Memories II

|2| • The Ones That Are Good for Your Ego •

We spent the weekend at Brian's place, looking through the photos and organising them in albums, and of course also doing other things. It felt weird to be back in London, but at least the weather wasn't typical rainy English summer weather, the opposite in fact. Some days it seemed almost hotter than in Tenerife, but that was fine with us.

However, the holiday time had to end for good for both of us eventually, on Monday both of us had to go to work. Brian had a meeting from which he called me in the evening to let me know that they had gotten started recording and he wouldn't be over at my place for a while. And I was disappointed because we had been planning a cosy evening just the two of us, fighting the post-holiday blues, but I didn't tell him that. It was his job, that was fine with me. I could just be cosy on my own, with a good film and takeout that I ordered. However, Brian didn't come home for quite some time and I ended up falling asleep on the couch.

Of course I didn't know that until I was woken up by... being carried. A little confused I rubbed my eyes to see Brian. He was carrying me. "What time is it?" I asked before I cleared my throat.

"Oh." Brian sounded surprised. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, dear. It's past two, you were on the couch."

"I was waiting for you... did you just get home?"

"Yeah," he confirmed, carrying me into the bedroom. "I'm sorry, Henrie, we were just messing around and I forgot how late it is, I'm sorry. I tried to be quiet, I know you have to work early this week. I'm sorry I missed our evening together. I'll make up for it, I promise," he said, gently setting me down on the bed.

"It's alright," I yawned. "It probably felt good to be back in the studio after months."

"Yeah, it did. We were trying out stuff, it's always fun. And the studio is quite good. We booked time there for the rest of the week, we'll see. You should get back to sleep, dear, I'll be there in a minute. I'll be quiet."

"Thank you," I mumbled and curled up on the bed. I could feel him spreading the blanket over me, but then I fell back asleep.

The next morning came soon, and my alarm was annoying. Not quite awake yet I somehow managed to turn it off before I got up. I had to remind myself to not turn on the light because Brian was snoring soundly, sprawled out on the majority of my bed. But hey... I liked him, so fair enough. As quietly as possible I made my way out of the bedroom so I could get ready for work. It was early, but I was used to this. I just wasn't used to sleeping on the couch - until getting carried to bed at least.

I opened the blinds in the kitchen, squinting when the sunlight hit me. Sometimes having a kitchen facing east was a little disadvantageous. But at least it was a failsafe way to wake me up - on a sunny day. I turned around, rubbing my eyes, but something immediately caught my attention. "Oh my god," I groaned. "Seriously?" My kitchen wasn't big, really not, so I always kept it neat. But apparently a certain someone didn't agree with that because not only were there two guitars and two guitar cases lying around on my chairs and the table, there were also papers scattered literally all over. How was that even possible? I mean... this mess must have taken him hours.

"What did he even do?" Yes, I was annoyed, how could I not be? It was way too early to have to be tidying up someone else's mess. I gathered all the papers and stuffed them in one of the guitar cases before I took the guitars and just leaned them against my kitchen counter. He could deal with those himself. I didn't care, I needed tea and food and then I really needed to get going.

Somehow it wasn't a very good morning, because I broke a cup, I burnt my toast, and then on the way to work I stepped in something I'd rather not have stepped in. And on top of all that when I got there I found out my colleague's replacement wouldn't be coming and I'd have to handle everything myself until after noon when my boss would join me. Talk about a great day. Coming back from holidays was always such fun.