The Ghost of You [COMPLETED]

Tasting

The gig went fine. You and Brad acted like you were fine. Everything was perfectly fine.

Except it wasn't.

You were trying to keep an open mind, you really were. You were trying to picture how every option would play out. Telling Maggie. Telling Ryan. Not telling them. Getting back with Brad. Stopping this thing with Brad. Breaking up with Ryan.

The last one kept popping up.

Ryan was fine. He was perfectly nice, and friendly, and lovely. He'd texted you a few times throughout the tour, and that was one of the things that you liked about him - he didn't expect a text every day, or every hour, because his job was just as unpredictable as yours. You liked that, the lack of pressure.

But now it meant that days were going by without you texting him, and whenever he texted you first, it wasn't so much of a 'yay' moment, but more of a 'oh crap I forgot' moment. You debated telling him what was happening, but then what Brad said seemed right. It's hard to explain what's happening when you didn't even know what was going on.

So, you were keeping an open mind, and seeing how the days went. And the days were going fine. After the gig in Madrid, Maggie left, you piled onto buses to Germany, and did the usual and now familiar routine of travelling to the hotel and checking into your rooms, and sleeping until the morning. You and Brad had exchanged a few conversations, and they were civil, with tiny, polite smiles, but everytime it happened, you thought back to what he said -

I'm not imagining the fact that I want to kiss you again.'

Because the truth was, you were having that issue too. It was like he was trying to make it hard for you. Wearing sunglasses, loose fitting shirts that were half unbuttoned, being gorgeously nice to everyone and having banter with the guys. His hand on your hip as he walked past you. The smiles he gave you when he caught your eyes. It was very hard to not smile along with it all, and it was even harder to realise that you were also thinking about kissing him again.

You busied yourself exploring the streets that day, photographing the iconic Brandenburg Gate and the East Side Gallery, then when the evening rolled round, the management team had booked in a wine tasting event, which most people were very excited for.

You wondered whether drinking around Brad in your current situation was the best choice.

You also wondered whether sitting next to Brad was the best choice. But after you popped to the toilets while your room was getting prepped, you came back to find that everyone had already been herded in and seated, and the only one left was the seat next to Brad. Probably because the world hated you. Probably because of karma. Either way, you were doing a good job so far of keeping your interactions simple, and civil, such as 'pass me that' and 'oh do you mind'.

However, you had noticed for the last three wines that he was just drinking it, instead of the usual sip taste and spit. You cleared your throat as you elbowed him.

"Hmm?" He grunted as he swallowed the mouthful of wine he'd just 'tasted'.

"You're supposed to spit it out." You muttered bluntly.

"Oh, talking to me properly now are we?" He whispered back with a smirk.

"When you're putting yourself in danger of getting stupidly smashed, yes. Ugh," You took his glass away from him, groaning when you saw him take another huge gulp. "Honestly can't take you anywhere. You sip it, swirl it round, and spit."

His smirk grew as you could tell he started thinking of something else.

"Stop it." You laughed as you slapped his arm.