Yes

I was met by the lovely smell of coffee, eggs and toasted bread.

I walked into the living room and gazed over at the kitchen. Norman was standing at the stove, stirring the eggs on the frying pan, and a blonde haired boy was sitting at the tall table next to him.

He was wearing the bunny slippers I’d borrowed from Norman the last time I was here.

They were talking about something with Mingus’ school.

I was actually scared when I moved closer; this was important. I couldn’t fuck this up. I had to do this right…

“Good morning,” I smiled as I made my way to the kitchen counter.

Norman turned around to greet me with a kiss on my cheek and quickly gestured towards Mingus.

“Morning. This is Mingus.”

I smiled at the blonde boy sitting at the table. He held out his hand and introduced himself. I did the same.

“Your dad has told me a lot about you,” I tried out, feeling the need to say something.

Anything.

Mingus smiled while nodding. “Yeah, you too.”

I felt my cheeks redden as I looked at him. He looked a lot like his dad; his eyes had the same shape, nose and mouth almost identical and he wore a white Boondock Saints t-shirt. I couldn’t help but smile. The shape of his face was different though, more round and his hair was wavy. Norman didn’t have any curls in his so that had to be from his mother. Helena.

“You watched the Boondock Saints?” I asked.

It wasn’t really a kids’ movie.

“’Course,” he chirped, “It’s the most awesome movies ever!”

I chuckled and suddenly felt Norman’s hand around my waist.

“Yeah, you know Mingus, she’s gonna be in the third one.”

Norman nudged me gently on the arm before turning to pull out some plates from the cabinet over by the sink.

“You are?” Mingus sounded with an excited voice, “As what? Like another Eunice or something?”

I shook my head and I could hear Norman chuckle as he was serving the bread and eggs.

“No. I’m gonna play the part as the MacManus brothers’ guardian angel. You know, for when they go to heaven or whatever.”

Mingus’ mouth formed a little ‘o’ as he was pouring milk into his glass.

“Yeah, dad told me they’re gonna die… Fucking sucks,” he sounded.

“Hey now, watch your mouth and fucking eat,” Norman said in a firm voice.

I laughed as I sat down by the table. My stomach was happily cheering when I gulped down the eggs and coffee. I felt like I hadn’t eaten for days. As I came to think of it, I actually hadn’t eaten since breakfast the day before.

I allowed myself to have a slice of bread then.

I could see Norman smile when he saw it.

“So Mingus, how did it go with your art project? Did they like it?” Norman asked over his cup of coffee.

“No,” Mingus answered with a devastated voice, “I mean, Miss Brook did, but the rest of the class thought it was weird.”

He poked his eggs with his fork.

I just listened and enjoyed my coffee.

“That sucks,” Norman concluded.

I felt the need to say something.

“Well, isn’t art supposed to be weird?” I asked and they both turned their gazes upon me. Mingus was sending me curious eyes and I continued: “All I know is when I’m doing something, like a painting or whatever; all of my friends think it’s weird too. But that’s what art is, right? Just look at your dad, he made a freaking statue of himself in a glass box and filled it with rats? That’s, like, more than weird, that’s insane…”

Mingus smiled mischievously at Norman who was grinning at me.

“Hey, you’re saying I’m weird?”

I chuckled.

“You’re fucking super-weird!”

He punched my leg lightly under the table and I started laughing.

...........................................................................

We spent the rest of the day playing games and watching movies. I had such a great time, I didn’t even think about going home.

It hadn’t been awkward at all; Mingus was such a cool kid. He’d showed me his room and everything.

“Wow,” I’d sounded as I’d looked at his wall.

It was filled with posters from Boondock Saints, The Walking Dead and some other movies Norman had done and with pictures of his mom too.

Helena Christensen. She was a model.

Such a beauty.

“Yeah,” Mingus had chimed excitedly, “Check these out up there!”

I turned to look at the wall behind me where my eyes were met by the sight of two real crossbows nailed to it. My eyes had widened.

“What the…” I’d started but my words stumbled off into nothing.

They were magnificent.

And so Daryl Dixon.

I’d grinned as I saw the light in Mingus’ eyes. He knew how cool it was.

..............................................................................

“Norm, is it even legal to have that kinds of weapons in your home?” I asked as we were standing on the balcony and having a smoke.

