The past few days have been the same as before. Tom and Allison went out a few more times with his mother and his sisters. Allison found his family to be completely sincere and so happy to be around, and even Tom was the same. It seemed like every day that passed he became more open, and relaxed. Above all, he seemed happy, and that really helped the family finally see the engagement as a good thing.

The next morning, Allison woke up from a good night’s rest, and tossed over onto the other side of the bed. Every muscle in her body tensed up as she collided with something…someone else. She opened her eyes slowly, through her heavy eyelids she still saw a figure laying before her, on the other side of the bed. Allison let out a high pitch scream and almost fell off the bed entirely when a hand came up and grabbed her body so she wouldn’t fall; the other hand covered her mouth.

“What the bloody hell are you doing?”

“I could ask you the same question!”

“Well you probably have woken everyone else up in the whole damn house!”

“Okay well, I will ask you again Thomas, what motivated you to hop into bed with me?!?” Allison could feel her damn cheeks almost burn off her face.

Tom just smirked and yawned as he moved to lay on his back. “Look, lying down on that blasted floor was really starting to hurt my back. Forgive me please.” He stuck out his bottom lip in most likely the cutest puppy dog expression she had ever seen.

She held back her laugh and tried to glare back at him, without much luck. She noticed he wasn’t even wearing a shirt either as her eyes drifted down lower.

“Really Tom? The least you could do is spare me the pain and put on a damn shirt if you are going to crawl into bed with me.”

“Oh darling, I remember quite well how much you appreciate my torso, by the way your face that cute crimson color that I love so dearly.”

He completely threw her off guard with that. “I don’t know what you mean Tom…”

“On the other hand, if you wish for me to wear a shirt so desperately, you could always give me the one off your back, my shirt.”

There was no stopping the blush at this point.

“But you know darling, I didn’t buy you those pajamas yesterday just to look out.” He kept his eyes on her, watching every uncomfortable twitch, and embarrassing stutter she made. It drove him mad.

“I…I’m wearing the pants to them, I…this shirt is far more…comfortable. That’s all.”

Tom edged closer to Allison, as if they weren’t close enough on the bed. He cocked his head to the side, contemplating something.

“Is it?”

Allison wouldn’t dare tell him the truth. The truth that was yes, Allison went back to where she left the shirt his Beatles shirt, after she took it off the first time, and put it back on. She missed wearing it, and more importantly she missed the way it comforted her in every way, helping her sleep. The first time she wore it, she was overcome with the scent that lingered from Tom’s cologne. It was intoxicating, and she told herself that in the morning she would wake up early enough to switch shirts so he wouldn’t know. Yet here they were.

She looked back to him, noticing his eyes were staring at her lips. She involuntary licked them slightly, and then kicked herself internally.

“Well, I am going to take a shower, I will see you around later, right, right, okay.”

Allison rolled out of the bed as quickly as she could, and ran to the restroom, not looking back at the smirking jackass in the bed.

Once they made it down the stairs, his mother greeted them kindly, along with his eldest sister.

“Oooh, what was going on up there this morning Tom? I heard someone yelling!” Sarah winked.

“Sarah! Hush!” Tom’s mom blushed and smiled dearly at the couple, who looked completely surprised at the accusation that they were doing anything remotely related to that a few minutes prior.

“No Sarah, Meg and I were only having a tiny disagreement on the wedding is all. Nothing of that nature happened.” Tom smoothly replied, looking back to Allison, smirking.

Damn him, and his stupid smirking abs, I'd like to slap that smirk right off his face

Xxx

“You know, I could get used to it here, London. It’s very nice”

“Oh, yes. It certainly is.”

“So, where has your dad been all this time? If you don’t mind me asking?”

“Oh no it’s quite alright. He couldn’t make it in this week, work related things.”

“Like father, like son.”

Tom rolled his eyes.

