Chapter Text
“So, we met Kate’s parents.”
Anthony tried to act nonchalantly as he shouldered his golf bag. He shrugged as he, Simon and Ben made their way towards the front of the driving range to check in. Anthony shrugged, trying to pretend that he hadn’t tied himself up in knots over it.
“Why are you listening to Kate’s podcast?”
Simon looked a little indignant, “Daphne listens to it when we’re in the car. And it’s actually fucking funny.” He paused, “And I like hearing Sophie’s sourdough recipes.”
“Are you a premium subscriber?” Anthony asked, “Because she goes through more recipes in the bonus episodes you know.”
“Really?” Simon asked, clearly drawn in, “I’ll get myself a subscription. Daphne and I loved how the sun-dried tomato one turned out last week.”
“I’ll pass it on.”
“You two are ridiculous now that you’re fucking coupled up.” Ben scoffed, “You know that right?”
Anthony ignored his brother and turned towards the front counter, “Hi, I have a booking for Anthony? Three of us? Thanks, mate!”
Anthony scooped the buckets off the counter with his free arm and handed them to the others to go to the ball machine. “Don’t be jealous, Ben.”
“Maybe I am fucking jealous!” Ben grabbed his bucket off the machine. “How is it that you two have somehow ended up in relationships and I’m single?!”
“Do you want to be in a relationship?” Anthony raised his eyebrows at his brother as he put his bag down at the station. “I didn’t think it was something you were looking for.”
Ben shrugged and ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t know, mate. Seeing you be so… fucking happy has made me think maybe I should be looking for something else.”
He was happy, that was the thing. It had been so long now since he’d woken up and immediately felt a creeping sense of dread. Almost every morning now he woke up with Kate’s arms wrapped around his waist and he exhaled slowly. He actually wanted to go home from work, he looked forward to getting home from the gym because his home didn’t feel empty anymore. Even when Kate wasn’t there, there were signs of her everywhere. Her shampoo and conditioner were in the shower and there was an extra toothbrush on the bathroom sink. Her drinks were in the fridge and a half eaten dessert in the fridge. Her clothes were mixed with his in the laundry basket and some of Newton’s toys were sitting on a basket in the living room by the sofa. He’d even chuckled to himself when he’d been vacuuming yesterday and found a unmistakable tumble weed of corgi fur behind the entertainment unit. He liked all the ways his life had changed, even though he’d always felt so resistant to it. These felt like good changes. Like he was somehow growing into himself through this. He liked looking at his phone after a meeting and seeing a message from Kate. He liked the way she left little sticky notes on the inside of the cover of his iPad. He liked the smile on her face and the way she leaned in and kissed him when he brought her flowers. He liked feeling like he’d made her happy. He’d thought his life was fine before he’d met Kate, but apparently he’d been wrong.
“I have to say, being in a relationship is actually pretty fucking great.” Anthony replied, smiling to himself.
Ben let out an irritated noise. “You’re supposed to say ‘No, Ben! It’s terrible! I keep finding her hair in the pockets of my clothes. You’d hate it!’”
Anthony laughed, practicing his swing. “That actually happens a lot. What is that?”
“I don’t know.” Simon mused, “Daphne’s hair gets fucking everyone.”
“Okay!” Ben snapped, “I get it! You’re two smug gits! At least I don’t have to meet anybody’s parents.”
“Dr and Mr Sharma, or as I’m allowed to call them; Mary and Tharman, were very nice actually.” Anthony smiled smugly. “Oh! Tharman’s coming to the cricket with us.”
Truth be told he hadn’t felt nearly as relaxed about it on the car ride home. He’d sat there with his palms sweating, finally breaking the silence with a thought he couldn’t help from blurting out.
“Okay, how did you feel that went?”
Kate had laughed, leaning over the centre to kiss the corner of his lips. “I was wondering how long it would be before nervous pigeon Anthony appeared.”
“Nervous pigeon?!”
“Don’t be mad, it’s one of my favourite things about you.” Kate sighed, taking his sweaty hand off the steering wheel to hold. “I am pleased to announce that you’ve gotten the full seal of approval.”
Anthony’s mouth dropped open in surprise, “What?!”
Kate had nodded, “My Mum thinks you’re very sweet. And my Appa appreciated how polite you were to both me, and the waiter.”
“Why would I be rude to someone doing their job?”
“The fact that you think that’s a question is one of the reasons I like you so much. But yes, they liked you very much.”
Anthony let out a deep sigh of relief, lifting Kate’s hand to kiss the back of it. “I’ve never met anybody’s parents before.”
“Well, you did very well. Super charming.”
Ben’s shoulders relaxed, “I actually am very happy for you. It’s great to see you actually enjoying life again.”
“Thank you,” Anthony inclined his head, “I’ll have you know; on the way home, I’m picking up takeaway for the both of us.”
Ben’s head jerked backwards, “You’re breaking the meal plan?!”
“I am. We decided on Thai, I have Kate’s order in my phone already. I’m bringing it home to her.”
“Jesus, who are you?” Simon laughed, he swung his club back and it connected with the ball that launched off the tee with a satisfying swoosh.
“Nice drive.” Anthony said, teeing up his own ball. “Oh, I gave Kate a key for my place as well.”
Ben swung and missed the ball in surprise. “What?!”
“I gave Kate a key to my place.” Anthony repeated, lining up his shot.
“I heard you. But she doesn’t even know your towel classification system.”
