Chapter 8
I awoke a few hours later to my phone ringing.
"Hello?" I was still groggy from my crying induced nap.
"Hello darling." It was Tom's sweet and gentle voice.
"Hey..." I instantly perked up "...how was your flight?"
"Uneventful really. Mostly Luke and I going over my schedule and me reading that book you gave me."
"Oh, finally reading The World Set Free huh? How are you liking it so far?" I asked.
"I'm really enjoying actually. The way Wells describes things is beautiful." He replied.
"See? I knew you would love it."
"Yes, you were completely right. How about you? Have you started A Midsummer Night's Dream yet?" He asked.
"I read the first few pages. I'm still having some trouble getting the ball rolling on it." I admitted.
He chuckled. "Perseverance my dear."
"Yes, yes, you're right. How about this? I promise to read the first act tonight."
"That's the spirit!" He laughed.
There was a moment of silence ended by both of us sighing.
"So what are you guys going to be busy with tomorrow?" I asked.
"Just a bunch of interviews. Talk shows mostly."
"Anything you're particularly excited about?"
"Well is a radio show I'm going on that seems like it's going to be a great deal of fun." He said.
"Oh really? Are you going to whip out some of your famous impressions?" I asked.
"If such opportunity arises you know I won't be able to resist." He said.
I laughed "No you won't. You're too much of a goofball."
"Am I really that bad?" He asked pretending to sound hurt.
"I never said being a goofball was a bad thing. In fact it's one of my favorite things about you." I replied. I wanted to kiss him so badly.
"Oh really? What are some of your other favorite things?" I could hear the smirk on his face.
I gave him a look even though I knew he couldn't see me. "Well should I start with personality or physical?" I asked. I was starting to feel flirtatious.
Tom giggled his ehehehehe laugh. "Whichever you want darling."
"Well to name a few things, your eyes and smile are the most beautiful I have ever seen besides your hands." I paused hearing him giggle. "I love the fact that you read a lot and that you sing Bob Dylan songs with me."
"I love that you sing Bob Dylan with me." He interjected.
"And if I have to name one more thing it would be you laugh." I said.
"My laugh?" He asked.
"Yes, I'm pretty sure it can cure cancer." I said.
He laughed "Oh darling, you flatter me so. I don't deserve any of it."
"I respectively disagree. You deserve every bit and much much more." I stated.
Tom sighed. "How on earth did I get someone this wonderful?"
I chuckled "By being wonderful yourself."
"E, these next few months are going to kill me." Tom said quietly. "I just saw you 8 hours ago and I'm already-" he stopped and became silent.
"Tom?" I listened hard and thought I heard him sniffle. "Hun? Are you okay?"
"I just- I feel like a part of me is missing ever since I left." He said sounding choked up.
"The feeling is mutual Tom. I barely kept it together when your plane took off." I paused, not sure of what else to say. "I honestly fell apart when I got home."
"E..." he sighed again. "I want nothing more but to hold you right now."
"That sounds amazing. Perfect really." I replied.
"Are you sure you can't come out here right away? Like now?" Tom asked.
I laughed. "As much as I wish I could, it's going to be impossible for several weeks. I just got booked solid for the next month. And on top of all of that I have to train Meredith so when I do get time off to come visit you, everything won't crash and burn when I'm gone." I said.
"Ugh, why do I have to date a successful, independent woman?" Tom joked.
"At least I'm successful where woman belong." I said.
"Where?" Tom asked confused.
"In the kitchen." I joked.
Tom laughed "E you shouldn't make such demeaning jokes."
"Yeah you're right. I grew up with guys making those jokes at me." I said.
"Oh really? That's horrid." Tom said.
"Eh, I got used to it. And it didn't hurt that I had a good comeback when they told me to get back in the kitchen." I said.
"What was your comeback?" He asked.
"I just said 'Fine. That's where the knives are.'" I said smugly.
Tom bursted out laughing. "I adore your gumption sweetheart."
"I'm glad you do." I said smiling.
I heard my doorbell ring.
"Who's that?" Tom asked.
"You can hear that?" I asked getting off my bed and heading to the door.
"Your doorbell is really loud." Tom said.
"How else will I hear it when I'm blaring my music?"
"Good point." He said.
"Hold on a second." I opened the door to see Scarlett standing there with bags of chinese and movies.
"Tom is gone, you're depressed, we're have a gal pow-wow." She declared as she brought the bags inside.
"Don't be depressed darling." I heard Tom say.
I brought the phone up to my ear and went back to my bedroom. "How am I not supposed to be? You'll be gone for a couple of months. I miss you, and dammit..." I checked the door to make sure Scarlett wasn't there. "...I'm horny."
