Liar

24

He shuffled down the bed, pulling me to lay on him keeping his arms wrapped tightly around me as the crying softened. It felt like I'd been crying forever but he kept telling me to keep going and honestly if he hadn't, I probably would have stopped 4 times over. Ash lifted my hand carefully, moving the tube over me so it was out of the way, stopping either of us from pulling on it. He wiped his thumb over my cheeks gently, wiping my tears away before reaching behind him to the table for the tissues and wiping my face dry and helping me whilst I blew my nose.

This must be the most unattractive I have ever felt in my entire life. In a crusty hospital gown, makeup and hair undoubtedly a mess, having been sobbing for the past 40 minutes, a complete emotional wreck.

"I'm-"

"If the next words out of your mouth aren't; tired, hungry, thirsty, in pain, dizzy or any other stupid symptom, I don't want to hear it."

"Ash-"

"You're not apologizing."

"I've been a-"

"You've been protecting yourself. Whatever happened to make you feel like you had to do that I don't know. But you don't with me. I thought you were just being a little shit. I didn't know it went that deep Tori. I wouldn't have pushed if I did." I nuzzled into him. "We'll slow down now. Okay? I'm not going anywhere but I really fucking like you."

"You're covered in my tears and snot." He nodded quickly, shuffling down a little more and wrapping his legs around mine.

"There is very few fluids of yours I would mind being covered in Tor. Snot and tears are not one of them." I smiled, sniffing quietly. "What's new with you then? 3 weeks is a long time. I think we're overdue a catch up."

"I'm moving house."

"You are?"

"Mhm."

"Where to?"

"Chelsea. 15-minute walk from Sloane Square."

"Oh nice. Just you?"

"My own house. 4 bedrooms. Super fancy."

"It's Chelsea. Of course, it's fancy."

"You'll have to come see it when it's all done up. The people we bought it off had it in this Victorian style which was nice but not me."

"Are you sure? I imagine you walking around in some really wide ballgown you can't fit through doors in."

"You're joking right? That dress last night was bad enough. I hate long dresses. I feel stuck in them. I feel like I'm going to fall."

"I mean you did fall in it last night to be fair."

"I did?"

"Mhm. I caught you though, before you hurt yourself. Your little boyfriend jus-"

"You know I told you about the guy who proposed?"

"Yeah?"

"That was him. Leon." His brows furrowed a little. "It's a whole thing."

"He didn't even do anything to help, I had to call the ambulance whilst sat with you on the floor and he just stood there staring."

"Yeah, he's useless in chaos. How he works in this sector I have no idea. You know the St. James'?"

"Heard of them."

"Leon is their only son."

"Ah." I closed my eyes, settling into him.

"You caught me?"

"Of course, I did. You didn't look right. That's why I took the glass off you but I could see you weren't looking straight, you were breathing weird, you were shaking really hard too. I knew I'd walked into something because I heard you calling him a psycho. You just didn't look okay so I grabbed you just as your knees gave way and laid with you until the ambulance came and by then my dad had come out so he got your dad and they came rushing out and the whole conference was being pushed back into the room by some people but I was just watching the paramedics check you over and answering what I knew. I honestly thought he'd drugged you or something."

"No, he wouldn't." Ash's fingers traced over my face slowly, sending a ring of shivers over my body until I giggled.

"I missed you. Having you around, talking to you, arguing with you."

"You're mad."

"Maybe but if this is mad, I'd rather be mad than not have you." His head shifted, chuckling before pressing a quick kiss to my forehead, laughing again. "I like this whole you having a heart monitor on thing. I can see when you're reacting to me touching you."

"No, you can't." I opened my eyes, Ash scrunching his nose up a little.

"Yeah. Watch." He shifted us until we could both see my monitor. "You're at 63 right now so you're chilled out right? I've been watching it and that's about fine for you, unless you're crying then it jumped up to 82. But watch this." He leaned forward, kissing my temple and running his hand up my arm. Soft touches that I know for a fact, made my heart skip a beat. I looked up and sure enough, the number climbed a few notches. Not massively only raising to a 67 but still. He chuckled again, enjoying his little experiment. "See?"

"Hmm. I don't know. Do it again. Might be an anomaly." He smiled.

"You're feeling better?"

"A little. I'm hungry and tired."

"That, I can fix babe. What do-" He lifted his hip, taking out his phone. "What do you feel like eating?"

"Food."

"Ha-Ha." I shuffled further across the bed, both of us laying on our back and looking for somewhere we could order food from at 5am on a Saturday morning. "Wait. When do you move house?"

"It's supposed to be today. The movers are coming at like 10am to move the boxes to the new place and everything's getting delivered. I was supposed to be going to the new house at like 8am to wait for like furniture deliveries and whatever."

"Who's going to do it now?"

"I- I guess no one. It's fine. If something gets bounced back I'll just have to go through getting it redelivered or whatever."

"I can have my dad go over if you want. He's up already."

"What? Why?"

"Dad's always been an early riser. He didn't come down here, he stayed for the awards and then went home at like 11 so he was asleep whilst you were still unconscious. He text like 5 minutes ago asking if you'd woken up before I left."

"He doesn't know you're still here?"

"No one does." He tucked some hair behind my ear. "Pizza?"

"Pizza soundsgood."