Chapter 45
“How’s my favourite girl this morning?” Christian asked, circling his arms around Mel from behind.
“Fine,” she replied, her face evolving into a huge smile.
Things were going so well, ever since their little talk a few days earlier she had become much closer to Christian, it was almost like they were best friends. They would stay up all night chatting and he hadn’t mentioned Ella once, yes things were definitely getting better.
“You don’t need to do the washing up you know,” he said, reaching his hands down into the bowl and pulling her hands out of the suds.
“I want to pull my weight,” she replied, “I don’t want to treat this like a hotel or anything.”
“Don’t be daft, this is your home,” he urged.
“Is it?”
“Course it is, as long as you want it to be.”
She knew the answer to that question – she wanted it to be her home forever, she wondered if he realised yet how much she cared for him.
“Exactly,” she continued, “and in your own home you do the washing up.”
“Not when you’re pregnant”
“I’m pregnant not incapable,” she whined as he gently pushed her in the direction of the sofa and ran around finding her some magazines to look at.
“I want you to look after yourself.”
“I am looking after myself.”
“You eating properly?”
“Yes”
“You getting enough rest.”
“More than enough.”
“You’re not pushing yourself too hard.”
She laughed at him, “Christian I’m fine.”
He looked a little hurt at her laughter and immediately fell silent, and sitting next to her picked up a copy of FHM and began flicking through.
“Sorry,” she said quietly, “I know why you are fussing.”
“Cos I care,” he grunted from behind the pages, “don’t want anything happening to you.”
“I know, but I’m fine honestly.”
His eyes peered out from the top of the magazine, “there is one thing I want to ask.”
“What’s that?”
“Have you been going to the Doctors?”
“Of course I have.”
“and …?”
She paused for a moment, thinking carefully before answering with, “all is fine.”
“Shouldn’t you be going to any kind of anti natal classes?” he asked.
“Not yet I don’t think,” she said casually.
“Are you sure everything’s normal,” he pressed again.
“Yes.”
“Just that we haven’t seen the baby kick yet and you’re not putting on much weight.”
“It’s still early days,” she replied quickly, “I don’t think you are supposed to yet.”
“How many weeks are you?”
“A few,” she replied waving her hands dismissively.
“And you’re sure everything is OK?”
“Positive,” she replied, beginning to get a little frustrated with his constant questions.
“May be you should make another appointment just to check.”
“Christian!” she snapped in exasperation, “everything is fine.”
“Please, it would just put my mind at rest,” he begged, “I get so worried that things aren’t OK, and that something will happen to the baby.”
“OK, fine,” she muttered, and walking over to her mobile she picked it up. Turning her back to him, she pretended to tap some numbers in and then proceeded to have a conversation with herself.
“Can I make an appointment with Dr Hegley please,” she asked, talking loudly into the receiver so Christian could hear every word, “he has an appointment tomorrow, that’s fantastic, thank you.”
“Thanks,” he smiled at her as she returned to him, “I know you think I’m fussing but it makes me feel better.”
“Its OK,” she smiled.
“Can I come with you?”
It took all of her energy to keep the smile fixed to her face, the messages from her brain were telling her to do anything but.
“Haven’t you got an a1 thing tomorrow?” she asked, praying silently that he did.
His face fell, “oh yeah, we’re due in the studio.”
“Sorry hunny,” she said, taking his hand, “you can come next time.”
He gave her hand a little squeeze in appreciation and then picked the magazine back up. For now it seemed that he had dropped the questioning,
How long was she going to be able to keep this up? The whole thing was taking so much longer than she had originally thought – he should have realised that he loved her by now.
Pushing any negative thoughts out of her mind she leant over towards him.
“What you reading?” she asked.
“FHM.”
She glanced down at the cover to see a bikini clad Rachel Stevens looking back at her.
“You like that kind of thing?” she asked, not really wanting to know the answer but not being able to stop the question as it blurted out of her mouth.
“Do I like women wearing next to nothing? Course I do.”
“You checking them out?” she asked
“Yep, spotting my next target,” he smiled weakly, “its like my little black book.”
“You been with a lot of the women in there?”
“Quite a few,” he smiled, and flicking through the pages began to point out the various beautiful women he had been with.
“You slept with all of them?” she asked in disbelief, just as he had pointed out nearly every girl member of a band.
“Most of them,” he admitted, “some of them I just got off with.”
“Oh, the papers are all true then?”
“Mostly,” he nodded, “although half the people they linked me with was just guess work.”
“Oh”
He was right, there were things she didn’t know about him – she had always known that he had been one for the ladies, but she didn’t realise he had been with quite this many.
“And groupies?” she asked.
“Yeah, a fair few.”
“Oh”
“It was just easy you know, relieved the boredom.”
“But you don’t do any of that anymore?” she asked.
“Nope, not since I met Ella, she changed my life,” a dreamy look immediately took over his face.
“Where did you meet her?”
Why was she asking all of these questions, she knew the answers would hurt her … did she really enjoy pain this much?
“I saw her in FHM.”
“She posed in FHM?” Mel asked in disbelief.
“Yep, she did a topless one”
“You fell for her cos she got her boobs out?”
“Course not,” he smirked, “we met and I got to know her and then we fell in love.”
“And you stayed faithful for her?”
“Yep, she’s the one,” he threw the magazine back down on the table and taking a deep breath shut his eyes, “I cant believe I blew it for a one night stand with a groupie.”
Mel felt her whole face flush red, Christian realised what he had said immediately and snapped back to attention, his mouth open.
“I’m not a groupie,” Mel replied, trying hard to keep her voice level.
“I’m sorry Mel, I wasn’t thinking,” he said.
“That’s what you think of me,” Mel said, feeling herself getting angry.
“I don’t, I never have done,” he replied quickly, “you are different to the other fans.”
“Bollocks!” Mel yelled at him, “you didn’t just call me a groupie for no reason.”
“You aren’t a groupie.”
“What am I then?” she retorted, “just a fan you had sex with?”
“It wasn’t like that,” he said quietly, “I never would have done it with you if I’d been in control of what I was doing.”
“Why, am I that bad?”
“No, its just you are a person,” he explained.
“And the others aren’t?”
“No, they were just fans, girls I didn’t know, I never would have had a one night stand with you – I knew you too well and I liked you.”
“You’re not making this any better,” Mel replied, tears beginning to well up in her eyes, she blinked them back furiously and got to her feet.
“Where are you going?” he asked, grabbing hold of her hand.
“To bed”
“Please don’t leave like this,” Christian called after her as she began to make her way towards the staircase.
“We’ll talk about it in the morning, I need sleep,” she replied and turning away from him she made her way up the stairs.
She didn’t allow herself to cry until she had thrown herself down on her bed, and then she cried so hard the tears soaked into the pillow and made her face wet.
Christian had really shocked her this evening – maybe she didn’t know him as well as she thought she did, and that was a scary thought.