Three days and one hour later, my phone rang with a call I'd waited fourteen days to receive.
"Hi Maggie."
I'd never been so happy to hear his voice, even if he sounded slightly strained.
"Noah!!" I nearly dropped the phone in excitement. "How are you?"
"I'm not dead." His voice jokingly rang through the phone. "Although felt close a few times. I've been at the hospital for two weeks."
"I know, I'm so sorry." As I sat back in my desk chair at work, everything inside me relaxed. Even the sound of his voice was that powerful over me.
"How did you know?"
"I talked to your Gram when I was in the hospital, then Amy and I tracked you down through the trial..." My voice trailed off as I realized I sounded like a complete stalker. "Sorry, that sounds bad. I didn't know anything really until four days ago."
Should I tell him? I should.
"I was so scared, Noah." My voice softened. "Thought I'd lost you."
"I'm sorry you were upset, Maggie. Back up, you were in the hospital too?"
My heart melted that his first reaction was my well-being. "Yeah, but just flu-A. I'm fine. Nothing what you probably went through. I'm so sorry... I feel like it's my fault."
"Yours? I made us go on those bloody tours."
"If I hadn't asked you to do the trial, then your immune system wouldn't have been compromised..." My voice wavered, like the tears that threatened to pour down my cheeks.
"Hey, Maggie," he said softly. "No way you could've known that would happen. And I'm okay. Say it as many times as you need to, but I am okay."
"I'm so glad to hear from you." I already felt my shoulder tension had released, his voice was just as reassuring over the phone as it was in person. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better, the doctors think I'll be fine. I'm so sorry for not calling, they took everything, including my phone. Wouldn't let me have it until discharge this morning. I was going crazy, not being able to talk to you or my family."
"Me too," I admitted. While I'd had phone access, isolation and not being able to contact him had been the worst days of my life.
"Where are you now?" He asked.
"At work, in my cubicle." I replied, then stood up slowly and looked around. Given the time was eleven am, the office was pretty much full of activity before everyone took their lunch break.
"Can I Face Time you?" He asked. "Or should I wait until you get home?"
"Can you call me in five minutes? I'll go down to the cafeteria."
"Okay. Just to warn you, my family's here, so don't hold anything embarrassing that they'll definitely say against me. Hang on."
So much for social distancing, they're all together.
I ended the call and hurried downstairs. Fortunately the cafeteria was empty and I slid into an empty corner table seat. My face felt like it would split in half with how brightly I smiled when his face flashed onto my phone screen.
"Hey you." His hand waved over the entire phone view. His eyes looked a bit tired and he definitely needed a shave, but he smiled from ear to ear. I blinked, as if I couldn't believe what I saw.
There he is.
My fingers traced the outline of his face then I replied, "Hi. Where are you right now?"
"I'm home." He looked relieved to be there. The worry line creases that had furrowed his face the past two weeks were gone. I could imagine he was glad to be anywhere but the hospital. I squinted at my phone and saw that he had just a bare white wall behind him.
"This is Mum and Dad's house," he shifted his phone and revealed a small crowd of people stared at me. "Everyone say hi!"
Noah pointed as he said each one: "Mum, Dad, my brothers Christian and Connor, and Christian's girl Olivia." I smiled to the round of 'hi Maggies' and greeted each one of them.
Noah looked like an exact combination of his mother and father's genetics. By my memory from our dinner date, Christian was sixteen and Connor fourteen. They looked similar to Noah, blonde hair and blue eyes, but with their own distinct features. All three boys definitely shared the same eyes as their mother, but their father's lighter blonde hair color. Her hair was also blonde but a shade darker and curly. They were actually quite an attractive family.
After the introductions, Christian elbowed Noah in the ribs then snickered something inaudible. Whatever he'd said, it made Noah's cheeks flush a light shade of pink.
"Nice to meet everyone," I smiled. "Sorry it's over the phone though."
"S'okay, we've got you on the big telly here," Noah's mom replied. "So you're more than life-sized, love."
Oh, great. As if this wasn't awkward enough.
I attempted to position the phone so at least they didn't see an awkward angle, like straight up my nose.
"Noah!" Christian slapped him on the arm. "You were wrong. She is pretty!"
"What?" I stifled a nervous laugh.
"Maggie don't listen to him, you are lovely." His mother stared directly into the web cam at me similarly to how I peered into our petri dishes. "Noah's told us all about you."
My eyes widened and I wasn't sure how to reply to that.
Fortunately Noah jumped in with, "Don't let them scare you, love." He laughed. "Might've mentioned a few things, and showed them pictures."
"Like you're his girlfriend," Connor whispered. Not sure if he knew I'd heard that, but I pretended not to have heard anything.
"Pictures, bah. I'm looking at her right now, Noah." His mom replied as one of her hands swatted his shoulder. Fortunately she continued with a question that I did know how to answer, "You're a scientist too?"
"I am." I angled the phone to show more of my lab coat, then adjusted it back up to my face. "I'm still in school though."
"Do you go to UCL?" I nodded silently.
"Not much of a talker, is she this one?" His mom glanced at Noah.
