Sugar

Part 2 :->

I ring the doorbell and wait for roughly 100,000 seconds before the door finally opens,

"Bailey! Hej, hi! Sorry, come in!" His accent is thick and muffled by the mohair scarf wrapped around his face as he ushers me inside. The door closes and he extends a hand, "I'm Benjamin, It's nice to meet you, do you want a cup of tea?" I shake his hand, trying desperately to contain my nervousness and act cool, "Sounds lovely, thank you" I reply.

I follow him to the kitchen, the air is thick with incense and residual weed. There's music playing from another room, my eyes wander over every detail and knick-knack. The window above the sink is decorated with sun catchers, prayer flags and hanging plants, overlooking a back garden similar to the front.

"Milk? Sugar?" My eyes snap back to Benjamin. "Yes and two sugars thankyou" I answer.

"Your accent is interesting" He starts, stirring in the sugars and placing the mug down on the table. "Are you from London?" I chuckle and shake my head, taking a seat. "No no, I'm Aussie." He grins at me "Really? Wouldn't have guessed!"

"I think people expect it to be heavier.. Americans especially assume I'm English but I don't hear it, I mean it really comes out when I say certain stuff" I'm suddenly aware of my rambling but he doesn't seem to mind, propping his elbow up on the table top. "Yeah like what?" I feel my cheeks flush "Oh you know, uh any word ending with R.. "spida" "cah" We don't say our Rs.." Benjamin laughs, leaning backwards in his chair. "Oh man yeah. I hear it now." I nod, still blushing red as I take a sip of my tea.

"This project I'm working on," he starts, "it's a bit more acoustic but with a lot of old-fashioned synth.. I saw your work and it just looked like how the album sounds.. So I thought we could sort of collaborate with the aesthetics of it."

"Yeah, yeah, show me what you've been working on." I watch as he springs up, returning with a notebook and an armful of loose papers which he dumps onto the table.

"So, Bailey.. how long have you been a fan?" I look up to meet a smug expression plastered across his face. I feign confusion, only for him to gesture to my hip where my jeans have shifted to expose my dg tattoo. "Oh.. yeah.. well I was barely 18 when I got it done.. It was my first one.. " His eyes widen with intrigue and his voice drops as he leans in a little to examine it. "Oh really?" My cheeks are burning as I blabber on trying to explain why it's no biggie and I just like the design and- he cuts me of with a chuckle; "I like it. I think it's cute."