Brian and Ruby climbed the stairs and slowly went through the small corridor; they stopped at the door of Ruby's former bedroom, though she didn't use it for a long time. Before Brian put his hand on the door handle, he turned round and faced Ruby. Her eyes were still a bit red due to her tears. He stared hungrily at her. “Oh Ruby, my Ruby” he thought, “even when she cries she's gorgeous.” A tender smile drew itself on his cheeks; she looked up to him and blushed.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she whispered.
“I missed looking at you, y'know. And I love you.”
She smiled and put her arms around him, pressing him tightly against her chest. Through their clothes and skin, he could feel her heartbeats and he blushed. All he wanted to do was to kneel down before her and listen to them for hours, his arms wrapped around her waist.
“I love your heartbeats, love” he whispered in her ear before kissing her hair.
“Why? I mean... They're just heartbeats.”
“Yeah, but they let me know you're alive and real.”
She smiled and tenderly kissed his lips.
“Brian Harold May, I wonder if you are real, sometimes.”
He grinned and kissed the top of her head. Finally, they remembered why they were on the doorstep, and they got inside the room. A flow of memories struck her right in the heart. The walls were still blue – her favourite shade of blue – and the peaceful atmosphere was still there. Her eyes wandered across the whole room and she couldn't help but smile. Even though the sheets of the bed had been changed, and that the floor and the furnitures had been cleaned, it seemed like nobody had come in for ages. The white boots her mother had bought her were sat down against the bedside table, and her old white dress as lying on the back of a chair. It was the white dress she wore at Dennis's funerals. Without a word, Ruby stepped forward and reached the dress. She carefully took it between her hands and stared at it. As she turned it around, she noticed a huge brown stain on the cloth. She also noticed smaller stains around it and she blenched.
“What the hell is...”
She couldn't even finish her sentence, because it was obvious. It was after Dennis's funerals that she came at the Mays' house after the terrible argument between her and her father. Just by remembering it, she felt the sharp pain of her nose being broken and her swollen eyes. She gasped and threw the dress back on the back of the chair.
“Ruby? What's going on?”
“It's the white dress I wore at my brother's funerals. And... The blood's still on the dress.”
Brian took a look at the stained cloth and blenched too.
“Oh shit... But you know, my mother washed it at least five times, and I saw her doing it.”
“I didn't know it could be that visible even after many washes.”
“You lost a good amount of blood if I may say so. Your nose was a fountain.”
Ruby imagined herself being the stone cherub of a fountain, blood flowing out of her nose. She bursted out laughing and Brian looked at her quizzically.
“What's funny in it?”
“Oh, I imagined myself as a fountain. Yeah, I'm 44 but I still imagine myself as a fountain, don't you?”
They both laughed before hugging each other. Brian walked up to the bed and sat on it. Then, Ruby followed him and sat next to him, placing her hands between his.
“If you want to take your records back, they're not here, they're at my house, I'll give them back to you.”
“You can keep them. Now they're more yours than mine.”
“They've always been yours, Ruby. I just took care of them. They're still in the same state. Usually, I don't clean my records because I'm too lazy, but I clean yours every week.”
“Bri, you know, they're only records. They're not gold.”
“No, but they belong to you. And that makes them gold.”
Ruby smiled at him and rested her head on his shoulder. He gently stroked her hands with the tip of his thumbs. Then, he started giggling.
“What's the matter, Bri?”
“Oh, nothing, dear, nothing.”
“Tell me!” she said, rolling her eyes with a smirk. “I hate it when you, guys, always maintain an unbearable suspense! Just say it!”
“Well... Do you remember that we... made love in this bed? And 23 years after, we're naturally sitting on it, as if nothing happened here. That's why I laugh.”
She looked at the pillow and giggled too.
“Oh, I remember it was so good!”
Brian blushed and looked down.
“And that's here that we conceived May.” she added.
“Oh, that's right. It was when my parents left home to go to the restaurant, I remember.”
“And right after we ate your mother's outstanding pancakes.”
“You're right!”
They shared a tender look and kissed. Brian played with Ruby's braid and she ran her hands through his dark curls that she had always cherished. After a while, they broke off their embrace and Ruby kissed his hair before placing her mouth near his ear.
“I must admit that I'd love to do it again with you, right now, in this bed, but your mother's here and we're going to Hyde Park tonight.”
“Yeah, I'd love to do it again! I'll have to go home to change my clothes and to pick up my telescope and my books. But if you want to come, I don't see any problem.”
“I'd love to see where you live!”
“I'll take you with me, then.”
He smiled at her and they kissed again. They stood up and looked for stuff that once belonged to Ruby back in 1969. The only interesting things she found were her boots and also her stained dress. She could have thrown it away, as she would never wear it again, but this dress meant way too much for her. She remembered the concert of Pink Floyd she went to with Dennis in 1967, and she was wearing this dress. Then, there were the funerals. Ruby sighed and just picked the boots and the dress before heading for the door. Brian went out first, and Ruby's head spun round to contemplate the bedroom once again before it disappeared behind the closing door.