'...not for the whole world to see anyway'

Eden was doing the irrational, and he, he had done what she should’ve come to expect.

“Can I see ye passport please Miss?”

Eden shook herself from her daydream and dug her hand deep into her purse. Rummaging amongst the chewing gum papers and crumpled scraps of paper, and pushing the scarf she carried to tame her unruly red hair, to one side. Her fingers tangled briefly in the wires of her headphones; as usually happened in such pressing circumstances, but they soon glided across the smooth leather cover of the small navy blue book she was searching for, and a small smile creased across her lips as she pulled it from her purse and pressed it gently into the mans outstretched hand.

“Here, Sorry”

With cropped dark brown hair and a clean shaven face, he was a little different to what Eden had come to know and his name badge sold him as ‘Liam’, a name she held no childish grudge against. His smile was broad and displayed perfect, bright white teeth. And although it was a smile that could be misconstrued as false, the kindness in his dark brown eyes gave his genuine nature away, and it was a smile that Eden felt herself warming to for a brief moment, at least.

“Ye a long way from home love” He remarked, glancing quickly between the open passport and her face.

She fidgeted a little uneasily and her bottom lip caught beneath her teeth as she tapped her foot against the floor. She didn’t need to be told the distance between her home and where she had ended up, the exact mileage didn’t matter and wasn’t the problem. Her dilemma was that Eden Jessica Jasic of San Francisco seemed like a lifetime ago, the worries keeping her up at night were whether she could ever get back to that girl.

“San Francisco” He added a wink as he began to hum a song all too familiar to Eden and she wriggled uncomfortably as gentle words began to slip from between his lips. “I left my heart in San Francis...”

“Where would I go for a stiff drink around here?” She asked, cutting him short.

He looked a little stunned at her abrupt interruption, but smiled nonetheless.“Yates’s, in the Departure Lounge” He answered, “It’s on the left as ye go in, can’t really miss it. How many bags will ye be wanting to put in the hold?”

“Just the one” She nodded to the small, wheeled suitcase with a large cartoon cat sticker, at her feet. Its brain was slightly exposed on one side and the same picture adorned the white t-shirt she was wearing beneath her weathered leather jacket.

“ ‘s rare to see a young lady like ye’self with any less than five” He chuckled, signalling for Eden to place her bag on the conveyer belt. She took heed and bent to the floor to make sure everything was in order.

“I wasn’t planning to stay very long” She sighed, picking the suitcase up with surprising ease and placing it on the scales with a soft thud. She winced a little as the neon numbers on the desk raced upwards, but she needn’t have worried, as her luggage fell a few kilos short of the limit.

“Just a quick no muss, no fuss trip for ye then?”

Her cheeks flushed pink and she bit down on her tongue to keep herself from ranting about how very wrong he was. “Yeah. Something like that”

His look was sceptical, but he too kept his words safe behind his teeth. Deciding to tap furiously against the keyboard and fix his eyes to the small screen in front of him. “D’ye have any preferences as to where ye’d like to sit?”

At the front of the plane so I can leave England sooner She thought, but didn’t say, choosing instead to shake her head silently in answer.

“I can give ye a window seat. Can’t guarantee ye company but at least ye’ll have a pretty vie...”

“Windows fine” She smiled small. “Thank You”

“ ‘s nae bother at all pretty lady” He enthused, shuffling the papers on his desk before fanning them out in front of Eden. “Here’s ye passport back. There’s ye boarding pass, and this here’s just some leaflet we’ve to give out for duty free. By all means chuck it away, but ‘s some recycling bins just over there if ye’d be so kind”

Eden collected everything from him quickly, throwing it all into her purse haphazardly, only to be sought out frantically later. “And if ye change ye mind about where ye headed, or leaving entirely...just come see me”

Edens eyebrows bunched together in confusion and she felt her mouth open and close in quick succession, like a fish out of water. What he’d meant by changing her mind, she was a little uncertain of. But what had her utterly stumped was the way in which he had seemingly read her thoughts; her jumbled, not altogether pleasant, thoughts. “What makes you think I might change my mind?”

“ ‘s more who, than what sweetheart” He whispered, his gaze fixed on something behind her. “ ‘s been standing there the ‘ole time”

Following his line of sight was a mistake. Following his line of sight stopped her heart dead.

When Thomas was tired he would get purple pinch marks below each of his striking blue eyes and he would struggle to go a minute or two without yawning. The smile that usually hid in the corners of his mouth, would fade before disappearing completely and his whole body would slump as if it pained him to hold up his own weight.

Eden noted both marks high on his cheeks as she glanced over her shoulder, and he placed a hand over his mouth to mask his yawn, as she turned to face him. She watched, silently trying to gather her thoughts, as he smoothed the creases from his t-shirt, the very same design as her own, and fixed his trucker hat, worn backwards and on a tilt. Before jamming his hands deep into the pockets of his tight jeans and making the few, small strides towards her.

