Chapter Sixty-Three
“You know, if we were married you’d have to carry me over the threshold.” Chloe said to Ben as they moved her stuff from the taxi into Ben’s flat.
“Shall I do it anyway?” Ben asked, putting the last of Chloe’s bags down.
“But I’m already over the threshold.” Chloe pointed out.
“Well get out here then.” Ben said, stepping back outside.
“Ben…”
“No, come on! Let’s do this properly!” Ben said, trying to suppress a grin.
“We’re not married though!”
“Doesn’t hurt to practise, does it?”
Ben winked at Chloe and her stomach did a million cartwheels. He was only joking though, right? That little marriage comment was just something he’d said without thinking, wasn’t it?
Chloe joined Ben on the other side of the door and giggled as he picked her up.
“There ya go. Welcome to my house.” He said, putting Chloe back down.
“Thank you. Although I have been here before.”
“I know, but not to stay forever.”
“I’m not staying forever now.” Chloe reminded him.
“I know, but I wish you were.”
“Nah, give it a week and you’ll be desperate to get rid of me.”
“Never.” Ben said, pushing the front door shut and putting his arms around Chloe. “You’re sure about this, aren’t you?” he asked, looking at her.
“Moving in?”
“Yeah. You do want to, don’t you?”
“Would I be here if I didn’t?”
“No, but I just want to make sure I’m not making you do anything you don’t want to do. Coz, well, some people say I’ve got a bit of a habit of pressuring people into things without realising I’m doing it. Like, I dunno, making them feel guilty if they say no, or whatever.”
“You know you couldn’t do that to me.” Chloe said. “I have no qualms about saying no! You know, you asking me to move in with you is the most romantic thing anyone has ever done.”
“I could have done it in a much more romantic way, I had it sorta half planned how I was going to do it, actually.”
“Really? You were planning it?”
“Yeah, well sorta idly. Wasn’t sure if I was actually going to ask you, but I’d been toying with the idea a bit. Didn’t know what you’d say though.”
“Aww, you’re so sweet.”
“Well, I try.” Ben said, smiling. “So you do definitely want to be here?”
“I definitely do.” Chloe said.
“Good. Coz I definitely want you to be here.” Ben said, kissing Chloe. “Do you wanna unpack?”
“Oooh, yeah, okay!”
“I don’t know where you’re gonna put all your stuff - I hadn’t actually thought that far aheaad – but I’m sure there’s space somewhere!”
“It’s okay, I don’t mind!”
“I’ll clear you a drawer.” Ben said. “How’s that?”
“Yeah, three bags worth of stuff, that should be fine.”
“Okay, so you might need a little bit more space than that. How about you just spread your stuff around the house? Ooh, kitchen cupboard? Got lots of them.”
Chloe laughed. “Why don’t I just put my stuff with yours? Doesn’t have to be separate, does it?”
Ben smiled and hugged her closer to him.
“No, it doesn’t have to be separate.”
“What are you doing today?” Chloe asked.
“Um… I actually don’t know.”
“That’s not a good sign.”
“No, it isn’t. In fact, I think we were meant to be getting our updated itinerary from Del at the interviews this morning.”
“Which you’re not at.”
“No. Oh no!”
“What?”
“I’ve got that meeting with Tim tomorrow.”
“What about?”
“The pictures of me and you in CD:UK magazine.”
“Oh.”
“And now, I would imagine, also about me missing the interviews today.”
“Oh Ben, maybe you should have gone.” Chloe said worriedly.
She didn’t want him to get into trouble.
“Well it’s too late now, anyway.” Ben said, looking at the clock on the wall. “Don’t worry about it, I’m not.”
“You are.”
“I’m not!”
“I can see it in your eyes, Ben. You are worried. You look really nervous actually.”
“Do I?”
Chloe nodded.
“No, it’s fine. Really, the worst thing he can do is shout at me really loudly, right? I’m not gonna die, or anything.”
“Well no, hopefully not!”
“No, it’ll be fine. Anyway, let’s get you unpacked!”
Chloe smiled. “Okay!”
