The Art of Loving

[4] Shirtless

"Does he know that?" Mary asked and looked at Ellie.

"I... I don't actually know. I mean, I think so. I told him that earlier, but I don't know if he gets how happy he really makes me. I'll try to get that across.."

Mary smiled and nodded. "That's good, that's good. I don't doubt that you two can handle this. In your own special way, but you can handle it."

"Yeah, we really have our own way." Ellie laughed softly and nodded. "That's definitely true. But apparently it works."

"And that's all that matters. Believe me, no one needs to agree with you, as long as it works for you."

Just as Ellie was about to say something, she was cut off by the loud sound of Brian playing a chord on stage. Immediately her attention was drawn to the stage and she was simply staring at him, enjoying the view.

Mary didn't say anything, she simply watched her friend with a smile. In all the time she and Ellie had known each other, Ellie had never been so captured by anyone else. But Mary knew that teasing her about that would be the completely wrong thing to do, instead she just watched her friend, happy to see her so happy.

However, Ellie soon remembered that she had been talking to her friend, and she turned back to Mary, smiling timidly. "Sorry... uhm.." She couldn't resist turning around again once more and looking at Brian quickly before she looked at Mary again, this time with a bigger smile. "He's simply really good.."

"Yeah, he really is," Mary agreed with her, smiling as well. "Do you know where we'll be going after this? Freddie said that the plan was to do something so we could celebrate Brian's birthday."

"That's about as much as I know. We're going somewhere, but I don't know where. I don't really care though to be honest, as long as we can celebrate properly." After a moment she was quick to add something, however. "You have to help me to try to keep Brian as close to being sober as possible, because... well, I still need him later," she told Mary, smirking a bit. "I don't want our second time to happen when he's drunk - again. You know?"

"Oh, you're preparing for all eventualities, aren't you?" Mary asked, laughing softly. "Alright, I'll see what I can do.. You know, it's really ... well, funny to see you like that. It's really great to see that you care so much about him, you know? He deserves that. I think if you tell him why you don't want him to get completely drunk he'll have an eye on his alcohol level as well."

Ellie thought about Mary's suggestion for a moment before she nodded. "You're right, yeah.. that may be even easier. I didn't consider that actually. Thanks."

"You're always welcome. Hey, by the way, do you know where Lynn is? I asked Mike but he just said she's busy.. does she have to work? I haven't talked to her in quite a while.."

"I haven't talked to her properly lately either... it's either always been very quick or Mike said she's busy. I don't really know what's going on with her. It's a bit of a mystery actually, but like when I went over to visit her, to see if she was okay, if something had happened, she simply told me that she's busy and pretty much closed the door in my face. I have no idea what's going on.."

"Did Brian tell you anything about Mike?"

"About Mike? No, why? To be honest we've just talked about each other..," Ellie admitted, smiling a little.

Mary smiled at Ellie. "I don't blame you at all for that. Freddie and I don't normally talk about him either, but a couple of days ago, after he came home from the practice, he was quite upset, so I asked what was wrong and -"

"Wait, on Thursday?" Ellie interrupted her.

"Yeah," Mary confirmed, nodding a little. "Why?"

"Because Brian wasn't exactly happy either, but he just said that practice hadn't been what you would call successful. Then all he said was that he was glad that he had me to distract him a little from that, that's all. I didn't realise it had something to do with Mike."