PART SEVENTY ONE
An hour later and I was standing out in the Vegas morning sun, my ray bans on and my hair running wild down my back as I hadn't been bothered to do much with it. After our shower Aston and I had ordered up a quick breakfast and had somehow managed to get ourselves changed and ready to head back to LA in what felt like record time.
I waited patiently as Aston spoke with the hotel valet, who was calling his rental car up from the car park. We had a long drive ahead of us, and a nagging thought in the back of my mind reminded me that I was due on a plane that night back to Seattle, work the next day. Yuck.
“I don’t wanna go,” I pouted as Aston wandered over to me with his bag.
“Sorry babe,” he sighed, wrapping an arm around my shoulder as we waited. I leant my head back against his body, resting comfortably in his embrace. To be fair, I was hella hungover.
We stood in silence for a few minutes until the car came up the drive. Without saying a word we packed up the car and then climbed in, settling in for the long ride ahead of us.
“You ready for this babe?” asked Aston as he put the car into drive and eased it out onto the road.
“Yeah, hopefully I won’t get motion sick and throw up,” I giggled.
“I mean the conversation we’re about to have,” he said.
“Oh, yeah. I guess,” I shrugged.
“So then…” said Aston cautiously, trying to piece together the right words.
“So…” I replied, laughing at him.
“I don’t know where to start,” he sighed with an embarrassed smile.
“Well how about I start by saying thank you for a great little trip,” I said, placing my hand on his knee and giving it a light squeeze, “It was a great time. You really didn’t need to do all of this.”
“I wanted to,” said Aston simply.
“But still…” I sighed, “It probably cost you a fortune.”
“It wasn’t so bad,” he replied, “But you’re welcome.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes, the desert zipping past as we made our way back towards LA. It would have been nice to have the windows down, but we were going so fast and it was still unbelievably hot.
“You called me your boyfriend last night,” said Aston off-handedly, breaking the silence.
“No I didn’t,” I protested, shocked that I would be the one to let something like that slip. I thought he’d be the first to try those words out. We hadn’t even talked about what this whole thing between us was yet, that was meant to be happening right now!
“You did,” he argued back, “You told the bouncer at one of the clubs that I was James Bond, your boyfriend.”
“No…” I breathed, embarrassed that something so ridiculous would come out of my mouth.
“Oh yes you did,” laughed Aston.
“Gah, why was I such a mess?” I asked, leaning my head back on the seat and staring up at the roof of the car.
“So does that mean you don’t want me to be your boyfriend?” asked Aston awkwardly.
“What?! No, I didn’t say that,” I replied quickly, snapping my head back to look at him.
“So you do?” he asked.
“I…” I started, not sure what to say. It was just so complicated with us. I was living in Seattle for another few weeks, then back to New York. He was in London. There was a massive ocean in the middle of us and I was at a point in my career where I wasn’t ready to pack it up and leave for a boy, and obviously he wasn’t going to do that either. I didn’t even know if something between Aston and I would work… I had to be sure before I made such a monster commitment. “It’s complicated,” I sighed finally.
“The distance thing?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “I can’t just move to London, you get that right?”
“Sure,” he replied, “You love your job, you’re getting these great opportunities right now. I know how it feels.”
“So you understand when I say that I don’t really know what to make of this?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said quietly, thinking hard. “When are you back in New York?”
“I think I just have a few more weeks in Settle, so mid-September at the latest,” I replied.
“Really?” he asked.
“Yeah…” I said.
“Can I make a suggestion?”
“Sure,” I said, not really sure where this conversation was headed.
“Let’s try the long distance thing,” he said confidently.
“What?” I stuttered.
“I really want to try this out, I’m in love with you Jess and I know things are super complicated between us, but I have a good feeling about it. So let’s just give it a try?”
“But we aren’t going to see each other for ages,” I reasoned.
“Well…” he started, a smile starting to break on his face, “The boys and I are recording in New York the second week in October,” he said.
“And I’m going to my parent’s for Christmas…” I added.
“And I’ll come out for your birthday in January…”
“And I’ll do the same for yours in February…”
“So then, September and November?” asked Aston.
“Well I’ve got some time off in November for American Thanksgiving,” I shrugged, “September might be hard though seeing as I sort of disappeared out of the blue this past week.”
“Hmm November is always tough for me,” said Aston, “But I’ll see if I can work something out. September we might have to forget about…”
“It’ll be a good test,” I said, starting to feel like this could actually work for the time being, “We’ll have a good six weeks apart to test if this whole distance thing is even possible before we see each other again.”
