15 You Won't Mind

I wake up by myself with a note on Toph’s pillow:

Damian,

Gone to KVRT for the show. I didn’t want to wake you. You looked peaceful. If you wake up in time, the show starts at noon. I preset the radio in the living room to the station- all you have to do is turn it on. I’ll be back as soon as I get done. We can start moving your stuff today if you want. OK, I’m rambling in a note. This is getting ridiculous. I’ll see you when I get back.

Love you,

Christopher.

Smiling, I pick up my phone to see that its 3 minutes until his interview starts. I’ll be damned if I miss it. Scrambling out of bed, I walk over to the entertainment center to power on the radio.

A commercial for car insurance comes over the speakers as I send Riel a text with the radio station my husband’s on.

“Welcome to Chat Radio with Kate and Henry where we bring you the latest and greatest from our hot list celebs,” a female voices fills my home as I walk to my kitchen. “I’m Kate and we’re here today with the amazing Topher Ashton. It’s an honor to have you on our show today, Topher.”

His easy chuckle comes out next, “Thanks guys, it’s great being here.”

When I hear his voice, I sigh. It’s like a blanket wrapping around you on a cold day – warm and secure.

“We originally asked you on because your new movie ‘Save the Day’ comes to theaters in just a few weeks,” a male voice tells him. “But, like the most of the world, we saw Brikk’s show last night.”

I chuckle with my husband as I open the cupboard to grab some ingredients for waffles, “Yea, I figured that would be the hot topic today, Henry.”

“How could it not be?” Kate asks.

“I supposed you’re right,” Topher confirms.

“Would you like to fill in those listeners that may not have seen your surprise interview last night?” Henry prompts him.

Clearing his throat, my blonde-haired best friend begins, “This weekend, I got married to my best friend and the love of my life.”

Opening the refrigerator, I grab the wet ingredients along with extra eggs, cheese, maple syrup and some fruit.

“Who also happens to be…” the female host trails off.

He laughs again lightly, “Who also happens to be a wonderful actor and my costar Damon Jacobs.”

“How did this come about? This has to be the biggest scandal of the year,” Kate’s voice is etched with surprise.

How rude. I decide I’m tired of her voice already as I start to mix my batter together from memory. I love to cook. My mum taught me how.

“Well, it’s not a scandal,” my husband begins. “I love him very much. There’s nothing outrageous about it. It may be a little shocking, yes,” he chuckles again and I reach under the counter for the waffle iron. “But, he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Unless he tells me to leave, there isn’t anything that could keep me away from him.”

“Scandal was the wrong word,” Henry clarifies for him female counterpart. “What she means is, no one saw this coming. When did it start and how did you keep it out of the public?”

“Uh, Day and I became close friends about a year ago when we met on the set of ‘Save the Day’. I said this last night and I’ll say it again, I was hooked right away. He took a little convincing,” Topher answers. “As for keeping out of the public eye, I don’t think we did such a great job at that,” He comments half-heartedly.

“I guess that’s true,” the female laughs obnoxiously. She’s definitely flirting with him, “It’s so sweet that you have such strong feelings. Is Damon listening now?”

I nod my head as I pour the first set of waffles in.

“He might be,” my husband answers. “I didn’t wake him up when I left this morning. It’s been a long couple day since the wedding and he’s not much of a morning person.”

“You don’t say,” the male host encourages.

“Yea, he likes his mornings like most people like mythical creatures – nonexistent,” he laughs as I scowl at the radio. “So he’s either still in our bed or he’s up making breakfast and shooting the radio dirty looks.”

He knows me too well.

“In which case, I love you, Day. Save some for me,” I stick my tongue out at the radio as the waffle iron buzzes.

I take out the cooked breakfast food and pour in more batter. As the second set cooks, I start to cut up some fruit.

“You want to call him to see if you’re in trouble? We would love to have him on the show,” Kate suggests.

“No. No. No,” I chant toward the entertainment center.

As if he hears me, he says, “Sure.”

My phone starts to ring as I hear them punching in numbers.

Running to the other room, I dive on the bed and grab my phone, “Hello?”

A few seconds later, I hear myself echo in the stereo system.

