30 May 2012
We all sat down on our assigned tables, ready to eat the meal. I sat with Nate on my one side, my left hand planted in his for the whole meal; and Mollie on the other. The rest of the table was filled with a few Nate's friends and a few of ours, and Charlie, who spent the whole meal whispering into Mollie's ear, making her giggle. Nate put his arm around my shoulder at one point and whispered "Do you want me to whisper like him all evening?" I elbowed him in the stomach, picking up on his mocking tone. "Ouch," he mocked again, making me turn my back on him completely, still smiling though. "Well done though, on matching them up. I'd never seen it before, so really well done" he said, kissing the back of my hair, and noticing the diamond earrings he'd given me. By this stage, I was ravenous. I hadn't eaten all day without even noticing, drinking just water and the lemonade I had made earlier. When the meal arrived, I waited until everyone had got theirs before digging in, eating ten times faster than I had ever intended to. I was finished in the time Nate had taken a few forkfuls, and I looked across at Mollie's plate, realising she too hadn't eaten all day so she had finished too.
"Will you excuse us for a minute?" Mollie said, after kissing Charlie on the cheek and grabbing my arm to drag me to the restrooms. I just had time to run my hand along Nate's shoulders, so he knew I was leaving. But by the time he had turned around, I was already half way up the steps.
We knew where the restrooms were well, as we came here every Sunday for brunch when we weren't at boarding school, so we went straight in. She sat me down on the couch in the entrance to the restroom, and stood above me, her dress making her seem taller and more powerful.
"What's up?" I asked, patting the couch so she would sit with me. She did, before responding.
"I wanted to thank you for asking Charlie to dance with me. I saw you do it, and trust me I'm very grateful."
"It's okay, you'd have done the same for me!"
"Well, I was going to give this to you anyway, but I wanted to do it now as a little thank you, so here" she said, opening her golden clutch bag and pulling out a key card.
"What's this?" I asked, taking it from her.
"It's a key to the suite on the top floor here. It's got everything you guys could need for tonight. I just wanted to thank you for this year, and for sticking with me through everything that's happened."
"Are you kidding me?" I said whilst hugging her "You've had to put up with me more! Not the other way around! Thank you so much though, you're incredible!"
After spraying a mist of Chanel No.5 around the room and on herself, she stood up and held my hand as we walked back in.
We walked back down the steps, just as the meal was ending. Charlie (who was turned to face the staircase) nudged Nate as we floated down the stairs, and Nate turned, jaw dropped and smiling. He blinked slowly, and as he turned so did the rest of the table, then the rest of the room.
It was like a Mexican wave passing through the room, from front to back, left to right, the whole room was soon focused on the two beauties making their way down the stairs. Nate and Charlie got up, and walked over to us, taking us by the arm, happy to be associated with these two girls; happy to make the other boys jealous of their girls. You could tell that was the general consensus, as many looked at Mollie and I, and then back at their own girlfriends, realising they didn't quite make the grade.
We sat back down, and the chatter continued; boys forgot about this brief stage of doubt, laughing and kissing their dates again.
"Sweetie," I said to Nate, "You'll never guess what Mollie's done for us" I began.
"What?" he said
"She's got us the suite on the top floor for tonight!"
"Really?" he said, looking across at her. She smiled, and nodded, as Charlie kissed her on the top of the head. "How long is left here?" he said.
"About an hour I think" someone said.
"Oh okay," he replied, before leaning down to whisper in my ear "because I can't wait to get up there and be with you."
No one heard, but you could tell they all knew what he'd said.
"It'll start winding down in about twenty minutes" Charlie said, "Don't worry mate" he winked at Nate, which made me laugh. We kissed, and decided to get up and dance, as about 60% of the room already had.
We slow danced for what seemed like hours, gazing into each other's eyes and allowing our lips to meet every so often. During one particular song, our foreheads rested together for the whole thing, and his lips were pressed to mine for the whole time. I was subconsciously noting all the flash bulbs that were aimed in our direction, but I was more focused on Nate; engrossed in the passionate tension that was present in the few centimetres between us. I opened my eyes, to see his still closed. He looked like he was asleep, at peace and silent, but I knew he wasn't. I moved a hand from round his shoulders up into his hair, and I kissed him again, delicately and gently, so as not to wake him up from his awaken slumber. He smiled, and opened his eyes, as I whispered
"Where's this surprise then?" I asked.
"Can we leave now? Do you think anyone would notice?" he replied
"Only like every photographer in the room. You do realise we're their favourite subject matter right?" I said, looking up at him.
"Who can blame them when I've got a girlfriend who looks like you. A girlfriend who's sweet and caring, gentle and loving, and pretty gorgeous." he said, pecking me on the lips.
"She sounds lovely, is she the surprise?" I joked, making him laugh a little under his breath. He exhaled, and closed his eyes again.
"Oh come on, let's just go. I can't bare not being able to hold you tighter here." he said, opening his eyes to look me dead in the eye.
"Okay, let's say goodbye to Mollie and Charlie though."
"Okay" he said, wrapping his arm round my hips and moving with me "But no one else, okay?"
We both kissed Mollie on the cheek, and I hugged Charlie.
"We're going to make a move if that's okay?" I said, holding both of Mollie's hands out between us.
"Sure, that's fine. Have fun you two!" she replied, looking at Nate first, then me.
"Thank you for everything" I said, catching her eye and squeezing her hands. "It means such a lot to us"
"It really does" Nate said, squeezing me closer to him.
"Just go you two! I can't take all this emotion! Anyway, we're staying over here too, so I'll probably see you at brunch tomorrow, T?" I realised it was a Sunday tomorrow, smiled, and agreed, kissing her on the cheek again, and seeing the flash bulbs in the corner of my eye.
We both waved as we walked back up the marble stairs, his arm still around my waist, running his thumb along my hip as we reached the top of the staircase. We navigated our way through the lobby to the elevator, as I waved at the members of staff I knew. As soon as the doors closed though, he started to kiss me, passionately.
"Did I tell you how incredible you look? He said in between kisses.
"I don't think you did" I mocked, knowing he had been repeating it over and over like a broken record.
He stopped kissing me "Well I think I should have" he said, holding my face. "I love you, and trying to keep my hands off you tonight was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. You realise every boy wanted to be in my shoes, right?"
"And you realise every girl wanted to be in mine?"
"Well I suppose we're the perfect couple then aren't we?" he said, smiling and holding my hand, as the elevator doors opened.
He lead me out, and stood still, waiting for me to stop. Then all of a sudden he lifted me up, cradling me in his arms.
I giggled as he span around, letting my hair flood down below me. I pulled out the card for the door, and he turned to push it open with his back, looking me in the eye before heading straight for the bedroom, despite the thousands of notifications that were flooding our phones: including the pictures of Nate and I going into the room. Who was outside, watching us?
Love You So: PART THIRTY TWO (Section Two) • Opuss № I