The Box

Billy hurried from the bus stop in the pouring rain, to his house, only a few hundred yards to the front door, but he was soaked. He went inside dropping his bag on the sofa. Signs that his flatmate hadn’t worked today were everywhere, stuff tidied up, washing no longer hanging on the drying rack, a bottle of wine opened with 2 glasses on the coffee table.

The smell of something cooking in the kitchen, he went into the kitchen but no sign of her, on the breakfast bar was a large brown parcel. He put the kettle on, grabbed a mug and shoved a teabag in it. He grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and bit into it.

As the kettle boiled, he kicked off his shoes and removed his jumper. The jumper went in front of the washing machine, the shoes where they fell. He filled up his mug and splashed in some milk, he stirred it with a teaspoon and left it on the side along with the milk, then went to go upstairs. Then he paused a thought coming into his head. He put his tea on the coffee table, grabbed the wine and went back in the kitchen. He put the wine in the fridge along with the milk. Rinsed the spoon and put it in the drying rack. He hung his jumper on the radiator to dry and took his shoes and placed them in the shoe rack by the door. He smiled to himself, put on the Vi’s incense diffuser and grabbed his tea and went upstairs.

He put his tea on his desk in his room and noticed that his room looked tidier than usual. He thought the plates and cups he’d had up here had gone, damn, he’d meant to do that himself. He switched on his computer and then took the rest of his clothes off, leaving them in a damp pile near the door. He walked across the hall to the bathroom and jumped in the shower.

10 minutes later Billy left the bathroom wrapped in a towel. He looked briefly round the door to Vi’s room but no sign of her, ‘strange’ he thought to himself. He went back into his room, threw on his pyjama bottoms and sat in front of his computer. Opened up YouTube, but then he stopped himself, he sighed got up and moved his clothes to the laundry hamper. Then he grabbed Vi’s old laptop that he’d been recovering her old files from and transferring to an external hard drive. He’d started it a couple of weeks ago but had been distracted and other stuff had gotten in the way. While the transfer was happening, he added a few more songs to a Spotify playlist he’d been putting together. He heard the front door go and called out a greeting but didn’t rush downstairs immediately.

Eventually Billy wandered back downstairs, Vi was sat on the sofa reading, she’d opened the wine.

“Hey, how was your day? Want a glass of wine?” She said without looking up.

“Same old, same old. Still hate my job. Yes please, how was your day off?”

“Pretty good until I got called in for a couple of hours.” Vi poured the wine “Did you see the parcel that came?”

“Yeah, what is it?” Vi handed him the glass of wine and he took a sip and made an appreciative noise.

“Dunno, found it on the doorstep under the doormat when I left for work. Got to love the safe place choice. Not addressed to anyone, I assumed it was for you.”

Billy wasn’t expecting anything but made a show of checking his emails and amazon account anyway. “No, nothing that I’ve ordered. Maybe it’s for next door? Or maybe you drunk ordered something again?” He said playfully. It was a running joke amongst their friends that both he and Vi would order stuff when they couldn’t sleep or were drunk and then have no idea until it arrived.

“Hmph, it would be addressed to me though, wouldn’t it? Anyway, when I got drunk last weekend...” She paused and blushed. “I definitely wasn’t on my phone.” Billy chuckled at that.

Billy got up and went in the kitchen. He came back into the living room with the parcel and placed it on the coffee table. Vi looked at him, wine glass in hand and raised her eyebrows at him. He pulled off the brown paper to reveal a plain brown box. Vi moved forward and sipped her wine. Billy raised his eyebrows at her and she sighed, put down her wine glass and moved closer so she could open the box. Inside the box was another plain cardboard box. Vi giggled, pushed it towards him and said:

“Is this the worst game of pass the parcel ever.”

Billy laughed too. “Maybe we should put music on?”

“Fine but no dubstep crap, I get enough of that at work.”

Billy grabbed his phone, opened up Spotify and picked a playlist that he knew Vi wouldn’t object too. The sound of Santana’s ‘I love you too much’ filled the living room.

Vi looked at him quizzically. “Oh my god, you finally discovered real music!” She poked him in his side playfully.

“This mad woman I live has been brainwashing me, forcing me to listen to music without ‘robots fucking in it’ as she puts it” he said dryly

“You love it really, or you will.” She said smiling. But turned serious. “Or I will go all Clockwork Orange on you.” She stretched and got up and walked into the kitchen. “Dinner’s ready I made beef bourguignon or as you will probably call it delicious slop.”

“You are the best housemate in the world,” he called out. “Carlsberg don’t do housemates, but if they did.”

“They’d probably be the best housemates in the world.”

