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“I’ve got a surprise for you,” Tom announced when he got home that afternoon. He looked very pleased with himself, Ella raised an eyebrow.
“Does it involve getting out of the house?” she asked tiredly. She had no will to get out of the house. The only thing that’s been on her mind for the past week was that time was running out. Again. Three days. Three days was all that she’d had left before she has to pack up and go home. On Sunday, she’d have to go back to work. She was entirely not looking forward to it. It was all temporary. It was all temporary and she’d be back as soon as they’ll sort out the paperwork. The pit in her stomach didn’t believe it. The pit in her stomach knew the end was coming. She’d get on a plane with Lia and the bubble would burst, connecting her with the real world again. In the real world, paperwork took forever, and forever was a long enough timeline to make a man change his mind.
“It does,” he said, hanging his jacket on a peg by the door, taking the bag off his shoulder and dropping it on the floor underneath. “It also involves leaving Lia with mum,” he added, walking over to where Amelia was lying on a colorful blanket on the floor, playing with a large, rattling, colorful plastic ring. “Hello little one,” he cooed at her, she focused her eyes on him and smiled a toothless smile in response to his own smile.
“I don’t wanna get out of the house,” it was almost a whine. Almost.
He turned to her, still grinning, “I distinctly heard myself stating, not asking.”
She poked her tongue out at him, sighed. They were going out. “Where are we going?”
“Surprise,” he said again.
Ella rolled her eyes but didn’t press the issue. “You hungry?” she asked instead.
“We’ll eat out.”
He took her out to dinner, to that same Italian place they went to on his birthday the previous year. It was a lot more crowded that early in the evening, but they had their little table in the corner and blissfully, hardly any interruptions. Other than one event she’d joined him earlier that year, this was the first time they were out for the night, just the two of them without Lia. It was weird and wonderful at the same time.
It was raining outside when they finished eating and they huddled under Tom’s large black umbrella as they walked to where they’d parked the car.
“Thanks for the dinner,” Ella smiled. She hadn’t realized how much she needed this, to get out of the house, to breathe some fresh air and change the scenery and just spend time with him, without Lia, without anyone. Just the two of them.
He chuckled, “that’s not the surprise.”
“Oh?”
They drove for just over half an hour, then spent fifteen minutes in traffic getting to their destination. “Where are we?” Ella asked.
“O2 arena,” Tom said. “Or we will be, eventually, when this bloody traffic moves.”
“A concert?” her eyes lit up. “Who’s playing?”
“Surprise,” tongue in teeth, he looked, once again, entirely pleased with himself. Ella started looking outside intently, trying to figure out who’s playing by the people going in the general direction of the arena. Someone will wear something telling. Someone always did.
It was a teenage girl with a shock of blonde hair that gave it away. “Placebo!” Ella shrieked. “Oh my god!” she turned to Tom, grinning, “Placebo!”
“mmhmm,” he agreed. “There goes my surprise,” but he was still smiling. She leaned across the gear handle and kissed him.
“I love you.”
He didn’t just take her to a Placebo gig. He got them side-stage VIP access. “Wouldn’t want to hide the view to someone from the audience,” he explained with a shrug and a wink. The benefits of VIP access, especially with one Tom Hiddleston at her side, included, among other things, a group photo with the band. And then they stood around and chatted for a few minutes.
“Have I mentioned lately that I love you?” Ella asked, grinning from ear to ear, forcing herself not to jump around in excitement.
“Don’t think so,” Tom said, his arm draped around her shoulder. He pulled her closer, placed a kiss on the top of her head.
They settled in a spot to watch the show. Tom leaned against equipment boxes, Ella leaned against him, her back to his front. He had his arms wrapped around her waist and he was quietly humming to the tune of the warm-up act, swaying slowly, to half the rhythm the band was playing. When the warm-up band finished its set and got off the stage, the crowd erupted in screams so loud they sounded like white noise at maximum volume. And they didn’t stop. Not until the stage lights turned back on. At that point they just got louder, which Ella didn’t even think was possible. But then the band got on the stage and the screams grew a fraction louder then subsided with the sound of the first chord. Showtime.
She sang. She danced. She turned around to kiss Tom just because. Just because he was there. Just because he brought her there. Just because he had the loveliest smile she’d ever seen and just because she loved him. Then she turned back and snapped some photos with her phone, wishing for her proper camera.
To the first note of Twenty Years, Ella perked up even more, dancing in her place in Tom’s arms. Her favorite song. As if he knew, Brian turned a bit her way and smiled, then turned back to the crowd.
“Hey,” Tom said.
“Shh!” Ella waved her hand, started singing along.
Tom moved, one of his arms around her disappeared as he fiddled with his jacket.
“Ella,” he tried again.
“Shush, he’s singing!” really, that man had no sense of timing. She heard him groan behind her, but he didn’t try to speak again and let her sing along in peace. When the song ended she turned to him, a question in her eyes.
He rolled his eyes, “Is now a good time then?” he asked. She nodded, motioning for him to hurry up, the next song was already starting. He sighed, produced a little blue box in his hand. Ella stared at it.
“I said no ring,” she mumbled.
“This isn’t a ring.”
“I’ve already said yes,” she said. In the background, they were playing Every You Every Me. It was surreal. What was he doing? He’d already proposed, so to speak. Or, well, they just sort of sorted it all out, had Luke and a lawyer working on the paperwork.
“Oh for fuck’s sake Ella, just shut up and let me do this.” The frustration made her chuckle but she nodded.
“Go ahead,” she said.
“Well I was planning to do this during the other song, I had this whole speech sorted about how I want you to spend the next twenty years-“ she reached on tiptoes and kissed him. His free hand immediately went to the back of her neck, pulling her closer. After a moment he broke the kiss, “-with me.” She laughed. His eyes shone at her, grey clouds lit up in blue and red and yellow and orange from the flickering lights on the stage.
“Just twenty?” she asked.
“At least twenty. And then twenty more. And possibly twenty more. We’ll see how you behave,” he poked his tongue out at her.
“That better not be a ring,” Ella gestured at the little velvet box in his hand.
“It’s not,” he promised and handed it to her. She opened it. It wasn’t a ring. It was a pendant on a silver chain. The pendant was a large open circle, silver, slightly wrinkled as if someone tried to beat it into a semblance of smoothness. There was a line of text stamped into it: you’re the truth not I.
Ella stared at it for a moment, the words blurring. She blinked the tears away, looked up, “It’s beautiful.” She took it out, “help me put it on.” She turned her back to him and lifted her hair up. A moment later his fingers brushed her neck as he put the necklace around it and fastened it. It hung just below the hollow at the bottom of her throat. She turned back to face him, “You took this whole Placebo theme all the way, huh?”
For a moment, he looked lost.
“Thank you,” she said, and he relaxed, smiled.
He put his hands on her shoulders, turned her back towards the stage and wrapped his arms around her middle, pulling her against him, “Watch, you’re missing your show.”
The rest of the night was a blur of music and laughter and reaching up to constantly touch the new necklace around her neck. It was cool to the touch, but it warmed her heart. “Do you like it, really?” Tom asked, his mouth to her ear. Ella nodded.
He wrapped his arms tighter around her when they were playing Blind. She was sure there was no sign that she was crying, but he knew, somehow. The song changed and her mood shifted back to what it should have been. Happy. She was happy here. Watching a show of one of her favorite bands, wrapped in the arms of her favorite man. She wouldn’t think about what happens next. What mattered is what was happening now. And now, she was happy.
She shifted and craned her head back and up to look at Tom, “Twenty years?” she asked.
“At least,” he promised.