Forever And Ever.

40

Liam put out his cigarette and watched me as I sat reading a childrens book to Eliza, who was more interested on petting the dog than anything else. We were at the airport waiting for our boarding to be announced.
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" He asks me.

"Liam, I've been to America before" I chuckle "its not a big deal". First stop was New York, where this whole ordeal had started in the first place back in 1994.

"I know but I mean with Eliza and the dog and...".

"Stop it liam" I look at the dog and stroke her head. I was glad we were getting a private jet to New York because I could bring her on the flight with me instead of having to leave her in cargo.

"Are you looking foward to New York, munchkin?" He asks eliza.

"YEAH" she nods excitedly then she thinks hard.

"You dont know what New York is, do you?" I chuckle.

She shakes her head. "Its a big city like where aunty Alice lives in London but its all the way across the world, we have to take an plane to get there".

"plane?" She asks.

"Yeah like the ones in your bookcat home". She had a liking to planes maybe she'll be a pilot one day.

"I meant are you sure you're ready to see Noel?" He asks "and Meg, he said he was bringing her just to spite yer for coming the cunt he is".

"I wanna meet her" I reply "then I can see why he left me for her and kept it a secret for a year".

"Yer gonna flip at her".

"Dont be stupid. Eliza needs to see her dad and I'll be nice about it. If I get Meg alone, then it's a different story".

Liam goes to reply but then looks behind me. "Look who it is".

I turn to look and its Bonehead and Guigs walking up looking like spares walking up to us. "OI OI" Bonehead shouts.

"When's our flight then?" Guigs asks me.

"Dunno, waiting for them to call it now" I reply "been here about half hour before you ask".

"Why aint we got a private suite to wait in like?" Bone asks.

"Well, someone else was using it and I didnt want to be in a private suite, too quiet. I already have to share a plane with you lot which is basically a private suite with wings anyway" I explain.

Guigsy smiles at Eliza and says hello to her, she passes him her book. "Read?".

He smiles and sits next to her so she is between me and him. "The Cat In The Hat" he starts "the sun did not shine, it was too wet to play. So we sat in that house all that cold, cold, day. I sat there with Sally. We sat there we two".

"So sally can wait" Liam jokes.

"So Liam can shut the fuck up" I dig at him and kick him in the shin, leaning forward to do so as he was on the seat opposite. Guigsy continues the book and we all sat there listening to him. The Cat In The Hat was always my favourite children's book. It just made me so happy, I've no idea why.
Just after Guigs finished reading the book we were called to board.
In a bit of a frenzy the six of us (including the dog) manage to get on the plane and settled, ready for the Big Apple, which seemed to loom over me. I wasn't prepared at all.
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Liam went running like a child into the room. Apparently there were no rooms left in the hotel the record company had booked for us all except the honeymoon suite. I had never been in a Honeymoon suite but it was MASSIVE and had a jaccuzzi among other things rich people have, like granite surfaces and floors.
"Look at the size of that fuckin' bed man" Liam says, jumping on it backwards so he is laying in the middle when he lands. "And the size of Eliza's cot too, its huge".
Eliza was sleeping in a toddler bed now, but we had to put her in a large cot because hotels dont do toddler beds apparently. It was the biggest cot ive ever seen though, I could probably sleep in there comfortably.
He sits up and looks at me, holding eliza on my hip with one arm and the other holding the dog lead.
"Are you ok, Honey? You look stressed".