Love's Not A Competion

Not Notting Hill

A few days later I was fully moved in and my old flat was no longer mine. We had just woken up one morning and were cuddling when the door bell rang.

"Do you want me to get that?" I asked.

"You live here too now. It could be for you." Ricky replied sleepily.

"It's probably just the postman." I said as I put my dressing gown on and headed downstairs.

I opened the door to flashes of light and voices. It took me a moment too long to realise they were photographers taking pictures. I slammed the door and leant on it. What the hell had just happened?

"Was it the postman?" Ricky asked, making his way downstairs in just his boxers.

"It's like Notting Hill out there." I told him.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't do a Hugh Grant and go out there in your pants." I told him. "There's photographers out there. It's just like the film with Hugh Grant when he opens the door in the morning and all the press are outside. If I learnt anything from that film it's that we shouldn't open that door while they're outside."

"We can't stay in here all day. We both have jobs." he said. "And besides they're essentially in our garden, uninvited. I could call the police."

"That's a bit extreme." I said.

"Ok, we'll get dressed then tell them to go away and then if they still don't move I'll call the police." he told me. "What ever it is they're here for they'll try to provoke you. If someone comes up to you later when you're outside work or something try not to reply or let them annoy you."

I nodded.

We both got ready for the day as we usually would but made sure all of the curtains on the front windows were closed. I caught a few people with their faces pushed up against the glass as they tried to look into the rooms. What did they really expect to see? All we did in this house was normal things like eat and watch tv. Occasionally we would have sex on the kitchen table or on the sofa but never at 8 am with the curtains wide open and when there were people outside.

"I'm going to tell them to piss off." Ricky told me after he'd brushed his teeth.

He did almost exactly that. He marched downstairs and flung the door open. There were a few shouted questions and camera flashes before he raised his voice.

"Can you all leave please! You're trespassing on private land so if you don't leave in the next ten minuets I'm going to call the police!" he shouted over them authoritatively.

"That was a very polite way to say piss off." I said when he closed the door. "I like the way you flung the door open. Very authoritative and sexy."

"Sexy?" he laughed a little. "You think that was sexy?"

"Oh yeah, when you're powerful you're very sexy. It's the same when you're performing. The more you own the stage the sexier you are!" I grinned.

"I'm going to rock Glastonbury so I can rock your world!" he laughed.

"Not too loudly though, my mum doesn't need to hear that!" I laughed.

My mum would be joining us at Glastonbury on the Friday and staying the night to see the Kaiser Chiefs perform in the evening. We'd been saying for years that we wanted to go. It turned out she was a lot less serious about it than me. This year we finally had the chance to get hold of the much sought after tickets thanks to being "family" of the band. Not quite family yet!

The three day festival was usually on the same weekend as a big make up trade show that I always went to. In the choice between going to talks and classes about every kind of make up or a muddy field with loud music I would usually take the make up show. This year the make up show was on the same weekend that my brother was getting married in Finland. My family always came first. We'd get back a few days before the festival, the band would have a day of rehearsals and then we'd all head to Glastonbury and pick my mum up from home on the way.

I'd spent my teens and early twenties living in a tiny village about half way between London and Glastonbury. It was a beautiful area of with fields as far as you could see. It was a great and safe place but not where a teenager wanted to be. It wasn't that culturally different from when I grew up on a farm outside Newcastle. Chasing sheep out of your garden was pretty standard stuff. The only differences were that we were at different ends of the country than before and the accents and opinions of those around us were different.

Moving to London had been a huge difference. Bright lights, loud cars and no fields. Instead of chasing sheep away I was going to be chasing photographers out of our garden. I doubted running at them shouting "shoo!" and flapping my arms would have the same effect.

I kissed Ricky goodbye before we both headed off to work. I was amazed that only a few photographers were hanging around now but they were now on the public pavement where we couldn't threaten them with the police. I heard Ricky honk his car horn at them as he pulled out onto the road.

They'd all gone by the time I got home that afternoon. Ricky wasn't going to finish until late so it would be a night in with the cats for company. The doorbell rang in the early evening and I grumbled to myself as I got up to answer the door. If this was another photographer I'd give them a good smack.

When I opened the door I found out it was a delivery man with a huge box.

"A delivery for Miss Juliette Swan." he said.

"That's me!" I grinned. A big parcel for me!

"Sign here, please." he pushed a computer pad and stylus into my hands.

"Thank you." I called after him when I gave him back the pad and he marched away.

I took the box through to the kitchen table and got the scissors to cut the top open. Once open I looked in to see a huge bunch of pink roses. I lifted them out and put them in a vase. They smelt as beautiful as they looked! A little card fell out of them as I moved them. It read:

"To my beautiful girlfriend and housemate, I hope I'm always as excited about coming home to you as I am right now. Love you! R xx"

Aww, what a smug git! I'd make sure I gave him an extra big kiss for that. I had some something to tell him when he got home, once I'd covered his face in kisses for the flowers though.

Filming for one of the tv shows I was working on would be on location in Leeds in a few weeks and I was hoping to ask a favour of his parents.