Chapter 42
“Let me take that!” Christian rushed quickly to her side, lifting the huge suitcase out of her hands and carrying it into the hallway.
“I can mange,” she said laughing at his enthusiasm, yet still letting him take the bag away from her.
“You need to start being more careful.”
“What?”
“You need to start taking care of yourself.”
“Eh?”
“You’re pregnant Mel, you can’t go doing things the way you used to.”
“Awwwwww,” she replied, he was just so considerate and it made her love him even more, “you’re right.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on you, I’ll make sure you don’t do too much.”
“I’m glad someone is here to look after me, sometimes I forget I’m even pregnant,” she joked, smiling to herself at the irony of it all.
“Is it agreeing with you?”
“Yeah, I don’t feel too bad,” she replied, “I’ve had a bit of sickness but nothing I can’t handle.”
“They say that some people find it easier than others,” Christian said, sounding rather like he’d swallowed several books on the subject.
“Well let’s hope I have an easy one then shall we?”
He stopped and looked at her for a moment, taking a while to examine her whole body, “you certainly look very well,” he said, “you have that wonderful pregnant glow around you.”
“I do?”
“Yeah, you just look really happy.”
“I feel really happy,” she grinned back.
“Pregnancy must agree with you then,” Chris said matter of factly.
He picked up the case again and showed her into the lounge.
“Welcome to your new home.”
She giggled slightly at that, not able to keep the excitement in.
“Does that sound weird?” he asked.
“Yeah, a little.”
“Well I mean it, I want you to treat this like it’s your home, because it is.”
She sat down on the chair he showed her to and took in her surroundings. The lounge was beautiful, just like something you’d see in OK magazine. The chairs were all pristine white, and complimented the wooden floors wonderfully. At the end of the room there was a crackling fire, the flames reflecting off the floor and giving the whole room a warm feeling. In front of the fire was a deep red rug that matched the curtains. The main feature of the room was the huge amount of CDs that were mounted up on the wall, below which stood a small piano. It was just perfect, like something out of a childhood dream.
“I love this room,” she exclaimed.
“Most of its down to Ella,” he admitted, “she really turned the whole place around.
“Oh.”
Her head followed the direction that his eyes were fixed in and she noticed a picture of Ella sat on the mantelpiece above the fire. More than anything she wanted to smash it into tiny little pieces and burn it until no more was left.
“You spoken to her at all?”
“No,” he replied sadly, “I must have left about 40 messages on her machine but she’s just ignoring me.”
“You think she’ll come round?”
“Not sure, she can be very stubborn.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes – Christian completely lost in his thoughts. It killed Mel to know that he was probably sat there thinking of Ella, she wanted more than anything to change the subject.
“The baby will take your mind off it,” she finally said, breaking the silence.
“Yeah,” he grinned, “I’m excited.”
“Me too”
“You always wanted to have kids?”
“Yeah I guess, it wasn’t something I really thought about.”
“I’m sorry,” he apologised again.
“Are you ever going to stop apologising?”
“I’m sorry”
“Christian, stop it, you don’t have anything to be sorry about,” she replied gently, “I’ve come to terms with it now, and I want the baby.”
“Me too,” he replied, “I was unsure to start with.”
“Tell me about it, I was so scared when I found out.”
“I wish you’d told me a bit earlier.”
“I didn’t really want to,” she confessed, “I was worried about ruining things with you and Ella.”
“You’re sweet,” he said, “you are always caring about other people.”
“I’m not,” she retorted, glowing red, “I can be an awful person sometimes.”
“Don’t believe you.”
She glowed red in embarrassment, although very happy that he had told her that.
“Tell me more about you,” he suddenly said, “I don’t know much about you and I think I should.”
“What would you like to know?”
“Erm … your family.”
“I grew up just outside London and lived at home with my parents and my sister.”
“You get on with her?”
“Not at all, she hates me.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t,” Christian soothed.
“No, she does, and its OK.”
“Why do you think she hates you?”
“She never liked me following bands.”
“I see, that’s something else we should talk about actually.”
“What’s that?”
“a1”
Mel felt her heart fly up until it was practically sat in her mouth, she had always feared that may be some day this topic would come up in conversation.
“What about them?”
“Why did you follow us?”
“I’m just a big fan of the music,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders as if it was the obvious answer.
“Sure, but normal fans of the music don’t follow the band, what made you take it that step further?”
