love came calling, twice // olly murs

34.

The household was filled with chatter later that evening as the housemates, along with Annabel and Taylor, gathered in the dining room for dinner. The first meal that had occurred with Annabel had been such a success that they had decided to make it a weekly thing.

So every Monday the group got together and lamented about the events that would proceed for that week, laughing and enjoying themselves. Amelia would cook, though Olly would help as best as he could with salad or bread. The house had grown used to them being a couple almost instantaneously, but that was partly because the pair had fallen into such normalcy so quickly that it was almost impossible not to.

Amelia found she and Olly gelled almost seamlessly. It was like they had been together their entire lives. She had returned to work two weeks ago and so she would spend her mornings writing while he spent his mornings editing. They would run errands in the afternoon, sometimes separately and sometimes apart, it didn't matter. The evenings were spent with their housemates, and the nights, the nights were just for them.

Nights were rarely spent alone. Though they had the luxury of separate rooms if need be, they had only used it twice. Once when Amelia had a cold and the other when Olly had gone out with Jason and come home drunk. Despite how much she was growing to love him, Amelia preferred that he sleep it off in his own bed, thank you very much.

Their nights together were her favourite. That was their time. Sometimes they'd curl up in bed and watch a movie, others were spent just talking. Almost every night included kissing and touching, fooling around like teenagers. Though they had not consummated their physical relationship, Amelia knew they were going to get to that point soon, but she wanted to make sure she was ready. Completely sure that she could hand herself over to another man, that her feelings for Tom were gone. For the most part, she felt that she was, but there was always that little voice telling her to take things slow with Olly. She was lucky, though, as he was willing to wait.

"I've waited just for you, in general, for three years, Amelia," he'd say. "I can wait however long you need for the rest of it." And then he'd kiss her and that'd be the end of that.

Now she sat next to him at the dining room table, his left hand on her knee, giving it a little squeeze every once in a while as they ate and conversed. Not for any particular reason. Just because he could.

"So I told her," Annabel said as she fiercely cut a piece of meat, "I said, Holly, if we're going to move in together we need to take precautions. And I mean serious ones."

Taylor raised an eyebrow. "Precautions? Against what?"

"Zombies," Annabel said seriously, sighing at their confused and shocked glances. "I know, I know, it sounds absurd, but it's a fear of mine and a very real possibility."

Beside her, Jeff gave her shoulder a squeeze. "It's not absurd, Annabel," he said kindly. "It's completely rational. Right guys?"

The group chorused their agreement, not daring to offend sweet Annabel, who despite her friendliness, was really kind of weird. She had been coming around more frequently, but much to everyone else's dismay (and annoyance), things had not progressed with Jeff one bit. No one could understand why, but the man was simply too shy to make a move on the redhead and she didn't seem to care either way. She just appeared to be happy to be spending time with him.

This was frustrating, because no one could tell if Annabel had romantic feelings for Jeff. Amelia often vouched for that she did, considering her reaction when she had invited her for dinner the first time, but Annabel herself had not acted like that since. Even when Amelia and Taylor cornered her one night while they had coffee in the kitchen whilst the men watched basketball, she had not given any hints to her feelings.