Love me wherever - Hardzello

12.

A long time passes without hearing from Ben or Gwilym. I wish I had told Ben how much he means to me. How much I love him and how much I miss him. I miss holding his hand, hearing his laugh, I miss being in his comforting arms.

'What are you thinking about, Joe?' Zoë asks. 'Nothing, really.' I say. She shrugs and continues looking at her phone screen.

I've been dating Zoë for three weeks now. She's very nice, but she's not Ben. It's been months since Ben left but I keep thinking about him. I just wish I could see him again, hug him again, kiss him again. I hope he didn't forget about me. I tried but failed every single time.

I look out of my window and see the mailman walk away from my mailbox. Every time I get mail, I hope somewhere deep inside that a letter from Ben or Gwil will be somewhere between the bills and ads.

I rush outside and open the mailbox. 5 envelopes are lying there waiting to get opened. 'It's probably nothing.' I whisper to myself like. I grab the letters and head back inside. 'Someone is excited to open his mail.' Zoë says with a smile. I laugh weakly and start looking through the letters. 'No way.' I almost drop the envelopes I'm holding. Zoë looks confused at me. 'What's the matter, babe?' She asks. In my shaking hand, I'm holding an envelope with the words: "for Joe Mazzello, from Gwilym Lee". 'What's that?' Zoë asks. I just realized I never really spoke about Ben or Gwil with her. I guess I wanted to keep that to myself. 'Eh, just an old friend.' I say. I open the envelope and start reading.

"Dear Joe,
I hope you're okay. I miss you so much. I'm not the only one who misses you. Ben hasn't stopped talking about you since we left, it's almost getting annoying. I know I'm not supposed to contact you but I need you to help me with something, Joe. As you might know, Ben's birthday is coming up and I kinda figured the only thing he wants for his birthday is you. He truly loves you, Joe, I know he does. I wrote the address on the back of this letter. Please consider stopping by, for him (and maybe a little bit for me).
We love you.

Your friend, Gwilym."

Holy shit. Is this even real?
I sit down on the couch and inspect the letter multiple times. 'Honey your Jaw is almost hanging on the floor, what's that?' Zoë points at the paper. I ignore Her question and turn the letter around. An address is written on the back. 'Where's my phone?' I say with my eyes still fixated on the piece of paper.' I won't give it to you till you tell me what's going on.' She says. 'I'll tell you later I just really need my phone right now.' I look at Zoë, giving her my  best puppy eyes. 'Fine, just stop looking at me like that it's too adorable.' She laughs and hands me my phone. 'Thank you.' I say and look up the address Gwil gave me.

'Now could you please tell me why you're acting so mysterious?' Zoë asks. I look up from my phone. 'I'm not acting mysterious.' 'yes, you are Joe.' She folds her arms. 'I just gotta take care of some stuff. I promise I'll tell you later okay?' I stand up and kiss Zoë on her forehead. 'Where are you going?' She asks. 'A friend.' I answer while looking for my jacket. I reach for my jacket when another one falls on the ground. I recognize it immediately. 'It's Ben's.' I whisper to myself.' It still smells like him. 'Bye Honey!' I yell before heading outside. No response.

I ring the doorbell and the door flies open. 'Joe!' Lucy is standing in the door opening. 'Lucy.' I smile and she gives me a warm hug. 'Please come in.' she says and gestures to her living room. 'I feel like I haven't seen you in ages.' Lucy says while we walk inside. 'I'm sorry.' I say. 'No need to apologize dear.' We sit down on her couch. 'No really, I feel like I have been a terrible friend lately.' Lucy moves closer to rub my back gently. 'Joe, you just had a lot to deal with and so did I. No need to blame it on yourself.' She gives me a reassuring smile. 'You fancy some tea?' Lucy asks. She stands up. I nod and Lucy starts boiling water. 'So what have you been up to lately?'

Well, what have I've been up to lately? I haven't done shit since Ben left to be honest. Work and Zoë are the only interesting things I can think about.
'I got a girlfriend.' I say trying to give my best fake smile. Lucy turns around immediately. 'Oh really? That's nice, I'm so happy for you Joseph!' Lucy smiles at me as she brings the tea to the table. 'Have you heard anything from Ben or Gwil lately?' This time a real smile appears on my face. 'You also got a letter, didn't you?' she asks. 'Yeah, I did. I'm glad they didn't forget about us.' We both laugh. 'It's good to see you again Joseph.' Lucy says. 'It's great to see you too.'

We talk for hours and hours. After we finished our tea we quickly turned to the alcoholic drinks.  It feels so nice to talk with Lucy, she's one of the sweetest persons I know. I feel so comfortable whenever I'm around her, I never really noticed that. And looks incredible today. 'You know Lucy when Rami first introduced me to you I had a little crush on you, to be honest.' She starts laughing and shakes her head. 'What's so funny? Is it that big of a surprise?' I say playfully. 'No honey, I knew.' She says. 'No way! How?' ''Cause it was quite obvious but it was adorable.' Lucy giggles. 'You think so?' She nods her head. 'I just think that you're really beautiful.' I say quietly. She looks to the ground and up to me. 'You do?' Lucy askes just as quietly. 'I really do.' She moves a little closer. 'Thank you, Joe.' I lay my hand on hers. Our eyes lock and our heads keep moving together. 'Can I kiss you?' I ask. She nods. We close our eyes and let our mouths lead the way. Holy shit, I just kissed Lucy.