They finished together, over 15 years of friendship and shared jokes obvious. They’d only been living together for the last year after Vi’s shitty ex-boyfriend cheated on her only a few weeks after they’d moved in together. His mistake had been Billy’s gain, he’d gotten his best friend back no more having to play second fiddle to the boyfriend or group hangs where he’d had to pretend, he gave a shit about sports. Or watching Vi try and make herself more like the other girlfriends. So, unlike her to try and change for someone but Aaron had really screwed with her head.

While they enjoyed the meal and drank wine, starting a second bottle even though it was a ’school’ night for him, the box sat on the table seeming to loom between them. Vi commented on the music especially when Eric Clapton’s ‘wonderful tonight’ came on. Billy’s phone went off in his pocket and he pulled it out and saw a message from Dan, Vi’s brother it read:

-Have you done it yet?

-Not yet

-Hurry up

Billy sighed and shoved his phone back in his pocket. Vi looked at him.

“Is everything ok?” She asked.

“Yeah, just some work nonsense.”

She looked at his empty bowl. “Do you want some more.” She said reaching for his bowl.

“No, I’m full.” He patted his stomach. “It was delicious though, thanks.”

He grabbed her bowl and got up, she frowned at him. “You sure, you’re, okay?”

He nodded and went in the kitchen and put the bowls in the sink. He washed them up and heard Vi enter the room. She came up behind him and reached up and touched his forehead.

“You sure?” She asked again.

“Yeah, god I mean you’ve cooked a nice meal and cleaned up today. I’m just trying to do my bit.” He said feeling flustered.

She smiled at him stood on her tip toes and kissed his cheek. “Thanks, that’s sweet.”

She left the kitchen, he looked around grabbed a cloth and wiped the sides trying to think what else Vi would do. He checked the bins and recycling didn’t need emptying. One last check then he turned the light off and went back to the living room. Vi was reading her book again. He smiled and went over to the sofa and sat beside her. He nudged her gently, she looked up from her book.

“Pass the parcel?”

She frowned until he gestured at the box on the table, she grinned. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. It’s your turn, isn’t it?”

She put her book down and moved forward toward the coffee table. Billy opened the box to reveal another box. He pushed it gently towards her.

“Do you know what today is.” Billy asked.

Vi frowned while opening the box. “the 5th of September? I think, can’t you just check your phone?”

“Do you know what the 5th of September is?”

Vi took another box out and pushed it towards him. “Freddie Mercury’s birthday.”

“And?”

Vi bit her lip thinking, before saying. “Anniversary of mother Teresa’s death.”

“And?”

Billy opened the box and pushed the newly revealed one back to Vi. She opened it and pushed the new box back to him. “Um some space thing and um, anniversary of Munich Olympics massacre.”

Billy opened the box to reveal a small wrapped box. “Wow this is why you are forever my pub quiz team mate., but they weren’t the answers I was looking for.” Billy paused and looked at Vi, she reached for the box but he didn’t give it to her. “16 years ago, you started college and walked into the wrong classroom.” Vi laughed and covered her face. “It took you nearly 15 minutes to work out you weren’t in English literature and then you were too embarrassed to leave. Now some might have thought the fact everyone had a computer in front of them would have given it away. You stayed until the end of the class and when we were let out you went off and found your brother and cried because you thought you were going to get in loads of trouble for missing your first class. Fortunately, you did walk into that class or I wouldn’t have met you.” He handed her the wrapped box.

“I can’t believe you remembered that was the date.” She looked from the box to him. “Is this a compass that you got me?”

“Not a compass. Since then, I’ve gotten to know you we’ve shared meals, beds, jokes, food, heartbreaks, happiness, joy, sorrow.” Vi was looking at him, he could see she was starting to tear up.

“Open it.”

She looked down and opened the wrapping paper to reveal an antique ring box. “Oh my god.” She breathed.

He took the box and slid off the sofa onto his knee. “Violet I have loved you as a friend, I have loved you as more then a friend, then as a friend again. I’ve seen you grow into the amazing woman you are today, and I’ve been running to catch up. When you were with the idiot, I saw you try to be different, I hated it, I knew then I was in love with you. When you moved in here and we started to do this,” He gestured “I hoped but I wasn’t sure, but then I figured if I didn’t say anything I’d regret it for the rest of my life. Vi I love you and I want to know if you will marry me?” He opened the ring box and looked up at her.

She was crying. “Don’t most people date first?” She laughed and shook her head. Billy’s heart stopped for a second. “I love you too, so yes.”

He took out the ring and slipped it onto her finger, then he grabbed his phone and sent a photo of it to Dan with the words

-She said yes

-Took you long enough

Vi read this upside down and looked at him eyebrows raised.

“Who did you think was the delivery man.”