“Hey Day,” my husband comes over the phone and radio right after.

Sighing, I walking out to the living room, “Hold on Christopher, let me turn down the speakers.” Turning the knob all the way down, I speak to him again as I sit down on the couch, “Alright. I’m here.”

“Welcome to the show, Damon,” Henry says to me as my timer goes off.

Popping up out of my seat, I make my way back to the kitchen, “Oh rubbish.” Topher laughs with the two hosts as I realize that it probably sounded like I said it in response to Henry. “I mean thank you,” I chuckle. “I was making breakfast when you guys decided to call and forgot I had waffles on the iron. I don’t need to burn the building down.”

“What are you making, babe?”

“Belgium waffles, scrambled eggs, and fruit salad,” I answer him as I take the perfectly cook breakfast items out of their baking iron.

He makes a sound of approval, “Will you save me some?”

“Your chances are about as existent as my mythical creatures,” I mock disdain as I decide not to pour more waffles until I’m off the phone.

“Ouch,” Henry laughs.

“You know Damon, I wasn’t aware you have a British accent,” Kate points out.

Rolling my eyes, I give her my best chuckle, “Yea, I’ve been told that. I’m actually British – born and raised. I only moved here a couple years ago. I have dual-citizenship, naturalization and all.” Naturalization sounds better than the real reason.

“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Toph points out. “You’re dual-citizen because you’re my husband.”

“I like that better,” I tell him honestly. It’s true, even if it’s not the whole truth. Putting that out of my mind, I question “Does that make you dual-citizen as well?”

He chuckles, “I have no idea.”

“Me neither,” I admit and I start to slice the fruit again.

“So Damon,” Henry cuts in again. “How is it being married to the Topher Ashton?”

“He snores,” I tell them with a laugh. I’m honestly not sure if he snores or not - I’m a really heavy sleeper- but he told them about my mornings.

“I do not,” my husband rebuttals.

I set the knife down and lean against the counter, “You do, and it’s like this resounding deep wheeze.”

“You’re a liar,” he laughs. “You couldn’t possibly know that, anyway. A freight train could land on our bed in the middle of the night and you wouldn’t notice.”

I chuckle with him, “No, in all sincerity, it’s been the best few days of my life. But I want to clarify; I’m not married to superstar Topher Ashton.”

“You’re not?” Kate butts in.

Rolling my eye, I answer her, “Not really. I’m married to Christopher, my husband. He just so happens to be a famous actor.”

“What you’re saying is he’s not everything media has made him out to be?” the male interviewer questions me.

“He’s everything the media makes him out to be, but he’s also an actual person. He’s not just a lovely face, charming smile, and a great kisser. He’s also caring, supportive, honest, and intelligent. Most of all, he’s utterly boring.” They all laugh with me, “I’m not saying he doesn’t excite me because he does. What I mean is it’s not all just the high life.”

“I know what he’s trying to say,” my husband comes to my rescue. “He means last night, after the interview, we lounged around in our pajama pants and ate Chinese food in our bedroom. The night before that, we watched a movie on the pull-out couch and talked to his mom on the phone. Our life isn’t this extravagant spectacle that everyone makes it out to be.”

“We’re just a normal pair or newlyweds,” I agree, shrugging to myself.

Kate giggles, “Well, as much as I see where you’re coming from, I don’t think there is another gay newlywed couple that is as attractive and famous as you guys.”

“That may or may not be true,” Toph says as we chuckle.

“Alright Damon, one more question then we’re going to steal your husband for a little bit longer,” Henry tells me.

I laugh light-heartedly, “It’s not stealing if I give him to you.”

“Hey,” my best friend mock hurt.

“Go on, Henry,” I amuse.

“What I really want to know is the last name situation,” he explains. “Topher has been on screen since he was three as Topher Ashton. Are you going to adopt his last name or…”

“My given surname isn’t actually Jacobs; it’s Moore-Hill. Jacobs was just easier on the tongue. As for changing that, we haven’t quite figured that out yet,” I tell him as honestly as I can.

“We were actually just talking the other day about having one long hyphen,” my husband picks up where I left off. “We may both become the Ashton-Moore-Hills.”