There was silence on Tom's end. "I can be on the next flight out."
I laughed "A goofball and a horndog."
"Hey you brought it up my dear." He chuckled.
"Alright fair enough." I said.
"E! Come on! We're going to watch movies, cry, eat, and get fat!" Scarlett yelled from the living room.
"Okay well I should go for now." I said reluctantly.
"Yeah I need to get some sleep. Early day tomorrow." Tom said sounding bummed.
"Okay well I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Yeah, you will." Tom paused for a minute. "E, I-um..."
"Yes?" I asked.
"I-uh, I nothing. I really miss you." Tom said in a defeated tone.
"I miss you too." I said. "Don't worry, it'll be alright. We can make this work."
"Yeah, we can." He said.
"Alright hunny, you get some sleep. I'll talk to you tomorrow." I said in a reassuring tone.
"Alright. Goodnight and sweet dreams darling." Tom said. He sounded so sorrowful it made my heart ache
"Goodnight sweetheart. I l-sweet dreams." I couldn't believe I almost let it slip. I hung up just in case it was more obvious than I thought.
Scarlett poked her head through the door. "Everything okay?" she asked.
I just stared at my phone looking at my pictures. I had a picture of Tom when he was laughing and goofing around. There was pictures of us together, making silly faces, smiling, kissing. I started to cry.
"Oh hunny." Scarlett came in and hugged me tight.
"Oh god I know. I'm so lame." I said my voice muffled by her shoulder.
"No you're not. You just need chinese food and a good cry." Scarlett said patting my back.
She was right.
3 movies, 4 containers of chinese take out, and a bottle of red wine later, Scarlett and I snuggled up on my couch.
"So are you and Jeremy ever going to actually date?" I asked her.
She gave me a look. "We're just friends."
"Okay, whatever you say." I said giving her a knowing look.
"What?" She asked.
"I'm just saying. You guys are always flirting and being all cutesy. I ship it." I giggled.
"Oh god. Why am I friends with you?" She said throwing pillows at me.
"Because I know too much." I said hitting her back.
We gave up our battle and went back to our movie.
"So have you and Tom had sex yet?" She asked.
I looked at her surprised. Her question caught me off guard.
"Well?" She said impatiently.
"No. No we haven't." I answered.
"Why the fuck not?" She asked raising her voice a little.
"It just hasn't happened. We've done everything but to be honest." I replied.
"Well that's understandable. Are you excited for it to happen?" Scarlett asked taking another sip of her wine.
"What do you think? I mean, if he can make me scream during foreplay, I can't imagine how amazing the sex is going to be." I giggled.
Scarlett laughed. "You guys seem to have really good chemistry. I'm so glad I introduced you two."
"What do you mean? We ran into him as we were leaving." I said to her confused.
Scarlett grinned.
"Scarlett spill." I demanded.
"Why do you think it took me forever to change and get my stuff together?" She paused as she saw the cogs turning in my mind. "Why I was checking my phone? And I didn't let us leave until I got a text."
"Did you-?"
"I was so excited that you were here that I was telling everyone all about you. The more I told him about you, I don't know, he really wanted to meet you."
"Oh god." I covered my face and laughed.
"When I showed him a picture of you he was like..." Scarlett slipped into a mock deep voice "'Oh wow, she's beautiful.'"
I was laughing uncontrollably. "You set us up and I didn't even know it."
"Yeah the next day I came to set and he was like 'When are you bringing her to set again?'" She was laughing at me blushing.
"Scarlett, you really are the best friend anyone could ask for." I said hugging her tightly.
She hugged me back. "You're not so bad yourself."
"Ugh, I'm so paying you back by making you a never ending supply of strawberry shortcake." I said.
"That is perfectly acceptable." She said with a smile.
About two weeks later I was at work prepping when I got a phone call from Luke. I wiped off my hands on my apron and stepped to the side.
"Hey Luke." I said.
"Hey E, how are you doing?" He asked.
"I'm doing alright, just keeping busy. How about yourself?"
"I'm doing well thanks for asking."
"So what's up? Is everything okay?" I asked.
"Yes everything is fine, I just needed to give you a heads up about something." He said.
I raised my eyebrows. "Heads up? About what?"
"Some photos have surfaced of you and Tom at the airport and there are rumors flying around." He said.
"Rumors?" I asked kind of worried.
"Nothing bad to my knowledge. Just people speculating on who you are, how you guys met, all that kind of stuff." He explained.
"Okay. What should I expect?" I asked.
"Well if people find out who you are, and I'm honestly expecting them to, just try to avoid any questions." He said.
