I flick on the TV, trying to find something interesting to watch, but neither of us is interested in anything on offer.
It’s 10 p.m. and I’m exhausted from the grind, but because he’s hardly done anything today, Johannes is nowhere near ready to sleep. After the fourth groan and sigh in the last twenty minutes, I’ve had enough.
I remember the first time he brought me back to one of the villas in Europe and Nils had a Switch hooked up to their TV in the lounge. I’m sure I’ve seen it on the plane recently, too. Maybe Nils’d be willing to give it up for the night so I can keep Johannes from creating a damages bill for the team.
‘I’ll be back,’ I say, sliding out of his bed. He mumbles something I don’t catch on the way out, as I check the corridor before knocking on Nils’s door.
He yells to come in, and I find the door unlocked. Not sure what’s given me the nerve to knock on his room door, walk straight in and put my hand on the Switch console that seems to fly around the world with him. ‘We’re stealing this. Hope you don’t mind.’
‘Johannes has been a terrible influence on you. You used to be so polite,’ Nils comments from where he’s lying in his hotel bed, shirtless, watching some weird American reality show. I don’t ask any more questions and I’m trying not to think about what I’ve interrupted as I notice both his arms are tucked under the covers.
‘He’s also got two broken ribs and is going absolutely mad having to lie in bed with nothing to do.’ I think even I’d be going out of my mind, because though I’d have my PhD thesis to finally finish, I’d want to do everything I couldn’t do in that moment.
‘And he’s got you playing nurse. Lucky him. I’m surprised he’s not already got you in the uniform.’ I hope Nils never repeats this to Johannes, because he’d be straight on Amazon ordering the skimpiest one with the fastest delivery.
‘Should I be worried about you visualising that right now?’
‘You’re not my type, don’t you worry, Hughes.’ Johannes made it clear quite early on that Nils was straight, but I don’t miss how his eyes scan my body in Johannes’s T-shirt.
‘I’m surprised you’re not out tonight.’
‘It’s not the same without Johannes. We’ll celebrate when his ribs are better. Even Harper and Elijah are having a quiet dinner with Cole and Ash. I didn’t know Harper understood the word quiet.’
‘Touché, team party animal.’
‘I would be if your boyfriend wasn’t being boring with his stupid broken ribs.’
I roll my eyes. There isn’t a world in which Nils could have convinced me to let Johannes out this evening. Not that I own him, but I would have physically barricaded the door with my body before I let him be that stupid.
‘Thanks again.’ I wave the games console at him.
‘Go, enjoy the rest of the evening with your man. Me and my hand will be in here feeling lonely.’
Not an image I ever want in my head. Gross. ‘Ew. I did not need to know that. You need to get yourself a girlfriend, Nils!’
‘You’re telling me,’ Nils mutters, but I’m half out the door, running the few steps between his and Johannes rooms before pushing open the door.
‘Mission success,’ I say, and his face lights up when he spots the Switch and HDMI cable in my hand and I make fast work getting it hooked up to our TV. ‘I can’t wait to beat your ass at Mario Kart.’ He shoots me a glare now that says dream on, but he has no idea how much my siblings played this with me on the Wii when I was younger, and that I have been playing this game on Switch since the pandemic when I needed to unwind.
‘Bring it on.’ I chuck him a controller, before sliding back into bed next to him.
Turns out, you can be fantastic in an actual car and still be shit at a video game.
Johannes can’t finish above fifth place after demanding we play it on the hardest settings because he canmanage. I’m only familiar with first or second place, and it’s all too satisfying to be beating a professional race driver’s ass right now.
We only stop to order fuel– he insists that he’s eaten way too much chocolate cake, but he still wants something sweet, so I ask if they’ll make up a big fruit platter for the injured Johannes Müller and of course they are nothing short of happy to do so.
We eat it in between races, Johannes taking the most aggressive bite out of a slice of melon when he finishes last yet again.
He chucks the remote to the end of the bed when he loses for the fourth time in a row. He’s lucky I can’t currently put this on Instagram without revealing that there’s something going on. What else would Caleb Hughes be doing in Johannes Müller’s bed at close to midnight?
‘I can’t be both injured and humiliated, so I’m done for the night.’ He yawns and for a second as he stretches, I think he’s about to try and roll onto his bad side like an idiot, but he quickly catches himself.
‘Hey,’ I say, grabbing both remotes and placing them on the ottoman at the end of the bed, before turning the TV off and moving into his half of the bed. ‘Come here.’ I stretch open an arm so he can snuggle against me and get at least somewhat comfy before he tries to sleep tonight.
He reaches for his phone and for thirty minutes scrolls through the never-ending list of TikToks that Harper’s sent him this evening. Half of them are fan edits of either one or both of them– which is only slightly concerning for their egos– but some of them are absolutely adorable clips of them as baby faced teens in go-karts.
It feels very domestic and all of a sudden, my mind is picturing many more nights like this. Cosy in bed together, him scrolling his phone, me typing away on my laptop. It feels so normal.