Seeing his encouraging look to me, I cleared my throat and added, "Yes, but we met in a pub. He was playing guitar that night."
"You must've been drunk, he's rubbish," Christian said with a smirk.
Noah shoved him roughly, but laughed and said, "You don't have to answer that Maggie. Just ignore him like I've already started doing, and it's only been an hour."
"Okay," I admitted with a smile. "I'm not a big drinker though."
"Noah told us you couldn't leave London, sorry love," his dad spoke up with a deep voice, deeper than Noah's. "Your work must be pretty important."
My eyes shifted over to Noah, who shook his head and indicated that he hadn't told them. "Yeah," I admitted with a sigh. "Me too. I'm not sure if I'm that important, but I'm glad he made it home."
"Where are your parents?" His mom asked. "Hope they're doing okay with this horrid virus going around."
"Upstate New York," I admitted. I didn't add how the pandemic will probably be worse over there, unfortunately.
"American girl, eh?" Connor grinned at Noah. Again, another question I had no idea how to answer. Their questions made the initial questions from my coworkers look easy.
"Umm, yes. I've been at UCL for six months."
"So you're first year?" Dad again.
"Yes." I nodded, then added, "First year PhD."
"Older woman, good going Noah," Christian teased.
"He's a few months older than me." I let out a small laugh. "I'm nineteen."
Again, I saw the mental calculations on my age in their eyes, so I filled in, "I started undergrad when I was sixteen, finished in three years, and started at UCL last September."
"Noah mentioned you were smart, he didn't say brilliant." His mother glanced sideways at him again.
"Then what are you doing with this knobhead?" Connor asked.
"Ignore him too," Noah insisted with a grin that melted me inside. "But yes, she's brilliant, even if she doesn't like me saying it."
"Brilliant like Wikipedia?" Christian asked.
"Umm... I don't -"
"Brilliant like I need Wikipedia to look up some of what she says," Noah winked at me.
"Christian made a good point," His dad interjected. "Exactly how do you two plan to do this?"
I saw Noah's cheeks blush again. "This?" I repeated as I frowned in confusion.
"Well, he told us you were his girl. You're not?" Now ten eyes stared at me, his family plus Olivia's, although she didn't actually look that interested. The only eyes that didn't look at me were Noah's. My cheeks burned so warmly, I'm sure my face was as red as his looked.
"Erm, yeah." He turned to his family. "I hadn't asked her yet. So thanks for that, you lot."
"Ask me what?" I said with a small chuckle. While I knew I know where this conversation headed, I didn't have any idea what being 'his girl' but I liked the sound of it, at least.
"I'll explain later," he promised, then threw dirty looks at his family. "Sorry Maggie but we need to go see Gram soon."
"I think we could say a few more minutes," Christian interrupted. "Let's see how he's going to dig himself out of this hole."
"Visit Gram?" My eyes shifted to Noah's warily.
As if he knew what I was going to say, he added, "They've been staying outside, talking to her on the phone while she's inside. So literally just going to see her."
"That's very clever social distancing."
"Not much choice," his dad remarked in a low tone. "Gotta keep the old bird alive."
"I see. It's okay, I need to get back to work. But it was nice to meet all of you." I threw them a feeble smile while they waved good-bye and ended the call.
The exchanged was not how I'd pictured meeting his family, but I couldn't determine if that was more or less awkward than it would've felt had we actually met in person. Although if we were in person, I would have pressed him on answering a few clarification questions sooner than later, as well as initially greeted him with more than a smile and sense of relief.
I also couldn't shake my guilt over what had happened to him. Sure, he probably would've still gotten the flu, but I'd convinced him to get the vaccine which made his immune system compromised. Fortunately my phone buzzed with a text message and shook me out of my thoughts.
Noah: Is it too late to come back to London?
me: They seem very nice. A bit forward but it's obvious that they care about you. I like them.
Noah: Can I call you tonight? Just you and me, love.
me: Sure, say hi to Gram for me.
I set my phone down on the cafeteria table, drew in a deep breath, and slid my eyes closed as I sighed in relief.
"Hi Noah," I smiled as his number flashed over my phone. I shook a towel over my wet hair then tossed it into my washer.
"Hi." I heard the sounds of rustling into the phone.
"What are you doing right now?" I shut the washer door, stood back up, and rested one hand on my kitchen counter.
"Just laying down in bed," he replied in a voice that sounded tired. "Not going to lie, wish you were here with me."
"Me too," I sighed. "I'm getting ready for bed too. But glad to hear from you."
Even though this was the third time I'd spoken to him today, I don't think I'd ever get tired of hearing from him.
"My Gram wanted me to say hi. And she's sorry for scaring you."
I chuckled. "She told me you weren't going to make it."
"She's a bit of a stretch." Noah's voice sounded apologetic. "I told her she scared you, and she wanted me to say sorry. Do you still have her necklace? I told her I gave it to you."
"Wearing it now." I reached down and lifted the cross in my fingers. "Is that okay?"
"Really?" he sounded surprised. "She was thrilled, she's been on my back to meet someone for years."
"Honestly, I haven't taken it off since you gave it to me," I replied honestly. The necklace, along with his t-shirt, felt like the only parts of him I had to cling to, and boy had I clung to them. "Except at the hospital. Is that creepy?"
