the book shop > j.l < MID EDIT

sixty

john

the phone rung only a few times before stu's voice was heard from the other side.

"hello?"

"alright, it's john," he confirmed.

stu sighed a breath of relief, "john fucking hell mate where've you been? me and the lads thought you might of done something stupid until we realised that penelope was gone too."

"i'm just away with pen for the weekend, we're coming back tonight. sorry for worrying you all," john replied sincerely.

"uhm, how are you?" stu asked carefully.

john cleared his throat, "good, and i'm sorry for reacting the way i did. i uh, i'm happy for you stu, genuinely, you and astrid are gonna be well happy together, penelope made me realise that i was being selfish, i'm really sorry."

stu was taken aback by the apology but accepted it anyway knowing it was so out of character for john making it more genuine.

"when do you leave?" john asked.

"next monday, in the afternoon, i was thinking the friday coming up we could all come back to my house for a bit of a leaving party after the gig."

"sounds good mate," john replied smiling sadly, "i know i can be a prick stu but i am gonna miss you."

stu felt himself getting emotional, "you too john. see you soon."

"you too, bye."

john hung up sighing with relief at settling that with stu. he leaned against the wall with the phone on just for a minute to recollect himself.

he thought he was alone until penelopes small hands wrapped around his waist and her body pressed against his back.

"are you okay?" she asked sweetly from behind.

"i'm alright," he turned around, her arms still remained around his waist and he pushed some of her hair out of her face tucking it behind her ear.

"good," she answered quietly leaning on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek before pulling him back outside to where caleb was sat playing with his dogs.

•

caleb cooked the three of them cottage pie and they all sat around his table in the back garden eating soaking in the good weather and last remaining hour or two together. the time was getting to four in the evening and john and penelope were planning on leaving at the latest of six so it wouldn't be too late when they got home.

"yeah so a spider freaked me the fuck out and i fell resulting in this bad boy," penelope explained tracing the scar on her eyebrow. she normally felt like it was rude to cuss in front of elders but it was all very calm with caleb and he didn't so much as bat an eye at her language.

"god just as clumsy as your bloody mother," caleb laughed, "i remember this one time, the first time we kissed, you don't mind me telling you that story do you?"

penelope shook her head, "no please tell me."

"so i tried my hardest for the first month of meeting her to be as professional and businesslike as possible, i really tried to keep my distance. i was quite rude actually i don't understand why sabrina continued trying to pursue me - i was such a dick." he laughed reminiscently, "as soon as i saw her i knew she was the most beautiful woman i had ever seen, but you know even though me and mary weren't together in heart we were still married. anyway, this one time we were in my office till really late, like two in the morning or something ridiculous, and sabrina offered to get us coffee and after she left i decided i needed the bathroom so as i left the room and she managed to run right into me spilling the coffee all over the two of us."