“Exactly,” said Aston, “You better not get sent away from New York again!”
“No I won’t,” I replied, “My boss already promised I could stick around after this project.”
“Good,” grinned Aston, reaching his hand out and grabbing my own. As our fingers linked together I could feel a little zing going through my body, this was so right. “So then, can I re-ask the question?”
“Sure,” I smiled.
“Do you want me to be your boyfriend?” he asked.
I took a deep breath before answering. “Yes,” I smiled.
“WOOOO!!!” shouted Aston.
“Careful you’re driving,” I laughed, putting my free hand out in front of me to brace myself in case we crashed into something.
“Sorry, girlfriend,” he grinned, calming down and pulling my hand up to his face and kissing it gently. “We should have had this conversation not while I’m driving, I so want to kiss you right now.”
“Well that’s your fault,” I laughed.
“Hmm…” he mused to himself quietly as I watched on. I could see him scanning the road ahead of us, thinking hard. “Plan,” he muttered.
“What the…” I started as he released my hand and quickly changed lanes. Less than ten seconds later we were exiting the freeway towards some random town. “Ast?” I asked, confused.
“This should work,” he mumbled to himself after we’d driven a mile of the road and pulled over.
“What are you doing?” I asked him, as the car stopped completely.
“Get over here,” he laughed, grabbing hold of my neck and pressing his lips hard against my own. I let him take the lead as he eagerly massaged his lips against my own for a good minute, before pressing his tongue into my mouth and deepening it further.
In the back of my mind I knew that if one of us didn’t pull away soon we’d end up undressed in this car, and that was something I wasn’t feeling up for what with the number of cars zipping past. At least not in broad daylight.
“Ast,” I mumbled against his lips as we came up for air. He wasn’t listening though, instead his hand moved through my hair gently and he pressed his lips against mine again. I could feel his other hand going lower and it took all of the willpower I had to stop him, pulling away. “Oi boyfriend!” I laughed as he looked shocked at me.
“What?” he asked.
“Maybe if we get to LA sooner rather than later we can let this continue, but for now I’m not really in the mood to be caught out by the highway patrol.”
“Ahhh boo,” he pouted, “Be adventurous.”
“There comes a time and a place for one to be sensible, and I’ve decided that this is one of them times,” I laughed, leaning forward and kissing him quickly.
“Only because you said you’d be my girlfriend,” he huffed, starting the car up again. “Now let’s get to LA so we have some time at my hotel,” he added with a laugh as the car was turned around and we were headed back towards the freeway.
I just rolled my eyes, not really sure what I’d just gotten myself into. Really? Now Aston was my boyfriend? I could only wonder what everyone who knew us when we were younger and fighting all the time would think…
PART SEVENTY TWO
We got back to LA earlier than expected, especially since the traffic wasn’t pretty heading back into the city. I think Aston was kind of eager to get off the road so we could spend our last few hours together, so he was taking a few more risks while driving than he was willing to admit. We ended up at the hotel mid-afternoon, and with a 7:30 flight that meant we had just a few short hours left together until October.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be in a relationship with Aston. I could remember back to when we were seventeen and how much we went out of our ways to create hell for the other, all over some stupid bullying that really didn’t have anything to do with us as a pair!
As much as Aston wanted to shut us away in his hotel room for the afternoon, it wasn’t meant to be. The second we got to the hotel we were intercepted by JB and Marvin who were heading out to the pool.
“Hey guys!” they said smiling, “You gonna join us?”
“Umm…” started Aston, giving me an apologetic look. I could tell that he just didn’t have the guts to say, ‘No, I’d rather shut myself away upstairs with my girlfriend for the afternoon.’
“We’ll be down in a bit,” I smiled, taking the middle ground and speaking up since Aston was at a loss for words.
Aston grabbed my hand as we walked away from them, a frown on his face. Once we were in the elevator up to his room he broke the silence, “Sorry,” he sighed.
“It’s fine,” I giggled.
“No it’s not…”
“Look, we’ll make do with what we’ve got yeah?” I asked him, “And I’m going to need a shower later if I get in the pool so maybe you’ll get lucky and we can have round two?” I added with a wink.
“And this is why I love you,” he replied, breaking into a smile.
Once we were in his room we changed into our swimming gear and then headed back down to the pool, pulling two sun loungers close to each other as we chatted quietly. I let the boys buy me some fruity drinks as we lounged around, and I couldn’t help but notice the looks we were getting from Aston’s band mates.
