A Burning Thing {Avi Kaplan fanfic}

-13-

Of course you know what they say about the best laid plans – Ellie and I only managed to speak maybe a half dozen times over the next few weeks, and only got to enjoy one more 'special' phone call. By the time she was scheduled to meet us, I was literally aching to see her.

When we arrived at our hotel in Manchester, Jeremy was already waiting for us

"Ohmygod you're heeeeeere!" Kirstie shrieked, throwing herself into his arms.

"Um, why don't we give you two chickadees some alone time," Mitch said, shoving the rest of us towards the elevator.

I headed up to my own room, which – for obvious reasons – I wasn't sharing with Kevin this time. It felt strange sitting alone on the bed, knowing that when I went to sleep that night Ellie would be in my arms.

As the time for her arrival grew closer, I went downstairs and paced around the lobby. Kirstie and Jeremy got off the elevator and stopped to check in on me before heading out for dinner.

"How you holdin' up, buddy?" Jeremy said.

"Not very ..." I stopped short as the revolving door began to turn, and Ellie was flung rather ungracefully into the lobby. I rushed over to scoop her into my arms.

"Avi! I can't believe I'm here! I've missed you so much!" Kirstie and Jeremy gave us a moment, then came over to say hello.

"Jeremy, it's great to see you again!" Ellie said.

"Wait," I said, confused, "You two know each other?"

"Of course," Kirstie said, "They met when Austin was on the Sing-Off. She told us about it the first night she came over for dinner, don't you remember?"

"Uh, I guess I wasn't paying attention."

Kirstie laughed. "Maybe if you unlocked lips from time to time you could actually have a conversation."

I smiled half-heartedly, but thought to myself: that's exactly what we're going to do – before I make myself crazy.

I carried Ellie's bags up to our room, then sat on the bed and watched distractedly as she unpacked and got settled in.

"You know we're only in this hotel for two nights, right?" I chided her as she folded sweaters into a drawer.

"I'm sorry, I'm just sort of nervous," she said. "I feel like I don't know what to do with my hands."

"I think I can help with that," I said as I grabbed her hand and pulled her down next to me on the bed. She smiled a little shyly and pressed her lips to mine. As I raised my hand to the back of her head and licked slowly along her bottom lip, my stomach rumbled loudly.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think the fun is going to have to wait." I said ruefully.

Ellie laughed "It's okay, I'm starving too!"

We wandered down the street to a nice but unpretentious restaurant that Kev and I had discovered when we visited Manchester the previous fall. After we ordered, we laced our fingers together and I stared shamelessly, taking in every feature. It seemed as though the image of her in my mind had gotten blurry over the past few weeks, but now was coming sharply into focus. She was even more beautiful than I remembered.

I told her as much, and she reddened, twirling the stem of her wine glass. "I was afraid maybe you'd have spent so much time fantasizing you'd be disappointed by the real me."

"Not at all. In fact, I swear you're prettier every time I see you. Another few months and it's just going to be ridiculous. I won't even be able to look at you."