Just a quick note about the song lyrics near the end of the chapter – I know that this song is on the first album so Mel would already know it – but for the sake of the fic can we just pretend that it’s a brand new song no one has ever heard before?

 

Also, for once I do actually quite like this chapter (and the next one!) things are going to start kicking off very very soon! Enjoy xx

 

Chapter 26

 

“Can we help you miss?”

 

Mel smiled at the women behind the Reception desk, “yes I need some more pillows please.”

 

Turning away she noticed that suddenly she wasn’t alone in the lobby, a very familiar figure had just appeared out of the lifts.

 

“Alright gorgeous?” a voice asked.

 

“Don’t you let your girlfriend hear you say that!” she grinned cheekily, reaching out and giving Chris a kiss on the cheek.

 

“Ahhh, she understands it.”

 

Mel smiled, was it her imagination or was this flirting?

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well she understands how important our fans are to us.”

 

“Oh”

 

Mel fell back into silence.

 

Why was it that she felt so much love for him, yet he only ever called her a fan?  Well she wasn’t a fan, she was more than that, she was someone special, and soon he would learn to appreciate her more.

 

He broke the silence, “so what you up to standing in the lobby all by yourself?”

 

“Pillows.”

 

“Oh right, you’d think that expensive hotels would remember things like extra pillows in the room wouldn’t you?”

 

She smiled at him, and again they fell into one of their intense silences, the kind where he looked straight at her and she started to shiver.

 

“Heard you were by yourself,” he finally said.

 

“Yeah, my friends have all left me to it.”

 

“How come?”

 

“Doesn’t really matter.”

 

Another silence, which was broken this time by him placing a gentle hand on her arm.

 

“Don’t worry we’ll look after you, fancy coming shopping with me?”

 

“Pardon?” she looked at him in disbelief.

 

“I just really fancy some company.”

 

“What about Ella?”

 

He looked at his feet, “she’s not interested in coming.”

 

The tone of his voice made Mel think that may be they had had some kind of argument, but she knew not to press him any further so just nodded her head enthusiastically and they headed out of the door and towards the shops.

 

“Won’t anyone notice you?” she asked him in interest.

 

“Nope.”

 

“What makes you so confident about that?”

 

“Well I’m not Ben am I?” he joked

 

She laughed, “seriously?”

 

“Well I have my hat and my sunglasses, and you!”

 

“And that’s good why?”

 

“Well you can be my bodyguard – when the girls find me, I’ll run and you can beat them off for me.”

 

“Gee thanks,” she said sarcastically, casually slipping her arm through his, surprisingly he didn’t take it away and a warm glow began to spread through her body.

 

“So what shop are we heading towards?” she asked, unable to keep the happiness out of her voice.

 

“HMV”

 

They walked the rest of the way in silence – Mel just enjoying the contact that she had with him and taking in the wonderful scent that filled her nostrils every time she leaned further towards him.  And still he hadn’t even attempted to let go of her arm.  If anything he seemed perfectly happy, the few times that she had seen his face he was smiling, and at one point she had been sure she had heard him hum to himself.

 

She was disappointed when they found themselves in the shop and he detangled himself from her to flick through the CDs.

 

“I love Bruce,” she commented, peering over his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

 

“You do?”

 

“Yeah, I think he’s great.”

 

It was true she did think he was good, she had started listening to him as soon as she had found out that he was Christian’s favourite artist.

 

“Me too, although I have all of these so we’d best move over to the other section.”

 

“What section we going to next?”

 

“Pop”

 

Pop?  That seemed a bit bizarre – Christian didn’t strike her as being the kind of guy that popped down to his local HMV store for the latest copy of the Spice Girls album.  But then maybe there were a few things that she didn’t know about him yet.

 

“Why pop?”

 

“Well its new release Monday isn’t it – need to check out the competition.”

 

Of course!! How stupid of her, today the new a1 single was out and she hadn’t even given it a second thought, she’d been so tied up in everything it had completely slipped her mind.

 

They reached the shelves and scanned their eyes across the New Releases.

 

“It’s looking good!” Mel commented to him.

 

“How can you tell that?” he asked with a laugh, “it’s Monday morning and the shops have only been open for a few hours.”

 

She rolled her eyes at his ignorance, “you don’t know much about stuff do you?”

 

“Well explain.”

 

“Well, your single is on the top shelf – easy access to the customer.”

 

“Meaning?”

 

“The shop thinks it’s going to sell well – also look,” she pointed to the shelves below, “the other singles only have a little shelf each, you have a large shelf.”

 

“Oh right,” he nodded his head, “I never realised you could tell so much from looking at the shelves.”

 

“Ahh, well I know these things!”

 

“I knew there was a reason I came shopping with a fan,” he commented, giving her a quick hug and then reaching up to take a couple of copies off the shelf.

 

“Erm… Chris what are you doing?”

 

“Only what you should be doing.”

 

“Eh?”

 

“Buying our new single.”

 

“You can’t buy your own single,” she retorted, trying to wrestle it out of his hands and put it back on the shelf.

 

“Why not?”

 

“Well its stupid – I mean doesn’t the record company give you a copy?”

 

“No!” he got the CDs back off the shelf and carried them over to the counter.

 

“What if the shop assistant recognises you?” Mel hissed, blushing slightly at how embarrassing the situation could be.

 

“She wont, I’m not Ben,” he replied simply

 

He was right, he managed to buy the CDs without the lady raising so much as an eyebrow, Mel wondered how people could be so blind and stupid.

 

As they walked back into the hotel Christian suddenly stopped and turned to her.

 

“Mel?”

 

“Yep?” she asked, slightly uneasily.

 

“Can I show you something?”

 

“Sure – what?”

 

“It’s a surprise.”

 

He lead her over towards the piano in the far corner of the lobby and reaching into his pocked pulled out a scrap piece of paper.

 

Positioning his fingers over the keys he began to play a beautiful tune.

 

“So, what do you think?” he asked.

 

“Its lovely,” she replied.

 

“I’m glad you like it – I really respect your opinion, that’s why I wanted to play it to you.”

 

“Does it have words to go with it?” Mel asked.

 

“Yeah, really special words,” he replied smiling and he began to play again this time his rich voice filling the lobby.

 

“Now my life is blessed with the love of an angel.

How can it be true?
Somebody to keep the dream alive.
The dream I found in you. I always thought that love would be the strangest thing to me but when we touch, I realise that I found my place in heaven by your side.”

 

“That was just amazing!” she said when he had finished.

 

“You really think?”

 

“Yeah, thanks.”

 

And with that she ran off back up to her room, hugging herself with joy.

 

Finally she knew how he felt, he had written this beautiful song for her, a song that had touched her the moment she had heard it, so much so she had really wanted to cry.

 

There was no doubt about it – tonight was going to be the night.