Je Suis Musicienne | Timothée Chalamet

Twenty-five

Timothée noticed how Maia kept looking around in the for her absolutely new and unknown surroundings. She somehow seemed to not getting very used to it or comfortable with it and that worried him a bit.

"Are you alright?", he asked softly and leaned slightly forward to seek Maia's gaze, "You seem a bit... I don't know, unrelaxed."

Maia took an inaudible somewhat deep breath, realising that her shoulders were kind of tensed and she was sitting with her legs crossed, tightly pressing her thighs together.

"I'm sorry.", she said, looking at him with her lips between her teeth, "Feeling a bit out of place."

As she saw how he got this hint of guilt in his eyes, she immediately gave him a reassuring smile, relaxing her shoulders.

"It's all good, trust me.", she said, "It's kinda funny to sit here in a band T-Shirt and Jeans, you know."

She looked around one more time.

"Story of a lifetime.", she added dryly.

Timothée laughed and took a sip out of his glass and Maia saw that the worry vanished from his face, making space for a cute smirk.

They kept talking a little more about the concert and about the new season, about how they spent New Year's Eve and Timothée showed Maia pictures of how Christmas is in New York.

"New York is both shocking and fascinating for me.", Maia giggled as she swiped through the pictures on Timothées phone which he had put into her hand.

"Why?", Timothée had moved his chair closer to her to be able to look to the pictures too and now Maia felt how his soft curls were tickling her cheek just for a tiny moment as he leaned even closer to take a quick look which picture she had opened up.

"I don't know...", she needed a second to find back into her body and brain and did her best to not let it show what his simple closeness did to her, "Moving to London from a small town was a big thing already and London is a metropolis too. But I imagine that the people and the city here are so much different, let alone talking from the UK and the US being so different countries."

"You've never been to the US?", Timothée asked and Maia looked up from his phone.

"North America in general.", she answered, "But it's on my list."

He returned the smile she gave him and they went back to looking through the next few pictures.

"It probably would be very overwhelming to you.", Timothée said, "Even used to a city like London."

A second later and as if he realised that this probably sounded a bit weird he quickly shook his head.

"I mean-", he added, " I mean, not that you wouldn't like it or wouldn't be able to live there or-"

"I know what you mean.", Maia gently cut him off, "And I absolutely agree with it."

She finished her Coke with one last bigger sip as did Timothée. She glanced at the time in the upper corner of his smartphone and made big eyes.

"Jesus, it's eleven fifty!", she half choked on the rest liquid in her mouth and had to cough which made her laugh, making her an awkward laugh-coughing mess.

"Oh my God, are you alright?", Timothée started laughing too.

"I'm so sorry.", she almost whispered, poorly able to resist more choked laughs as she straightened up on the chair, taking a wide-eyed look around with an obviously brutally restrained grin, "They're definitely happy when I leave, trust me."

The old couple she was referring to sat on a table a bit away in Timothées back and glared over to them.

"Oh wow, they so absolutely happy when I'll be gone.", she snickered and had to look down to calm down and to not see them in the corner of her eye when looking at Timothée.

"Luckily it's not about them at all.", Timothée said, turning around to take a look at them for a second and then facing Maia again.

He had already emptied his glass and the barkeeper came over to them and took both glasses away. Maia finally had calmed down now and was supporting her elbow on the bar, leaning her head against her hand.

"That was a cool evening.", she said and grinned at him, "Thank you for inviting me. And for giving me the opportunity to have a really expensive Coke."

Timothée chuckled and raised both eyebrows.

"Well, 1,000 things to do before you die.", he joked, slightly raising both hands.

Their eyes met again and Maia felt this wonderful warmth spreading in her body, from her head to her toes, quickening her heartbeat, almost a similar feeling to when she was about to go on stage, just more... intense.

"You're about to leave, huh...?", he asked in a soft tone, giving her a warm smile.

Maia could hear that he sounded sad about the idea of her leaving now and she let out a small indecisive breath, not really wanting to leave too.

"It's pretty late...", she just said with a light shrug.

Timothée looked down, as if he would think what to say next. But then he just nodded lightly.

"Thank you for saying yes to this.", he said a moment later with that bit of a breaky voice he got when talking a bit lower.

"Honestly, I felt so awful saying no the first time you asked, you know.", Maia said a little bit hesitantly.

"There's no reason for this.", Timothée said reassuringly, "I understand that this was also probably a bit... much."

He ran a hand through his curls as he didn't find a really fitting word for it.

"Thinking about it now, it wasn't.", Maia answered, "I was just having a bit of a rough time the weeks after it, if that makes any sense."

With her left hand fumbling on the hem of her T-Shirt she avoided looking in his eyes and stared on her other hand on the bar.

"Because I was convinced I'd never see you again...", she added softly.

Timothée was quiet for a bit. Now Maia actually heard the first time that smooth Jazz was playing as almost not noticeably background music.

"Before you leave, let me show you something.", he said.

Maia looked at him again and saw his soft grin as he got up. In that moment the waiters hurried over to get their jackets and brought them over to them.

"Alright.", she smiled.