They took Chloe’s stuff through to the bedroom, and Chloe started to open the bags as Ben hastily chucked a load of mess into a corner.
He really should have had this idea of his so he had enough time to tidy up before Chloe got there!
“Clothes go where?” Chloe asked.
“Erm…” Ben went over to his chest of drawers, pulled open a drawer, took some clothes out and put them in a lower drawer. “There you go. Your very own drawer.”
“Thanks.”
Ben watched as Chloe transferred all her clothes from the black holdall she’d brought with her the last time she’d been to stay, to the empty drawer. He couldn’t believe she was here. He just wanted to keep hugging her and kissing her to make sure she was real! And she wasn’t just here for a couple of days, she was here for…
“How long until you go back to school?” Ben asked.
“Six weeks.” Chloe said, folding up a t-shirt.
Six weeks?! Oh my God, that was almost two months! That was certainly longer than Ben had thought it was going to be. But that was a good thing, of course. That was a fantastic thing! Wow, six whole weeks… That was 42 days! 42 days waking up with Chloe every morning and going to sleep with her every night. Having meals together, going places together, seeing each other every single day for 42 days. Ben couldn’t think of anything better!
“How come it’s so long? I thought you’d already been on holiday for two weeks?”
“Yeah, but that’s coz I finished earlier than normal coz of my GCSEs.”
“You don’t do GCSEs when you’re 15, do you?”
“Some people do!” Chloe said, turning around and smiling at Ben. “I skipped a year, anyway.”
“You what?” Ben asked, sitting down on the bed.
“I skipped a year. Oh, it’s really complicated. Basically, I skipped Year 2 in my first primary school-”
“Why?”
Chloe smiled bashfully. “Coz I was clever.”
“Really? Cool! Carry on.”
“Okay, well then I changed schools at the end of Year 3 coz we moved, and they made me do Year 3 again coz they didn’t approve of me being a year ahead. Then when it got to the end of Year 5, they decided that actually I was clever enough to have skipped a year, so I missed Year 6 and went straight to secondary school.”
“Wow! I didn’t know that.”
“Well now you do.” Chloe said, continuing to fold her clothes.
“And so you did GCSEs a year early then?” Ben asked, trying to work it all out.
“Yeah. Well, I actually did my RS one two years early, coz we all took it in Year 10.”
Ben shook his head. “You’re way too clever to be going out with me.”
“Don’t be silly, you’re clever! You got really good grades for your GCSEs!”
“Yeah, I suppose. When do you get your results?”
Chloe shrugged. “August some time, I think. Ooh, I’ll be living here still then. I’ll have to get mum to send them to me.”
“Aren’t you gonna go to your school and get them?” Ben asked. “I remember I did that for mine. Mum came with me.”
“Yeah, but I’m gonna be all the way down here, aren’t I?”
“Oh you’ve gotta go back to get your results!” Ben said. “I’ll come with you!”
“Really?”
“Yeah!”
“Oh, okay.”
“So does that mean you’re sorta in-between schools at the moment then? What are you gonna do next?”
“Dunno. I did want to do something to do with acting, but I don’t wanna do that any more.”
“Why not?”
Chloe smiled. “GCSE drama was hell.”
“So you don’t know what you’re gonna do?”
“No, I’ll have to think about it, probably quite soon. Can’t leave it too long.”
“No.”
“I’ll have to do something, but I really don’t wanna stay on at my school and do A-levels.”
“Why not?”
“Ah, I just hate it. It’s so strict! Why are you so interested?”
“I’m interested in you!”
“Oh, well that’s nice!”
Ben laughed. “You’re so strange sometimes.”
“Me?”
“Yeah!”
“Why?”
“I dunno, just some of the things you say.”
“Oh.”
“Nothing bad!” Ben assured her.
“I should think not! Or you’d be in trouble.”
“I know I would!” Ben said, smiling at Chloe.
“As long as you know your place.” Chloe said, smiling back. “Where shall I put toiletries and stuff?”
“Either in the bathroom, or with all my stuff up there.” Ben said, gesturing to the top of the chest of drawers, which was laden with bottles and tubs.