"What kid of questions would they ask me? I'm sorry I keep asking all of these questions. I just don't have any idea of what to expect." I apologized.
"E, don't worry, it's totally fine. Feel free to ask me anything. And they will just be asking who you are, how you guys met, are you two together." He responded.
"Okay, so just kind of ignore them." I said.
"Basically yes. And please don't think of it as Tom not wanting to know that you are together. I figure it would be best to keep this fact on the down low until the premiere." Luke said.
"Right, I understand. People need to focus on asking him about the Avengers, not his love life." I replied.
"Yes, exactly. I'm glad you understand." Luke said sounding relieved.
"Okay. Is there anything else we need to talk about?" I asked.
"Well it's a bit early, but Tom has arranged for you have your pick of whatever gowns you want to wear for the premieres."
I gasped "Whoa what? That's expensive. I could figure out something."
Luke laughed. "He said you would react like this, but he has insisted. Scarlett said that she would guide you through the whole thing. So that is all taken care of."
My heart was full of joy. I was so lucky to know such wonderful people.
"Wow, thank you. I really can't express my gratitude." I said.
Luke chuckled. "E, it's nothing really. Now, do you have another minute?" He asked.
I looked around at all the food I had to prep. "Um, kind of, but not really."
"Okay well how about I email you. We should start trying to figure out when we're going to fly you out." Luke said.
"Yeah we do. Okay well I'll email you tonight and we can go over schedules." I replied.
"Sounds good. Alright then, I'll talk to you later. Goodbye." Luke said.
"Bye." I hung up and went back to prepping.
A few more weeks went by and Luke and I finally scheduled a visit. I was to fly out to England and visit Tom while he was filming The Hollow Crown. I couldn't wait to see him in person. We had been skyping almost every night and his grown out hair and beard made me weak in the knees. We had been apart about a month and a half and it was killing both of us. I was so glad I only had two more days until I got to see him again. Hold him, kiss him, smell him. My heart filled with warmth just thinking about it. I was singing and dancing around my room while packing when my phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Having a party darling?" Tom laughed.
I had forgot to turn down my music. "Ha sorry, one sec." I twirled the knob on my stereo, lowering the volume. "What's up love?"
"I was just checking in. How's packing going?" Tom asked.
"It's going well. Are you okay? You sound tired." I looked at my clock to see it was 9pm. I quickly figured out the 8 hour time difference. "Tom, what are you doing up at 5am?"
"I wanted to talk to you. I miss you." He replied.
"I miss you too hun, but you need your rest." I said concerned.
"So do you, what time does you flight leave?"
"Around 4am. I should touch down in New York around 10 or 11 if everything goes well."
"Good, will call me when you get there?" He asked.
"Of course, I may have to wait until I drop my bags at my moms place."
"Are you excited?"
"Yeah I am, I get to see my mom, check in on my new york branch..." I sighed happily "...see you."
Tom chuckled "I can't wait. I've missed you so much."
"Same here. It's been killing me not being able to see you." I said while folding some shirts.
"Oh I have something to ask you."
"Sure, what's up?"
"I know you asked where you would be staying while you are here. And I have a idea if you are okay with it." He paused, waiting for me to give him a signal to continue.
"Alrighty, shoot."
"Well I thought it would be fun if you stayed with me."
"Stay with you? Like at your house?" I asked in surprise.
"Yes, if you want. I mean I'll understand if you don't." Tom said nervously.
"Oh no, I would love to, but are you sure you won't get annoyed or sick of me? I mean, I'm going to be there for two weeks."
"Exactly, you'll be here for only two weeks. I want to spend every second possible with you." He said sweetly.
I smiled "You know what, that sounds perfect."
"Great! Oh and I'll be picking you up at the airport when you arrive." Tom said excitedly.
"Yay!" I hopped up and down.
Tom laughed "I'm glad that pleases you darling."
"Oh hunny you always please me." I flirted.
Tom exhaled sharply. "Oh god, why can't you be here now?"
"It's just two more days..."I started, but was interrupted by Tom groaning. "...trust me, it'll be worth the wait."
"That reminds me. You should bring some dressy clothes. They're several places I want to take you to."
I was pleasantly surprised. "Aw, you don't have to take me out. I'm just happy I get to see you."
"Darling it's your first time being in London, I'm going to take you to see all the sights. I insist." Tom said.
"But aren't you going to be busy with shooting?" I asked.
"Only for a few days. Luke managed to give me some time off during your visit."
I couldn't stop smiling. "Tom, I don't think you know how excited I am right now."
"Believe me E, I think I have a pretty good idea."