Chapter 25: Here we are
Moon shining
Sun rising
You're the one I want to wake up to
- Niall Horan
When my eyes fluttered open the next morning, the room was spinning and my stomach churned.
The worst hangover of my life had officially begun.
I cracked open one eye to peek at Tom, and found him still sleeping soundly, his face smooshed into the pillow.
Then despite how awful I was feeling physically, a wave of calm and contentment washed over me.
I continued to lay there, trying to recall everything that had taken place the night before.
The rush of sensations. Skin on skin. Giggles. Utter bliss. And that feeling like I was finally home.
These bits and pieces of last night's memory drifted in, but they were interwoven with bewildering scenes of what must've been random dreams after I'd been taken over by sleep.
A particular scene flickered in my mind – in my darkened bedroom, I'd felt movements in the bed. Then a glimpse of Tom's figure as he slipped away from the room. Before he disappeared, I could hear him talking on the phone in a lowered voice.
"Yes, medical school… No, she doesn't know yet."
Was that what Tom had said?
It sounded so bizarre. It had to have been a dream.
Right?
"Is this really real?" Tom's sleep-tinged voice jolted me from my thoughts.
I groaned as he reached for my waist, pulling me close to him. "Hey, no making fun of the things I say when I was sloshed."
"Then you'd better distract me with something else," he murmured, his lips against my neck. Ticklish. Warm.
"Oh, wait!" I sat upright. "Speaking of distracting, this reminds me.."
"Hmm?" he asked, stifling a yawn.
I gingerly swung my legs from the bed onto the cold floor – my hungover state demanded slow and steady movements – picked up Tom's sweatshirt, pulled it over my head, and then tip-toed over to the closet. A few seconds later, I returned to bed with a square navy box tied with a white ribbon.
"Merry Christmas, Trev," I said shyly. "I totally spazzed and forgot to give it to you last night."
"Oh wow, thanks, Ali. I love opening up presents," he announced with a bright smile.
"It's just a little something, nothing extravagant," I warned him, biting my lower lip nervously.
Tom pulled the ribbon apart, and his smile grew bigger when he opened the box. "Hey, look at that. A new cap. Brilliant!"
He immediately tried on the cap – black, with Under Armour's white logo stitched at the front. "How do I look?"
"Perfect," I murmured, wondering for the millionth time how I'd gotten through 22 years of my life without knowing those crinkly brown eyes, easy smile, soft lips… Without knowing how incomplete my heart had been.
"Glad you approve," he replied, grinning and pulling me in for a quick kiss.
Breathless from even the briefest contact between our lips, I shook my head and shyly explained, "I think the cap will come in handy – when you're out and about and you need to go on stealth mode."
"Oh yeah, definitely. At least until I figure out a way to make myself invisible to escape the overly eager paparazzi."
"One day."
Tom looked thoughtful. "Sometimes I wonder how life would've turned out, if I hadn't gone for my first gig for Billy Elliot. If my 11-year-old self had for some reason said no to the role. If I'd just stayed home and did my homework."
"The one thing that set the course of the rest of your life?"
"Yeah. It's kinda crazy, how the past can define us so much." His fingers gently traced the constellation tattoo on my ribcage. "You know, I've been wondering for a while now… Your motivation to be a doctor? Could it be related to the incident where you lost your family?"
I gave him a surprised look. "How did you figure –"
"Just a guess. You specifically said 'ER doctor', so…"
"Yeah," I answered, my voice soft. "On the night of the accident, I was tended to by this ER doctor who basically saved my life. I was actually pretty close to not making it…"
Tom's eyes widened. "Shit, no. Seriously, Ali?"
"I didn't remember much and was unconscious for a couple of days. But yeah, that was what the nurses told me. And there and then, I knew I wanted to do something to, I don't know, pay it forward? I was just so grateful to my doctor."
"You have such a beautiful soul, I hope you know that." Tom's expression grew serious. "And I hope you will reconsider the scholarship…"
I was quiet for a moment.
"It's just that – being a doctor means a lot to you, and if there's a way for me to help you make your almost lifelong dream come true, I really hope you will allow me to."
"Thanks, Trev. I really appreciate it. Let me think about it, okay?"
"Sure."
"I can't believe you're really here," I said softly. "I've missed you so much."
"I've missed you more." Tom tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear. "I honestly thought you had given up on me, you know?"
"As I've found out, you're not that easy to give up," I confessed with a smile.
"Ditto," he replied. "That's what you always say, isn't it? It's growing on me."
"You might have just made it better because your accent makes it ten times cuter." I stared into those brown eyes that were looking back at me with joy. "So, here we are."
"Here we are," he echoed, his lips forming a contented smile.
"Umm so I think we should talk. About the things that we said we wanted to talk about."
"Yeah. We should."
"So I've thought long and hard about this. There's so much that we don't know about each other, and I can't force you to be forthcoming about every single thing in your life. And I don't want to. I want to be able to trust you and have this comfortable dynamic between us. So you can choose not to explain about something, and I'll respect it. It'll be totally fine."
"Really?"
"Yeah." I gazed at Tom earnestly. "But I just need you to promise me one thing."
"Anything."
"Promise me… That whatever you're withholding, it's not something that will impact me. And us – our relationship." I let out a nervous laugh. "I guess technically that's two things. But yeah."
Tom responded with a low chuckle, taking my hand in his. "Yeah, no. I absolutely understand and you know I'd never want to do anything else to risk losing you, Ali."
I nodded. "So –"
Two firm knocks on my front door interrupted my words. "Ali!" Jayna's muffled voice came through.
"Jayna! Hang on." I moved swiftly to put on a pair of pajama pants and made sure Tom was decent too before padding over to get the door.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," I called out as Jayna rapped impatiently again.
The sight that greeted me when I swung the door open was not what I'd been expecting – Jayna's joyful face beaming from me to the person standing next to her, flashing me a familiar cheeky smile.
"Harrison! Oh my God, hi," I said as he stepped forward to give me a quick hug.
"Hello, Ali. Happy Christmas," he chirped.
"Merry Christmas!" I turned to Jayna. "So how did this happen?"
"I believe I was not the only British bloke who had recently flown in," Harrison interjected, trying to peek into my apartment.
"Oh yes, Harrison filled me in. Where's Trevor McGeek? You didn't kick him out, did you, Ali?!" Jayna asked.
"What's all the commotion about here?" Tom appeared, wearing his Under Armour cap and a smirk.
"Mate! You should've told me earlier about your plan to fly over here. Not when you'd already boarded," Harrison chided playfully.
"Wait, wait. So you're saying you decided to do the same thing after Tom mentioned it to you?" I laughed at Harrison, still not quite believing that these two guys had just separately jumped on two different planes from halfway around the world – and for what, to see me and Jayna?
"How was I to know that you were pining for the other amazing girl in Warren town?" Tom punched at Harrison's arm teasingly.
"We could've sat through those dreaded 7 hours together and kept each other entertained," Harrison moaned. Now that I looked closer, his eyes were slightly bloodshot from presumably the lack of sleep.
"I think we need coffee right now," Jayna decided.
"And food," I added.
"Your stomach finally remembered how to function, huh?" Jayna winked at me.
"What? When was the last time you've eaten?" Tom swiveled to face me, concerned.
"I honestly don't remember," I admitted.
"I want bacon and fried eggs. Oooh, and black pudding. And a big fat mug of hot tea," Harrison announced wistfully.
"We'd be lucky to find a decent eatery that's open on the day after Christmas," Jayna pronounced.
I smiled and said, "I think I know where we can go."