“Okay.” Chloe said, putting moisturiser, nail varnish remover, body lotion, deodorant, body spray, her hairbrush and a small bag of various make-ups with Ben’s stuff, and picking up a handful of other things to take through to the bathroom. “Can I put them anywhere in the bathroom?” she asked.
“Yeah, wherever.” Ben said.
“Okay, back in a sec.”
Chloe went into the bathroom and put shampoo, conditioner and shower gel on the side by similar things of Ben’s, her toothbrush by the sink next to Ben’s, and her flannel on the side of the bath, surprisingly enough, next to Ben’s. Oooh, she was living with a boy! How weird was that? Weird, but very very cool. She couldn’t believe she was living with her boyfriend – albeit temporarily – and she was only 15! How cool was she?! Not even the “coolest” (well they thought they were, anyway) people in her class at school with these so-called “amazing” boyfriends who had cars, and didn’t go to school, blah blah blah, lived with them! And not only did she live with her boyfriend, but her boyfriend was 19, and a pop star! Was she in a dream, or what?! This was great!
“Okay?” Ben asked, as Chloe came back into the bedroom where he was still sitting on the bed.
“Yep!” she said, going back over to her bags. “Okay, where shall I put all my general stuff? Like, notepads, and CDs, and stuff like that.”
“The interesting stuff?” Ben asked.
Chloe grinned. “Yes.”
“Erm… oh, I dunno. My stuff’s just scattered around everywhere!”
“That’s coz it’s your house.”
“You can put your CDs with mine. What did you bring in the end?” Ben asked.
“Most of them! Dido, Point Break, Eminem, a1, obviously, Steps, Robbie Williams and Backstreet Boys. I haven’t got many.”
“I get so many free ones that by the time you go home you’ll have about 100.”
“Cool!” Chloe said. “I love CDS.”
“Me too.” Ben agreed. “Oh, we should go like, mass CD shopping, and just buy loads of CDS.”
“That would be so cool!”
“Yeah, and just buy really random ones, too.”
“Yeah!”
“We should buy the alphabet of CDS!” Ben said. “A-Z in CDs.”
“With band names?”
“Yeah.”
“Which band name begins with Z?”
“I dunno, we’d have to look in the alphabetised bit in the shop.”
“Aww fab!” Chloe said excitedly. “So where shall I put the rest of my stuff?”
“Well I’ve been thinking, you know my kitchen cupboard idea? Maybe not such a stupid idea after all.”
“No, that’s fine! I don’t mind!”
“Coz you can have as many of them as you want. There are loads of empty ones. And then all your stuff would be in one place and you’d know where it was.”
“Okay!”
“You sure? I feel really mean giving you a kitchen cupboard for your stuff.”
“No, honestly, I don’t mind!”
“Alright then, come and pick one.”
Chloe and Ben went into the kitchen, Chloe bringing her remaining stuff with her.
“These two are empty,” Ben said, gesturing to a couple of bottom cupboards. “And then this one is too.” He said, opening the door of a wall unit. “You can have whichever you want. Or all of them if you like!”
“Okay, well I’ll start with one, and see how much space all my stuff takes up.”
“Sounds like a logical plan to me.” Ben agreed. “I’ll go and put your CDs with mine.”
“Yeah, I know that.” Paul said into the phone as he walked, bare foot, around his apartment.
“Have you spoken to him?” Shareen asked.
“Ben?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Maybe you should.”
“And say what? Something’s really bugging me about your relationship with your girlfriend?! Shar, I don’t even know what it is!”
“But it’s something that’s making you feel uneasy?”
“Yeah. I dunno, though. It’s just things people have said.”
“What about?”
“I don’t really know.”
“Oh Paul…”
“No, I know it’s something, I think it’s something to do with Chloe.”
“And this is Ben’s girlfriend?”
“Yeah. It’s just, I dunno, Chris was saying thing something last night about them, then Rose said something this morning, and Del…”
“You sound really worried.” Shareen observed.
“I know I shouldn’t get involved, but it’s not like I’ve got my own relationship to worry about, is it?”
