It had been five days since I had woken up at Brian's house, which meant it had been five days since I had heard from him. A long working week, and if I was honest this whole adventure seemed like a dream by now. I still had the bag to prove to me that I really had met him, and the memories of course, but it was all seeming rather distant now. Maybe also because I hadn't told anyone yet, because ... I didn't know why, if I was honest. Maybe because I wanted to enjoy the memories for myself. I couldn't tell you. But what I could tell you was that Brian was on my mind a lot and I had been tempted to take him up on his offer.
"Call me if you feel like some company," was what he had offered me to do. Only that so far I hadn't, even though I had felt like some company - not from my friends, but from him. But I hadn't dared. Yes, I had his number, and yes, I had a phone, but it wasn't such an easy task because the man in question was famous and so damn handsome which made him very intimidating.
It had honestly taken me five days to muster up the courage to pick up my phone and dial the number Brian had written down for me. And my reasoning was spectacular - what did I have to lose? If he said no, then he said no and nothing had changed. And if he said yes ... well then I would be freaking out a little because he would have voluntarily agreed to spend time with me. And that was why I was currently trying to control my breathing as I waited for him to answer the phone.
However, I waited... and waited... and nothing happened. No one answered the phone. Deflated, I hung up again and crossed my arms. It was disappointing, really. I had been wanting to call him for days, but it had been a pretty spontaneous decision to go actually through with it but... it was still very disappointing to not hear his sweet soft voice at the other end of the line.
But there was nothing that I could do about it so I decided to try and be grown up over it and not act like a teenager who had been let down by her crush. That may or may not have been an accurate description but that wasn't the point here. I took a deep breath before I motivated myself to get on with the rest of the evening.
It was Friday, but I didn't have anything exciting planned. I was past the age where you went out and got drunk on a regular basis, slowly nearing the 40 I had to pay attention to my body, so I opted for a lazy evening at home in the bathtub with a good book. There was nothing wrong with that if you asked me.
However, just as I had started to run the bath and taken off my clothes when there was a knock on the door of my flat. Confused I looked up, unsure what to do - I could easily pretend I hadn't heard anything. But then again it might be something important, my neighbour could need something for example. He was an elderly man, a lovely man, and sometimes he needed help, opening a jar, getting something from a shelf, and it had been the routine for years that he would just come over and knock so I could help him. I didn't mind doing that at all, it was nice and he usually ended up giving me free food over some stories of his youth.
But opening my door clad in nothing wouldn't be such a good thing, so I reached for my big fluffy bathrobe and wrapped that securely around me before I made my way to the front door. I opened the three locks I had - maybe a bit paranoid but you could never be too careful - and there was a man waiting for me when I opened, just not the friendly old man from next door. Instead it was another friendly man from about half an hour away, tall with lots of curls on his head.
"Brian," I stated surprised and instinctively pulled my bathrobe a little tighter around myself. "Uhm... hi... what are you doing here? How did you get into the building?" There were so many questions, I was just getting started.
"Uhm, I was just trying to read the names on the signs to see where you live, but then one of your neighbours let me in because they were just leaving. I hope that's okay," he said, a small smile on his face. He looked tired, very tired. Even more so than he had done last week.
"Yeah.. yeah, sure. What are you doing here? And how come you know my address?" Like I had said, so many questions.
He shrugged and ran a hand through his curls. "I-I'm sorry... this was a horrible idea, wasn't it? I shouldn't have come here..." He looked over his shoulder and sighed, shaking his head. "I'll- I'll leave again," he muttered and turned to leave.
Placing my hand on his arm, I stopped him. "No, wait. You must have come here for a reason, you don't have to leave. Is everything okay?"
He shrugged again. "I don't know... I don't want to be a bother, you're clearly otherwise occupied," he pointed out, gesturing to my bathrobe.
"I'm not really occupied, Brian," I told him. He probably thought I had been about to get frisky or something like that, he couldn't have been more wrong. "I was just going to take a bath because I have nothing better to do. Do you want to come in?"
He looked at me, seemingly thinking over what I had said. "Are you sure?"
I shrugged and nodded. "Yes, sure. You came all the way here, there's clearly something on your mind. Come in, please. Where are you parked?"
He paused a little confused and gestured over his shoulder. "On the street, just outside. Is that fine?"
