Memories II

|6| • One of the Reasons •

Somehow we managed to get through the rest of the week, and since I was off on Sunday I could stay up late and wait for Brian. Which I did, or at least I tried, because of course I had still gotten up early on Saturday and I did end up falling asleep on the couch again, surrounded by various papers. Roger and I had been planning Brian's birthday in a partly organised way throughout the past week and we had put together something not too crazy. Hopefully. Not very many of Brian's 'normal' friends had the time, some of them either had to work that evening or the following morning and would only be coming over for a bit, some of them had children and couldn't leave them alone which was a little odd to me but we were getting to that age. However, we had managed to gather a small crowd and I was sure it would turn out wilder than I was expecting it to, but that was okay.

We made sure everyone had directions to Brian's house in Surrey and everyone knew when to be there, so I was just planning the food, making sure we had everything. I had gone out to buy a few things already that Saturday afternoon and we were going to be preparing a lot more the day after, because I would still have to work on the afternoon of Brian's birthday - that Monday, and I didn't want him to worry about food.

When I woke up again it was because Brian had come home, and he woke me up by softly kissing my cheek.

Obviously still sleepy I sat up, squinting because the light was still on and it was very bright.

"Hello there," Brian greeted me, gathering a few of the papers scattered over the couch so he could join me.

"Hey... what time is it?" I asked, resting my head on his shoulder after he had sat down.

"It's just a bit past two," he said, wrapping his arm around me. "I decided to leave earlier today. Freddie was just ..." He sighed and shook his head. "I won't go into detail but I was glad to get out of there."

"That sounds intense."

Brian chuckled a little and nodded. "Yeah. Well, you know them. But enough about that. How have you been getting on? You know I don't want you to stress over my birthday, Henrie," he told me, looking through the papers. "This is a lot of food.."

"Yeah, I know, but I wanted to give you a few options and everyone else of course also should have a few options, and it will probably go on for quite some time knowing you and I don't want us to run out of food."

"Will you be staying with me for the night? When do you have to work Tuesday?"

"At one, I managed to negotiate and extra hour of sleep. So I have to leave at twelve which means I can take part in the fun for quite some time. I just have to stay mostly sober, that's the only negative thing."

"Ah it's okay. We know how to have fun even without - well, with a bit of alcohol. It will be fun, I'm looking forward to it. I appreciate that you and Rog have been putting time into this," he said and kissed my cheek.

"Of course, I want you to have a fun birthday. Your mum also called again earlier to make sure that you'll be coming over to their house on Monday afternoon."

"Yes, yes, of course I will. I wouldn't miss that on my birthday. And yes, don't worry, I'll bring you some of the cake," he assured me, making me smile.

"You know me so well. Thanks. Hey, do you want to watch one of those videos?" I suggested, gesturing to the bag with a couple of videos Brian had rented for us.

"What, now?" He asked surprised. "Aren't you tired?"

"Well, I did get some sleep, and you're home now, and I think it would be very nice to just relax with you after such a busy week. I missed relaxing on the couch with you."