Chapter Ten

I placed my hands on my hips and watched in a mixture of horror and amusement as a long black limousine pulled up to the curb of Muscrove Apartments.

"Omg," I groaned in horror.

My landlord Lewis leant over the reception counter to have a good look through the window, "well at least he's taking it seriously."

My horror grew as Danny hoped out of the sleek car looking utterly gorgeous. I grimaced and turned to Lewis, "is it too late to cancel?"

Lewis grinned at me, "you may be cutting it a little short."

"What if I break my leg?" I asked desperately.

"Too late," Lewis murmured, and I turned around to see Danny push open the door to the foyer.

It crossed my mind briefly to turn and bolt back upstairs. Run away from him, and how good he looked, and this whole awkward situation between us. But my feet remained stubbornly frozen to the floor.

Danny's eyes met mine and he smiled at me. I attempted to smile back. I hope it resembled a smile and not a grimace.

"You might want to try a bit harder," Lewis muttered to me.

I took my eyes off Danny and glared at Lewis. He smiled innocently at me and then oh so subtly left the room winking at me on the way out.

I took a deep breath and turned my attention back to Danny who was less than a meter away from me now. I was just opening my mouth to give him a piece of my mind about the limousine when he produced a lone flower from behind his back.

The words died in my throat as I looked at the beautiful pink hibiscus. Only Danny could remember something as petty as my favourite flower which I had probably only mentioned once or twice in passing over the entire time I had known him.

"Hey," Danny murmured softly, his eyes seeking mine to gage my reaction.

I reached out and took the flower gently, my fingers brushing oh so softly against his, "you remembered," I murmured back. I was oddly touched by the gesture.

"Of course," Danny replied with a grin, "how could I forget?" Danny paused and waited for me to look up. When I didn't he warned, "please don't get girly on me."

I chuckled and met his eyes, "I wont, don't worry."

"Ready to go then?"

I nodded, "sure."

He offered me his arm and I hesitated momentarily before tucking my hand into his elbow. "Remind me to yell at you later about the limousine," I told him as he held the door open for me and we stepped onto the sidewalk.

Danny laughed, "I was wondering when you were going to bring that up." He opened the limousine door and gestured me inside, "don't kick up a fuss Amber. Just get in the car."

I scowled at him and did what I was told.

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The restaurant he took me to was ridiculously expensive. My eyes almost popped out of my head when I opened the menu and saw the prices, and my regular work salary wasn't exactly small. But I wisely kept my mouth shut. Besides, Danny seemed ridiculously content to be there and also to have me as company, so I decided to humour him and then kick his arse later.

The problem with expensive restaurants was that their menu's always seemed to be comprised of foods that I had never heard of before.

"Do you have any idea what any of this food is?" I asked.

Danny was examining his menu with a frown on his face, "I have no idea. Lets just make it up ok? When in doubt just pretend it all means salad and chips."

I laughed, "I don't think they'd sell chips in a place like this but ok."

"Salad and salad?"

"That sounds more appropriate," I nodded as my eyes drifted around the fancy interior of the restaurant. It was absolutely beautiful… but I was far to distracted by the man in front of me and the secrets that he had to reveal to truly appreciate it.

The waitress approached us, "are you ready to order yet?"

"I'll have what she's having," Danny jumped in quickly.

My mouth dropped and Danny grinned at me in amusement. I squinted at the menu attempting to find a dish that I could pronounce. Giving up I finally just snapped my menu closed and smiled politely at the hostess, "we'll have whatever you recommend."

Across the table Danny was desperately trying to keep his face neutral, "and a bottle of your best wine," he added his voice breaking slightly at the end with laughter.

"And keep it coming," I finished with a smile.

The hostess nodded and walked away probably thinking we were both crazy.

"How classy are we," Danny said sarcastically once she was gone, "we should have just gone to a pub."

I grinned, "yeah well maybe next time."

Danny raised an eyebrow, "so there will be a next time?"

"Well…" I murmured slowly leaning across the table and meeting his eyes, "I have a few questions you have to answer before we get too far ahead of ourselves."

Danny immediately caught on to my train of thought. He frowned and leant back in his chair, "oh."

I smiled softly, "yeah."

He was silent for a few moments, eyes running over my face. Finally he pouted, "really?"

I grinned, "yep."

"Now?"

I shrugged, "no need to rush, we have all night."

Danny frowned, "yeah and now it's going to bother me all night."

"I don't mind if you get it off your chest now," I replied.

