All I ask | Chris Evans

7

A week passed and Grandma wouldn't stop going on about her friends son Henry. You would think he was some kind of super hero the way she was talking about him.

I walked downstairs the morning of the day her friends son was coming round. Etta James 'W-O-M-A-N' blasted through the kitchen. The house was filled of the aroma of freshly baked cakes. "Morning Grandma" I smiled sweetly, hoping that she would let me at the leftover cake batter.

"Morning sweetie, you okay?" she asked, not breaking eye contact from the bowl in front of her.

"I'm fine. Whatcha making?" I quiz, resting my elbows on the worktop surface next to her.

"Cake. If you get out my way I might let ya scrape the bowl out" she quipped back. I clapped my hands together like a child and sunk myself down on one of the chairs at the kitchen table. "They will be here in a couple hours so why don't you go hop in the shower now quickly and you can help me clear up after"

I walked upstairs and into the bathroom. It was definitely one of my favourite rooms in the house. The tiles were mismatch and all different colours, creating a beautiful mosaic of colour across the room. Luscious deep green plants filled the corners of the room. A beautiful white bathtub with golden handles sat in the far corner by the reflecting window that created soft dancing rainbows across the white floor tiles. It reminded me of the glass hanging from trees, glistening in sunlight. Apart of me missed New York, a part of me will always think of it as my home. But right now it was far from it.

After I'd gotten out of the shower, I made sure to do my hair and makeup in record timing. Knowing that my Grandma would be stressing out tidying everything up on top of completing the cake. I quickly threw on a soft yellow summer dress with lace-up straps and a heart neckline. The slit up the left hand side exposed majority of my thigh. Little lavender floral patterns dotted across the dress. It was a little more than a casual dress, but I'd brought it recently in the new lanes and was rather pleased with it.

"You look gorgeous darling" Grandma complimented whilst looking up from piping the icing onto the cake. I took the hoover out of the long cupboard by the door and brought it into the living room. She already plumped up the seat cushions on the deep green sofa, and dotted around mismatch decorative pillows of various different colours. The room was full of rich colours. Vibrant oranges, luscious deep greens, sea blues, bright pinks. I hoovered up the dust on the wooden floor, neatened up the coffee table and pinned the curtains back to reveal the beach view.

Music was still playing in the kitchen along with the soft humming of my Grandmother. The doorbell rung, I looked through the window into the kitchen to see her oblivious to the people at the door. I walked down the hallway to the front door and opened it. There was a tall slender woman with dark hair, and soft blue eyes stood there with a warm smile plastered onto her face. Grandma must of heard the door open as she came rushing from the kitchen and grabbed the woman by her hands, pulling her into a big bear hug. "Hello Rosemary, how are you?" the lady asked.

"I'm great Marianne, how are you love? Where's Henry?" Grandma replied. The woman who was identified by my grandma as Marianne glanced at me with a warm smile and extended her hand to me.

"He's just finding a car parking space. I'm Marianne and you must be Olivia. Your Grandma hasn't stopped talking my ear off about you" She shook my hand tenderly.

"Hi, nice to meet you" I smiled back.

"Come in, come in" Grandma ushered, "Can I get you a tea dear?"

"Yes I'd love one." Marianne followed her into the kitchen as they chatted away. I used this time to quickly go to the toilet and try brace myself. It felt odd being set up with someone by my Grandma, Oh god, what if he didn't know it was a set up? What if he doesn't fancy me at all? What if he is repulsive and horrible? The noise of my internal panic filled my ears, but it was soon cut short by the doorbell ringing again. I took a deep breath in and walked toward the door. A large figure could be seen through the frosted glass. Before I could back out of it, my hand was on the door handle pulling it open. Looking up, I was immediately met with the exact same soft blue eyes as Marianne. Feeling flustered I looked away and noticed the rest of him. He had a tall muscular physique, actually that was a bit of an understatement, he was huge, in fact his arms were probably bigger than my head.

"Hello" he greeted, making me look back up at his face. He was intimidatingly beautiful.

"Hi" I managed to squeak back.

"I'm Henry, and you must be Olivia" He gestured toward me, leaning in for a hug. He pepped a kiss to my cheek as a greeting.

"That's me, you can just call me Liv though" I smiled back, managing to compose myself. "Come in" I ushered him in. As I turned around we were both met with Grandma and Marianne in the hallway.

"You must be Henry" Grandma grinned wildly, practically yanking him down into a hug.

"That would be me" He smiled awkwardly at the sudden embrace.

"Let me get you a tea" she insisted, "Liv darling, you take Marianne and Henry into the living room"

Henry sat down on the sofa whilst Marianne perched in the armchair, as I knew how obvious this set up was I sat down next to Henry to save myself from being made to get up and sit next to him by Grandma. "So Olivia, your Grandma was telling me your visiting from New York?" she asked.

"Yeah I'm staying here for a bit, I've missed Brighton and it's a nice change of scenery" I waffled on. My eyes flickered over to Henry, his face looked so familiar but I couldn't quite place my finger on where I'd seen him before or whether I had met him before.

Grandma called me into the kitchen to help her carry things out into the living room. I took the tray of tea's while she followed shortly behind me with a tin of biscuits. "Have you ever been to New York Henry, I hear you travel quite a bit with your job" Grandma mentioned.

"Yeah I've filmed in New York a couple times, it's a great place" he answered, taking the mug from my hand "thank you"

"No worries" I replied, so he is an actor I thought to myself.

"So what do you do?" he asked me, as the two ladies conversed to themselves.

"I co-own a speakeasy in New York called The Rose Room, with my best friend, I sing there" I took a sip out of my mug, burning my mouth in the process. "What about you?"

"I think a few of my buddies have actually mentioned that place, I have to go when I'm next there. I'm an actor" he looked at me with a furrowed brow as if I was missing something.

"Oh have you been in anything I would of seen?" I questioned obliviously.

"Maybe a few things, I played superman" He shrugged. My mouth formed into an 'O', of course it was fucking Henry Cavill.

"Yeah I have seen that. I'm sorry I didn't recognise you" I spluttered.

"It's okay. Its probably this dead animal I've got on my face" He chuckled, referring to his beard. I contemplated bringing up the fact I was friends with Scott and Seb, but I didn't actually like Seb at the moment and bringing up Scott would mean that I also knew Chris. "You know, I don't think I've actually ever been to Brighton before" he mentioned.

"I'll show you around" I smiled.