It's Never Just Goodbye // Ed Sheeran

Hot Mama

Ed 

Back to the time you were lying next to me. 

I looked across and fell in love - Ed Sheeran 

Nina, bright eyed, sat on the floor with the phone poised at her ear. She bit her lip, eyes on the ground. “Yes.” She’d say patiently. And in all honesty, she resembled me a whole lot just years before when I got the similar phone call.

It was Jake. He came to a show Nina and I did a week ago and fell in love with her voice. Honestly, I think everyone fell head over heels for Nina’s talent.

“Yes.” I heard her say again. “That’d be great.” In seconds, she was off the phone and screaming. Nina jumped into my arms, pushing me down onto the bed.

“What did he say?” I asked her.

She couldn’t contain her happiness and it happened to be the cutest thing ever. With her arms wrapped around me, she hugged me tighter. “There isn’t anything greater that I could give you that would equal to what you have done for me. And for that, I am eternally grateful.”

“It was no problem at all.”

“No problem at all? Oh, my God. This is huge.” She said to me. “I meet my idol, he invites me to do gigs with him, then gives me a record deal. Seriously? I can’t explain how amazing you are.”

“I didn’t give you the record deal-“

“Basically, you did. You contacted Jake. You set this all up!”

I smiled.

“I have so much love for you, Ed…” she whispered to me.

We spent a month together. A month since I spoke to Alice, since the fight with Oscar, and a month since I started writing my second album. After six gigs at pubs, days spent in the flat together, Nina has become my best friend. And oddly enough, I felt the same love for her that she did me.

No matter the time since we met, I felt entirely closer to her than I had anyone in a while. She’s my best friend. In a weird, personal way, she got me.

“You have talent and I wasn’t going to let it just wither away.” I say, pushing her off of me and grabbing my pack of cigarettes and lighter. Collapsing onto the chair in the corner of my room.

She didn’t smoke cigarettes. I remembered that perfectly from the first time she came here. Nina never smoked a day in her life. And whenever I asked why, she’d shrug it off. While it was something people thought made them look cool, she could care less.

“US tour of Plus, huh?” she said, smiling, squinting through the darkness at the printed email I got from Stuart. I went through the first half of the Plus tour, half the RED tour with Taylor, and now Stuart wanted me back at it for more shows in America. “I thought you said you were done…”

“Yeah, I was. I wasn’t expecting Plus to do so well overseas.” I replied. “Stuart wants me to do a few shows, some interviews, then I’ll be done.”

Nina smirked, lighting the joint between her tiny fingertips. She didn’t smoke cigarettes, but she enjoyed getting high. And I loved that about her. “Can I go?” she asked me.

“I would take you, but your mum would kill me. She doesn’t even trust you being here.” I say.

“She doesn’t trust me being anywhere. She’s always too worried.” Nina sighs, “We’ve done six shows, Ed. I need more.”

“I’m doing a few shows in New York and then I’ll be back…”

“And Madison Square Gardens…”