There's Us

The End...

Christmas break was upon us.  It seemed to happen much quicker than in previous years.  My mother had been texting me to let me know my flight details for my trip home, but I pretty much ignored it.  I didn't want to go home.  I had good reason to not want to go home.  I had fallen in love and it was more real to me than anything waiting for me back home.  I kept trying to find the perfect time to tell him.  But I never could.  I chickened out every time I got close to the words.

Over the last month I had virtually stopped living with Gemma and started living with Harry.  We spent more time at his house now than we did mine.  I didn't have that much when I landed in London so it took me about six trips before I had all my stuff in his bedroom. 

Gemma didn't seem to mind.  She and Mike were almost engaged now so he stayed over there a lot more often anyway.  And we still went to dinner once a week to catch up.  Which was where I was headed now.

I made my way down the busy London street, smiling as I perused all of the Christmas decorations.  Christmas in Illinois was great, but there was a certain comfort of being in London at Christmas.  I felt like I was home.  The twinkling lights and faint hint of a Christmas carol being played somewhere around the city was so comforting I couldn't fathom not actually spending Christmas here.

But I pushed that thought out of my mind as I walked into the restaurant.  Gemma was already there, waving her hand frantically when she saw me walk in.  She stood up to kiss my cheek once I made it to the table, shaking her head as she saw me peel myself out of about three layers of clothing,

"It's not that cold."  She commented.

"I walked here."

"My stingy brother couldn't at least get you an Uber?"

I finally sat down,

"He's not home."

"Oh, so the two of you can do things apart from each other.  Interesting."  When I shot her a look, she smiled, "Where is he?"

"Meeting for the second leg of his tour I think.  He mentioned something this morning but I was halfway out the door.  Late for class."

"That would be his fault right?"  I shot her another look.  She giggled.

I made my way through the menu,

"So, what's good here?"

"Everything."  She answered, "With his tour starting up again, what's that mean for you?"

I reached forward for my water, keeping my eyes on the menu.  Harry and I hadn't discussed what would happen in three weeks when I went home.  Nor had we discussed what would happen when he went back on tour.  I didn't think it was that big of a deal, to be honest,

"Dunno.  Haven't talked about it yet."

Gemma seemed satisfied with that answer, lifting her hand to wave the waiter over to our table.

Gemma and I ended up closing the place down, neither of us wanting to get up and move after tasting the mosts glorious wine we'd ever had.  Plus, she wanted to tell me all about her trip to Greece with Mike.  Greece was another one of the places I wanted to visit.  Santorini to be exact.  Not because of any architecture for once.  I just like the really white buildings with the really blue rooftops.

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Thankfully the restaurant was close enough that I could walk back to Harry's because I was definitely drunk.  I hadn't quite reached the drinking age in America yet, so I was definitely a lightweight. 

I had become rather adept at traversing the London landscape on my own in the six months that I'd been here.  At least Harry wasn't so nervous when I'd leave the house without him anymore.  I knew he wasn't trying to be some overprotective asshole, he was just concerned with my safety and London was a big city.