“Paul…”
“No, it’s alright. I guess I’m worried about Chloe, God knows why – I don’t even know the girl – but Del said Ben’s just using her, and Rose seems to think he’s pressuring Chloe into stuff… I don’t know why I care, I really don’t!” Paul said, frustrated that even he didn’t know what he meant.
“What’s she like, this Chloe girl?” Shareen asked.
“I dunno really. I haven’t hung out with her much. She’s nice, though.”
“Is she pretty?”
“Yeah, she is. She’s got dark hair, and dark eyes… she has really nice eyes, actually.”
“Sounds like someone’s got a bit of a crush…”
“No! Why does everyone say that? It’s a conspiracy against me!”
“Everyone says this?”
“Well, Chris and Rose.”
“So is it true?”
“No! A, she’s Ben’s girlfriend, and b, she’s 15! Even if I wanted to get with her – which I don’t – I couldn’t, on both counts.”
“What’s her age got to do with it?”
“Come on Shar, she’s 10 years younger than me! And it’s not the age gap, it’s her age. If she was 25 and I was 35 that would be okay, but there’s a lot of difference between 15 and 25. She’s just a kid!”
“I suppose.”
“Yeah, and I can’t believe we’re having this conversation! My feelings for Chloe go only as far as concern that Ben’s going to hurt a nice innocent girl.”
“Ahhh, you want to save her from Ben.”
“No, I do not!” Paul protested. “Will you stop it?!”
“Follow your heart, Pauly.” Shareen said.
“I am doing.” Paul said adamantly.
“Make sure you do. Apart from that, how are things going?”
“Rubbish.”
“No! Still? Why?”
“Ohh, it’s a long story. Basically, Ben and Mark didn’t turn up for the interviews we were meant to be doing today, so me and Chris had to do them on our own, and now we’ve all gotta go to a meeting with Tim on Friday where he is absolutely going to kill us.”
“Aw Paul, don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried, I’m pissed off at Ben and Mark.”
“Well you haven’t done anything wrong, so he won’t tell you off, will he?”
“Shar, he has a go at everyone.”
“Sounds like you need a holiday. When’s your next day off?”
Paul flicked through the itinerary on the table he was now sitting in front of.
“Couple of weeks. But that’s just one day. We haven’t got any holidays scheduled on here as far as I can see.”
“Well whenever you can come over…”
“I know. I will.”
“Anyway little brother, I’m going to have to go now. Some of us have work to do. Why don’t you go and see Ben?”
“Yeah, I might…”
“I’ll speak to you later. Try not to be too miserable.”
“I’ll try. See ya.”
Paul put the phone down. Yeah, maybe he would go and see Ben. If only to find out why he wasn’t at the interviews this morning… Oh hang on, he knew that though, didn’t he? Ben was at Chloe’s according to Chris. Hmm, Paul was still not quite sure that Ben would go all the way up to Chloe’s house on a whim like that. He did have some sense. Maybe he’d ring him to see if he was around.
Paul picked the phone back up and dialled Ben’s number. It rang four times before someone answered.
“Hello?” Ben said.
Paul put the phone down.
He didn’t want to start a conversation with him over the phone, he wanted to actually see him. He might even have a quiet word with him about the whole Chloe thing – if he could get straight what he thought about it in the car on the way over - just for his own piece of mind.
Paul put some shoes on, grabbed his keys and left the apartment. Once outside, he got into his car and started the drive over to Ben’s house. It didn’t take long, considering it was still just about lunchtime. Lunchtime in London, anyway. He parked the car in the closest space to Ben’s flat and walked down the road. He still wasn’t really sure what he was going to say about the Chloe thing, he still wasn’t sure there was anything to make an issue of, so he was just gonna play it by ear. If the conversation did turn to Chloe, which it probably would at some point, then Paul would see what he felt like saying, and then decide whether or not to say it. Coz of course, some things were best left never said.
On reaching Ben’s flat, Paul walked up the few steps to the front door, and knocked. After a few seconds, Ben appeared behind the glass and opened the door.
“Paul! What are you doing here?” he asked with surprise.
“Where the hell were you this morning?” came out of Paul’s mouth before he could stop the words.
