Table For Two

45 - Ali

Note to self - you are seriously one of the luckiest bitches on this planet right now and it would really be in your best interest to not fuck it up.

Harvey has stepped out of the pages of a fairytale. Or a dream. Or some other fucking cliche because I refuse to believe this man is actually real sometimes. He made breakfast for me. Because he wanted to. As a surprise. Like... how does that even compute? I could honestly have cried when I came downstairs and saw all the effort he had put in.

All that. Just for me. And tonight is our first night out with friends and actually as an official couple. That seems like such a minor thing in the grand scheme of things and I never thought that I would ever be this excited about having a boyfriend and being able to go out in public and be all cutesy together but here I am - Ali Doherty, your certified walking gay disaster.

We don't do much for the rest of the morning. I shower and get changed into comfies before we take Athena out on a walk. We don't go far. I'm still a little tired and not one hundred percent in my head but Harvey is happy to walk at a slower pace as we go along the river path and work our way back to the house. We have lunch. By which I mean, I order us Subway on Just Eat because the idea of cooking makes me want to scratch my brain out and Harvey puts on a movie for us. We end up watching Bohemian Rhapsody and it turns out Harvey is a massive fan of Queen. By the end of the film, he is actually tearing up and we are cuddled up on the sofa with me running my hand through his hair to comfort him. I kiss him. He kisses me. Kissing becomes a lot more heated and we head upstairs but we still don't get any further than being in our boxers, blatantly turned on, and still limiting ourselves to kissing and touching.

"You know if you want to do more, you can just ask" I say to him.

"I know... I'm just nervous and wanna take it slow" he replies.

That is more than fine by me. So we stick at that. After a while, I pick up the guitar and start strumming while Harvey is still tangled in the sheets and watching Tiktok. Some weird string of inspiration hits me while I'm just sitting there dicking about on the instrument and I immediately launch across the room to write something down. Harvey nearly leaps out of his skin in surprise when I do and I just about stifle a laugh. Something about the chords I'd accidentally played and Harvey being there and a couple lines coming into my head had me animated and if I didn't write them down then I knew I would end up kicking myself for it, even if it doesn't bear any fruit in the end.

Time wears on and we start getting ready. The plan is to meet outside The Little Theatre in Bath (which surprises me that they were able to get that place booked). Me and Harvey take forever to get ready mainly because we keep just staring at each other and then we end up making out and the tight trousers Harvey has don't leave much to the imagination. So we have to wait a while for him to... y'know, calm down. I feed Athena and leave mum a note. I feel kind of guilty that I didn't cook anything with leftovers but I mention that there is some pancake batter left and some small amount of fillings to use up.

Athena gets fed and scritched until she is content to let us leave and go to pick up Erika and Dee. I stop to get Dee first and she has gone all out. She's in a leopard print jumpsuit with matching wedges, her favourite cropped leather jacket and gold make-up for days. She's painted her nails rather than get them done at a salon. With our work, they break too easily. She gets in the front after Harvey insists on sitting in the back. He'd put Athena's blanket in the boot and brushed the seats down before settling behind me and putting a hand on my shoulder.

We drive over to pick up Nia and Anwar. Erika got an uber over early to help the society get ready. According to Harvey, she looks incredible but refused to show us the selfie. Fine, whatever. So many offences taken at him not showing us. We get to the uni accommodation block to pick up the rest of the gang. They are ready and waiting outside for us and... wow.