Twelve Days of Christmas

Epilogue (Part 1)

A/N  Thank you all for being so patient!!!  This was really difficult to write.  There are two parts, just because I felt it was too long for one chapter.   Enjoy!!

Ben

A year was a long time when you had to live through it. I must have gone through every single emotion in that time, with regards to one Luca Diego.

The first was regret. Why did I up and leave like that? I know that I had lots of reasons at the time, but a month later when I'd still not heard anything from Luca, I regretted it with every fibre of my being.

And that's when the doubts started settling in. Was he angry with me? Or worse, did he just not care?

I think some of the insecurities started creeping in the moment I woke up in the hotel room and found Luca on the other side of the bed facing away from me. Marvin said I would wake up with him spooning me. So why didn't I? Was he already starting to put some distance between us?

So I took the cowards way out and left, because I wouldn't have been able to cope if he was cold to me at all that morning.

But I left him my number. In the hope that he would contact me, and we would somehow be able to maintain some kind of relationship. I wasn't even fussy what that entailed. Just as long as I still had him in my life.

We'd completed filming in early October, but of course the band's song wasn't released until the 1st December. The song was good, and even though I did avoid listening to it, I wasn't too affected if I was subjected to it over the speakers in a shop, or in my friend's car.

But what I really couldn't stand was watching the film. Sure, I watched it once all the way through, mainly out of curiosity, but it was the most excruciating thing I've ever done. Because every scene, every gesture, every look that Luca gave, transported me right back to that moment. And I had to lose him all over again.

When I came home for Christmas, I was quite the celebratory in our little village. It was the kind of place where everyone knew each other, and every time I went anywhere, I would be stopped by people congratulating me on my single, like I was part of the band or something.

I didn't go online to see what was being said, but I did hear from other people that there were plenty of rumours flying around about who I was. None of them interested me.

By the time Christmas actually arrived, I was just relieved to be done with the whole thing. I was ready to put the whole experience behind me and move on.

I woke up on Christmas morning to the sound of a text.

Happy Christmas Drummer Boy!!!

I stared at it for a moment. It had come from a number that wasn't in my contacts. A month ago, there was only one person who would have called me that, but after the film had come out, I wasn't so sure.

So I replied:

Ben: Happy Christmas whoever you are.

The text came back quite quickly

Unknown: You've forgotten me already? And I have a written promise from you here to say that would never happen!!!

I smiled, feeling confident enough to put his name in my contacts list.

Ben: I'd given up on you ever using my number

Luca: I'm sorry, I just didn't know what to text