“What?” I asked Marvin as I pulled my sunglasses down. Aston was in the water cooling off with JB, Oritse was still missing in action.
“You two,” he grinned.
“What about us two?”
“You seem, coupley.”
“So?” I asked.
“Are you?”
“Are we what?”
“Together?” asked Marvin simply as Aston started to climb out of the pool.
“Duh…” I said, trying my best to sound like a California girl.
“What is he saying to you?” asked Aston as he grabbed his towel to dry off a bit.
“You’re a couple!!!” said Marvin before I could get a word in.
“Yeah…” replied Aston, as if it was obvious. He sat back in his chair and grabbed my hand, pulling it close to him while he laid back to enjoy the sun. “Wasn’t it all kind of obvious?”
“Well the last time I saw you two, Jess was telling me that she was trying to wind you up to punish you or something like that.”
“You sneak,” laughed Aston, squeezing my hand tight.
“Ow!” I said, trying to pull it away but really laughing along with him.
“I would never have pictured you together,” said Marvin, “But now that I see it, it definitely works.”
“We’ll see,” I shrugged with a smile.
We spent another hour at the pool before Aston and I went inside to pack me up to head to the airport. As promised, I sorted him out, before pulling on some travel clothes and zipping up my bag.
“I’m gonna miss you,” he said in my ear as he came up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. My purse was in my hand and I was inspecting my travel documents which I promptly set down on the bed so I could grasp hold of Aston’s hands instead.
“Same, but I’ll see you in six weeks,” I told him.
“Six long weeks,” he sighed.
“Shush,” I replied, “If we’re going to make this distance thing work we can’t have any of this moaning.”
“Sorry!” laughed Aston, pressing his lips against my neck as he held me tight.
An hour later and I was sat in the airport with Aston, waiting till the last minute to go through security to my gate. His arm was around my back as we chatted quietly, my hand on his knee gently.
“Now you’re not in a fuss with me, what are you going to go and get yourself feisty about?” he mused as he traced small circles on my back.
“This,” I said, pushing my phone in his face.
“Please tell me you didn’t get married again,” he read out as he looked at the text I’d received a while earlier. “Who’s this from?”
“Maggie,” I said, taking my phone back and responding with the negative.
“But, you told her we were there right? What’s there to get mad about?”
“I didn’t tell her we were in Vegas,” I said, “I didn’t tell anyone.”
“Oh,” said Aston, falling silent as he thought for a moment. “Babe don’t take on the press.”
“I’m not going to,” I replied, “I just don’t like when they post shit about me.”
“Have they?” asked Aston, worry lines appearing on his forhead.
“Yeah,” I said, passing him my phone again as if it was obvious.
“Marriage Number Two for Merrygold?” he read out as he peered down at the screen. “They think we got married again?”
“It looks that way doesn’t it?”
“I suppose,” he said, flicking through the article. “Apparently we planned this all along. It says we never got properly divorced before and that we came back to Vegas to renew our vows.”
“Oh wow,” I laughed, “How romantic!”
“Well we know the truth,” Aston shrugged, “People are going to say shit, but we know what we did in Vegas. Well I know…” he laughed.
“Shush you,” I smiled, “I remember most of it.”
“Right,” he smirked.
“So then what do we say?” I asked, “Do we flat out tell them that we’re a couple now? Or do we let them make a big deal out of nothing?”
“What do you want to say?”
“I mean its early days right?” I questioned, “Maybe we just keep it to ourselves until later on, when we know how this whole distance thing is going to work out. It’s not like we’re going to be pictured together for awhile.”
“True,” said Aston. “I’ll keep my mouth shut if you will.”
“Deal,” I said, “But maybe I should clear this one up with my parents.”
“Ha yeah,” said Aston as he pulled me up from my seat, “Should probably send you to security now,” he sighed.
I nodded my head at him, before wrapping my arms around my neck. “Thanks again,” I smiled.
“Thanks for coming babe,” he said, “You have no idea how scared I was that you weren’t going to come. I was in tears, not even kidding.”
“I know,” I said with a smirk, as I pulled his head closer to mine and kissed him. “See you soon.”
“See you soon indeed,” he smiled as he let me go. “Text me when you get home!”
“Will do, bye babe,” I replied before grabbing his face and kissing him quickly again. As we parted I grabbed my things and wandered over to security, waving goodbye. Now to see if we could manage this long distance thing properly?