ephemeral // matty healy

scone

The sun filtered through the curtains in her room. Blair rolled over expecting to see a messy head of curls beside her, but the bed was empty. A simple slip of paper was left on the pillow beside her.

Had to run. Early morning meeting. 

She got up to make herself some breakfast, plagued by flashbacks of their night together. She put her bread in the toaster, then was hit with a warmth that curled up from her toes while she remembered heavy kissing and Matty moving to her neck, then further down her body—

Stella, sporting denim cutoffs and bright red cowboy boots sang through the front door. "Hello!" she sand brightly.

Blair snapped back into her kitchen and saw her friend was carrying three coffees in paper cups. "Pour vous," she said as she handed the paper tray to Blair, removing her skim milk latte to take a sip. She always remembered Stella's order.

"Actually, Matty had a meeting this morning, so he's not here." Stella nodded.

"More for us, then." She winked and split the extra drink into a spare cup.

"He showed me this really cool song the band's about to release. It's so cool. I think you'll really like it." Blair reached for one of the many cups on the counter. She sipped the coffee. It tasted bitter, like someone had burned the beans. She didn't mind because the morning felt sweet. "I just remembered, I think we still have some scones from my shop the other day. Breakfast?"

"I'd love some, I've spent most of my evenings applying for jobs." Stella pulled up a chair to the counter. "I forgot how expensive school is and my loan won't come in for a while."

Blair listened to her friend talk about part-time positions and how it was slim pickings. Slicing fruit and placing them in front of her while Stella's head was in her hands. She lifted her eyes and smiled when she saw the apples, oranges and berries aligned perfectly on the plate. They snacked while the scones ate and then slapped a small pad of butter as the light steam tendrils rose and lifted off the baked goods. It filled the room with the scent of cinnamon.

"These are so fucking good." Stella said as she sipped her coffee. "Jesus, this is the best."

Blair propped her chin onto her hands, elbows glued to the countertop. She watched the way Stella's mouth smacked around the scone and the way the juice of the berries stained her lips.

"I can get some more anytime you want. The bakery is like right beside my work." She spoke with a smile. "It'll be my pleasure."

-

The next work day, Blair got a message from the front desk. Ruth told her that Matty was on his way up with a rather important message.

He refused to elaborate, she read.

She lifted her head from her monitor to see a floppy head of curls running towards her. He pulled up a chair beside her desk and sat beside her desk, an expectant look plastered on his face.

"Good morning," Blair spoke calmly. She leaned her cheek over to him while she typed out a quick thank you message to Ruth. Without hesitation, Matty placed a small kiss on her face. Ronan poked his head over his monitor and gave her an amused look before slinking back to his work.

"Hello," he panted. "Do you still have extra cuts and rough ideas from the music video?"

Blair swiveled her chair to face him. "Yes, I believe we do."

"Good, because we want them." He said. "I mean, we want to use them for lyric videos. Probably  vertical videos as well. You know. For the streamers." Matty crossed his fingers.

"Okay, we should probably book something with your management, yeah?" Blair tilted her head with a sweet smile.

"Yes, of course. I know, I just-"

"Got too excited and wanted to tell me yourself." She interrupted. He froze, but played it off cool with a quick laugh.

"Yeah, I also wanted to ask you out to lunch." Blair rolled her eyes at him and swiveled back to her computer.

"Matty, we're kind of already kind of going out, you don't have to ask me so bashfully." She typed a few words. "I'd love to do lunch."

He nodded, eagerly shaking his whole head forwards and back. "Cool," he said. "Nice."

"However it's only about 10 o'clock, so shall I meet you somewhere?"

"That place where the coffee is terrible?" He asked with a laugh. It made his eyes crinkle.

Blair's brow furrowed for a moment. "Yeah, actually. They have a really good scone that I like. We can have it for dessert." She returned the smile with her large front teeth poking out. She couldn't contain the smile. She was full of love.