He Who Wants A Rose, Must Respect The Thorn

More Than Muscle

"sweetie, I gotta run"
"huh?" I frowned, rubbing my eyes from sleep. I squinted up at a smiling face, "I gotta head out to training before my book stuff" he said softly. Before I answered him, I shuffled to sit up, holding the bed sheet against my chest. I yawned and scratched my head. "babe are you even functioning inside there?" he teased, tapping my head with his finger. I pouted at him and he chuckled. "are you sure you're cool with meeting me at the event?" he asked, kissing me on the top of my head. "of course" I nodded. "I'm going downtown this morning anyway so it's not far from where I'm meeting Nick" I said a little groggily. "okay sweetie, I will see you there. And don't forget to ask him about New Year's" he smiled, kissing me hard in the lips, much to my distress, morning breath isn't good on anyone. He laughed at my expression knowing just what I was thinking. I flicked my eyes to his face, seeing a smirk plastered across his face. He just threw a wink my way and silently left the room. I let out a puff of air and flopped back down in the bed.

........

"so timing wise, how long do you think it will take before I can actually begin to look at packing up my stuff at home?" I asked my brother before sipping on a diet coke that the waiter has just brought over to our table. I was running a little late, being I'd fallen back to sleep after Julian left the house this morning. Nick obviously assumed it was traffic. I wasn't going to correct him, although he was my brother. He knew how much I loved a lie in. "my guess is, a couple more months. We've had things working in the pipeline for a few months already, so things are moving" he assured me, "we're making good progress." he added, placing his drink down on the table. "believe me, I want you here just as quick as you wanna be here" he laughed, making me narrow my eyes at him and smile. "I've got a tonne of shit that I don't wanna deal with, so you're welcome to it" he smirked. I rolled my eyes, "it's not too late for me to back out you know" I replied, Nick scoffed. "like hell you'd stay back there now" he grinned knowingly. I couldn't help but blush. "what did he say?"
"what about?" I asked, Nick frowned, "when you told him you were relocating?" I glanced down at my hands resting on the table and bit the inside of my cheek. "Pen? You have told him haven't you?" he questioned. I shrugged. "um, not yet..." I said, looking as guilty as hell. "Why?" my brother laughed, I know it was weird, crazy even that I'd not told him that I was moving here, after all we've been through so far. "I am going to tell him, obviously I am, I just want the right moment" I explained, feeling a little weird explaining it to my big brother. He nodded, knowing how much of a huge step this is, for me not just what it could hold for Julian and I. "he's said that he wants to meet you before the party for New Year's too" I said, just as the waitress came over with our food. "oh cool" Nick nodded, Julian had mentioned a day or two ago, about the huge party that the team were throwing to end the year, and he'd suggested my brother and his girlfriend to join us. I knew he felt a little guilty that I wasn't spending Christmas with him, since I didn't get to spend all that much time with him anyway, so he thought it would be good to have them share new years with us. So before that, he thought it might be better to meet my brother before then. I especially thought this to be a good idea because the first meeting of the two men in my life shouldn't exactly be when Julian was drunk... He was by no means a bad drunk, but seeing the dude who had stolen your little sister steaming drunk and all over her like a rash for the first time wasn't ideal. "I've been wanting to meet him for a while." he told me, knowing he wanted to scope him out. All he knew was what I'd told him and stuff on social media. I paused for a moment with a thought.

"you're not meeting Allie for a few hours yet are you?"
"not til 8 tonight. Why?" he shook his head. "well, after here I'm going to meet Julian at a reading he's doing, do you wanna come with?" I suggested, I knew Julian wouldn't mind and it was a perfect opportunity to show my big brother what the man of my dreams was really like.

........

It took us a little over twenty minutes to get to Newton from the cafe we'd been in downtown, but my brother knew the area pretty well as one of the buyers from his company lived close by. "so it's where?" Nick asked as we curb crawled down the road in his car. We were both looking out the car windshield at the buildings. "um, at the Jewish Community Centre" I said, glancing at my text off him. I looked back out of the window and saw a shit load of cars and people gathered outside a building a block down the road. "yeah I guess we've found it" I pointed laughing a little nervously. Suddenly it hit me, there were going to be more people here, cameras, fans... Media. I hadn't thought about that. I was used to just hanging out with him and his friends. Not cameras and journalists. This was so out of my depth. But I was here for him, so I needed to suck it up. Guess I'd have to get used to it anyway.