“I guess I was lonely, and I felt like I knew you.”
“We helped you?”
“Yeah, I guess, I really like you all, you are so easy to get on with.”
Christian paused for a moment, his eyes were squinted towards her, he was obviously deep in thought.
“It’s cool,” he said after what seemed like an eternity, “I mean its not like you were ever a mad loony fan was it?”
“Nah,” Mel replied chuckling, “I don’t even feel like a fan anymore.”
“You gone off our music suddenly?”
“No, its just, well normal fans don’t have babies with band members.”
“That’s true,” Chris thought, “the whole situation is odd really isn’t it?”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
“What do you mean?”
Mel smiled at him, “from this moment forward I’m officially no longer a fan.”
“What are you then?”
“A friend”
“What if you don’t like the real me though?” he asked
“But I already know you.”
“No you don’t,” he argued, “you know Christian a1, the real guy is different, you may not like him as much.”
“Well, that’s the risk I’m going to take,” she fought back.
“You sure?”
“Yep, you want me as a friend?”
He smiled at her, “yeah, I’d like that.”
She beamed back at him, this was the first step, she was beginning to gain his trust, and with minimal effort she had just stepped up a notch, she was no longer a fan, they were mates.
“You want a drink?” he asked, helping her to her feet and showing her to the kitchen.
She followed him and watched as he opened the fridge in front of her.
“What on earth is that?” she asked, spying a huge lump of weird brown stuff on the top shelf.
“Norwegian goats cheese”
“Ahhh, the famous cheese,” she chuckled.
“You want to try some?” he asked, moving towards a drawer to get out a knife.
“No, its OK,” she said quickly, “it doesn’t look too nice.”
“Its fantastic, and our kid is going to love it.”
She wrinkled her nose up in disgust as he took a big bite from the chunk and put it back in the fridge. She took the drink he offered her and gulped from the glass quickly.
“Right, you need a tour of the place,” he announced, putting down her glass and skipping out of the room like an excited child.
She had already seen most of the downstairs so he led her up the winding wooden stairs to show her the rooms above.
“You’re at college aren’t you?” he asked, playing more getting to know you games on their way round.
“Yep, doing A-levels” she confirmed.
“Enjoying them?”
“Not at all”
“What do you want to do after?”
“I have no idea.”
It was true, she didn’t have a clue what she wanted to do with her life, she had spent the last few years only dreaming of her future life with Christian – a job hadn’t even come into the equation.
“You don’t want a career then?” he asked.
“I’m not all that bothered really,” she admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed when he looked at her with amazement, “sounds awful doesn’t it?”
“Each to their own,” he said, smiling gently at her.
“I’m just a bit lazy I guess”
“I’m sure you’ll find what you want to do some day.”
“You think?”
“Yeah,” he said, “I’m sure you should be doing something really glamorous.”
“You think?”
“Yeah, something like modelling.”
She nearly fell back down the stairs when he announced that.
“Seriously?” she asked
“Yeah, you are so pretty.”
“You think?”
“Course you are Mel,” he said smiling at her, “just look at yourself you’re stunning.”
“Thank you,” she uttered out, she never had been very good at taking compliments.
“Ben and Paul always used to have conversations about who the best looking fan was,”
“They did?”
“Yep, and you always won.”
She turned an even deeper shade of pink, and dropped conversation quickly, instead turning her attention to the room that they had just walked in to.
“This is my room,” he said.
She had a careful look round what was in front of her. It was quite simply laid out, it had a deep blue carpet with a slightly lighter shade of blue for the curtains. The furniture was sparse, mainly because most of the room was taken up with a huge King Size bed. Mel had never seen a bed so big, it looked like you could sleep four people in it very comfortably.
“You want me to show you to your room?” he asked.
“That’d be great.” She smiled, wanting more than anything to see where she would be living.
The room he took her into was only across the landing from his own, something that was a huge plus point already. Just like his it was simple, although the bed wasn’t quite as big.
“You like it?” he asked
“I love it,” she said.
“If you need anything just ask and I’ll sort it out.”
“Thank you.” She walked over to him and gave him a tight hug, “thank you so much for doing this.”
He wrapped his arms tightly around her in response and gave her a gentle squeeze.
“I’ll go get your cases and then you can settle down for the night,” he said as he pulled away.
As he left the room, Mel flopped down on her new bed.
Life was perfect.