While Simon had gone to his family's home, I tried to throw myself into my uni work. I hadn't quite fallen behind yet, but I was being less and less productive, often prioritising seeing Simon over doing my work.
Even though in those few days I was often distracted by Freya or text messages from Simon, I eventually managed to catch up on everything I had avoided doing.
9/2/17 1.25pm I'm on my way back. Do you want me to pick you up on the way?
Obviously, not being able to deny spending time with Simon, I agreed.
At around 2pm, his car stopped by the apartment, waited for me to get in, and then set off for his house.
I helped him lug the random crap that he had received in his PO box to his room and set it all down near the couch.
"Thank you," he said, moving forward to kiss me. We then left for Nando's as I hadn't had lunch yet and neither had Simon, despite it being almost 2pm.
Sitting down in a corner we started talking as usual until I decided to question our relationship.
"Simon," I started, as he looked up from his food, "what uh are we?" "Like, are we just friends?", I added when he looked confused.
He returned to his food for a moment without replying, I assumed, to think about what I had asked.
He swallowed and finally asked, "Do you want to be?"
With a small shrug I said, "What would you say if I did?"
Smirking, he replied. "I would potentially agree."
Not being able to contain my excitement that he felt the same, I nodded with a huge grin and continued my meal. We finished our lunch in silence before heading to the car and driving back to his house.
As we got inside, as usual, we walked upstairs to his room and I sat on his bed, full from the meal we had just had.
As he turned on his TV, setting up netflix, he looked at me lying back on his bed. "So um Hailey?"
He waited till I turned my head to him before continuing. "I don't know how else to ask you but do you wanna be my girlfriend?", he asked slowly, as if he were still unsure of what he wanted.
I smiled and giggled, unable to contain my happiness. I sat up on my knees and nodded, speechless due to my extreme excitement. He shook his head at how stupid I was and pushed me back till I was flat on the bed, before hovering over me seconds later.
*
Simon turned towards me expressing that we need to talk about our "relationship" - I mean, it had only been like an hour and the fact that he already had things to discuss, made me worried.
Simon seemed to be mainly worried about how I would be affected if his viewers found out, not that he planned to reveal it anytime soon, which I was totally fine with as I didn't particularly like attention drawn to myself.
But, this meant that we couldn't go holding hands in public or post cute couple photos together, and that he would still 'act single' on camera.
I also knew that finding time to spend together, would be incredibly difficult when I have uni during the day and he films in the night and edits until early morning. It literally felt like we were in different timezones, considering the hours we worked.
But then again, I had known all this before and was totally fine with it. I never wanted him to have to feel like he needed to sacrifice time that could be spent filming, to hang out with me, and I made sure to let him know that.
Our Valentine's Day was spent with me at uni while he filmed a video searching for a girlfriend on omeagle. Clearly, we were a mess already.
We managed to catch up before the boys' recording session, cuddling turning into making out, before he had to get ready to film.
As I kissed Simon goodnight, jumped in my uber and headed home, the idea of getting a job crossed my mind. I couldn't rely on the money I had saved in Sydney, to last me forever and I knew that at least while I was in uni, a part-time job could serve me well. I figured I may as well spend that time earning money if I can't hang out with Simon.
Although I was studying business, it didn't really bother me what I ended up doing as a part-time job.
Over the next week while Simon left for Abu Dhabi, I felt incredibly productive, staying on top of my uni work whilst working evening shifts at a close by cafe which had offered me the job due to their need for people working at night.
I was kept updated on Simon's trip, with numerous snapchats at a time of his relaxed self and of him and Chris getting dinner and hanging out in their fancy hotel.
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Freya and I went out for dinner one night, to a club on another, and regularly to the Sidemen house where we hung out with JJ, Vik and Josh - who I was slowly getting comfortable with despite Simon's absence.
As comfortable as I was around the others, I missed him a lot. I felt incredibly selfish, knowing he had this amazing opportunity to play football in another country with Manchester City players, but only wanting him to myself, cuddling up in his bed.
