Fear and Love

Normally on walks, my Zune is in my hand, both ear buds in my ears, and a vast variety of music is entering my cerebellum. However, today was a special occasion, and I wanted to hear every sound, see every color, smell every fragrance and really get the full effect of my first walk around my new surroundings. I was surprised at how little everything had changed. I made my way easily to the Starbucks, and once inside, it was impossible to tell that I was even in England anymore. (As an example, did you know that the buzz of people chattering around you sounds the same in London as it would in, say, San Francisco? As long as you are not focusing on one particular voice, the accent is undetectable!) After I ordered, I walked to the end of the bar to wait for my chai, already digging into my butter croissant.

“Grande caramel mocha, no whip, for Pat!”

The barista called out the drink order and I watched her begin to make my chai. Hearing the name she called out though, caused me to whip my head around quickly to look for him, but there was no trace of my sex-haired backpacking savior. The fates were so mean. Although, I suppose this helped to even out the fact that I had a magnificent room all to myself for the six-month duration I would be in London.

“Grande soy chai latte, for Molly!”

I walked up and grabbed my drink, which, as usual, was too hot, with no sleeve. I looked to the barista, who was already making the next drink hurriedly.

“Uhm, may I have a sleeve?” I indicated to the stack behind the counter, just out of reach, my arm stretched out.

“Here you are.”

The voice came from someone that was standing just out of my eyesight, and as he spoke, a sleeve appeared under my arm. The barista just shrugged and went back to her venti vanilla latte as I turned around to see the nice citizen that had grabbed the sleeve for me. I found myself staring into the most heart-melting blue-grey eyes, attached to a face that was topped with messy disheveled brown hair and wearing an amused grin. I gasped, spilling my chai down my hand.

“Oh, bugger!” I mumbled under my breath, reaching for a napkin to mop up my mess.

“Here, let me help,” Pat chuckled and grabbed my latte from my hand and started wiping it down while I tried to clean myself.

He handed it back to me, and all I could muster, aside from a quiet “Thank you”, was a curious stare and several unfinished sentences.

“I’m so sorry I -- What are you even --? This is so -- How did you --? A caramel mocha?”
He laughed at my inability to speak.

“All I can say is this was a lucky accident.” He shook his head, running his free hand through his hair, just like he had on the plane. “I thought you hated me or something. I have been told that my caring friendliness can be a little overbearing, actually.”

“Oh my goodness, not at all! The man who picked me up was a total douche bag. I tried to go back to say goodbye and thank you again, and he wouldn’t let me. I felt really terrible about it, especially after how nice you had been…” I offered up a smile, even though my heart was pounding faster than a jack rabbit’s and I felt unnaturally nauseous.

“Well, no hard feelings. I am still a little shell-shocked about running into you here! I don’t know if you noticed, but uh, London is kind of a big city. Plus, I never usually come to Starbucks. I go to a coffee shop a couple streets away that a friend of mine owns, but they were closed today.” He continued to shake his head, out of disbelief, I’m sure.

“A lucky accident, indeed.” I couldn’t articulate any original thought just yet.

Outside, the bells at the old church rang out and Pat glanced at the large clock across from us.

“Damn it, I have to go. Erm, do you have a phone number I can reach you at?” he pulled out his phone.

I grimaced, “Actually I don’t. I haven’t gotten a phone yet, and there isn’t one in my dorm room.”

He looked down and slipped his phone back in his pocket, and I could have sworn he cursed under his breath, but it was too quiet for me to be sure. If he had, when he looked back up at me, his face showed no sign of irritation. In fact, he was grinning a bit devilishly.

“Say, do you have plans tonight?”

He grinned sheepishly now, and another wave of nausea hit me, followed by relief. Mr. Sex-hair wanted to know if I had plans tonight, and that was nerve-wracking as hell. But at the same time, he made the first move, which meant I didn’t have to. Hooray!

“Not that I am aware of. Did you have something in mind for me?” I grinned, glad that the pressure was off me, and I could attempt to flirt without worrying too much about how he would respond.

“Yeah, actually—uh, my best mate planned something of a “Welcome Back” party for me. Let me give you the address to the pub. It’s not far from here at all, maybe a fifteen minute walk.”
I searched for my pen in my bag as he pulled his Starbucks receipt from his pocket and smoothed it. I handed him the pen and he scrawled the name and address of the pub and handed it to me.

