Nick

“Are you ok?” Mr Hope-Spring asked me as his hand moved from my shoulder to my cheek. The small skin-to-skin contact felt like sparks of electricity suddenly passed between us, causing me to instinctively lean into his touch.

“I should be the one, asking you that.”

“I’m fine, I’m sorry for…before…you know…” he stammered, his smile now gone and his face tilted down towards the floor. His hand now down by his side.

I reached for his hand and waited until he looked back up at me, “hey, there’s no need to apologise,” I paused before continuing, “Do you want to talk about it?”

There was uncertainty on his face, like he was torn between needing to speak and needing to bury everything as deep down as possible and hide from the world. We stood in silence, unmoving, I gave him time to think about how he wanted to respond. All I wanted in that moment was to take away his pain, to put that smile back on the sweet man’s face. I wanted to wrap him up in my arms, hold him tight and never let go.

“I’m sorry,” there he was apologising again, “it’s…nothing,” he started looking down to the floor again.

I reached my free hand to his chin and gently lifted it so he was facing me again, “I’m a good listener,” I tried with my best caring smile which caused his own to start to show at the edges of his lips.

“I suppose,…maybe,…we could get some tea,” he shakily suggested. “No, that’s a stupid idea, forget I said anything,” he interrupted before I had a chance to respond. He turned to try and walk away but with the hand I still had holding his I gently pulled him back towards me. At least that was my intention, but with him trying to get away it turned into me accidentally pulling him into my lap.

Before he could do or say anything else, I wrapped my arms around him to make sure he didn’t fall and said, “hey, it’s a good suggestion, I’d love to get some Tea.”

“Won’t your boss mind, shouldn’t you be working?”

“My boss,” I was slightly confused, the intoxicating scent of Mr Hope-Spring combined with him now being very close to me had me feeling a little light-headed. Once I realised what he meant, I replied, “It’ll be fine, we could go to the little bar down the corridor if you want?” I was starting to notice that he wore his emotions so clearly on his face, he clearly wasn’t keen on somewhere as public as the bar so instead I suggested, “or, there’s tea back in the villa, if you wanted somewhere more…comfortable,” what was I doing, I thought for a moment that would have scared him off even more but I soon heard his almost silent reply of, “Okay.”

I reluctantly released him from my arms and helped him to his feet before getting up myself. I quickly placed a sign on the front desk to tell anyone that arrived how to get hold me while I was away, I hoped no one would need me while I was gone, and then Mr Hope-Spring and I walked silently back to the villa he’d booked.

Charlie

I used my key to let us both into the villa, I’d long forgotten about the towels I’d actually gone to ask for. I don’t know why but there was something about Nick that made me think, maybe I could tell him about what happened, maybe sharing it with someone who I’d never see again would let me work through my feelings. I started to walk over to the small table that held the kettle and other tea things when Nick placed his hand on my arm breaking the comfortable silence that had formed between us to say, “please, let me,” gesturing for me to see on the small sofa in front of us.

I blushed again at how kind Nick was and nodded in appreciation while taking a seat, I didn’t quite trust my own voice yet. Nick got to work preparing two cups of tea.

“How do you take it Mr Hope-Spring?”

“Charlie,” he looked confused at my response, “Sorry, I mean please, call me Charlie.”

He smiled, “Charlie,” as if he was trying it out to see how it fit, “how do you take your tea Charlie?” the smile never leaving his adorable face.

I smiled back, “just with milk please.”

Once he prepared our teas he came to join me on the small sofa. It was only just big enough for the two of us, our legs touching because of the lack of space and giving me the feeling like sparks were passing between us through the points at which we connected.

Nick didn’t say anything. He seemed to just be waiting for me to talk if I wanted to, when I was ready to. Could he be any sweeter? I took a few tentative sips of my tea, and began to tell Nick all about me and Ben Hope.