Danny stared at me for a long time. So long that I was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable under his gaze. But finally he sighed heavily and looked away, "Ok, where do I begin?"

"The beginning is always a nice place to start," I assured him.

"Do you want the long or the short version?" Danny asked shuffling in his seat uncomfortably.

"Give me the short version," I answered. That way if the news was bad then I could skip out of here before the awful unknown dinner arrived.

Danny shuffled again and looked everywhere but me.

Knowing what was coming I held my breath nervously. This was it. The answer I had been waiting for… the missing piece of the puzzle that I had been lingering over for the past several months. My mind was working a mile a minute trying to pre-empt his answer. Was it good was it bad? Would it make me laugh, would it make me cry, would it…

"I was scared."

…Disappoint me entirely.

I blinked several times and stared at Danny until he finally stopped looking at the fountain in the corner and looked at me. "Wow," I said dryly, "I got to admit after all this time I was thinking that your answer was going to be so much more exciting than that."

Danny sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes, "maybe the long answer is necessary."

I sat back in my chair and crossed my arms across my chest, "maybe..."

Danny rested his elbows on the table and leant forward, "look," he began quietly, "the six months that we spent together were… amazing. Ok? I had such a good time with you, and enjoyed being with you and living next door to you and…" Danny trailed off and sighed, "but when I left you, when I got on the tour bus and started touring, it was like coming back to reality. Muscrove Apartments has never been a home to me, not until I met you. It was always just somewhere I crashed in between touring or recording. But for the first time, I really felt at home there." Danny rubbed his hand across his face, "so when I left. It got to a point where it felt like it had all been a dream."

I frowned and looked at the window. Somehow I knew exactly where this conversation was going.

"You've got to understand Amber, I've never been with anyone like you before. You weren't with me because I was Danny Jones, that guy from McFly. You were with me because…" he paused and chuckled, "well I don't know exactly why you were with me. But the point is, that when I left I was terrified that it was all too good to be true. I was positive I was going to come back and you would have moved on to someone else and then I'd be stuck right back where I started."

I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath, "you could of called Danny. If you were so freaked out we could have talked about it."

Danny smiled softly, "yeah well I kind of convinced myself somewhere along the way that I wasn't good enough for you. I mean, what could I possibly give you? You deserve someone whose going to be there all the time, not someone who takes off every few weeks for months at a time. What kind of a relationship is that?"

'I never cared about how much you travel Danny…"

"I know that. Look. I can't make any excuses for what happened ok? What's done is done. But I will say that I'm sorry. It was stupid of me not to call and fill you in on my freak out."

I rested my chin on my hand and sighed, "yeah well, I guess I can say apology accepted."

It was at that moment that our food and wine appeared. Danny and I both ignored our scary looking food completely and instead broke into the wine. I think we both needed it. Especially me, considering I found myself more confused after his explanation than I was before.

"So," Danny murmured, once we had both taken sips of our drinks, "where do we go from here?"

I ignored his question and asked one of my own, "Why'd you move out of Muscrove Apartments?"

Danny shrugged his shoulders slightly, "I figured that after my six months of escapades I was pretty much the last person you'd ever want to see again."

"That sounds about right," I murmured so softly I didn't know whether or not he heard me.

Danny reached out and trailed a finger across the hand that was clasped around my wine glass, "despite everything else," he murmured softly, "you look beautiful tonight."

I watched his hand caress mine, "thanks."

Danny dropped his hand and met my eyes. "I did learn something from my time being the worlds biggest arse."

I smiled softly at his choice of words, "yeah? What's that?"

Danny's eyes met mine across the table and he held them, "that I really do love you," he murmured. "I know you didn't believe me when I said it before. Maybe it wasn't the right time. But I do."

I could have sworn my heart stopped for a second.

"And I don't want to be away from you anymore," Danny continued as he reached out and twined his fingers through mine, "I'd really like it if we could maybe start over. If you want to. If not, then I understand completely."

I was speechless. It was a strange sensation considering it didn't happen all that often. I just started at him with wide eyes, as I struggled to form a response in my stunned brain.

"You don't have to say anything," Danny smiled when he realised I was stuck. "Its alright. We have all night."

My mind was working overtime, each thought forming and disappearing faster than I could comprehend. I finally pushed all those thoughts out of my mine and smiled softly at him. "Lets just enjoy the rest of the evening ok? I can figure out mu muddled up feelings over night."

Danny smiled at me, "that's all I ask for."

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To be continued...

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Should Amber take Danny back? Or tell him to go to hell?