Time After Time

Gilbert Hanson is Rose's neighbor.

He lived in a modern house with seven rooms that looked real fancy if you try to compare it with Rose's tiny house or Gustav's Granny Flat. Gilbert was tall, grey-haired and worked as a cook in local fancy italian restaurant, which was pretty much explained his fancy house and his fancy car. Gilbert wasn't married and never looked like he wanted to. One look at inside his house and anyone can tell that his one and only passion wass cooking.

Rose visited Gilbert with Gustav while Lestat was waiting outside the day after she cut Gustav's hair. Gilbert had been Rose's neighbour for a few years now and he didn't seem to mind that a bunch of his new neighbour’s friend going to come all the way from across the globe to see Gustav and in a need to place to stay.

“Maybe just make sure you bring everything back to its place and clean up,” Gilbert said with big smile on his face, after he told them about his excitement in trying weird seafood (that somehow involving eating sea urchin that neither Gustav or Rose could understand how and why) in New Zealand.

Rose nodded, “I believe we can do that, Mr Hanson.”

“Oh Rose, just call me 'Gilbert' as usual,” the fifty years old man laughed.

“Oh... right. I just wanna thank you so much that I feel the need to call you with respectable kind of call...”

Gilbert laughed again. “By the way, have you two lovebirds tried to eat at my Ristorante? I still had voucher that you can use to have one fancy dinner, start from Aperitivo, Antipasto up to Formaggio e frutta and Dolce.”

Rose was the one who freaked out the most when they went home after they said yes.

“He never asked me to go to his restaurant before, let alone give me voucher to do it!” she said happily. “We should go tonight because we need to plan your best friends' arrival after that...”

Gustav nodded. He looked happy as well but he didn't say much.

“You have a very kind neighbour, Rose.”

“Maybe he has too much love that sometimes he needs to channel outside his love for food.”

They spend the rest of the day by looking for appropriate outfit for eating in a fancy restaurant. They had problem with the fact that Gustav didn't have any proper suit, which was why they went to buy one later in the evening. Rose seemed to enjoy the process of buying suit for Gustav more than he himself and the only party that suffered from that fortunate event was Lestat, whom later they left on Gabriella's place for a while, while they went to the restaurant.

Gabriella didn't look happy at the beginning.

She stared at both Gustav and Rose with burning jealousy in her eyes.

“How can I stuck with Dan who refused to leave the studio before he finished his song while you guys are having fancy dinner?” she asked. But then she chuckled and nodded. “Have fun, you two. Make sure you treat Lestat big tomorrow, though.”

They both smiled before thanked Gabriella and left.

Rose didn't understand that Gilbert's restaurant was actually that big and that famous before she went there and saw the queue and the crowd. She stood there in the car park, staring at the restaurant building in the distance and gulped.

“Now I'm start to worried whether we deserve to dine here or not...” she said.

Gustav chuckled, “If you can see how you look, I think you won't be worried at all.”

They made their way into the restaurant and Rose caught their reflection on cars and, later, glass door. She saw herself on the mirror back in her home around thirty minutes ago but now that she walked there, outside her house, everything just felt different. She styled her long hair, letting her neck showed while she was wearing the best dress she had. Walking on the fanciest heels she had was definitely not easy, but she was satisfied with how she looked. At least she could stand without embarrassing herself when she stand next to Gustav, who looked absolutely magnificent in his dark suit that matched to colour of his hair.

Rose remembered they had a bottle of sparkling Prosecco as aperitivo but she couldn't exactly remember what happened after that since everything tasted so brilliantly delicious that even scare Rose at some scale.

What she remembered most was Gustav who was sitting in front of her and she could clearly see that this wasn't his first time eating in a fancy place like Gilbert's restaurant. Maybe he did this because of his fame a couple of times in the past. Maybe. But then she looked at him and she couldn't believe that she was the one who sat in front of him, in front of the kind and lovely looking guy, enjoying the most delicious Tiramisu that Rose ever had in her life.

When they finished, they stopped at the beach where Rose took off her heels and Gustav put his coat on her shoulder because it was quite windy on the beach. They walked together hand in hand while discussing the place that the guys might want to visit the most around there. And then, before they decided to go back and get Lestat before go home, he kissed her among cold night Tasman Sea winds. Rose chuckled after that.

“I can't really see it right since it's pretty dark here now, but you might catch some of my lipstick in your lips now.”

At the end of the day, after they pick up Lestat fro Gabriella's place, they went home and slept together while they were holding hand.

Gustav and Rose spent the entire next day to rent van, calculate the time and money for the arrival of the rest of Young Guns.

It was the last day before Simon, John, Fraser, and Ben comes and she felt like it was their last day together for a very peculiar reason that they might never understand.

