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Oh, why’d you have to be so cute?
It’s impossible to ignore you, ah
Why must you make me laugh so much?
It’s bad enough we get along so well
Just say goodnight and go
One of these days
You’ll miss your train and come stay with me
(It’s always say goodnight and go)
We’ll have drinks and talk about things
And any excuse to stay awake with you
And you’d sleep here, I’d sleep there
But then the heating may be down again
(At my convenience)
We’d be good, we’d be great together
I know how you want it, baby, just like this
Know you’re thinking’ ‘bout it, baby, just one kiss
While you’re lookin’ at 'em, baby, read my lips
I know what you want, but you can’t have this
—
It wasn’t very often that Gerry came to visit you. Not because he didn’t want to - rather, both of you were often busy. But, Curtis was back in town and Gerry had driven up here to catch up with his good friend. It’d been a little while since their jaunt across the Mississippi to win big, so they had a lot of catching up to do. Still Gerry had called you, before he even had it solidly booked with Curtis, joyful:
“Y/N!”
“Gerry-!” You couldn’t help smiling, it was so good to hear his voice. You caught up on the phone often. And it wasn’t to say you hadn’t met up a few times. You both liked each other - that much was obvious. But it was distance. And he’d all but admitted that himself. So it’d never really gone anywhere - one day it’d work, you were sure. One day Gerry would admit to himself that it didn’t matter… heck you had a friend living in NYC in a long-distance relationship with someone in LA. It might have been a drive from him to you, but it was pretty much next door in comparison to that. “It’s good to hear from you!” You said like you didn’t end up in 4-hour conversations, staying up nearly all night when you really should know better, every time one of you called.
The way he laughed every time you said it making your cheeks pink, “It’s great to hear your voice, Y/N…! Guess what? I’m coming to you! I don’t know when yet, I’ll keep you updated! But Curtis is in town so, I’m gonna head up to see him. It’d be awesome to see you again, too.”
“Well when you have a firm date let me know - I’ll be free.”
“You sure?! I mean, I don’t want you waiting around for me to figure this out with him…”
“Gerry, honey, I’d clear my calendar for you, you know that.”
He very nearly giggled, “Yeah… yeah I guess I do.”
So he did keep you updated as to when Curtis finalised the date, and then promised that as soon as he had finished there, he’d come see you.
As you might expect, the two of them hung out nearly all day and well into the evening. You guessed they had way more to catch up on, considering they hadn’t seen each other since the trip ended - before you finally received a knock on the door. Which you opened probably a little more enthusiastically than you should have.
“Hey!”
“Hey! Y/N!!” Gerry lit up immediately and accepted your hug with a bashful little smile, “How you doing?”
“Good-! Great! So much better!” That bashful look was now accompanied by a light blush in the knowledge that it was him that’d caused it.
“That’s nice to hear…” He followed you back into your house and you offered him a drink “Coffee, is probably a good idea.”
“He’s not had you out at casinos, has he?” Considering how well Gerry was doing, the last thing you wanted was for Curtis to drag him back.
“Oh, no, no! Seeing the sights.” You scoffed at that, as if there were any around here.
“Would you like something to eat, sweetie?”
“Oh! No! You don’t need to, thank you! We did go to a restaurant.” You nodded, glad that Curtis was at least taking care of him. You would have found the guy and slapped him if he’d taken Gerry anywhere near a table.
**
You sat and held hands as you talked, like you were in love. Because you were - it was everything but a relationship. In reality you had barely spent enough time with him to say such a thing. But you’d talked SO often, and for so long that you knew him and he knew you. Maybe better than anyone else, he was so easy to talk to – you’d told Gerry things you’d never said to another soul. It didn’t seem like such a strange thing to say that you were in love…
You just wished something would happen that could allow him to see that it’d all work out.
It was funny how as soon as you thought that his eyes flicked to your clock. The conversation was long from over, but he gasped in shock.
“Is that the time-!?” You glanced over your shoulder; very nearly midnight. “Oh! God I… I gotta get…” Gerry faltered and you turned back to him,
“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you drive all the way back at midnight! It’s Saturday, you don’t need to work tomorrow, right?
His eyes made their way back to yours and they were wide. “It’s so late!” Gerry covered his face for a moment, hand slipping from yours for the first time since he’d placed it there upon his realisation, “Oh shit! I have nowhere to stay!” His exhale was hard; “…I need a place to stay.”
You sat in stunned silence for a minute - because if ever the chance to do something was staring you right in the face, it was now. And you realised you had to say something before he got the bright idea to check into a hotel and you missed it.
Taking his hands back in yours, you gave him your sweetest smile, “Gerry, it’s okay, you can stay here.”