“I made her a flow chart.” Anthony drew his club back and watched his ball fly a fair distance. “She said she was willing to learn.”
“And she just… took that in her stride?”
“Yes?”
“A flow chart about towels?”
“It also included linens.”
“Fucking hell,” Ben laughed, “She actually might be perfect for you.”
‘Yeah I..” Anthony trailed off, feeling it get caught in his throat just like it had whenever he’d looked at Kate recently. “Yeah, she is.”
“Enjoy your Thai food then.”
“I think I will, I’ve picked out some noodles and the reviews were very good.”
“He’s to that then.”
________________________________
“Little bit more.”
Anthony rolled his eyes at Kate as she nudged the paprika jar back towards him across the counter. “I put enough in.”
“You didn’t.” Kate tutted, barely looking up from her screen.
She had her headphones on, covering only one ear as she edited this week’s episode. She was sat on a stool across the kitchen counter from him during what had become their routine. Every Sunday Anthony would eventually drag himself off the couch and start prepping his meals for the week. Kate also grabbed her laptop and sat across from him, half listening to what she edited while she carried on their conversation. Newton obviously was sat on Anthony’s side of the kitchen, hoping desperately for an accident that would up end Anthony’s lunches onto the floor.
“You weren’t even looking, how do you know how much I put in?”
“I could sense it.”
Anthony scoffed, picking up the payoff pointedly. He waited for Kate to turn back to her computer and pretended to shake it over the chicken.
“You didn’t put any in.”
“Are you a witch?” Anthony asked, spinning back around.
Kate laughed, and it caught in Anthony’s chest. He loved that sound. He loved how it echoed through the space that used to feel so empty. He loved how she looked, wearing his old paddington bear sweatshirt, sitting in his kitchen. He loved her.
But it was too soon to tell her. Surely it was too soon to say that.
In his weaker moments he’d found himself googling how soon was too soon to tell someone you loved them. According to the average of the data he’d collated on a spreadsheet hidden on his work computer he should wait at least another month. Six weeks if he wanted to be sure he was really safe. As much as he wanted to say it, he didn’t want to scare her. He didn’t want to be too much.
“I’ll take that as a compliment actually.”
“Of course you would.” Anthony swallowed it down again and actually did add more paprika this time.
“Garlic salt next.”
“Garlic salt next.” Anthony mimicked, snatching up the jar anyway.
“That was a terrible impression of me.” Kate scoffed, but she was smirking still as she slid her headphones off completely and rested her chin on her hand. “You’ll thank me when you actually have dinner you can tolerate this week.”
“You used to let me eat my flavourless food.”
“I wasn’t your girlfriend then,” Kate clicked her tongue. “IT’s my sworn duty to step in now.”
“Is it now?”
“Sure is. It was in the contract I signed.”
Neither of them spoke for a long moment. Anthony leaned against the counter, facing Kate who was smiling at him gently, her hair falling over her shoulder.
“Hey, I love you.”
Anthony’s heart stopped. He actually felt it stutter to a stop as the words slipped past Kate’s lips and hung in the air between them. He felt his lips part in surprise as it turned over and over again in his head.
Kate had told him she loved him. Kate loved him.
Kate was still smiling at him, not bothered by the fact that he was staring at her in shock the way she had been when she’d told him she wanted this to be real between them. Maybe because she knew him better now. And she loved him anyway apparently.
“I’m not expecting you to say it back, I just want you to know where I’m at. I love you.” She shrugged at the end, as though it really was that simple.
Anthony’s throat felt as though it was fighting to close and his voice cracked when he finally managed to get the words out. “I love you too, Kate.”
Kate’s soft smile split into a real grin as she stared back at him. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Anthony nodded firmly, awkwardly standing with his hands on his hips. In his kitchen. Apparently telling his girlfriend he loved her for the first time while they argued about chicken.
Kate got up from the stool and made her way around to him, wrapping her arm around his waist. Anthony didn’t realise he was crying until she lifted her hand and wiped her thumb over his cheek. She let out a chuckle. “I hope these are happy tears. Otherwise I might take it to heart.”
Anthony let out a watery chuckle, taking a deep breath, “Yeah. Sorry, I’m sorry. Happy. Definitely happy. Are you happy?”
Kate gave him a slightly incredulous look. “Of course I’m happy with you. Unbelievably, because again you do own a monogrammed golf glove, but this is the healthiest relationship I’ve ever been in. You’re sweet and you’re a very good listener and also you’re incredible in bed and I can’t just let that go.”
“Glad to hear it,” Anthony laughed, holding her a little closer. He took a deep breath and the words came easier than he would have thought. “Before we started properly dating, I told Simon that I was scared to tell you how I felt because I didn’t think I was the kind of person that people fell in love with. I thought I was just… too broken maybe. Terrified after what happened with my Dad.”
He felt Kate still against him but she shook her head. “Well, I fell in love with you.” She said it gently, making sure the words were pressed into his neck. “Just like this. So obviously you’re very loveable.”
Anthony breathed out, not caring that his dinners were probably burning on the stove. “Do you think you’d be open to filling out a short survey about our relationship And your satisfaction with it? I haven’t got one yet but I could knock one up this week.”
Kate let out an incredulous laugh, “Well, in for a penny in for a pound. Sure. But I warn you; It’s going to be very positive feedback.”
“I told Simon it wasn’t weird.”
“Eh, It’s the first time someone’s asked me to do it.” Kate admitted, “But I’m pretty into it actually.”
“I’ll take it.”