“Don’t have a go.” Ben said, stepping back to let Paul walk through.
“Ben, Del was having kittens!” Paul exclaimed, walking though into the sitting room. “I can’t believe you just-”
Paul stopped mid-sentence as he saw a very familiar face sitting on Ben’s sofa.
What was Chloe doing here?!
She grinned at him. “Hiya!”
“Hi…” Paul said, looking round questioningly at Ben.
Ben just smiled and sat down next to Chloe, linking his hand with hers.
“Sit down.” He said to Paul.
Paul did so, completely thrown and not even able to remember why he’d gone round, he was so surprised to see Chloe.
“What you doing Saturday?” Ben said.
“Oh, sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll I should think. You know me.” Paul said.
“Fancy coming to a housewarming party?”
“Ohh, I dunno if I’m in the mood for another party after last night. Who’s is it?”
“Ours.” Ben said, a huge smile spreading over his face.
“What?”
“Chloe’s moved in with me.” Ben said.
Moved? As in, already? What was going on?!
“Just for the summer, anyway.” Ben continued.
Ohh this was not the plan. Oh, but maybe it was better than the plan, actually. Coz this showed Ben’s commitment, right? So he couldn’t possibly be using Chloe, or any of the other things everyone had been saying. Not if he’d asked her to live with her. Unless it was just a case of having her close at hand so he could use her even more, but Paul had to conclude that even Ben wasn’t that calculated.
“Oh!” Paul spluttered. “Congratulations, I guess!”
“Thank you. So you coming to the housewarming then?” Ben asked.
“Yeah, alright.”
“Excellent. I’m really sorry about the interviews. I know I shouldn’t have just not turned up, but… well, I had things to do.” He said, smiling at Chloe.
“Yeah, well I don’t think that’ll go down too well with Del to be honest, mate.”
“Was he really mad?”
Paul nodded. “Seriously pissed off. Mark didn’t turn up either.”
“Mark didn’t?!”
“Nope. Hangover, according to Chris.”
“That’s a first!”
“Well coupled with your no-show it wasn’t funny at the time.” Paul said, quietly cross that Ben was being so casual about it all.
“No, I know, I am sorry.”
“Oh, I’ve got your itinerary.” Paul said, pulling a folded piece of paper out of his jeans pocket and handing it to Ben.
“Thanks.” Ben said, looking at it.
“You can add a meeting on Friday with Tim to that as well.”
“Oh, I know about that.”
“Do you? How?”
“Which one are you talking about?”
“The meeting.”
“Is it for all of us?”
“Yeah! We’re gonna get bollocked for the whole interviews thing.”
“Oh, right. Coz I was meant to be having a meeting with Tim tomorrow anyway, about the CD:UK stuff. That’s short notice for Tim, isn’t it? Must be serious.”
“Kinda think it is.” Paul said, wondering whether Ben knew just how much trouble he was in for what happened today.
“Mmm.” Ben said, engrossed in the schedule for the next couple of months. “What? CD:UK tomorrow?”
“Oh, yeah. They’ve got that interview they wanted.”
“No, you’re joking!? We’re being interviewed?”
“Yup.”
“Ohh great. I’d rather stand up there and mime to Westlife than answer the questions they’re gonna ask me. Can I sit furthest away from Cat?”
“Do what you like, mate. I’m sure you will anyway.” Paul said.
It wasn’t too like him to make offhand comments like that, but he was fairly annoyed with Ben at the present moment. At any one time, probably half the world’s population was loved up, but that didn’t mean half the world stopped turning! Work first, girlfriend later.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ben asked.
Paul looked at him. He looked at how close he was sitting next to Chloe, the way his middle finger was making unconscious circles on Chloe’s leg, how her hand was fiddling with the material at the bottom of Ben’s t-shirt, their body language both totally open to each other. Well they were in love – so what? It didn’t mean anything, anyway. It was just a word. Love. Oooh, heavy stuff. Eurgh.
“Nothing.” Paul said, biting his tongue.
“You in a bad mood today or something?”
“No, I’m fine. Flying as high as a bird. You know, my normal self.” Paul said dryly.