His eyes somehow got wider, and he spluttered through his reply; “Oh-! No, no! I wouldn’t want to trouble you-!”
“You’ve seen the hotels around here right? I wouldn’t trust ‘em. And I’d be worried.” You gave him your best pleading look.
Gerry blushed again, but his smile was adorable as he warmed a little to the idea. “Well, I wouldn’t want that.”
“Mhm… I mean it would be the couch, as a sofa bed but it’s better than-”
“Y/N…” He pulled your hand and kissed your knuckles delicately enough to have you blushing along with him, “it’s okay. I’ll be fine - I can survive on a couch for a night!”
***
You didn’t sleep. Heck, you couldn’t sleep. You’d just about manage to stop thinking for long enough to forget that you weren’t meant to be thinking on the fact that Gerry was asleep on your couch, and then your heart started beating on overdrive again.
It was so unreal to you that this was actually happening. Even though he was downstairs and you were here, all you could think about was running down there and wrapping him in your arms. What it might feel like to have his around you. Well – you knew what that felt like, he’d hugged you before. In this context, though? You let your mind run away with you, and suddenly it was going from getting kisses and cuddles, to what would it be like for him to lie beside you and hold you every night, to thoughts not so innocent at all – which you almost slapped yourself for, before the inevitable dressing in white scenario popped into your head.
The dream indeed. You just about managed to halt yourself firmly there. Hell, you weren’t in a relationship yet, you couldn’t start thinking about walking down an aisle to him. Your eyebrows furrowed at your own thoughts for a moment – and you realised that you felt incredibly guilty for him, for these thoughts running around your head. Maybe you wanted him too much. That’d cause problems of its own. You took a deep breath to calm yourself, attempting to close your eyes again, no – best to bury all that. If you wanted it to become a reality, you couldn’t think on it, or risk forcing it to happen too fast.
**
You must have got a little bit of sleep because the next thing you knew it was light outside. Although your alarm clock alerted you to the fact that it was still the small hours of the morning. You stayed in bed, unable to get yourself to drift off again you didn’t want to rise and wake him already.
Eventually you found tossing and turning up here was no good – and it would be more practical for you to just start your day.
And the day didn’t start much better than with your favourite hot drink.
You tried to keep quiet and to yourself in the kitchen until you heard him shuffling around, turning instinctively at the sound of his yawn and groan through his stretch. You couldn’t help but smile, turning your coffee maker on; you knew how to make his favourite by now.
You knocked on the living room door before you entered to see him curled up on the sofa rubbing his eyes sleepily.
“Morning.” You’d never heard his morning voice, and right now it was giving you the good kind of shivers.
“Good morning, I’ve put coffee on…” You smiled sweetly, “Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah! Comfiest couch I think I’ve ever slept on!” You both laughed, before Gerry returned your question, “Did you sleep well?”
“Uh, I’ve had better evenings but – I’ll be fine. I’m just glad you’re okay. You’ve got a long drive home…” You paused, unsure of what to say next – a little unusual considering the relationship you shared. Before you giggled nervously, feeling yourself blush, “Right-! Coffee-!”
You skipped back into your kitchen and he called after you; “Y/N!”
“Mhm??”
“I could always drive back a little later if you wanted to do anything today?”
You bit your lips together and resisted punching the air in celebration; “Y-Yeah! That’d be nice!”
You collected Gerry’s cup and walked back to him, holding it out. “That should make the morning better!”
“Oh I dunno, you’re here aren’t ya?”
You only laughed again, clasping your hands in front of yourself to watch him; once again you found yourself unable to think of anything to say. You had probably done this to yourself by overthinking last night. Just another reason you shouldn’t have.
Gerry took a too hot gulp of coffee that he didn’t mind and set his cup down, hand outstretched to you.
“What?”
“C’mere.”
“Gerry?”
“I can’t watch you stand around staring at me, c’mere!” You were a little unsure as you took his hand, but he pulled you down into the comforter with him and wound his arms around you, nuzzling your face for a moment. “There, better, right?”
You knew you were bright red – but beaming. And looking into his eyes you had to admit he was right, “Much.”
“That’s what I thought.” Gerry smiled himself, pressing a kiss gently to your forehead, “Now, about today…”
So you sat cuddled up on your couch with coffee and discussed what you were going to do for the rest of the day. It felt good to be in his arms; comfortable to be the way you were right now.
Maybe this was how you were meant to be together – how things were supposed to be between you right now.
You found yourself suddenly smiling – if that were true, then you had to enjoy this while you had it. Dreaming was for later; reality was good right now. All that mattered, all you knew, was that you couldn’t lose this.