The six-month housemate

Thirty-nine

THIRTY-NINE

Singing is easy. Well singing in front of a small public is, at least. The best of course is singing in the shower. The acoustic is so good the movie To Rome With Love actually sees Woody Allen's character set up an opera with the singer in his shower (yes, with soap and running water- the character can't sing otherwise). Watch the scene, it's quite entertaining.

Needless to say, we weren't going to install two showers for Keira and Mike's wedding, but I must admit it probably would have been easier. We somehow decided that me and Henry would sing Thinking Out Loud, and that Jo and Alex would dance. I was kind of jealous at first: they just had to learn the choreography, while I had to work on mine. Of course, it was team work, but still, I felt like I would have so much more work to do than them - even though Henry is an excellent dancer, I did assume that he wouldn't be much help on the whole project. But somehow, in a creative process, the more guidelines you have, the less you can tweak stuff to make it easier for you to remember.

Following the melody of It was always you, we managed to outline what the dance could look like, but we always had room to improve. If something felt more natural, or looked better, we could just add it. We could've done the same for Thinking Out Loud, but for some reason Jo decided that if we were going to use the video, we should follow it completely. Since we weren't doing that great with time (the wedding was in a little less than a month), I didn't argue, though Alex was very glum about the whole business.

"It's not even about me, the girl does really complex things and I just think it would be easier for Jo to go for something less complicated." Alex told me one Sunday morning while we were running.

He and I had taken the habit of getting up early and rehearse together after running for a bit. Everything looks so peaceful on Sunday mornings in London, especially the Daltons' neighbourhood. It's one of the poshest places in London, close to the animated Oxford Street and Buckingham Palace, but not enough for it to be completely drowned with tourists, so it remains quite calm. And obviously, not many tourists get up at 7am on a winter Sunday to go and hang out at Green Park. It's generally just us and the squirrels.

"Let her do what she wants, I think it reminds her of when she used to be a dancer." I replied. I would have shrugged, but shrugging and running don't go too well together.

"I guess. But I think she's a bit mad sometimes." He shook his head.

"We all are. Especially you." I smiled.

"Right. Because I'm the one who'd rather get up at dawn on a weekend rather than enjoying the warmth of their bed." He laughed.

"You're here with me, aren't you?" I laughed with him.

"Only to protect anyone who comes a little too close to you, I don't want you to get arrested for hitting some random guy asking you what time it is."

"Oh come on, I'm not that bad. You scared me, how many times will I have to repeat that?" I rolled my eyes. For some reason, Alex had recently decided to evoke the first time I'd been running and mistook him for a stalker. It was annoying.

"Until it stops making you react like that. I like annoying you." He grinned, a twinkle in his eye.

I shook my head, slowing down as we approached the end of the park. I went towards a bench and started stretching, scaring a couple of squirrels along the way. They ran away, their graceful bodies like waves on the grass.

Alex's phone started ringing. I recognised Johanna's ringtone just before he hung up. He took out some speakers from his small backpack and Ed Sheeran blasted in the silent park. He swiftly turned down the sound and we started the routine.