Twelve Days of Christmas

6 Geese a Laying

Luca

I felt a hand on my knee, and I looked across to see Marvin holding down my leg with a grin on his face.

"Your leg's gonna bounce off if you carry on," he said, before releasing his grip.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, then went back to looking at the door.

We'd arrived ridiculously early, because I'd insisted, but now I was regretting that decision.   But I really needed today to go well.  I needed to know that I was in control and that Ben wasn't going to be a problem that I wasn't ready to deal with.

Because the thing was, since I'd last seen him yesterday, he'd never been off my mind.  I found myself thinking about him ALL the time. And it was worrying.  I felt as though I just needed to get it out of my system, but how I was to do that, I didn't know.

Normally when I set my sights on a guy, I just slept with him, and then it was like the hunt was over and I was immediately bored and ready to move on.  But even if I could sleep with Ben, I wasn't sure that was going to work.   Because for the first time in my life, sex wasn't even the first thing on my mind.  I would find myself wondering what Ben would be doing in that moment, and wondering whether he was thinking of me. I wanted to know what his favourite food was, and whether he would be interested in seeing the new Star Wars movie with me.  Which was a stupid thought because it wasn't out for another 2 weeks and I'd be in London and would probably never see Ben again.

And worst of all, every time I had that thought, every time I imagined not seeing Ben again, my stomach clenched and I felt like I lost my breath a little.

But there was no getting away from the fact.  In exactly one week's time I would be going back home to London and then a few months after that the band was going on a worldwide tour that would last for nine months.  Sure, we weren't touring the whole time, but even when we were back in the UK, we had other commitments and events.  The truth was, that my work left me very little for time for any kind of relationships.  The only relationship I had with my family was over Skype.   I'd lost touch with nearly all my high school friends, and I knew there was no way I could maintain a healthy romantic relationship, so I'd never even considered it before.

So yeah.  I had to shut it down today.  Whatever these feelings were that Ben had brought to the surface, they had to be dealt with.  And the sooner the better.

And then he was walking through the door.   Looking so fucking sexy in his charcoal grey hoodie and black slim fitting jeans.  He'd gelled his hair again, which meant that his fringe was spiked up at the front, increasing his cuteness rating by at least 20.  And when he smiled and waved at me, the grin that found its way onto my face was unstoppable, as was my bodies decision to slide up along the bench and pat the vacant spot next to me.

Ben slid down next to me, and I swear without either of us being conscious of it, our legs touched, then stayed connected, like one leg was a magnet and the other steel.

"Any idea what we're doing today?" Ben asked.

"I'm not sure, but whatever we're doing, we're doing it with the Floozles," I replied.

"The what?" Ben asked looking amused.

"The Floozles," Marvin answered, holding out his phone for Ben to look at.

"Oh yeah, I think I've seen them before. Aren't they on a kids TV show?"

"Yeah," I replied, "apparently six grown men dressed as brightly coloured geese is the best they could come up with."

"They're geese?!" he said, sounding astonished.

"Yeah, what did you think they were?" I asked laughing.