He shrugged his shoulders.

“I have permission. Besides, those two doesn’t work. There’re these clips you have to put in for them to work and they’re gone.”

I nodded as I imagined him sitting with a crossbow, fidgeting the clip he had to put in it with an arrow in his mouth and beautiful bare arms with smut on them.

I smiled.

I was standing next to the guy that was probably the closest thing you could ever come to Daryl Dixon.

“Hey, when does The Walking Dead get back on? You finished season three already, didn’t you?”

He nodded.

“Yeah, it gets back on in October. Right after we finish shooting for Boondock.”

I watched him with big eyes.

“Are you gonna die?” I asked.

He shot me a pair of loving eye as he chuckled.

“As if I’m gonna tell you? Na ah, you’re gonna wait like everybody else.”

I punched him lightly on the shoulder.

“Wow, there are really perks when being your girlfriend, huh? Just like everybody else…” I grinned at him.

He was smiling down at me, squeezing his eyes a bit. I breathed out a cloud of smoke.

“What?” I asked.

He shrugged his shoulders, saying: “Dunno, just… My girlfriend, huh?”

He looked out over the balcony. I twitched my body slightly. Weren’t we dating? Hadn’t we just had sex and told each other we were in love? I stared at his face.

“I like that,” he nodded and bent over to kiss me on my lips.

“My girl,” he stated.

“Well… What else are we? Friends? I don’t go around fucking my friends…”

Norman chuckled and nudged my shoulder, saying: “No, you’re right. And I don’t go around introducing random chicks to my son. Even though, this time was a bit strange and not really planned. But I’m actually glad it happened. You’re good with him, he likes you, I can tell. So yeah… You’re my girl.”

His voice sounded strange; as if he was… proud?

I looked down at my feet. It was defined now; we were in a relationship. And he was happy to call me his girl. I breathed out.

He was my… my man?

Hey when the fuck did I score Norman Reedus?

“So,” he started, breaking the silence, “You ready to start shooting? Are you excited?”

I felt butterflies flap around my stomach.

“Am I excited? I’m fucking thrilled.”

He laughed and put his arm around me.

“Yeah it’s gonna be rad. Hey, by the way, I was gonna ask you, when are you planning on going to Toronto?”

I looked up at him, panic spreading across my face. I hadn’t planned that out yet.

Shit, what was I thinking?

“Uh… I don’t know actually…” I stated slowly.

I had to start packing and check flights and… Urgh.

What was the procedure for this type of thing?

“Yeah, I talked to Sean and he’s gonna go there like in a week or so. I was thinking since, you know, we’re dating and stuff, we could go together, maybe meet with Sean and hang out a bit before?”

Warmth spread through my body.

I nodded: “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Norman squashed his cigarette butt out in the ashtray on the small plastic table behind us and took my hands in his.

“I know it’s probably a bit early but I think the fans are ready. There’re already thousands of rumors of us going around on Twitter and, yeah… It’s not like the two of us are really determined to be in a relationship just because we travel together. I mean, they’re probably just gonna think it’s because we’re co-workers. When they find out you’re in the movie, I mean.”

I nodded. I hadn’t really thought about the whole ‘fans-are-gonna-freak-out-when-they-realize-he’s-actually-not-single-anymore’ thing. I didn’t know if I was ready for that. I frowned as I came to think about the time I’d tried out that Twitter site on the Internet and read all of those bad comments about me. It was probably going to get worse.

“Hey hey hey,” he put his hand on my face and turned it up for me to look him in the eye, “If it’s too early for you, we can wait.”

His voice was tender.

“But you’re gonna have to face it eventually. They’re gonna find out.”

I nodded but still felt a slight anxiety growing in my stomach. The female fans of Norman’s were crazy sometimes. I was actually kind of scared of them.

“I wanna go with you. Show them you’re…” I mumbled out.

“That I’m yours?” he smiled.

I grinned lamely.

“Yeah.”

He pulled me in and hugged me. His lovely scent filled my nose and I tucked him in closer.

“Hey you two, what are you, chain-smoking?” Mingus’ voice sounded from inside the apartment.

We parted and grinned at each other. We’d both totally forgotten that we were actually in the middle of playing a game with Mingus.

I spent the night there again.