Hold my hand.

~17~

[One month later.]
[Sunday.]

Brr-brr-brr

Perrie got woken up by the phone vibrating on the bedside table across the bed.
'Hello? Yes... ehm... yes, no worries. An hour, yes mum, I know. Uhm... fine, I'll take him out. See you soon, bye.'
Perrie rolled over to look at Alex who had just put the phone down.
'Tell me you don't have to go already.'
'Already? It's almost eleven o'clock babe. The sun's been up for hours.' He laughed kissing her on the forehead.
'Still...'
Alex sighed. 'I'm sorry but I have too.' He looked at the time, then put his phone back down and smiled, kissing her again. 'Not for another hour though...'
Perrie laughed quietly as he started to kiss her all over her face.
'It's fine, if you have to go, I understand.'
After a few more minutes laying in bed together, Alex finally got up to go and took a shower before going back into Perrie's bedroom only wearing a towel.
As Alex dropped the towel and began to get dressed, Perrie couldn't stop admiring every inch of his body, from his toned legs to his muscly arms to his perfectly sculpted chest.
'Hei you... stop checking me out!' Alex joked pulling his trousers up.
'It's hard not to stare.' Perrie replied biting her bottom lip.
Alex winked at her starting to do up the buttons on his shirt.
'Why me?' The girl suddenly asked.
'Ehm... what?' Alex asked back, confused.
'Why me? What do you see in me?'
'I could ask you the same thing.'
'Well...' she sat up on the bed, still half naked, only covered from the pale sheets. '...you're smart, and thoughtful and caring... and incredibly hot. But I really don't understand what a guy like you could like about a girl like me.'
Alex looked at her shaking his head. 'What?! How can you not see it?! Let's ignore the fact that you're absolutely stunning. You're an incredible woman, you're so strong, you don't give up and you're completely selfless. And I love your smell.'
'My smell?!'
'Yeah, your smell. I'm not talking about your perfume, just your personal smell. The smell of your hair in my face, and your neck... oh, and the color of your eyes. They're so blue.'
'Right, you're taking the piss now!' The girl laughed rolling her eyes.
'Excuse me! I am not! I'm being serious, P. Wish you could see yourself through my eyes.'
'I don't know... I guess it's hard to believe.'
'Why's that?'
'Probably because no one ever said anything like that to me before.'
'I'll start saying to you more often then.' Alex smiled and kissed her again.
Alex stood in front of the mirror trying to fix his hair.
'So... was that your mum on the phone?' Perrie asked nervously.
'Yes, it was.'
'Was she okay?'
'Yes. Yes, she just took another shift at work so I need to get back to stay with my brother.'
'How old is your brother?'
'He's about to turn seventeen'
'Oh, so there's... seven years between you two?'
'Yes.'
'You never talk about them.' Perrie braved.
'What do you want me to say?' Alex went very serious very quickly.
'I don't know... it's just... you know pretty much everything about me, my story, my past. And I know pretty much nothing about you.'
'You know what you need to know.'
'Okay... sorry.'
Alex sighed. 'It's complicated.'
'Hello? Have you met me? What's more complicated than my life?'
'Well... my life.' Alex tried to cut the conversation off.
'Sorry, didn't mean to pry.' Perrie felt uncomfortable.
'No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. It's just hard for me to talk about my past and I need to know I can really trust someone before opening up. I'm sure it would have been the same for you if you didn't have to tell me everything because of my job. Correct me if I'm wrong.'
'You're right, and I didn't want to pressure you.'
'I promise you, I'll tell you everything when the time's right. Just be patient.' Alex held Perrie's hand whilst smiling at her.
'Earlier, when we were talking about what we like about each other... I forgot to mention: I like when you hold my hand. It makes me feel safe.'
Alex laughed pulling a face. 'What? When I hold your hand?! My hands do a lot more than that for you, and you only acknowledge when I hold your hand? I'm definitely doing something wrong!'
Their laughs echoed through the apartment.
'You better go now.'
'I'll call you later.'

'Mummy! I missed you!' Blake gave her mum a big hug.
'I missed you too, buddy. Did you have fun at auntie Leigh's?'
'Auntie Leigh let us play lots of Minecraft and we had fish and chips for dinner and your friend and Mrs. Thirlwall was there too.'
'That sounds like a blast! I'm glad you've had such a great time.'
'Why didn't you come? All your friends were there.'
Perrie didn't think her son would ever think of something like that. 'Ehm... mummy was busy.'
'You're always working. It's not fair.'
The girl felt a little guilty having to lie to her son and not giving him her undivided attention, but between the legal troubles she was having with her boss and this new relationship with Alex, she was beginning to find it hard to make it all work. 'I promise you we'll do something funny at the weekend. Just the two of us.'
'This morning Callum nanny came to pick him up and she took him to the park and then to have a picnic and feed the duck. Can we do it too?'
Perrie smiled as she thought of something. 'Yeah, I think we can.'
That night, after putting Blake to bed, Perrie sat on the sofa and started to catch up on some tv series. Every few minutes she would pick up her phone and think about dialling that number, until she finally decided it was the time to do it. She had sacrificed so much in the past few years, especially time with her family, and she wasn't even sure for what, exactly.

-Hi mum.
-Hello darling. How are you? How are things going?
-Could be better, but I've got a proposition for you. How would you feel about coming to see us this weekend?

[morning everyone xx how are you all?
I'm babysitting again this weekend so I'm exhausted haha but at least these two monkeys cheer me up since I've had a horrible week!
New chapter out, more Alerrie ;) let me know what you think! Hope everyone is doing well and keeping safe xxx]