“Have you seen this?” Ben asked, furrowing his brow at the piece of paper in his hand.
He turned it over.
“Blimey.”
Chloe looked at what he was looking at.
“Does that say…?
“New single?” Ben said in disbelief. “What new single? What?! Sheffield?!”
He looked at Paul in utter confusion.
“Have I missed the last month of my life, or something? What is going on? What’s this about filming? And what’s a Progress Report?” Ben read further down. “Sales meeting? Viewing of new video?!”
“Times have changed.” Paul informed him.
“Well, clearly.” Ben said, near speechless at what he saw in front of him.
“Del said that Tim wants to get things moving a bit, said we’ve been out of the limelight for too long, and he doesn’t want to leave it ‘til like, January, until we get any new stuff out.”
“But I thought he was still plugging for The A List?”
“Apparently not any more.”
“But… this!!!”
“Yeah, I know.”
“We can’t do all this!”
“Gotta.”
“But what’s this about a new single being out in September? We haven’t got a new single!”
“We will have by the time we’ve finished studio-ing.” Paul said, looking at Chloe, who was being very quiet.
She’d hardly said anything since he got there, which was odd, because usually she joined in with everything! It was like there was never a question of her being one of the “gang” or not, she just fitted right in. It was cool that she’d been able to do that, coz then there wasn’t any awkwardness, but at the moment she looked like she wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to be talking or not.
“Is it my eyes, or does that say, PM/ Studio, Sheffield, next to today’s date?”
“Didn’t you know about that?” Paul asked.
“No!”
“Oh good, coz nor did I, but according to Del – and Mark and Chris, who of course know everything all the time – it’s been planned for a couple of days. We’re going up to Sheffield in about… ohh, an hour, working literally all evening with these new producers, staying the night, getting up really early to do some more “fun” studio time, and then back down here for CD:UK rehearsals at 2.”
“What?! Oh my God! Do they realise how ridiculous that is?”
“Apparently not.”
“But it’s gonna take us hours to get back from Sheffield! What are we going all the way up there for?!”
Paul shrugged.
“Oh, this is such a pain.” Ben said crossly. “Why don’t we get warned about stuff like this? Is it our band or theirs?”
“Do we make the decisions?”
“Exactly.” Ben said. “So we’re going to Sheffield in an hour?”
“Yeah. We’re all going up together, so just get in the car when it comes.”
Chloe got up. “I’m just gonna go and, um, get something.” She said quietly, leaving the room.
Ben looked after her in confusion.
“I can’t believe you’re living together now.” Paul said lowering his voice.
Ben smiled. “I know!”
“Yeah, that wasn’t exactly the angle I was taking on it.” Paul said. “I mean… are you sure?”
“Yeah! This is going to be the best thing that’s ever happened!” Ben said happily.
Paul sighed. He really needed to talk to Ben on his own, but when was he going to get a chance to do that when Chloe was always going to be with him?
“Alright, well, I better be off. Leave you two to it.” Paul said, starting to feel weird for no reason.
He just wanted to go now. He should never have gone round in the first place. Oh, what was wrong with him? Actually, there was something badly wrong with this whole day. It felt like it’d got off to a really bad start, and the atmosphere was all wrong. You know how sometimes the day in general doesn’t feel right, like it’s missing something, isn’t quite complete, or something isn’t right? Well it was one of those. And Paul hated those days. Like, he was bottling things up, and he’d try and get them off his chest, or sort them out, and the he’d end up even more confused or just with the feeling that he was going round in circles. Ohh he felt all lost! Maybe he sound go back to bed and sleep until everything righted itself.
“No, mate, you don’t have to! Chloe’s gonna be around pretty much all the time now.”
“No, I do.” Paul said, standing up. “I’ll let myself out. See you in a bit.”
“Yeah, alright.” Ben said, wondering why suddenly everyone was deserting him.
He got up and wandered down the hall into the bedroom, where he found Chloe sitting on the floor against the wall, legs hugged close to her chest, arms wrapped around them.
“Clo?” Ben said, going into the room. “Are you alright?”
