The Art of Loving

[50] Slow But Steady

A lot happened after the wedding Brian and Ellie went to in September. Even though Ellie was nervous about the ceremony and the following celebration, she ended up having a wonderful time with Brian and his friends. If anything, it had brought them together even closer, and neither of them complained about that. Once they were back in London, Ellie and Brian started to plan her master's thesis project, working out a plan on how to go about answering her research question.

In October, when Ellie started planning for her birthday, Brian convinced her to let him take care of the plans. It took a bit of convincing, but in the end Ellie gave in and let him plan her birthday party. Or so she thought, because what Brian was planning wasn't a conventional party, at least not for her birthday. As that day was a Tuesday, he had planned a party for the Friday of the week, and for the Tuesday evening he planned a romantic surprise evening for Ellie.

At first, Ellie wasn't happy about that. Not only because she was taken completely by surprise, but also because anything connected with romance still made her nervous, moreso than she liked to admit to anyone. This caused a small fight between them, until Brian made her see reason like he did so often. If anything, that evening only brought them together even closer and it made Ellie realise just how much she cared about Brian. And even though that was scary to her, she managed not to let that show through. Instead of hiding away, intimidated by the positive development in their relationship, she found ways to express that to Brian. Not with words, because that was her weak point, but with gestures.

And while to an outsider, it might not have seemed that they were making much, if any, progress in their relationship, they were progressing. They were private about it, but they agreed that it was no one else's business.

However, even though they were becoming so close, constantly improving their relationship, they had a bit of a tough time ahead when Ellie told Brian she'd be going home to Scotland for Christmas. Or rather, she asked him if he would be okay with that, to which he said that he absolutely was. He wasn't the kind of boyfriend to ask her to miss out on opportunities, whether it was work or spending time with her family. He knew how much she enjoyed the few weeks of the year during which she could be at home and he would never ask her to miss out on that for him when he could be around her for the rest of the year.

So when mid December rolled around, they said goodbye to each other for two weeks. And even though she knew it wouldn't be easy saying goodbye to her boyfriend, it surprised Ellie just how hard it truly was. This was increased by seeing how sad it made Brian to see her leave. But the train didn't wait, and Ellie was looking forward to seeing her family again after nearly five months, so she got on the train after an unexpectedly hard goodbye.

It turned out to have been worth it, because Ellie had a wonderful time at home in Scotland. She spent a lot of time with her family, she caught up with some old friends, and she drove the two hours to Pitlochry to spend an afternoon with Brian's grandparents, before she drove to Ballater to her own grandparents' house. She spent the night with them before they went with her to Stonehaven for Christmas. It was a lovely time, but as everything, it had to come to an end, and that end was nearing quickly.

It was Ellie's last evening in in Scotland, and while she was dreading leaving her family again, she was looking forward to seeing Brian again. Ellie was upstairs in her room, finishing up packing her suitcase when she could hear the telephone ring downstairs. It only took a few moments before she could hear her mother's voice.

"Eleanora, Brian's on the phone for ye," Katherine called through the house.

When she heard that, she immediately hurried downstairs. It had been a few days since they had talked and she missed his voice... and him of course. "I'm coming," she called back as she was on the stairs. Her mother handed her the receiver with a knowing smile and left the hallway to give them some privacy.