𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐡 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲

Thirty | Beer

TOM

Granddad Bob has a warm thermos cup of tea in his hands as he talks loudly to Y/N up the other end of the carriage. He called her over to get to know her better and even though the train staff offered us all a wide choice of hot or cold beverages, Granddad brought his own thermos of tea on board. Old people are so finicky.

I can hear him laugh multiple decibels louder than every other one of my family members on the carriage, but I can't hear exactly what they're talking about. I trust Y/N to keep up our charade, the person I don't trust is him. He's going to share embarrassing stories about me and knowing Y/N, she'll just keep them to herself until the right time to use them against me.

"You're staring you know," Paddy says chuckling, making me turn towards him as I had now been using Y/N's vacant seat to stretch out side ways.

"I'm trying to making sure the old man doesn't expose me," I scoff in return, looking down at my phone again to get Paddy and Harry off my back.

"You guys have done this legal shit for like two months now right? How's it all going? She must be a decent person for you to actually bring her along to this," Harry remarked, closing the book he was reading after placing a crinkled bookmark in between the pages.

"We're becoming great mates actually. We had a moment where we didn't really hang out for a few weeks but like, it's because she got a bit nervous that I didn't like her properly," I shrugged.

"So you do like her?" Paddy smiled.

"Yeah of course I do."

"And she likes you?" Paddy asked again, still smiling.

"Yeah duh, she's on our family trip."

"So why don't you guys date for real then?" My youngest brother grins, revealing to me that he meant like like and not just like. God, I sound like a bloody high schooler saying like like.

"I didn't mean it that way. I mean like, we get along well and we joke around and stuff. Why? Do you think she likes me in a different way?" I asked, looking at Harry instead of Paddy because Harry had met her more. Also, Paddy has no fucking experience in the field of women. Actually, maybe he does. I need to have a man to man chat with him, I haven't caught up with him in a while. Maybe the little fucker is getting laid and I don't know it.

"Put it this way, if I was fake dating someone, I wouldn't want to be stuck with their family for several days on a country side property. That's a whole different level mate," Harry chuckled, reaching across the table to pick up his drink.

"And you did say that the two of you hadn't hung out for a few weeks cos she was scared you didn't like her... Maybe that was an excuse because she caught feelings," Paddy shrugged.

God blimey, since when did my baby brothers get so wise about women? Fuck, when did I get so naive?

"Forget her for a second. Do you like her?" Harry prodded.

"She's fun to hang out wi-"

"Do you like her," he repeated, more blunt and direct this time.

"I don't know, it's hard to know for sure. I still think about Z all the time and I don't want to accidentally treat Y/N like a rebound. What if I only think I like her because I'm just missing being with someone in general?" I sighed, grabbing my beer from the table and taking a few large swigs.

"Have you guys fucked?" Paddy chuckles, 'subtly' taking Harry's beer and taking a sip before getting smacked in the back of the head.

"Dude what the fuck, I need to visit home more often. It's so weird hearing you talk like this," I chuckled.

"Well I'm not going to talk like this in front of Mum am I? And I only see you when you come over after Mum begs you," he grinned.

"And no, we've kissed once and that was because I was jealous and being a dumb prick at dinner with Zendaya and Timothee and Stormzy and a bunch of other people. Oh that reminds me! Florence Pugh was there," I cooed, knowing that Florence was Paddy's ultimate celebrity crush.

"As if you didn't tell me! Get her to follow me on Instagram," Paddy joked, although I know he'd practically jizz his pants if she actually did.

"So you've kissed once and you think you like her, that sounds pretty promising dude. If you were sleeping together heaps then maybe you'd be confusing feelings for a rebound but you guys haven't even done anything. And she's here on our bloody family trip. And she's been talking to Granddad for like twenty minutes without blowing her brains out, falling asleep or crying. That's a fucking stand up woman right there," Harry laughed.

"She is pretty good isn't she?" I smiled, looking up the end of the carriage to where she was still talking with Granddad Bob. I wonder what they could possibly be talking about for this long that she hasn't politely ended the conversation and come back to us boys.

She looked down at me and makes eye contact with me, giving me a smile as she listened to Bob ramble about the weather or why movie studios pay us so much money. I gave her a little wave and smiled back before leaning back into my seat.

"So what are we talking about lads?" Our cousin Jasper says pushing my legs off Y/N's seat and sitting down in it. He's not the worst of the cousins but he's definitely a try hard. We see straight through him.

"Talking about girls and shit. You found yourself a girlfriend Jas?" Harry asks, knowing that Jasper was always seeing different girls and never settling down. Girls always gravitated towards him because he was quite charismatic at first glance. But in reality he's just a tosser.

"Not me mate, I'm flying solo whilst I'm young. Meanwhile old man over here is settling down," he says nudging me with his elbow.

"I'm three months older than you, calm down," I laughed, shaking my head at him. When he wasn't trying to be famous and pulled his head out from his ass once in a while, Jasper was alright to be around.

"She's fucking hot though... Zendaya was Zendaya you know, but a girl like Y/N kind of suits you better," he shrugged.

Hearing that surprised me. I thought Jasper would have gushed over Zendaya for the rest of my life, always reminding me of the woman who dumped me.

"Really? What makes you say that?" I asked.

"You're not trying to make her like you. Don't get me wrong, I know you loved Zendaya and she loved you but it always felt like you were being 'Famous Actor Tom' and not just Tom from Kingston. This time, you both just seem like you don't give a fuck, which makes it more real you know?" Jasper said, a few of his words slurred from the scotch he had ordered to seem 'fancy' on his Instagram stories.

"Fuck you're good at speaking out of your ass mate," Harry taunted, laughing with Paddy at Jasper. But he actually made sense for once, I didn't have to try around Y/N, it just worked naturally.