Boyfriend K

It's 10 days into the holiday with my friend K and we're drinking champagne in our hotel suite before going out to dinner. We'd bought some champagne duty free at Heathrow airport, on the basis that wine is quite expensive to buy in the country where we were going. However, we hadn't got round to drinking it, so with the holiday nearing its end we decided to open a bottle.

"How do you think it's going between us?" I ask casually, looking K in the eye and smiling.

"Do we need to discuss this now?" asks K, nervously.

"I think we should," I answer, "because very soon it'll be the end of the holiday. I think we should start thinking about what, if anything, is going to happen when we get back to London."

"Well, sometimes you laugh far too loudly in public," says K grinning at me, "and then people look at us and I feel embarrassed!"

"But your heart is in the right place :-)," he continues, tapping his hand briefly on my upper chest where my heart is.

"For my part," I say, "sometimes you seem quite critical of me, but then a little while later you'll be very loving and even apologise for your critical comments."

"I always say exactly what I'm thinking," says K, "and it's sometimes not properly thought through. It's been quite a while since I've been in a relationship, with someone else to consider all the time."

"Overall I think we've got on very well together on this holiday :-)," I answer, "so I'm still very keen on you. I guess the next step would be to try living together when we get back to London?"

"OK," says K, thinking hard, "perhaps I should try moving my stuff into your house. Although for now, I think I should keep paying my rent in case things don't work out and I need to move back. Actually, there's at least one guy I know that might be interested in sub-letting from me."

"Yes, of course you should keep your place for now," I reply. "I can't think of any reason why it won't work between us, but there's still a lot that could go wrong!"

"Anyway," I continue, "if we're going to do this, let's try and get the move done over the next week or two. Now that we've got this far, I don't see any advantage in waiting."

The next morning we're on a train platform with some commuters, chatting about what we're going to be doing later in the day, when I decide to ask K a question.

"So when can we stop calling each other 'potential boyfriends' and just call each other 'boyfriends'?" I ask, smiling at him.

"Whenever you like :-)," answers K, very casually.

I think about his answer briefly, before asking him another question.

"So will you be my boyfriend?" I say, looking him directly in the eyes and with a big smile on my face.

"Aren't you going to get down on one knee and hold my hand to ask that?" answers K instantaneously, with a cheeky grin on his face.

One of the things that I adore about K is his quick wit. As soon as I realise what he's said, I burst out laughing loudly, and a few other people on the platform start looking at us. Slowly K starts moving away from me, in a comic attempt to put some distance between us.

"What a tragedy!" I say to K catching up with him, still with a smile on my face, "you'll be telling everyone 'I would have been GB's boyfriend, but it was impossible because he laughs too loudly in public!'"

"Things aren't going to be easy!" replies boyfriend K, "but hopefully it's going to be fun :-)."