“You heard it here, folks,” Kate announces, “the two Mr. Ashton-Moore-Hills.”

“It was nice talking to you, Damon, and sorry we almost made you burn down your kitchen,” Henry laughs.

I wave my hand in the air even though they can’t see me, “No bother. Christopher will pay for it later.”

“Not fair!” he hollers to our amusement.

“I’ll see you when you get home, Chris. And hurry up, your food will get cold,” I tell him so he knows he’s not really in trouble.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he confirms. I can hear the elation in his voice.

“Okay, I love you,” I say easily. The second it comes out of my mouth, my eyes go wide and I slap my hand over my open lips.

“I-I love you too, so much,” after the shock wears off, you can hear the honesty in his voice.

I hang up the phone before I can say anything else. I can’t believe I actually said it. It just slipped out of my mouth. It felt so natural. But the most surprising part, even in these three short days, I’m not entirely convinced it’s not true.

He is all of the things that I mentioned on the show. He’s also my best friend and has been for the last year. Maybe it won’t be so hard to figure this out. I’ve never met anyone like Topher before.

This is so confusing.

Turning back on the radio I hear that, for the rest of the show, Toph sounds overly-happy. They ask him all about him dating Rebecca on and off for the last year, but he just politely brushes them off. He tells them that she’s just a friend and that he is absolutely in love with me.

They talk about ‘Save the Day’ for a little while and some upcoming projects that my husband may have, but ultimately everything they discuss circles back to me.

In the length of the program after I hang up, Riel text me close to 500 times telling me how excited she is that I finally realized it. I try to tell her that I didn’t mean to say it, but she won’t hear it. She’s too enthusiastic. Eventually, I told her I had to go so I could finish cooking breakfast for my husband. It shut her up pretty quickly.

Next thing I know, I hear the lift ding from outside my front door. When the door opens, I see Christopher clearly perplexed. He shuts the door behind him and walks over to me without a word. Once he stops in front of me, he looks into my eyes as if studying something.

“Say it again,” he challenges.

“Christopher, I don’t think-”

He cuts me off, “Just say it again.” My eyes beg him, but he shakes his head, “I want to see you when you say it. Please say it again.”

I feel a bit exposed standing mere centimeters away from him, but not touching. He just stares into my eyes as I try to read him.

“Just once,” his eyes look pleading, desperate.

I cave, “I love you.”

Instead of saying it back, he wraps his arms around my torso and smashes our lips together. He makes the kiss playful with random pecks all over my face as he laughs and spins us around. I try to push his arms off me as I chuckle with his amusement.

“There have never been sweeter words uttered,” he tells me between kisses.

Finally getting him under control, I push myself out at arm’s length, “You’re acting like a mad man.”

He pulls me against his chest again, “When you said it over the phone earlier, it sounded so real. I had to see you say it in person to see if your eyes agreed.”

“My eyes?”

“Yea your eyes, more than anyone’s I’ve ever seen, tell all your emotions,” he smiles at me.

Placing a lingering kiss on my lips, my husband takes a step back to take off his jumper.

“They do?”

Once he’s out of the jumper and his shoes, he wraps his arms around my waist again, “Everything.”

I lean back a little to see into his eyes, “You didn’t say it back.”

“Yes, I did. I may have stuttered at first, but I was surprised. You can’t blame me for that,” he reasons.

I smile and lean up to kiss him nose, “I mean just now, you didn’t say it back.”

“Oh,” he catches on and places a peck on my lips. “I love you.”

I know he means it, but I put on my best confused face, “I’m not sure if I believe that.”

“I love you,” he kisses my lips. “I love you,” he kisses my nose. “I love you,” he kisses my left cheek. “I love you,” he kisses my right. “I love you,” he kisses my forehead. “I love you,” he kisses my chin. “I love you,” his last kiss lingers on my lips for an extra few seconds.

“That’s good,” I mock him from last night as I pull out of his arms to walk into the kitchen. “Then you won’t mind that I love you too.”

With my words, he tries to catch me, but I dodge out of his hands and make him chase me around the island. When he finally catches me, he plants another kiss on my lips before we sit down for our second breakfast as a married couple.