High Tide | Mature Ed Sheeran Fanfiction

High Tide | Chapter 5: You're My Girl...

We had gotten home from our little trip to Portland the afternoon before. Both of us needed some actual sleep, and Ed said he had some stuff to work on, so we went our separate ways for the rest of the day. I did a little light cleaning and then binge-watched Season 3 of Sex & The City, falling asleep around 8:30 p.m. No shame.

I woke the next morning feeling really refreshed, and totally, hands-down, giddy. Ed seemed to handle me in all my neurotic, annoyingly drunk glory. Our physical chemistry was like nothing I had ever felt before, comparable to the likes of the teenage-hormone-fueled romanticism I had read about in books in high school.

I drove into town to pick up some groceries, needing to put together a few meals for Augie again. I flitted about the grocery store like I was on Cloud 9, smiling at everyone who crossed my path. My cart was overflowing in no time; I was distracted (daydreaming about Ed) and therefore tossed anything and everything in the cart.

Before I knew it, I was pulling back in my own driveway, my brain just totally running on auto-pilot at this point. I had loads of plastic bags, paper bags, and oddly shaped packages like a case of beer and some six-packs of soda. I was absolutely determined to make as few amount of trips into the house, loading up each arm and trying to balance shit on top of the bags.

Ed must have seen me stubbornly trying to fight the groceries, and came striding out of his front door.

"Need a hand, love?" Even just hearing his voice set those butterflies in my stomach off. It had been what, a whole 24 hours?

"Yes, please..."

He grabbed a couple of items that were precariously balancing in my arms, as well as the last couple of bags from the back of my Jeep, closing the hatch. He followed me into the foyer and down the hallway to the kitchen, depositing all of the groceries on the kitchen island.

"How are you today?" He asked. It was odd, he didn't have that normal twinkle in his pretty blue eyes.

"I'm good, great, just about to throw some freezer meals together for Augie..." Still no reaction from Ed. "How are you?"

"So, I've got something to tell you, a couple things actually," He said, his voice trailing off.

My heart instantly sank and fell into my stomach. Here it is, the other shoe.

"Okay..." was all I could reply. He pulled up a seat at one of the barstools across the island from me.

"There are photos, from last night, on the internet. You're in a lot of them." His voice sounded small. He was looking down at his hands, as he literally twiddled his thumbs.

"Okay...and?"

He looked up at my face, finally.

"Ed, it's just a couple pictures, I don't get it?"

He leaned over, grabbing my laptop and firing it up. The air around us was silent, save for the occasional click or button press as Ed was apparently retrieving whatever photos were out there. He found it, turning the laptop around so that I could see.

ED SHEERAN'S SLOPPY REBOUND GIRL

There was a set of pictures from various stages of the night, one of us kissing at the concert. Another one of us walking from the theater to the loft. And several from in the bar, none too flattering. There I was, throwing back my drink while Ed chatted with the lead singer, Marc. Another shot of us on the dance floor, and the last one had been snapped from across the street as Ed had helped me out of the cab at the hotel. Not cute, K.

I could his feel his eyes on my face, watching for my reaction.

"I mean, to be fair, I was a bit sloppy?" I joked, trying to lighten the mood.