“So, where are we going?” I asked Louis, as we walked down King John’s Street.
“Paris.” Louis replied casually.
“No way, I’m not leaving the country,” I said.
“We don’t need to, we’re here.”
He pulled me down a back alley and into a side door of a restaurant. It was beautiful. It had large, grey flagstone floors and light walls with fairy lights. It wasn’t busy but there were a few people chewing over delicious-looking food.
“Welcome to Un Avant-Gout De Paris!” Louis said.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“A Taste of Paris,” Louis smiled.
A smiley waitress with short, blonde hair came up to us.
“Hello Monsieur and Madame, table for two?” She asked.
I knew that voice.
“Hannah Weeks?” I cocked my head.
“Chloe Rennard! Louis Tomlinson! Hi! I almost didn’t recognize you!”
Not a catch up session here… Not on our first date. Hannah was an old school friend, if you were wondering!
“You two are still together, awh, cute! I’m living with my fiance at the moment! Do you guys remember James Short? Yeah, he’s such a sweetheart! I’m also pregnant!” Hannah gabbled.
“Waitress, can you please seat us?” Louis asked calmly.
“Oh sure! Sure guys!” She giggled, “Sorry, I’m just enthusing about my baby and the love of my life! I’m only three months along but…”
“Seat us?” Louis asked again.
“Yeah, um, this table! Follow me!” She said.
We sat down and I looked at the menu. Nice.
“I’ll have the chicken ceaser salad please!” I said, with a friendly smile.
“And I’ll have the bacon and chorizo soup!” Louis said.
“And to drink?” Hannah asked, jotting it down quickly in her note book.
“I’ll have a Budweiser.” Louis said.
“And I’ll have a house white!” I smiled.
“Coming right up!” Hannah said, and she walked away.
“Fancy seeing her here!” Louis said, after she was out of ear shot.
“James Short!” I said, laughing.
James Short wasn’t the… brightest of boys. Or the slimmest.
We both laughed for a while.
“I miss this,” Louis said.
“Miss what?”
“Us mucking around together, like the old times.”
“Us fucking around together, like the old times!” I laughed
“Well, obviously that bit was awesome, but I miss the talking too,” Louis said.
“I know me too.” I sighed.
“Do you remember when…?”
Oh we were having one of these conversations. I love these. Basically, if you have never experienced one of these before, someone says ‘Do you remember when we…?’ and then they finish it by saying ‘raped my nan’ or something like that and then you both laugh and then you say ‘Or the time when I met The Wanted and shit myself…’ and then you laugh and then the next person replies with ‘Or when we shot a harpoon at David Cameron!’ Laughter. ‘Or when we assassinated JFK!’ and the conversation normally ends with ‘Good Times’ and an after-laughter sigh and they you return to your regularly scheduled conversation.
“Good times,” Louis said, with an after-laugh sigh.
“Weren’t they just?” I said.
Our food came. We ate. We left.
“Where now?” I asked.
“I have an idea,” Louis said, “Follow me!”
We got in a taxi and got to the cinema.
“Woman in Black?” Louis asked.
“No way! I won’t sleep tonight if we see that,” I said.
“Who said anything about sleeping?” Louis winked, “And besides, you have me! How scary can it be?”
Apparently, very scary.
We left before the end.
Yeah, call us pussies.
Go watch the film and then we’ll see who’s laughing.
Unless you’re a fearless bastard.
Then you’ll be laughing at me.
And this will have backfired completely.
“Now?” I said. I was counting on him to organize the whole evening.
“Well, I was counting on staying for the whole film and then just going home and nailing you… But now it’s too early. So let’s… Go for a walk.”
“Okay,” I smiled.
We walked and talked for a while.
I can’t remember what about really.
Our friend Celeste and her daughter, Emma, who were coming down next week to have their dresses fitted for the wedding was the main topic.
Then we talked about Harry.
I told Louis about what had happened.
He didn’t seem to care, he felt sorry for Ellie… Called Harry a bit of a jerk or something.
We had another ‘Do you remember when..?’ conversation. If you’ve forgotten what that entails, see above.
And then we went back to our house.
Everyone was in bed.
And I’m not going to describe what happened next, because that would be dirty. I’M NOT GOING TO SUPPLY YOU WITH PORN.
But I will tell you this:
We didn’t make smoothies.
We didn’t play a game of tennis.
We didn’t fix a car.
We didn’t sword fight.
We didn’t arrange flowers.
We didn’t decorate fairy cakes.
We didn’t knit Harry a scarf.
We didn’t run a marathon.
WE HAD SEX. AND IT FELT GOOD. WE DIDN’T HAVE TO SNEAK AROUND. WE HAD SEX.