Love Of My Life

18

Ben

Aria called me last night in a panic over the tabloids. Honestly, it's disgusting that our relationship, or whatever it is at the moment, it being twisted into a bad thing. How come we can't date without it turning into this evil thing?

I told her I didn't really care what the press is saying. I mean of course I care to a degree, but I won't let it change my opinion on anything. 

So I came up with an idea.

Well it's not a new idea, but I decided now was the time.

"Mate, did you get it?" Gwilym asks me. 

Currently I sit in the dressing room, the lads trickling in. We just finished filming a series of scenes that took forever to actually get through, but we finally made it. Aria seemed to be in good spirits, which is a good thing for me.

"Yeah, Brian bought it for me," I say, reaching next to me besides the couch to grab a bouquet of flowers that had been sitting there all day, waiting for this moment. 

"Brian bought it," Joe snickers. 

"He said she's particular about her flowers, I don't know," I respond. I told Brian I wanted to officially ask Aria to be my girlfriend and Roger - who I heard yell in the background - suggested flowers. That led into this big debate over what kind and Brian offered to pick them up since apparently Aria only likes certain kinds. He snuck into the dressing room to give them to me this morning. 

I've been stressed about asking her all day. I mean I think she will say yes, but part of me thinks she'll get weird about it because of the press. It's a reasonable fear. But I thought by asking her during all this chaos it would show how we can make this work no mater what. And it'll show I don't care about what anyone thinks. I just hope it doesn't backfire on me. 

I pull out my phone, from my pocket and text Aria asking her to come to the dressing room, if possible. 

"So we're going to stay right?" Joe asks.

Silvia, one of our hair and makeup ladies, gives Joe a look. I realize now that she has been there for all of our conversations and probably knows about our lives more than we do. Both her and Emelia. 

"Let the boy have his moment," Silvia says. 

"Yeah let the boy have his moment," I say, agreeing with the grey-haired woman. 

"We are in this together!" Joe argues. He points between us. "Bennie, listen. Just please,"

I roll my eyes from amusement. He's too much.

"Fine," I give in. "You can stay, but just don't ruin it,"

Joe, Rami and Gwilym all jump for joy while Silvia looks less than impressed. I mouth an 'I'm sorry' to her before she leaves the room, Lucy taking her place.

"I'm here, don't worry," she says.She walks further into the room.

"Wait a second," I say. How did she know about this?

"Did we miss it?" I hear another voice ask. In comes Brian and Roger at a fast pace, Roger pushing Brian along. 

"I might have texted them," Rami says, grinning from ear to ear. I'm glad my private life is becoming a reality television program. 

I stand up and face all the people that are in the room.

"Okay, so you all are going to hide when I ask her and then hopefully she'll say yes and then you can jump our or whatever you want. I just need someone to hand me the flowers at the end," I tell them.

"Do you want a normal jump up? Or can I do my jazz hands?" Joe asks, demonstrating his so called 'jazz hands'. 

"I don't care. Whatever you want,"

"We should jump up and then go straight into our dance," Gwilym says to Joe.

"The Boss Ass Bitch dance?" Joe asks. Gwil nods. "That's genius,"

"No. No dancing," I argue. 

"That just means no no dancing, so therefore dancing is encouraged," Rami points out. "It's a double negative," he adds when I give I'm a distressed look. 

I face palm so hard I hear my hand hit my face. A tap on my back distracts me. I turn around and come face to face with Aria.

"You wanted to see me?" she asks. 

"Oh for the love of God," I groan, throwing my hands in the air. Now everyone is out and the mood is ruined. 

"What he means is 'I have something to ask you Aria'," Joe mocks. The lot of people slowly backs up. I guess now is the time. 

"Listen," I say to the brunette girl in front of me. "I wanted to talk in a more private setting, kind of, but...life happened. I just wanted to say that I know you're stressed about what the media is saying about us. It's annoying but it's completely false, you know that. I know you're worries about me but I don't care about any of that. So much so that I wanted to ask if you wanted to officially be my girlfriend and we can go out and show the press that what we have is real," I nervous laugh. I could have worded that any other way and I'm not entirely happy with how I did it. But it's done.

Aria rubs her lips together before a smile creeps on her face. She nods her head and gives me a small yes. 

I grin and lean in to wrap my arms around her. She wraps her arms around my neck and I pick her up and spin her around. I almost forgot about the lot of people in the room, but I remember when they all start cheering. Joe and Gwil start doing their dance but I pay them no heed. 

I stick my arm out and luckily Brian is there to hand me to flowers, which I give to Aria after we pull away. 

"Did you all know about this?" she asks the lot.

They all nod.

"We've heard all sides," Roger says.

"We wanted Ben to ask you out from day one but he wanted the time to be just right," Rami explains. 

I sigh and wrap my arm around Aria's waist, pulling her closer to me.

I've never been happier than with this lovely group of people - my new best friends- and my now new girlfriend.