“What are you doing here?”

“I could ask ye the very same thing aye”

She felt the blush creeping steadily up either side of her neck, headed for her cheeks and she knew that without fail, Tom had noticed too.

“I’m going home Tom. My internships over, there’s nothing to keep me here” She said with her head bowed and her hands pressed gently to her face, shielding her eyes. Her words rung empty without a hint of conviction or an ounce of confidence, and the thought of elaborating on such a claim was making her palms sweat and her heartbeat race.

“ ‘s a lie and ye know it”

A sigh escaped her pouted lips and the roll of her eyes; though infuriating to Tom, was understandable. “I was only supposed to be here for three months, it was never supposed to be more than...”

“It were never s’posed to be more than jus’ a friendship, right?” Eden couldn’t bring herself to meet Thomas’ eyes. “Ye never expected t’ come here and find somethin’ other than...”

“I told you I would stay if you gave me reason to”

“An’ ’ve found that reason, now”

“Now, Tom. If you’ve got to go look for it, it’s not enough.”

“It were there all along Edie” He mumbled, shaking his hat from his head and running a hand through his messy brown hair. “Just didn’ see it is all. I didn’t think t’...”

“What was it, hiding in that girls mouth? You didn’t think, Tom”

Thomas opened his mouth to protest, but the dozen things whizzing around his head refused to form anything coherent, let alone something he’d feel comfortable saying in such a public place. He had been wrong, he would admit that and sure, he had acted like a fool getting drunk and kissing that girl just to prove a point; to whom he wasn’t sure as neither Eden nor he had been all that impressed, but he was only reacting to the way in which she had cut him off. He had become embarrassingly open because she had all but closed completely.

On the drive to the airport he had figured everything out, or at least he’d thought he had. He had rehearsed what he would say to make her stay and he had filled in the missing ending with a tearful reunion and a long awaited, perfect kiss. He was prepared to shoulder all of the blame if it meant keeping her here and he was more than prepared to lay his feelings down for all to see, even if he, himself, didn’t wholly understand them.

It was different with her stood in front of him. He felt sick to his stomach now that nothing was going to plan.

“I didn’ think it were possible to fall head over ‘eels the fuck in love so quick Eden”

His words were completely unexpected, and the only person that looked more shocked than Eden at his uncensored revelation, was Tom himself. Love; in Thomas Sykes’ eyes, was not something that happened overnight. And this was just one of the ways in which Eden Jessica Jasic confused, but more importantly, amazed him.

“That’s all you would’ve had to say”

Thomas lips curled into a broad smile, but it was fleeting as Eden backed away from him, colliding with the person behind her. “Sorry” She bumbled, without so much as a glance at the aging woman glaring at her. “I wasn’t looking where I was...”

“Would’ve ‘ad to say?” Tom asked, his eyebrow raised. “What d’ye mean would’ve ‘ad to say?”

“I’ve got a flight to catch Tom”

Their gulps were loud enough to permeate through the low din of peoples chatter and the wheeling of their suitcases, and two pairs of rapidly watering eyes fixed to the floor. Thomas’ tracing the lines of rubber that peoples shoes had scuffed across the smooth surface, Edens scanning her battered slip-ons for an excuse to buy a new pair once she was home.

“Stay wi’ me. Ye were offered a job Edie, Barnsey fuckin’ loves ye”

She scoffed lightly and folded her arms across her chest, “Fantastic. Barnsey loves m...”

“I fuckin’ love ye, a’right, Eden”

Love wasn’t a word Thomas Sykes threw around carelessly and he had good reasons for this. They went by the name of Melissa Andrews; the first girl to catch Thomas’ eye at the age of five and also the first girl to break his heart when she’d ‘married’ his best friend Adam during milk time, and more recently, Juliet Sweetmore. Whose name was just as misleading as they way in which she had relentlessly pursued and tricked Thomas, in order to get to his older brother Oliver.

Toms sleeve was not a safe place for his heart and he knew this, but if it was between putting himself out there for a second or Eden leaving forever, he also knew what needed to be done.

His hands were shaking before he’d even reached her and as he brushed the stray hairs from her cheek, he was a little embarrassed that it would be impossible for her to not realise such a thing. Her large green eyes were inquisitive as he cupped her face in his hands, forcing them to meet his own and they grew wide as he ran a fingertip softly across her cheekbone and down to her lips, tracing the line of the small smile creeping across them, before letting his hands drop to her waist. With one pull she was in his arms, and their foreheads pressed together for a moment as they both caught their breath.

With one soft, sweet kiss, Thomas gave Eden the reason to stay that she’d been hoping for.

“Stay with me”