Lily had come for a kiss this morning, but I pulled away. She looked hurt, even more so when I made some off-hand comments about being alone. I would have to apologise to her for that later on. I noticed she, Shelly and Rose were noticeably absent today during the rehearsal and performance. Leaving Brad in their place, that was unusual. I guessed perhaps that they decided to go home, and Brad got the short straw. I was sad that Lily wasn’t there. I must have upset her more than I thought. I rang her several times today, and not once had she picked up. I hoped she hadn’t left, this holiday would be even harder to bear without her.
I got back to the hotel, too tired to even shower. We had a penthouse suite or maybe two of them joined together. Everyone had a room, and then we shared a huge living space. I could hear giggling coming from the communal area. For God’s sake I just wanted to sleep! I stormed out to see what the noise was, finding myself in the middle of a winter wonderland.
There was a huge Christmas tree with presents underneath, lights around the windows, tinsel pretty much everywhere with some paper decorations. The thing I noticed most was every spare piece of space around the feast of buffet food that had been laid out was covered in lit candles. The room was in darkness other than the lights and candles. It looked beautiful. The three little monsters jumped out from behind the sofa. “SURPRISE!”
I looked at the three girls as the rest of the band lazed on the sofas. “This is what you three were up to all day?” I asked.
“Hey, this is on English, not us!” Rose insisted, going to grab a drink.
“Unless you like it, then we paid an equal share,” Shelly replied. “I am going to get some ice for the champagne.”
“Sorry, I did have to use your credit card,” Lily said quietly.
I grabbed her, swinging her around and kissing her. “I don’t care if ye spent every euro I have to my name, this is perfect! How did you even do this in one day?”
“By making sure we got you out of the way as fast as possible and for as long as possible,” Harry laughed.
“Wait, this is why youse kept screwing up that drum solo?” I demanded.
“Nah, I just like to troll you, man.”
“There are gifts too, everyone gets one,” Lily said.
I grabbed for mine, I couldn’t remember the last time someone bought me a gift, not me them. I ripped it open, ignoring the jeers that I had to wait until morning. Inside was the ugliest Christmas jumper and socks, with an elf headband.
“Well, you need to get into the spirit of it, and not just in vodka form,” Lily teased.
“It’s perfect, so perfect. Thank you, darling.”
Shelly passed him a parcel. “You might as well give the lady hers, as you had yours.”
“I just want to point out that I bought this, not Shelly. I personally did, and I chose it. I just suck at wrapping,” I defended myself.
Lily took it, turning it over in her hands. “A box doesn’t really give me a chance to work out what it is,” she pouted.
“Then open it!”
She laughed and did so, looking at the tech that fell out.
“They told me it’s the top electronic sketch pad on the market, with all the things you could possibly need to do interesting … I don’t know girl, this isn’t my thing, but the guy in the shop promised me it was the best and if you don’t like it we can trade it on Boxing Day,” I promised.
“This is the total top of the range, costs thousands, you can’t spend all of this on me!”
“Lily! What have we said about money?”
She sighed. “Thank you Adrian, it is perfect. I never thought I would have one of these to play with. I just don’t like you spending money on me.”
“Ye deserve it, especially after all of this! Thank you for the party,” I said, kissing her.
“You could at least have waited for the mistletoe,” she joked.
“There’s mistletoe?” I looked around.
“Before you start all of that, we have family board game night. Starting with Monopoly,” Harry stated.
“Oh no, Monopoly ruins friendships,” I complained.
“Yeah, because I am gonna beat your sexy ass,” Lily said.
“Oh really?” I grabbed her, kissing her as she laughed. “Well youse are gonna just sit here in my lap and we are gonna play as a team then.”
“But I want to beat you!”
“Oh, don’t worry, ye can do that later in private,” I whispered in her ear, not caring how everyone was staring at us both. It was Christmas, and finally one with a full family around me. I couldn’t be happier. We had a few days to ourselves before the New Year’s Eve awards. I planned to make the most of each and every single one of them with my little Lily.
Chapter 21
Adrian’s POV
I hadn’t yet told Lily about offering her a place in the band, I waited for the perfect time to tell her. But around the rehearsals and that brief Christmas meal together as a band. It just hadn’t felt like the right time. The few moments that we got together I just wanted to spend with her, not dealing with any work crap. Somehow,