"Yeah, that's fine, you just have to put a visitor permit behind the windscreen, hang on," I informed him and opened the top drawer of my chest drawer that I had in the hallway. I had to look through a couple of stacks before I found one of my two visitor permits and handed him that. "Uhm... I'll leave the door open, but I'm going to go get dressed while you do that, okay? Just come back inside when you're done," I told him.
He nodded, examining the visitor permit. "Okay... Don't rush," he said before he disappeared into the dark of the building's stairwell.
I closed the door to only leave a small gap before I returned to my bathroom to turn off the tap that was still running. The bath didn't seem to be happening tonight. When everything in the bathroom was off I made my way into the bedroom and got dressed again. I was tempted to just put on something cosy, for a lazy evening at home, but then this wasn't going to be any old evening. I was going to be in the company of a very handsome rock star and I didn't want to seem like a slob next to him, I had standards. I wasn't going to wear an evening gown but I decided to go for some form-fitting jeans and my favourite casual shirt.
Just as I was pulling the fabric over my shirt I could hear someone entering my flat, I really hoped that was Brian. I quickly checked my hair in the mirror before I walked out into the hallway, and yes indeed it was Brian who was just closing the door carefully behind himself. When he heard me he turned around, a small smile appearing on his face when he saw me. "You look nice," he said softly.
"Thanks, so do you," I told him, because why wouldn't I? It was the chance to compliment him without being creepy. And he really did look nice, even though nice was a bit of an understatement.
He looked down on himself. "I do? It's nothing special," he said.
"It doesn't have to be special to be good," I told him with a smile. "You can take off your jacket and shoes and leave them here," I told him, watching him as he nodded and took off his jacket, revealing a half unbuttoned pristine white shirt that made him look close to irresistible, especially in combination with those jeans he was wearing. I could safely say it had been a long time since I'd had such a handsome man in my flat, if that had ever even been the case before. "Do you want something to drink or eat? Have you had dinner yet?"
He shook his head. "Uhm, no, I haven't... but if I'm honest I'm not particularly hungry," he told me and followed me into the living room.
"Oh okay, that's fine." That explained it. I had been wondering how he was so thin, but if I wouldn't be hungry all the time then I probably would be as thin as he was. "I'm going to get some water for myself, I'll be right back."
"No rush," he told me with a smile, so I went to do that. When I returned, Brian was still standing in my living room, looking - and probably also feeling - a little out of place.
I couldn't help but smile when I saw that. "You can sit down if you want to, make yourself comfortable."
"Oh, thank you very much," he said softly and sat down on my couch, looking around curiously as he got comfortable. "This is a very nice flat, I have to admit I'm surprised."
"Thank you." I placed my glass down on the coffee table and sat down on the couch beside him, leaving an appropriate amount of space between us. For a few moments I just looked at him, admiring the view I was getting and trying to wrap my head around the fact that he was in fact sitting on my couch. And it was only then that I realised something. "You know, funny story. I actually just called you before you got here, maybe fifteen minutes before."
He turned his head and looked at me surprised. "You did?"
"Yeah... I'm guessing you were already on your way here, that would explain why you didn't answer.." Yes, I know, it had taken me quite a while to realise that, but don't judge me, my brain was occupied with other things.
"That's probably right, yes. Sorry, I wouldn't ignore your calls if I was home. I'm surprised you did call... you haven't during the week, have you?" He asked, still looking at me.
I shook my head. "No... no, I haven't. I'm sorry, I wanted to, but... I.."
"It's okay, you didn't have to. You don't have to lie and say you wanted to," he told me, crossing his legs.
"I did want to, I... I just didn't really dare," I admitted, feeling a little stupid as those words left my mouth.
"You didn't dare?" He asked surprised. "Why? Please don't say because of who I am... there's no reason for that.."
I shrugged. "It's true though. For you it might be normal to give rockstars a call, but for me it's anything but that. I didn't know what I should have said, you know? 'Hi, it's Frida, I kinda miss hanging out with you randomly so do you want to do something?'"
Brian nodded. "Yes, for example. That would have been perfectly fine. What were you going to say when you called?"
I shrugged. "I have no idea. I would have improvised and made a huge fool of myself probably."
Brian chuckled a little. "I suppose it's better for both of us that I'm here now."
"Probably, yes," I agreed. "So how come you are here? I never gave you my address, did I? So you had to dig that out of a telephone book and then drive here, that has to have been a very conscious decision," I reasoned.