It was the last day that could never come back without the slightest change.


Friday was a beautiful day.

The air was warm and crisp. Cool winds was blowing the warmth on the air and bright, sunny rays of sunlight fell perfectly into the bushes, the trees and the little houses on the distance, as Gustav and Rose went to train station by bus after they drop Lestat on Gabriella's house. They were going to go to Sydney where they were going to pick up the van they have rented before going to the airport to pick the rest of Young Guns up. They commented on the nice weather and bright, pale blue sky above their heads, but none of them was saying anything important in particular.

They sat on the train in silence as watching suburbs flashing outside the train's windows. It was one gorgeous day. The beaches they passed was glowing, shining by the bright light of summer daylight with ocean's waves kissing the tides slowly. It was one quiet day. They saw a lot of car parked on car park on train station, but they only saw a very few number of people. Rose stared outside the window and watching suburbs passed away in a blink of an eye; Fairy Meadow, Towradgi, Corrimal, Bellambi, Woonona, Bulli, Thirroul, Austinmer, Coledale, Wombarra, Scarborough, Coalcliff, Stanwell Park, Otford, Helensburgh, Waterfall, Heathcote, Engadine, Loftus, Sutherland, Jannali, Como, Oaley, Mortdale, Penhurst, Hurstville, Allawah, Carlton, Kogarah, Rockdale, Banksia, Arncliffe.

They stopped at Arncliffe to pick up the van before they went to the airport.

Gustav was the one who was completely excited and thrilled by the fact that his four best friends is going to come very soon. He spoke a lot before he calmed down and stared at Rose.

“Can you believe this? The last time I was here, I was alone, totally depressed and I knew nobody who would help me settle here in Australia. But then I met you and Ben called and everything changed. Everything changes and everything's good.”

He smiled so Rose smiled as well, instantly, when she looked at him. She was really nervous but she tried not to.

“Is it okay though that I'm here, Gustav? I wonder if I'll just annoy the five of you by my existence...”

“What are you talking about? Of course you should be here,” he said.

“Are you... are you sure?”

Gustav nodded.

“You'll love them. They're my best friends. And I'm sure they'll like you as well... well, at least I can imagine they're going to have a lot fun with someone who doesn't exactly know a lot about latest music news like you.”

“Gustav!” Rose frowned.

He chuckled.

“But seriously, they'll like you, Rose. I mean, I like you and they're my best friend and so I am more than sure they will like you too.”

“That's good. Okay. I mean, if you guys want to talk about your business, you can tell me to go away for one or two days—oh God, oh God, oh God, they're here.”

Four man walked out from international departure towards them. Rose stared at them as if they were ghosts. It was so strange that she saw them on the video and now they were standing right before her eyes.

They looked at Gustav and there was something simply magnificent by just witnessing their faces when they looked at him. Every single one of them were shouting in different voice and time, but they all shouted his name.

“Gus!”

“GUS!”

There was a lot of hugging and slight punching in the arm while Rose chuckled. She was just standing two meters from them, smiling, chuckling and watching.

“Oh!” Ben was the one who noticed her first. “So this is Rose Lette!” he looked like he had no idea whether to hug her as well because they all hugged Gustav and it would feel unfair if they didn't hug her as well or whether to just shake her hand. Gustav, John, Fraser, and Simon looked at them while they couldn't hold their laughter. Rose laughed and shaked Ben's hand.

“I'm Rose. It's good to finally meet you, Ben,” she chuckled.

“Wow. You looked a lot younger... and smaller than I imagine from your voice,” he said.

“Yeah, I know I sound like a woman in her mid-thirties.”

They all laughed. Ben then introduced everyone to Rose. “So... you've heard us but I think I'm the only person who directly talk to you... pretty much alone. So Rose, I'm Ben Jolliffe, and you are Rose Lette. Rose Lette this is John Taylor... John, it's Rose, yeah... Simon Mitchell... Si, Rose... shake hands or something... and this is Fraser Taylor... Fraser, Rose... and... well, you know Gus, so... it's done. Everyone knows each other now.”

Rose nodded and she stared at them in amazement. All she felt was happiness since Gustav was now with his best friends.

She said, “So we got the van ready outside. Let's pick up your luggage and then... then, what do you guys wanna do?”

They looked at each other before Gustav finally said.

“I think we can go eat something somewhere...?”

Rose nodded as they walked to take the luggage.

“Alright. Is there any kind of food that you guys might want? I'll drive,” Rose stared at them by the faces one by one.

Si chuckled, “You know, Rose, you're kind of like a mix of tour manager who will take care of stuff and a mother with five weird annoying son.”

She laughed, “I can live with that.”