It was silent for a few more seconds, and Allison realized that for the past week, every time she and Tom were together like this, they weren’t alone. Earlier that day, his mother insisted that since this was the last day we were spending here before our plane left out tomorrow, that Tom needed to take her out, just the two of them, before they left. The silence was almost awkward, but Allison looked up at Tom and he looked completely calm and not uncomfortable at all, almost the opposite actually. He looked to her as she was checking his demeanor and blue eyes met green and she relaxed, knowing she wasn’t making him feel uncomfortable, since it was only the two of them.

Allison cleared her throat, “So why did you move to the states?”

“Well, there were several reasons. First off, I knew I had a better chance at starting my career there.”

“You went to college here though right?”

“Yes.” Tom looked out the window thoughtfully, “But I wanted a change…”

His face suddenly turned sour, as if he was reminiscing something unpleasant.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories, or anything of the sort.”

Tom was surprised that she was reading him like a book, he usually kept his feeling pent up pretty well around others, but here lately he was feeling as if he could let loose around Allison and he felt he could almost tell her something that needed to be voiced. Something that has been haunting him for the past couple of days…

“Well well well! Look what we have here!”

Allison looked to the direction of the noise and saw Robbie moseying his way over to the table.

Tom groaned loud enough for her to hear, and rolled his eyes in his direction.

Robbie finally made it over to the table with a wide grin on his freckled face, as he sat in the booth beside Allison.

“Well, hello Robbie, nice to see you again.” Allison tried to sound as happy to see him as she could, even though she wasn’t thrilled in the least.

“Can I sit with you guys?”

“Well you already answered that question yourself when you sat beside Meg didn’t you?” Tom answered back coldly.

“Well, did you all like the party the other night that we threw for you both?” Robbie asked the both of them, but staring only at Allison.

“I did yes it was fun.” Tom answered abruptly . Allison looked over to Tom showing how uncomfortable this situation was making her, only he wasn’t even glancing her way. His hands were clenched up in balls on the table as he was staring down at his menu.

“What about you darling, did you enjoy yourself?” Robbie cooed as he winked at her. His arm slid behind the seat almost touching her.

“I uh yeah I did.” Allison squirmed in her seat, attempting to move as far away from him as possible.

Tom noticed this interaction and stared bullets down at Robbie.

“Now Rob, don’t be flirting with my fiancée.”

Robbie laughed, “Oh come now Thomas, you think I would steal your girl away…again?”

Allison raised her eyebrows and looked over at Tom, who looked like he was about to punch him in the nose.

“Robbie…” Tom warned him

“Well to give her credit, she is exceptionally beautiful, don’t you think Tom?”

‘Of course! Why is that a question?”

“Well, the other night, you didn’t seem to be in love with each other at all. Is there something you both aren’t telling us?” Robbie looked almost excited at the prospect of bringing Tom down.

“Of course I love her!” Tom exclaimed. I think half of the restaurant turned in our direction to listen in.

Allison noticed that he almost looked sincere in his confession to Robbie. Allison only blushed slightly and agreed by nodding her head.

“Well in my humble opinion Tom…”

“No one needs your opinion Robbie!” Tom retorted back.

Robbie continued anyway, “Like I was saying, I don’t think you give the poor girl enough credit. You hardly even glanced her way the other night. That is certainly not how couples that are so in love as you say to be act. If I were you I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off her.”

Tom rose in his seat, obviously pissed. “Robert, I think it is time for you to leave. Now.”

“Well fine,” he turned back to look at Allison once more. “But darling, if he turns out to be too boring for you, you know I am always here.” He winked and then left them be.

Tom watched him as he left, making sure he walked out the doors in the front. He was still standing up and looked as though he could kill.

Allison cleared her throat and Tom came back to reality. He walked over to her side of the booth and sat.

“Sorry about all of that. He is such a nuisance, and very persistent when it comes to things he…wants.”