Chloe nodded but didn’t say anything.
Ben got down on the floor and sat next to her.
“Why are you sitting down here?” he asked, idly running a comforting hand down her arm.
Chloe shrugged.
Ben looked like he wasn’t quite sure where to go next with the one-sided conversation they were having.
“Is the floor more comfy that the bed?” he asked.
Chloe gave him a reluctant smile. “No.”
“You wanna come and sit on the bed with me?”
Chloe nodded, got up, and went with Ben over to the bed.
“Come here,” Ben said, holding out his arms to Chloe from where he was sitting leaning against the headboard of the bed. “Come and talk to me.”
Chloe got onto the bed, but she didn’t sit right next to Ben, she left a tiny significant gap between them.
“Babe, what’s wrong?” Ben asked, getting worried.
He’d never seen Chloe like this before – it was hard to know how to handle her.
Chloe just shrugged again.
Been looked at her in bewilderment, absolutely no clue what to say. He didn’t know if it was something he’d done, and whether he should just leave Chloe to it.
“Is it something you can talk to me about?” Ben asked, feeling like he was playing twenty questions.
“I don’t know.” Chloe said, in a very small voice.
“Is it something I’ve done?”
Chloe shook her head.
“I don’t want to be the insensitive boyfriend, but I don’t know what to say if you won’t tell me what it is. I thought we could talk about anything?”
Chloe smiled weakly. “Can I have a hug?”
“Of course you can!” Ben said, leaning forward and putting his arms around Chloe.
She rested her head against his shoulder as he ran a hand through her hair.
“I love this jumper.” Chloe said, pulling back slightly.
“Do you?” Ben asked, looking down at the grey hooded top he’d thrown on.
Chloe nodded. “You look gorgeous in grey.” She said. “And it’s really cuddly.”
“You wanna wear it?” Ben asked, smiling at her. “It’ll make you feel better.”
Chloe shook her head.
“Go onnnnn, I bet you look just as gorgeous in it.” Ben said, pulling it over his head, and re-aligning his hair.
“Noooo!” Chloe protested as Ben tried to get the jumper past her outstretched arms.
“Stop it, I’m trying to dress you!” Ben said, smiling as Chloe giggled.
Chloe finally gave in and let Ben put the jumper on her. He sat back to admire his handiwork and raised his eyebrows.
“Does it look stupid?” Chloe asked, regarding him suspiciously.
Ben grinned. “Far from it babe. Wear it always.” He said, kissing her and pulling her down onto the bed to lie beside him. “Now are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?” he asked, moving closer and sliding his arm down so it was resting round her waist.
“No, coz you’ll think I’m stupid.”
“Try me.”
“No!”
“Please?”
“No.” Chloe said, making a stubborn face at Ben.
“Pleeeeease!”
“No!”
“Please.”
“Ben! Is no not in your vocabulary?” Chloe asked, smiling to herself.
“What are you smirking at?”
“Well, you know, spoilt child like you, used to having your own way…”
Ben gasped. “I am not spoilt!”
“You aaaaare!”
“I’m not!”
“And posh.” Chloe added.
“Right, that is it!” Ben said, sitting up and tickling Chloe.
She screamed between giggles.
“Noooo! Ben! Stop it!!” she shouted, squirming around, trying to escape Ben’s fingers. “I hate – argh! – being tickled!”
“I know.” Ben said simply, carrying on.
“Stoppppp! Bennn!”
“What am I not?”
“Nice!” Chloe exclaimed, and in response Ben only tickled her more.
“What am I not?” Ben asked again, grinning at Chloe.
“Posh!” Chloe exclaimed, squealing.
She hated being tickled sooo much!
“And…?”
“Spoilt! You’re not spoilt!”
Ben stopped tickling Chloe.
“Good.” He said, leaning over and kissing her.
Chloe moved her hands down her back, pulling him onto her.
Ben grinned down at her. “Is this your way of avoiding telling me what’s wrong?” he asked.
“Are you complaining?” Chloe asked, grinning back.
Ben shook his head fervently. “Are you mad?!”
“Only as much as you are.” Chloe said, kissing Ben.