Chapter Three
Niall's phone vibrated.
"Does it ever stop buzzing?" His friend Adrian sat on a beanbag chair, with a gaming remote firmly in his grasp, his thumbs getting a workout.
"No," Niall shook his head. "Blasted thing is always goin' off."
"Great," Adrian said sarcastically, turning his attention to the TV screen. "I can't wait to spend the whole night with you, then. It'll be spectacular getting interrupted every ten seconds."
Niall held his hands up and pretended to play a violin in response to Adrian's sob story. "First world problems, yeah?" He looked at his phone. It was a text from Louis asking him to video call Daisy. Niall rose to his feet and looked at Adrian. "I'll be back."
"Girlfriend?"
He laughed. "Not exactly."
Adrian nodded his head, acknowledgment that he'd heard Niall's words but he was either unable or unwilling to peel his eyes away from the telly. Niall went into his room and shut the door so Daisy wouldn't be subjected to whatever shooter game his friend was hooked on.
He punched in the number and the call was accepted immediately. Daisy's smiling face was on his screen. "Niall!"
"Hello, love."
"Louis says you're in the North Pole."
"I think Louis is pulling your leg," he said.
Daisy pursed her lips together. "I knew it! Where are you, really?"
"I'm home," Niall said. "In Mullingar."
"That's far from here," she said. "Same as the North Pole."
"Yep, they're both far from you."
As Daisy moved with the phone, Niall got a detailed view of the Tomlinson household. "That's a great Christmas tree," he said. It was obvious, looking at the thing that a house full of females lived there. It could have graced the pages of a design magazine.
"I decorated it."
"By yourself?"
"No, silly."
"I was gonna say you're a tad bit too short to reach the top," Niall said.
"I wanted to wait for Louis to put the star on but Fizzy wanted to surprise him with the tree done."
"Did it work, was Louis surprised?"
Daisy nodded and smiled proudly. "He loves the tree."
He spoke with her for close to an hour. When she began to yawn throughout the conversation, he suggested that they hang up. She was reluctant at first until Niall promised her that in a week or so, he'd be in London himself and he'd come by so they could continue their conversation in person.
By the time he made it back to Adrian, his stomach was in knots and growling fiercely. "Let's go get something to eat. I'm famished."
Adrian grunted and stood setting the controller which was coated in oily fingerprints on the table. "Great. Let the fun and games begin."
Less than an hour later, the two were seated in a corner booth at Ashburger's; a local steakhouse and pub and Niall was happily devouring a steak sandwich with chips and drinking a pint of cold beer. In between bites he said, "I reckon if I ever had a steakhouse I'd call it Holy Cow."
Adrian chewed on his chip, repeatedly dipping it in ketchup. "Holy Cow Steak House."
"Yep," Niall said. "Go on, you can tell me it's bloody brilliant."
