Things are still going wonderfully with Gary, although I am rather scared as we are going out with some of his friends from uni later.
"Just because they knew Kate, doesn't mean that they don't want me to be happy, just be yourself and they will love you."
Annoyingly he was right, as usual (don't tell him I said that.) despite all my reservations they were lovely. In face I sort of knew one of them, Rebecca who was the wife of one of Gary's friends Julian (he prefers Jules) and the sister of one of my ex-housemates fiancée. So at least I had someone other than Gary that I sort of knew to talk to.
When the rest of the group had gone off to play the quiz machine, I was left with Jules and Marc (I had seen competitive Gary once, and once was enough, he got a little scary.)
"I have only seen him a couple of times since Kate died, and it's great to see him happy again." Marc said.
"You do make a lovely couple and you're clearly very good for him." Jules agreed.
"Thanks I really like him, and I'm very impressed that he's survived the ordeal of meeting my mother."
"I have heard tales of the housemate with the terrifying mother."
"Are Emily and Max anyway? Keep trying to find the time to get up there before the wedding."
"They're great, just trying to get all the little jobs done before the wedding."
We were interrupted by Gary coming back.
"Come on, we're playing doubles pool with Ross and Sinead.
"How did you do."
"Badly, we kept getting questions about Nobel Prize winners and football." I am very pleased to say that we won, partly due to my talent of accidentally making really tricky shots, my habit of missing easy ones did get a bit frustrating though.
After the pub had closed everyone else decided to go to a club, after we had said our goodbyes, and reminded Gary that we were going to Emily and Max's wedding a couple of weeks later, there was an awkward moment when we were deciding wether or not to go to another bar or just go home when Gary came up with a suggestion.
"Why don't you come back to mine, it's just around the corner."
Despite that we were going just round the corner we still managed to get caught in a sudden downpour, so when we got back to Gary's we were soaked to the skin. He very kindly got me a towel for my hair and a pair of pyjamas that were clearly an unwanted gift, red tartan really isn't his style. He showed me where the kitchen was and asked me to put the kettle on. Seconds later we were in total darkness.
"Miranda, that's not funny, put the light back on."
"What? I haven't done anything other than put the kettle on."
"Right" he said in a rather weary voice "I'll go and check the fuse box." I made it into the living room via a counter top, 2 dining room chairs and the coffee table, at least I know my phone makes a useless torch.
"Nt fse, pr ct."
"What?"
"It's not the fuse, it must be a power cut."
He came into the room carrying a box of candles and a torch.
"Very organised." Our conversation was interrupted by my phone going off, it was Stevie.
"What have you done now? All my electric has gone off."
"Why do you think it's my fault?"
"Because this sort of thing usually is." Rude.
"In the shop or the flat maybe, but not the whole town."
"How do you know it's the whole town?"
"I'm not at home, I'm at Gary's and I very much doubt that everyone has turned in early for the night." I hung up before she could ask any more questions.
Whilst I was being accused of shorting out the town by Stevie (appropriate) Gary had lit all the candles and put a pan of water on to makes us a cup of tea, rather him than me, it looked rather complicated.
"I'm very impressed with having all this to hand."
"It's from uni, in the final year there had been a mix up with the flat so we ended up in the last place the landlord had and it was in, a less desirable part of town. In our first week the power went off 4 times, so we very quickly learned to have a stash in every room and one by the front door." He was interrupted by the pan boiling.
"What happened."
"We were supposed to be moved within the month, in the end we had it all year, not that I was there much, I lived round at Kate's I only stayed there when her landlord was due, adm I have to admit living somewhere where cooking was more than 'remove lid, add boiling water' and the kitchen could have created some pretty nasty biological weapons made a nice change."
Not only did we have no electric, but the central heating was not exactly reliable so when it decided to switch itself off again, and obviously we couldn't plug the heaters in Gary suggested warm up in a much more fun way, well it would have been more fun if his hands weren't like blocks of ice, it was so bad I made him make up a hot water bottle (it came in a set with the PJs, they were from his grandma) which was very romantic.
The next morning I was woken by the sound of a Gary fiddling with the bedside lamp. I guessed that the power wasn't back on and as I was very much under the duvet and cuddled up to Gary I didn't notice that there was no heating until I saw my own breath.
"I was going to make you breakfast, but as that clearly isn't an option, I'm going to take you out." This was a good idea, especially as we still had to buy Em and Max a wedding present, but Sebastian's birthday was coming up so we had to get something for him too.