I'm Leavin'

I Missed You

"Hey beautiful," Martijn said, smiling as he pulled me in for a huge hug, planting a kiss on my lips. "What are you doing here?" I asked, excited yet surprised to see him. He looked at me as if he was on Cloud-9. "Well, my boss asked me to come to London because I have to meet with clients tomorrow. I wanted to see you sooner despite the fact that we would be together in Barcelona this weekend."

Still in disbelief, I poked him to see if it was actually here. "Ouch! What was that for?" He yelled, rubbing his recently poked arm. "Sorry," I apologised, wrapping my arms around his torso. Both Maia and John seemed to be pleased with themselves, the former mostly, as she is the worst at keeping secrets.

"Is this why you did the grocery shopping? Because you knew Martijn was arriving today?" I questioned, looking from Maia to John to Martijn. "Well," John started, looking over at Maia, who added "Martijn contacted us earlier in the week, telling us that his boss needed him to meet with London-based clients because of some project the company's trying to spearhead." Looking over at Martijn, all I did was smile - mainly because he did what he could in order to visit me. 

"Okay, now that the surprise is out of the way," Maia went on. "Can we eat? I'm starving!" We all laughed, as no one could get Maia's mind off of food once she brought the subject up. It turned out, she and John prepared one of my favourite dishes - Peri Peri chicken with a side of sweet potato mash and grilled broccoli and tomatoes - last night. 

"What's your agenda for today, babe?" Martijn asked, inching putting an arm around my shoulder. I picked up my phone and checked my to-do list. Grocery shopping and unpacking, two of the prioritised things, were already over and done with so all I had to do was respond to some e-mails, edit a video that had to be uploaded tomorrow, pass by Boots or Superdrug and attend my meeting. "I need to respond to e-mails, edit a video, pick up some bits at Boots or Superdrug and attend my meeting at Wild Food Cafe," I read through the list on my mobile. 

Everyone fell silent during lunch, as the food was exquisite. "Thank you so much," I said, hugging Maia and John one after the other and was about to put my plate in the dishwasher when the former swatted my hand away. "We'll take care of it," she stated, motioning for me to head to my bedroom. "But, you've already done so much," Martijn added, trying to get me to distract Maia. "We insist," John said, taking Martijn's plate. "Just go catch up. We've got it."

Martijn and I headed to my bedroom and just caught up on stuff we missed out on these past few weeks. For people in long distance relationships, well, in this case, who were, time together had to be treasured. "I actually have something to tell you," Martijn said, patting the chair so that I would sit on his lap. "What's up?" I asked, putting the laptop down even though I had to finish responding to an e-mail that was sent this morning. "Credit Suisse wants to hire me. I've got a meeting with one of the executives whilst you are at Charlotte Tilbury's," he smiled. 

This was major news, of course. Credit Suisse is one of the most well-respected banks in Europe and I know for a fact, all biases aside of course, that Martijn would fit into the company quite nicely. "Congratulations! I'm so proud of you," I squealed, planting a kiss on his left cheek. "When do they want you to start?" Martijn pulled me onto his lap, interlacing his hands into mine. "Well, my contract with Mirabeau officially ends on the 30th, a Tuesday, and although I wanted to start the following Monday, Credit Suisse wants me to start working on the 13th, just so getting into the swing of things does not feel as abrupt." There were a lot of things I wanted to know: if he had found a place to stay, when he would officially be moving to London and if I could help him get his things over ASAP.

"Maia and John called me on Skype the other day and said I could stay with them since you live here anyway, that it would be pointless for me to rent a place," he started off. "I actually started packing things last weekend," he said, opening his medium-sized suitcase and carry on, which consisted of clothing (majority of which were winterwear), some of his favourite books, several pairs of shoes and skincare bits. This lead me to asking my next question, "when will you be officially moving?" He checked his phone, my habit of checking his calendar rubbing off on him. "My flight to London is at 2:45pm on May 8th," he confirmed. "Also, I know you're gonna say so I might as well just get on with it. I'm not gonna force you to help me pack my things." 

I obviously wanted to. Martijn's done so much for me, so coming over for a weekend to help me pack was the least I could do. "Of course I'm gonna help you pack," I said, rolling my eyes. "When is the next bank holiday?" He asked, randomly reciprocating my previous action. "The 19th and 22nd, so I will book flights now." Having won a flight of my choice via KLM, I booked a trip to Amsterdam from the 19th to 22nd so that I could help Martijn pack his things for the move. "You're the best, you know that?" He said, tucking strands of hair behind my ear and pulling me in for a kiss, a passionate one at that. It's been a while since we were able to be intimate in person and I missed it.