, I swear to God that I would not go out with Miles again."
"The guy who yelled at you?"
"Yep. I wouldn't." I sighed, "We should go to sleep now."
"Okay."
"Night, Tom."
"Night, Oaks." I got comfortable and stared at the darkness that surrounded me while thinking about random things. Work. I had that bloody meeting the next morning. Clay. I had to go to his place and then go to his parents house which was five hours from London. I had to tidy up my flat. Think about the possibility of working in Scotland. Move there. Live there.
What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Shakespeare. It came to my mind and I smiled, "Tom?" I whispered, "Are you asleep already?"
"No, I was thinking. You okay?"
"Yes. Hey, I've got a name for the bunny."
"Do tell."
"Shakespeare." He snorted.
"Why?"
"You gave me the bunny and you love Shakespeare, so why not?" He chuckled.
"I like it. Now every time I read Shakespeare I'll picture a stuffed bunny in my mind."
"Maybe I should just call him Bunny." I giggled, "Okay, good night."
"Good night."