Unexpected Encounters [B.H.M.]

10

It had been five days since I had woken up at Brian's house, which meant it had been five days since I had heard from him. A long working week, and if I was honest this whole adventure seemed like a dream by now. I still had the bag to prove to me that I really had met him, and the memories of course, but it was all seeming rather distant now. Maybe also because I hadn't told anyone yet, because ... I didn't know why, if I was honest. Maybe because I wanted to enjoy the memories for myself. I couldn't tell you. But what I could tell you was that Brian was on my mind a lot and I had been tempted to take him up on his offer.

"Call me if you feel like some company," was what he had offered me to do. Only that so far I hadn't, even though I had felt like some company - not from my friends, but from him. But I hadn't dared. Yes, I had his number, and yes, I had a phone, but it wasn't such an easy task because the man in question was famous and so damn handsome which made him very intimidating.

It had honestly taken me five days to muster up the courage to pick up my phone and dial the number Brian had written down for me. And my reasoning was spectacular - what did I have to lose? If he said no, then he said no and nothing had changed. And if he said yes ... well then I would be freaking out a little because he would have voluntarily agreed to spend time with me. And that was why I was currently trying to control my breathing as I waited for him to answer the phone.

However, I waited... and waited... and nothing happened. No one answered the phone. Deflated, I hung up again and crossed my arms. It was disappointing, really. I had been wanting to call him for days, but it had been a pretty spontaneous decision to go actually through with it but... it was still very disappointing to not hear his sweet soft voice at the other end of the line.

But there was nothing that I could do about it so I decided to try and be grown up over it and not act like a teenager who had been let down by her crush. That may or may not have been an accurate description but that wasn't the point here. I took a deep breath before I motivated myself to get on with the rest of the evening.

It was Friday, but I didn't have anything exciting planned. I was past the age where you went out and got drunk on a regular basis, slowly nearing the 40 I had to pay attention to my body, so I opted for a lazy evening at home in the bathtub with a good book. There was nothing wrong with that if you asked me.

However, just as I had started to run the bath and taken off my clothes when there was a knock on the door of my flat. Confused I looked up, unsure what to do - I could easily pretend I hadn't heard anything. But then again it might be something important, my neighbour could need something for example. He was an elderly man, a lovely man, and sometimes he needed help, opening a jar, getting something from a shelf, and it had been the routine for years that he would just come over and knock so I could help him. I didn't mind doing that at all, it was nice and he usually ended up giving me free food over some stories of his youth.

But opening my door clad in nothing wouldn't be such a good thing, so I reached for my big fluffy bathrobe and wrapped that securely around me before I made my way to the front door. I opened the three locks I had - maybe a bit paranoid but you could never be too careful - and there was a man waiting for me when I opened, just not the friendly old man from next door. Instead it was another friendly man from about half an hour away, tall with lots of curls on his head.

"Brian," I stated surprised and instinctively pulled my bathrobe a little tighter around myself. "Uhm... hi... what are you doing here? How did you get into the building?" There were so many questions, I was just getting started.

"Uhm, I was just trying to read the names on the signs to see where you live, but then one of your neighbours let me in because they were just leaving. I hope that's okay," he said, a small smile on his face. He looked tired, very tired. Even more so than he had done last week.