“You want to stay here?” Paul asked as the hung around the stairwell and John went looking for a bird George ran upstairs a few moments earlier to say he had to get something.. “You probably won’t get any sleep anyway with the amount or prellies you’ve ingested” he grinned
Gabrielle shrugged “mmm, I think I’ll just find me way back to Astrid’s. I’ll probably get some sleep actually
Paul nodded “Want me to walk with you?”
“No George probably will, I think”
Paul nodded again, awkwardly. He took a deep breath and let it out again smiling a bit “Ok then I’ll see you later” he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek before turning around and more or less fleeing upstairs.
Gabrielle sighed heavily an dropped down onto the stairs. She felt her stomach rumble from not eating very much. She shoved around in her leather jacket for a roll of smarties she’d left in there. Sure enough, they’d melted, making a chocolate and candy swirly mess inside of the tube. She managed to squeeze a bit of it out into her mouth and let it melt away.
Heavy boots fell upon the stairs, she looked up and saw George coming down. She couldn’t see what he had in his hands though. She squeezed off a bit more chocolate and this time it was not so neat and she got it all between her fingers and all over her hands. She licked them thoughtfully. Not really paying attention to George as he sat down next to her.
“What’ve you got there?” he asked
She held up the Smarties tube and grinned ruefully.
“You’ve got it on your face you know”
“Have I?”
“Mmm”
She shrugged and stuck each of her fingers into the Smarties tube untill they were covered with chocolate. Popping her thumb into her mouth, Gabrielle asked around it “Are you gonna take me home?”
George nodded and watched her lick her index finger “Can I have the next one I haven’t eaten all day”
Gabrielle held her hand out deftly and let George suck the chocolate off her middle, ring, and pinkie fingers. She was looking for some clue as to how long these had been in her jacket pocket on the tube. It didn’t say. Probably years.
George took the tube from her and swirled her index finger around inside it. “I forgot how good chocolate is” he said, looking at her with laughter in his eyes.
Gabrielle nodded and watched him, giggling. His tongue was a bit funny feeling on her wrist. She jerked her hand away and cleared her throat “That’s enough of that now”
George whined “Fine, oh wait. I have something” he shoved his hands into the leather trouser pockets and found a small box. George looked at the box for a few seconds and then looked up at her. “Astrid picked it out, so if you don’t like it…”
“You got me another present?”
George looked confused “Another… oh. No. This is a serious one. It’s not cereal.”
“Serious” she raided her eyebrows in disbelief “From you?”
“Shhh, Quiet. This is very serious” he told her, while trying to keep a serious look on his face “Just shut up, or you'll make it worse.”
Gabrielle tried to cease her giggling as he handed the box to her. Sort of smallish, like a ring box. He hadn’t bough her a ring had he? Why on earth would he. It wasn’t like George had money to throw around on nice gifts or anything. She looked up at him and he gave her an encouraging look and bit his lip. She opened it and saw a tiny silver ring laying there, with a quite big green stone in it by comparison. “Oh, gear” she laughed, taking it out and slipping it on her left ring finger.
“You like it?” he asked eagerly
Gabrielle grinned “I love it Georgie, thank you”
He shrugged modestly and then grinned back “Right, give us a kiss then Gab”
George puckered his lips up and Gabrielle smacked her lips against his loudly. They giggled.
“Ok” He said “I’ll get you home now”
* * * * * * * * *