Unexpected Encounters [B.H.M.]

26

I had to work the following day, so I didn't stay until very late, but I promised him I'd call the following day.

And I did, I knew I had to keep that promise if I didn't want him to conclude something that wasn't true. It took a few moments before he answered the phone, which already worried me again. I hoped his mood hadn't gotten a lot worse. Luckily, it didn't seem like it, because he almost sounded cheerful despite being a little out of breath... Now I was curious what I had interrupted.

"Hey," he greeted me and took a deep breath. "Sorry about the wait, I'm cleaning. You must have inspired me yesterday."

I had to smile. He was adorable. "That's okay, don't worry." It was good to hear he was being productive. "I just wanted to call because I had said I would, so don't worry if you say you'd rather spend the rest of the day cleaning."

"Oh no," he said - luckily. I had been looking forward to this. "I tried to be fast so we could still do something tonight. I was wondering if you maybe want to go to the cinema today?"

The cinema? That was a place you rarely found me. "Is anything good on?"

"Probably, yeah. I have a few films that a friend recommended. Roger, actually, you heard of him. Roger Taylor, our drummer. He told me a few that might be fun to watch, we can just see what we feel like in the end."

"Yeah, sure. That sounds good to me. Did you have a cinema in mind?"

Brian hummed, I always thought that was so cute, his trademark reply. "Yeah, I was thinking we can just meet at Shepherd's Bush and then see which of the cinemas we want to go to."

He had given this a lot of thought, that was good. I wasn't going to discourage him. "That sounds good to me. When did you want to meet?"

"I thought maybe quarter past, half past seven at the tube station somewhere?"

I quickly went over my schedule in my head. "Alright, that sounds good to me. Then I'm going to try to find you there. I'll see you then," I told him and wanted for him to say goodbye before I hung up. Now I almost had to hurry if I wanted to be on time and still have a shower and dinner.

But I managed, and so I was walking around Shepherd's Bush station at twenty past seven, trying to spot Brian in the crowd. I didn't think that would be hard, but somehow it was. I did spot him outside the station, where it was darker, at about half past. In retrospect it did make sense that he didn't wait in the brightly lit tube station where everyone might recognise him.

I approached him, hoping I wouldn't attract everyone's attention. I was sure Brian could do without that.

"Hey," I greeted him quietly.

He spun around incredibly quickly and let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, it's you. Good. Hello. How are you?" He asked with a small smile. He looked much better than the day before.

"I'm good, and you?" Today I did dare to ask.

He nodded a little. "I do feel better, thank you. Spending time with you yesterday really helped."

"That's good, I'm glad to hear that. Anytime, you know that," I reminded him.

"I know," he confirmed with a smile. "Should we get going?"

We did get going and Brian started to tell me about the films that his friend Roger had recommended. However, we didn't get very far. We had crossed the street, but then it only took a few moments before a young woman interrupted Brian, which was pretty courageous in my opinion. Especially because he wasn't very amused. But because he was a kind person, he tried to hide that and quickly signed whatever she wated signed so we could move on. And I think it would have been fine if it had been the only encounter of that sort. But on the ten minute walk to the cinema, we - and by that I meant Brian - were stopped at least ten times and Brian was less and less happy about that.