Forget-Me-Not (A Tom Hiddleston Fanfiction)

(10) Liquid Confidence

At the end of the day, Tom was back in Nina's caravan, as she was meticulously tidying away her things. He touched a hand to her shoulder, causing her to jump out of her skin. "Oh goodness, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you."

"No, no, it's fine..." She went red slightly. Tom was wearing his own clothes from before again, but his hair was still as meticulously styled as it was this morning. "What did you want?"

"There was a group of us going out tonight for a drink to celebrate the kick off of filming if you were interested..." He looked down at the floor, and then back up at Nina again, his eyes positively gleaming. "Do you drink?"

"Well, I don't usually get the time what with having to usually work late and all." Add that to a boyfriend who regularly liked to get himself drunk and hiccup himself to sleep at three in the morning and you had the reason why Nina didn't usually like to drink, but she couldn't turn down the offer. "But I suppose if you wouldn't mind having me...?"

"Oh, not at all! We all know eachother quite well, what with Benedict living near to me back in London and all, and it would be nice to get to know our new team member." He grinned that glorious grin of his, his eyes creasing up once more. "I must warn you though, Benedict sometimes acts like Sherlock when he's drunk."

"No way!" Nina covered her mouth with her hands. "That's totally cute!"

"No, it's really not. I'm back off to the hotel now, are you coming?"

"If I can find my powder brush thingy..." Nina crawled around the floor looking for the one brush that was missing. She stood back up, bewildered, until Tom stepped forward and pulled it from behind her ear.

"Ehehehe...this one?" He held it out to her.

"Yeah..." She quickly pulled it off of him and threw it into her bag. "That'll be the one."

*****

Nina curled the last section of her hair and doused it in hairspray. Tonight, she'd actually made some level of effort to look presentable and put on one of the only two dresses that she'd packed with her.

She wore a red strapless dress patterned with small red dots with a pair of white flats - she barely ever wore heels, she knew she'd break her neck - and a white purse containing her phone and some money. Her hair was in ringlets coming down to about her shoulders and her eyeliner was thin and mascara was minimal but her red lipstick matched her dress. The last time she had dressed up like this had been for her last meal out with Kyle which had been some time ago.

Crap. Kyle. She hadn't called him again. Knowing him, he'd assume she'd gone off - or gotten off - with another guy and she'd be in deep trouble. She checked the clock. Nina still had ten minutes until she was meeting Tom in the reception area so she decided to call Kyle.

He answered with a slight slur. "Helloooo...?"

"Kyle, it's me. I'm going out for a bit later so if I don't answer my phone that will be why, okay? I love you."

"Yeah...yeah..." Nina winced as she heard a thud, a string of curse words and the call ended abruptly. Well, that went a lot differently compared to what Nina had anticipated.

She left the apartment and walked down to reception, earning the occasional stare. Finally she reached the bottom of the several flights of stairs and saw a well dressed man facing away from her.

As Tom turned at the sound of her footsteps, Nina noted he was wearing a shirt and tie - a well fitted shirt - under his fancy looking black coat, over smart black trousers and shiny black shoes. He smiled widely at the sight of Nina and extended his arm. "Shall we?"

"We shall." Nina's lips twisted into a small smile as they left the hotel together and started the short walk to the bar that Tom claimed was the rendezvous point.

"So, how's your boyfriend? Are you keeping in touch with him?" Tom asked Nina, and she pressed her lips together, glancing down at the floor. "I'm sorry, that was probably not the right question to ask."

"No, no, it's perfectly fine to be curious." She flashed him a small smile again. "I am making an effort but it feels like he's not appreciating it, you know? Sometimes I feel like he might be taking me for granted but I still love him, and I could never lose him. Sometimes I don't know what to do with him, Tom, I really don't..."

"Well, if you're happy..." Tom shrugged. "Who am I to judge?"

"That's the thing. Sometimes I'm happy, sometimes, well, not so much..." She mumbled under her breath, staring up at the night sky. "Beautiful night, isn't it?"

"Oh, yes." Tom stopped them outside a nice looking pub, and stepping forward to open the door. "Ladies first."

Nina went as red as her dress once again as she walked into the building. Already she could see Benedict, and a few other familiar faces from set, looking at her with...envy? Whatever it was, was soon forgotten as Benedict made some kind of happy squeaking noise as he pulled Tom in for a 'man hug'.

"I don't even know why they try to deny Hiddlebatch anymore." One of the crew members commented, laughing as she received a glare from both of the boys. She looked to be about Nina's age, with long, vibrant red hair and several piercings in each of her ears. Nina smiled at her and stepped up to the bar, ordering a white wine and lemonade- she was going to try and start off nice and easy.

But that soon went out of the window as Tom and Benedict got Nina hooked on beer, which if she was quite honest, she'd never actually drank properly before. It only took two pints and already she was beginning to feel a little tipsy, dancing with the othe members of the cast and crew and cheering loudly for Tom when he threw some shapes.

Nina refused to drink any more alcohol after that second beer although she did steal some of Tom's wine at some point- he was a classy man. Eventually she was half asleep at the bar, too tired and tipsy to remember that her keys were locked inside her hotel room.

[A/N] it isn't just me that can imagine tom drinking wine and being just generally a bit posh, is it? good. drop a vote for tom's 'shapes'?
yours truly :) x