Falling - Tom Holland imagine

Chapter 17

I dozed on and off during the early morning hours, before my alarm went off at 5am, awakening me for my early shift sorting through CV's and flagging the best ones before uploading them onto our internal database adding tags so they'd pop up when the right role was available. It was mindless and easy, so I sat up in my bed pulling my work laptop towards me and logged on, wrapped in the duvet. Eyes still sore from the tears of yesterday and the hollow emptiness inside which was warring with a feeling of what? Happiness? Joy? Excitement? I couldn't place it so pushed it to one side to trawl through the next few hours of work.

I took a break just before 10, having managed to finish my workload in those 5 ish productive hours, and made some tea and grabbed a cereal bar whilst I scrolled through my phone, seeing nothing interesting me on social media, I went to put it on charge when I saw an unread notification. I opened it to see the messages from last night and the new one.....

Tom: I've just had a key cut for you and you'll love the keyring I found, I can't wait for you to move in with me darling! What time do you think you'll be here and do you need any help? Love u 💕  xxxx

I almost dropped my half full mug in shock as the end of the night came into focus and I remembered that I'd agreed to live with him. I sat at the table in shock. It had seemed like the right thing last night, but now - could I live with another man, we'd not known each other for that long and only been together for less than 2 months. Could I trust him? The thought was like acid, but I had to be rational after my experiences. I was going to change my whole world for a man, and last time it hadn't ended well. Could I do this. I sat nibbling on my fingernails with anxiety. I sat there for almost an hour contemplating it, before deciding that I should give it a go. The thought of Tom was what had saved me last night. He was a stable loving person - his family was just 3 minutes away, and, I thought to myself, if I keep this flat I've got somewhere safe to go if it gets too much, somewhere secret from everyone - a bolthole.

5 hours later, just as it began to drizzle I knocked on Toms, now our, front door, with 2 suitcases behind me containing most of my clothes, and laptops, chargers, a few books and things, having left enough items behind at my flat to support me if I needed to cut and run back there. He yanked the door open and I caught a glimpse of a dark blue hoodie and plaid pyjama pants as he pulled me into his arms even faster. He wrapped me up and plunged his nose behind my ear, almost in my hair, breathing in my scent.

"Darling, I'm so glad you're here." He pulled back to look at me, still in his pink hoodie and the same leggings from the day before, worry framing his face as he took in my disheveled appearance and pale, wan face. He led me in dragging my cases and dumping them in the hallway as he walked me over to the sofa before collapsing and pulling me into his embrace.

"Are you okay, your eyes still look red? Did you eat anything else yesterday? Are you tired? Are you safe?" he continued, barely drawing breath between the barrage of questions he asked. All I could do was snuggle into his arms. "I'm okay now"

We lay together on the sofa, my head resting in his lap as he stroked my hair, offering unspoken support and comfort, as he chatted away, not requiring any answers, telling me about his next project coming up, and the next set of interviews he had later in the week, which he'd managed to get them to do remotely so he could stay home with me to make sure I was settled in. It was bliss. For the first time in a very long time I felt like I belonged, I felt safe. I let out a shuddering sigh at the thought of being safe. Of course Tom noticed, and looked sadly down at me squeezing my shoulder gently. He was too wary of saying the wrong thing, so carefully skirted it by pulling out his phone and quickly taking a selfie of us both

"Our first photo living together. Now what do you want to eat?" he asked as he opened the Just Eat app on his phone. "Chinese, pizza, curry?"

"Curry?" I offered hearing the hopeful lilt in his voice as he offered that.

"Yey, whats your usual?" he asked scrolling immediately to his favourite restaurant clicking on a chicken rogan josh, a paratha, aloo gobi and pilau rice.

"erm, do they have dopiaza? or bhuna? I'll have either one, lamb please, and a garlic naan, oh and bhajis" I said. He hummed in agreement before sending the order off, and heading to the kitchen where he grabbed a couple of beers from the fridge and got plates and cutlery ready. He handed me one of the beers before jumping over the back of the sofa with his own, plumping back down in what was his usual spot going by the number of blankets and pillows nearby. He looked at me with the lamplight glinting in his eye and raised his beer in a toast.

"To you and me, together for always. I love you Y/N, with all my heart, here's to our future together," then he clinked our bottles together before taking a quick sip, putting the bottle down and then cupped my face with his right hand to kiss me for the first time today. I could feel his fingers, cold from the beer bottle against my cheek, as he leaned in, the coolness of his breath tickling across my lips and his beautiful, dark brown eyes looking deep into mine, with absolute love, before his eyes fluttered shut to focus on the feeling as his tongue slid delicately into my mouth and we began to explore each other once again. Slowly, tenderly and with all the passion and love we held for each other. My hands slid around his shoulders, needing to hold onto part of him to anchor myself. We stayed there, tongues dancing slowly together for eternity. We gradually pulled away, and Tom rested his forehead against mine "I love kissing you; its my new favourite thing" he whispered.

5 minutes later we were tucking into our curries sharing it all between us. It was the first real meal I'd had in two days and it was delicious. It didn't take long till I was stuffed and we both retired to the sofa to curl up under one of Toms many blankets as he handed me the remote "I wouldn't do this for just anyone" he winked. As I began to scroll through the tv guide to find something worth watching he sat with his legs open patting in between them so I could lean back against his chest and he could wrap his arms around me from behind. Once again the feeling of being protected washed over me.