"No, I think it's sweet, Maggie."
"That's not the creepiest part, if I'm being honest.." I glanced at his t-shirt, which was still folded up and sat on the side of my bed.
"What?" I could hear the smile in his voice.
"You left one of your t shirts here." My lower lip folder under in admission.
"Sorry about that." He didn't seem phased about that at all. "You can keep it."
"Good," I smiled. "I'm not giving it back. It was my wet blanket when I hadn't heard anything except you might not make it for ten days."
"I'm sorry, you're what?" He asked incredulously.
"I think here it's called a binky? Security blanket, I hugged it a lot until about four days ago."
"I see. Hope it helped then." A small laugh pushed static over the phone. His voice was threaded with a teasing tone as he asked, "What happened four days ago?"
"Amy found you in the lab."
He chuckled. "She's very perceptive, that one."
My mind clicked, to when she'd held up the 'He LIKES you (dummy)' sign, and smiled.
Noah broke through my memory as he added, "Figured you two would find me before I could get in touch with you. I'm so sorry about that, they took my phone. Mom tried to bleach it when I got home too."
"Not your fault. So... Your family said something earlier." I wasn't sure how to ask. "Umm..."
"Maggie, I should clear things up."
I smiled and felt incredibly happy he was going to lead this discussion. "Please do." I lifted my feet into bed, slid them under my blankets, and laid down. The blankets felt cool against my legs, so I rubbed my feet together to warm them. I'd never noticed how cold my bed was until I'd slept next to a living furnace.
"First off, my brothers are idiots." A small laugh escaped my lips. I must have laughed or smiled more times today than I did in the past two weeks, he was that infectious.
"They didn't seem that bad."
"You didn't hear what Christian asked me."
The image of his brother's smirk flashed into my head. "Which was?"
"If we're snogging or shagging."
Say what?
Noah fell silent, as if he waited for me to answer.
"I.. don't know what that means, sorry," I replied in confusion. "Brittish slang."
"Snogging is passionate kissing, shagging is having sex." My mind clicked, back to the image of Amy and Adam in The Rugby Pub the first day we met. Their lips were locked and hands grabbed, well, everywhere.
"Okay," I said slowly. "Well in the States we call it making out or hooking up... or smashing."
"Smashing?" He laughed. "Oh, that's horrible. Here smashing means 'you did a really good job,' like wow, you smashed it."
"I know, I was confused about that for weeks. Especially when someone told me I'd smashed a term exam." As he laughed again, louder this time, I realized how nice it felt to hear him laugh. I'd missed that sound so much over the past two weeks.
"I don't know. Did we even get to the first category?" I asked, since he was the first one I'd ever even held hands with, let alone kissed. "And kind of hard to do either one long-distance."
We technically weren't that far away, just two hours. But now with travel restrictions in place, he might as well have stayed with my parents.
"Well," was all he replied. "Either way I told him to stuff it."
"Works for me," I smiled. "But the rest... Hey, can I Face Time you?"
I suddenly had a desire to see him. Rather than how I second-guessed his emotions from how they sounded in his voice, I wanted to see his reactions. I sat up in bed, turned on the dim light next to my bed, and pushed the video option on my phone.
"Hey..." I frowned as what looked like a naked Noah popped up on my screen. "You - you're not wearing anything?"
"Yes I am." He laughed. "Hang on." He disappeared for a moment, then came back with a t-shirt slipped over him.
"Sorry, I get really hot at night. Promise I have joggers on." He lowered the phone and revealed his pair of sweatpants.
"It's okay." I smiled. "Thanks for Face Timing, I figured what you were going to say next was important."
"Yeah..." He ran his fingers through his hair as a sheepish look cast on his face. "I messed up, I'm sorry," he started in a tone that sounded nervous and uncertain.
"It's okay." Our roles were oddly reversed as I offered him assurance, but it was a pleasant feeling.
"No. It's not," he replied quickly as his eyes stared straight at me. "I really wanted to ask you, at the train station. Then I thought it was horrible timing, totally not appropriate, so I didn't. I felt horrible as soon as I left. And every day that I was at the hospital, I thought about it every day."
"Well, you have a lot of time to think in isolation." Half of my mouth turned up wryly at how my time at the hospital had been so unpleasant. Internally, I had no idea what 'it' he'd referred to and wanted him to explain that further.
I need to tell him about my hospital stay, the anxiety.
"So I hope it's not too late, but I really fancy you Maggie." Noah's voice was soft but sincere. "Would you... be my girl?"
"Yes, I think." My cheeks pinched with how widely I smiled.
"Yes?" His entire face lit up with a radiant smile as his teeth flashed across my screen. "You think?"
"If I understand 'fancy' and 'your girl' to be your girlfriend, then yes." My heart beat faster in my chest. "I'd like nothing more."
"Really?" He sounded shocked.
"Yes." My smile widened, which I hadn't thought was possible.
"Ugh, this is why I should have said it at the station." He sighed. "I really want to kiss you now."
"I know. Me too." But for now, just seeing and hearing him was more than enough.