Page 3 of Love Will Save the Day
Chapter Three
‘Um… it’s me?’ I ask in total confusion. I wonder how he thinks he knows me because I’m pretty sure I’d remember meeting someone who has a face like that. I’m about to correct the handsome man and tell him that he has clearly mistaken me for someone else when he gestures at the café server.
‘I insist on paying for this woman’s lunch,’ he says firmly. ‘Is this all you’re having?’ he asks me, eyes flicking to my soup and coffee.
‘Uh, well, I was going to get a bread roll too…’ I find myself saying. If this extremely Hugh Grant-esque stranger wants to buy me lunch, I am in no position to turn that down right now. I can just correct his mistake once my belly is full of hot soup and bread roll.
‘A bread roll too,’ Handsome Man says.
‘And, um, a slice of walnut cake also, please,’ I can’t help but add on cheekily. Desperate times. Handsome man places his own pre-wrapped sandwich on the counter and hands over the shiny black card that, judging from his perfectly cut hair and expensively tailored clothes, is full to bursting with enough money for thousands of slices of walnut cake.
‘Thank you!’ I say, smiling awkwardly up at him and feeling slightly embarrassed at having allowed this stranger to buy my lunch under a false assumption that I’m someone he knows. ‘That was really kind of you. Okay! Well, um, all the best to you and yours. Have a good day.’
Grabbing my free booty, I shuffle over to the one empty table in the back corner of the café, but the handsome man immediately follows behind me with his own cup of coffee and his sandwich. I sit down and he plonks himself opposite me and laughs an open, friendly laugh. ‘You don’t recognise me, do you?’ he asks, his amused eyes narrowing.
I laugh self consciously. ‘Actually… no. I don’t. I’m sorry.’
‘That’s fair enough,’ Handsome Man pushes his perfect hair back from his high forehead. ‘The last time you saw me I was a little grey in the face.’ He closes his eyes and rolls his head to the side, letting his tongue hang out. What the hot pickle is he doing?
I start to speedily slurp my soup and stuff half of the bread roll into my gob at once. I should get out of here ASAP because, while extremely attractive and clearly very generous, this man is obviously loopy.
I shrug. ‘I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I—’
‘You saved my life!’ the man interrupts, his eyes glinting. ‘Four weeks ago? I’m the man who was choking on the chicken taco. Ladbroke Grove?’ He throws his hands up in the air in response to my blank expression. ‘Hmmm, I suppose you were so busy giving me the Heimlich, saving my life, that you hardly got a good look at my face. But of course I recognise you! I mean, once you knew I was safe you dashed off into the tube station and I didn’t get a chance to thank you. But I’d recognise this hair,’ he points at my ginger curls, ‘and this hat,’ he points at my mustard hat with the neon pink bobble. ‘I’d recognise them anywhere!’
‘Oh wow,’ I say, knowing that saving this man from choking on a chicken taco isdefinitelynot something that I did four weeks ago. ‘That’s incredible and I’m so glad you’re alive, but I’m afraid I—’
‘—I spent the last four weeks trawling the streets of Notting Hill, searching for you,’ Handsome Man says, totally intense. ‘I felt like I couldn’t move on until I said thank you.’ He grabs both of my hands, one of which still contains the remains of my bread roll. He squeezes slightly so that the roll squishes flat. ‘Thank you,’ he says, staring deeply into my eyes. ‘You willneverunderstand how grateful I am. I was beginning to think you weren’t real! That my hero was just a figment of my imagination. Ha! I thought the near death experience was making me crazy. But here you are! Live and in the flesh!’ Handsome Man looks down at the table and bites his bottom lip lightly. ‘Soup doesn’t seem nearly enough of a repayment. I owe you mylife.’
I goggle at him. He is genuinely happy to see me, even if I’m not at all who he thinks I am. I suppose it’s rather nice to be looked at like that. Like I’m a hero. A man this gorgeous has never ever looked at me with such adoration. Men like him look at models and actresses and ballet dancers with such adoration. Not poor personal trainers from Bristol. As he smiles widely at me, I melt slightly into his bright, clear blue eyes. And maybe it’s the fact that I don’t want to be the reason for the smile on his face to disappear, or maybe it’s because just for a second it would be nice to pretend I’m the kind of badass woman who saves a man’s life before disappearing mysteriously into the night like a superhero. But in that moment I decide not to tell him that he’s made a mistake. What would be the point? He said he’s already been looking for his real saviour for four weeks. It looks like the chances of him finding them are pretty slim, and if finding ‘me’ means he can ‘move on’ and I get a free lunch out of it then there’s no harm, is there?
‘You’re so welcome!’ I grin back, quickly spooning the rest of the soup into my mouth in case he suddenly realises I’m not who he thinks I am and tries to take it away from me. ‘Anytime,’ I add casually, as if saving people’s lives is something I do on the regular.
I catch sight of the clock on the wall. Eek. I need to get going if I’m going to get around at least another ten gyms by the end of the day. I drain my coffee cup and stand up from the table.
‘Wait! Where are you going?’ Handsome Man asks, jumping up from his chair, unopened sandwich still on the table. ‘I – I need to know more about you. Where were you rushing off to that day? Where did you learn to do the Heimlich manoeuvre? What else can I do to repay you? Lunch hardly seems enough! Gosh, you must stay and chat with me!’
He grabs my shoulders and I feel a little fizz of pleasure at his touch before lightly shrugging him off. Focus, Bess. This man might look like the sort of man you’ve dreamed of dating long before you arrived here, but if you don’t get a job ASAP you’re going to have to leave London really soon and go back to the suburbs of Bristol and then the only men available to date will be the lads you went to school with, Smelly Danny and Eats His Own Toenails Brad. No thank you.
‘I have a really busy day,’ I explain, my heart sinking at the thought of how badly this morning went and the consequences of not getting any leads this afternoon.
Handsome Man’s face falls. Then he reaches into his inside pocket and pulls out a cream card, pressing it into my hand. ‘I’m Henry. Henry Byron. Take my card. If you ever need anything. Anything at all, please do give me a call.’
I take his card and shove it into my pocket, pre-occupied with whether I have any credit on my Oyster card.
‘Will do!’ I shout vaguely. ‘Thanks again for the lunch. It was nice to meet you, Henry. No more choking!’
‘Wait!’ Henry yells after me. ‘I don’t even know your name!’
‘Bess!’ I call back, giving him a quick wave before leaving the café and hurrying to the tube station to try my luck on the Oyster card.
Hmmm. What an odd interaction.
