The Concept is Simple (Sequel to You're Crazy)

Chapter 6

Christmas dinner was absolutely magical – there are simply no other words for it. Nareesha cooked a beautiful meal with all the trimmings. It was funny to see how even in her stressed out, frantic mode she was still so polite and caring. That was something I felt a little envious of. Nareesha cooked the majority of the meal herself with Siva sliding his arms around her waist from the back and bending down to kiss her cheek. She seemed completely, and understandably, content with that as payment.

Kelsey had chipped in, working religiously on the cranberry sauce, but her main job was trying to stop Tom devouring everything. Gemma and Renee had a great time as well, enjoying eating funny things called “pigs in blankets” and pulling crackers so hard they toppled backwards off their chairs. Once so hard, Renee teared up a little, but Max scooped her up and kissed the top of her head.

Now dinner was over, Nathan whapped on BBC1 ready for the afternoon Doctor Who Christmas Special and all the other classics of the day and people started chucking presents to each other across the room.

“I’ll just go make coffee.” I smiled at Nareesha and she patted my arm.

“Thanks, babe.” She smiled, pulling Renee onto her lap where Renee grinned creepily over at Siva. Jay gave me a supportive smile as I passed. It had sort of been awkward around Nathan after overhearing that. I would sort of stare at the side of his smiling face and desperately want to know what he was thinking. I couldn’t understand. Then he would meet my eye and pull a face and I would try to grin, but fail.

I heaped coffee into the cafetiere and filled up the kettle.

“Ev?” I span around. Nathan stood there, looking slightly awkward as per usual.

“Hey, babe.”  I grinned. He suddenly came over and put his arms around me softly, leaning his cheek on my forehead. We stood like that for a while before suddenly he took my hand and began to lead me to the door.

“Nath, what?” I stuttered.

“Just come with me.” He mumbled, squeezing my hand “I want to give you your present.”

We crossed the living room without anybody realising, besides Jay whose curly hair and massive white moustached popped up in my peripheral vision. I followed Nathan outside where it was getting dark. It was freezing cold as well and our breath puffed out in massive clouds and the snow crunch beneath our feet.

I shivered which made Nath smile and drape his hoodie over my shoulders before we perched on the park bench under the bay window in front of the house. There were kids skiting down the road on their shiny new sledges.

“So here you go, Evie. Merry Christmas.” Nathan said, handing me a plain white envelope.

“You too,” I grinned, nervous for how my gift was going to compare. It was a gift certificate. My mouth dropped open and my stomach turned over. I was a bad person.  I looked up at him. “You’re giving me a grand piano?”

“Yep,” he smiled at me. Eyeing me nervously.

“Oh my gawd, it’s a 1910 Chickering baby Grand Piano.” I dragged my eyes away from the card “Nath, this is so expensive.”

“You’re a song writer who has never once owned an actual piano; don’t you think that’s weird?” He smiled.

“Thank you.” I launched myself at him making him wobble off balance. I kissed all over his cheeks and his nose before releasing him, he chuckled. Then a thought occurred. “Where could I keep it?” I mused and Nathan turned bright red.

“Oh,” I paused, realising. I checked the date of purchase on the bottom the receipt. It was the day after I agreed to move in with him. There would have been plenty of space in a new flat for a baby grand piano.

It was getting proper dark now, but it still wasn’t dark enough to cover up my luminescent cheeks.

“Oh, um here’s your gift.” I passed him a parcel wrapped in light blue paper that Gemma had helped me wrap. He grinned cutely and picked away at the cellotape not wanting to rip the paper. Eventually he unravelled a CD case, surprise, surprise I wrote him a song. What else would I do?

“You wrote me a song?” He asked, his green eyes meeting mine like they could see past them into my thoughts.

 “What else?” I half smiled. “It’s not exactly a serious song. I got some help with it too.” I gave him a conspiratorial wink which made him laugh. It was a wee ditty song I had written recently, with Ceallach, his sister Jess and his friend Dan Ferrari-Lane who Ceallach had introduced me to and was lovely. And since Dan’s a proper singer, it turned out quite good.

“Thank you, Evie, that’s really sweet.” He mumbled and I noticed his eyes were glazing over a little. He flipped the case over in his hands and looked at the ground. My heart plummeted. Yep, it was sweet, but not exactly to the standard of a grand piano.

“Look, Nathan, that’s not your present.” I span around to face him and pulled the CD from his hand, tossing it on the ground where the case cracked.

“Babe, your case…” he looked anxious.

“Forget about that.” I said, suddenly angry with myself and my stupidity. “That stupid thing is not your present. This is,” I took a deep breath and held both of his hands. Nathan looked slightly worried. “We’re not getting married. Hell, we’re not even moving in together yet.”

“Oh well thanks for that.” He said in mock hurt.

“Hush, I’m not finished.” I said, forcefully but with a smile.

“We’re so young, we’re not ready to get married. It’s insane and it’s frightening.” I shivered slightly “bearing that in mind. There is no reason why I can’t promise you that one day we will get married. Because we will. I can feel it.” I paused and Nathan’s head flew up, his lips parting in a confused smile.

“How do you know that?”

“How? Because I love you in this insanely, frightening way that I didn’t even know existed. Because I am not living a life in which we do not end up together. And I’m sorry for before.” I sniffed.

Nathan suddenly yanked me into his chest and pressed his lips sweetly to my forehead. “Thank you. That is possibly the best present I could ever have gotten.”

“You’re welcome. I guess I just forgot that whilst I’m not ready to move in, or get married, you might need something else. It was selfish.” Nathan chuckled.

“Give me another gift?”

“Of course?”

“Stop criticising yourself.” He groaned and tugged on the sleeve of his hoodie.

“Much easier said than done.” I giggled, “But I’ll try.”

One boy flew from his sledge as he hurtled down the road and landed on the pavement. Nathan was already on his feet when the boy sprung back up yelling “The sledge is jinxed!” I laughed and turned to see Nathan gazing at me.

“So we’re going to get married?” he asked quietly.

“Yes, but not right now.”  I laughed playfully, poking him in the shoulder.

“So what are we engaged?” he asked cheekily.

“Oh god..” I cringed “That sounds so formal.” He raised his eyebrows “But, if you want to get technical...”

“I should probably get a ring.” Nathan said thoughtfully.

“Don’t push it.” I giggled before kissing him lightly on the mouth.

He shook his head and laughed freely.

“What’s up?” I smiled.

“Just thinking…how crazy is all this?”

“Yeah, well what else can you expect from a world famous pop star and painfully shy, overly anxious introvert?” I asked.

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Hello! Thanks for your support, it means everything as always:D Sorry for not proof reading, I know it's distracting - I NEED to stop uploading at the dead of night:L Also, follow me on twitter @EvSaysTiens if you fancy - I try my best to be interesting. Loads of love, thanks for all you do for me. x