Allison felt incredibly uncomfortable to ask the next question but it had to be done. “So, what was he going on about, when he mentioned stealing your girl away?”

“Erm…well if you must know, after high school graduation, Rob and I had a falling out of sorts, I’m still curious why mother invited him to the party earlier this week. But the reason we fell out, was because he stole my girlfriend from me.”

“He stole your girlfriend away from you?” Allison couldn’t hide the shock at this confession. “But how?”

“He slept with her.”

“Ah.”

It was silent for a few more seconds before Allison decided to continue with the questioning.

“So, why did she..? I mean…”

“It was because I was moving to the states. After I told her of my plans, she became distant, and the next thing I knew, she was in Rob’s bed.”

Allison scoffed. “How pathetic, I mean she could have broken up with you before she decided to whore about with him, or at least been honest and straight with you.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Oh yeah, because it is totally understandable and acceptable to sleep with your boyfriend’s best friend when he did nothing wrong!”

Right on cue, the waitress came by with our food, Allison didn’t even remember making the order in the first place, with everything that had gone on.

“You don’t get it Ali! Okay?! She was confused! We dated for 3 years and then I decided to go up and leave her! Everything she knew was gone, and it was all my fault!"

“Ali?” she asked him, ignoring his outburst.

“Oh…do you not like that?”

“Well, it’s a bit too personal for my taste, you know since this…” Allison gestured between them, “is going to be over tomorrow morning, when we get on that plane back to New York.”

“Oh I see, so wearing my favorite shirt to sleep and sleeping in my bed, and meeting my family is not personal to you, but me calling you Ali is too personal for your taste. Right.”

“Look Tom, I am just trying to be realistic here, you know since things aren’t going to be like this forever.”

“Is it not?”

“No I…what..?” her eyes burned into his, trying to understand what he was getting at.

He only waved off his slip of the tongue. “We should go back and start to repack our things for the trip back tomorrow.”

“No, what did you mean Tom?”

“I don’t know what you mean Ali.”

“Oh stop. You know you are a right pain in my ass.”

Tom just grinned.

Allison rolled her eyes, and a few seconds later her phone started going off.

“Hello? Oh yes, this is she! Oh really? Well thank you! Oh…how wonderful! Thank you so much…right…okay I will see you then!”

As Allison hung up the phone, Tom could see the excitement in her eyes.

“Was that Pete? Or someone from the office?”

“Actually Tom, I have something I..I was needing to say to you…You see…that was Mr. Davis, from the branch down in LA. A few months back, I had sent my resume to them, and here of the late they have contacted me in interest of me coming there to work for them. My benefits would increase, as my salary. I just couldn’t let an opportunity of this stature go to waste!”

Allison finally looked up to Tom, and was surprised to see him staring back at her, with a hurt expression plastered on his face.

“So, you’re going to…leave? Leave me…and the company behind?”

“Well, yes I must. I cannot let this opportunity go to waste Tom. I thought you might be a bit more happy for me…”

“But, I could pay you more…I could give you everything they are.”

“But you see Tom, that’s the problem, you can’t. There, I would be editor, not the assistant.”

Tom was still staring at her with wide eyes, that tore Allison apart. She didn’t understand why he was being so upset about her leaving.

“But, you are my assistant! How am I to find another at this point in time? You could have told me earlier on!”

“Oh Tom honestly. I didn’t figure they would give my resume any thought at all, it was only wishful thinking on my part. But I am absolutely positive that you will find yourself another assistant in no time. You and I both know that most of those women at the firm would get on their hands and knees to please you, including some of the men I might add!”

“But…I don’t want any of those bimbos. If I did, I could have easily fired you and got one of them to take your place easy!"

Allison tried not to look hurt at that comment, because right now, she didn’t even care what he threw at her. No matter what he said, she was still leaving. Leaving New York, and all her troubles behind, including Tom, and that made her giddy. Not having to deal with his pompous ass anymore…

“Allison…I think I love you.”