love came calling, twice // olly murs

32.

To say that Amelia was on cloud nine as an understatement. She was glowing, she was floating and she was in love. Well, not in love, love, but she was getting there and she felt whole, more whole and more complete than she had possibly ever felt and it was all thanks to Olly.

Olly, Olly, Olly. God, he was remarkable. She paddled into his bedroom later that afternoon, hoping to get the remainder of her belongings out of his room and into her own. She sighed wistfully. Her room. He had given her her own room.

He had given her so much. She owed him everything.

At the moment, she was currently trying to get her head around what they were, because she knew they were something. She still wasn't quite sure what he wanted, exactly, nor was she sure what she wanted herself, but she was certain that they'd figure it out together.

But first, Annabel was coming over for dinner and Amelia had to cook. Naturally, there was next to no food in the house, so Olly, being as chivalrous and gallant as ever had offered to go to the grocery store for her on his way to pick up some photos he had had developed. He had taken the list from her and kissed her on the lips briefly, in front of their friends, no less and left. This had caused Amelia to receive some ridiculous cat-calls, teasing and kissing sounds, but she ignored them. Let them say what she wanted, she was more than absurdly happy.

She had spent the last hour cleaning, making sure things were settled while mentally going through her things at storage to decide what she wanted to put in her new room. For now, though, she needed to get this pile of clothes that were still sitting in her suitcase into the closet and the stack of books off of Olly's night-table.

Might as well do it all at once, she thought with a shrug and bent down and scooped up her clothes that were scattered on the floor by her suitcase and the stack of books, carefully balancing them in her arms. As she turned around, however, her hip bumped his desk, knocking something off of it.

"Oh, shoot!" she exclaimed, setting down her belongings and bending to pick up whatever she had knocked over. "Oh, shoot!"

She had knocked over his portfolio and unfortunately for her, it hadn't been zipped up. Now it was lying face open on the floor. She winced, hoping desperately that the photographs inside weren't ruined.

Picking it up carefully, she flipped if over, figuring there was no harm in at least glancing over them to make sure no damage was done. She wasn't prying that way and she'd put it right back after a quick glance.

And she did just that, quickly glanced at it. But something caught her eye, something she had never thought she'd see in a million years. She paused, sitting down on the floor and bringing the portfolio into her lap. Looking down, she gasped, bringing a hand to her mouth.

Staring back at her was her own face. And it wasn't the shot he had taken the other day.

It was at least a couple of years old, as she still had bangs and no engagement ring was adorning her finger. The shot was of her portfolio, but she could see she was standing in the kitchen, inspecting the label on a beer bottle, her brow crunched in thought. Soft sunlight streamed in from the window and hid her face and Amelia stared down at the photograph in confusion.

Why did Olly have a photograph of her from two years ago? How had she not seen him taking it?

Feeling brave, but mostly curious, she flipped the page and her heart jumped. There was another photograph of her, this one her looking hopelessly bored as she sat on a lawn-chair in the backyard. She remembered that day. She was supposed to be going out with Tom, but he was late, and to avoid confrontation with Olly, she had sat in the backyard until he was ready. She swallowed thickly and turned the page again.