“Festivities are scheduled to start around 9:30.” he grinned, tilting his head to look at me as I scanned the information on the crumpled paper.

“Fabulous, count me in. There’s nothing like a get together in an authentic English pub to really start my trip off right.” I joked, slightly nudging his arm with my elbow.

“Well, technically, your trip started off with you passing out and getting checked out by the witch doctor…”

He pointedly looked at me, and I gave him the most severe look I could muster, trying to look angry. He held his hands up in surrender and laughed.

“Hey, I’m just saying!”

“Yeah, yeah… we don’t speak of that. As far as everyone other than you and me are concerned, the flight was delayed upon landing. No other explanation needed.” I pointed at him and attempted another serious face, but I could tell I wasn’t pulling it off because he just raised his eyebrows and smiled slightly as he opened the door for me.

I walked out into the cool, crisp air and down from Starbucks a few paces, Pat following me. I turned to face him and he was playing with his hair again. I had grown accustomed to it by now, but it was still surprisingly sexy and I struggled for a couple seconds to regain my composure.

“Well, I had better go now, I am already running late.”

“Okay, well I will see you later then.” I waved and started walking up the street.

“Oh, and Molly?” I turned to look back at him. “The caramel mocha isn’t mine… I take my coffee black.”

I rolled my eyes and waved once more as I turned and started back towards the playground around the corner. I made a big loop around the neighborhood and arrived back at the dorm about forty five minutes later.

* * * * *

The get together at the Beecher Hall ended up being nothing terribly spectacular or exciting, at least in comparison to my earlier run in. Everything seemed shabby in light of the gorgeous and slightly mysterious Pat. I met up with Elisha before walking over there. She had seemed a little out of spirits, and I wanted to ask why, but I figured we were still more acquaintances than friends and I wasn't sure if she'd appreciate the inquiry. She lightened up considerably though when Analisa announced upon our return to the dorm that her sister owned a nearby club and had invited all of us for some drinks and dancing. Even I had to admit that it sounded like a lot of fun, but I wasn't sure how well it would work out with my plans with Pat. Not to mention it would seem a little bitchy of me to skip out on our first dorm event when I didn't even know anyone in England (that they knew of, at least).

"Hey Elisha, do you know where this club is?"

We were walking up to our rooms from the foyer, girls around us chattering excitedly about what they would wear, guys talking in hushed whispers about getting "some play".

"Yeah, it is just down on Kensington High street... just across from the abbey."

"Oh that is really close, how awesome!"

"Yeah, it's called Amika. It is really swanky... you always see celebrities there. We are pretty lucky that we have an 'in' with Analisa, because the clipboard bitch is very selective about who she lets in to the club. Plus, their regular cover charge is outrageous. £20 before eleven. Ridiculous."

"Wow, I guess we are pretty lucky then." We reached our rooms and went to our separate doors. "Thanks for the info Elisha, see you in a bit! I may need some help picking out an outfit," I laughed.

"No problem. Let me know if you have issues, I brought a ton of clubbing dresses. Even though I don't really plan on using them much. Not my scene." She chuckled and shrugged and walked in her room.

As soon as I was in my room I pulled out my laptop and while I waited for my wireless card to pick up on the dorms WiFi, I drifted over to my suitcase and started pulling out things and laying them out on the bed. I didn't really want to wear a dress, so my black stacked skinny jeans were a must, but finding a top would be a bit more difficult since I didn't bring anything very fancy, and what I did have was beyond wrinkled. I started hanging stuff up in my closet, since it was all laid out anyway, keeping out my jeans and flats. I grabbed my laptop and plopped down on the fluffy chair and opened up Google maps so I could see where exactly the pub was, and figure out when I would have to leave the club to make it to the pub in time for Pat's shindig. I had decided that I would definitely have to manage to go to both places because I really did not want to alienate myself from the others in the dorm, and I sure as shit wasn't going to miss out on seeing Pat after the fortuitous events that brought us together this afternoon... the fates were saying something, and who was I to ignore that?

After some easy clicking and the convenient "Search Nearby" tool, I had determined that I would have to give myself about ten minutes to walk there so I would get a good hour and a half to make my appearance at the club and meet a few more people. As I was shutting down my laptop, I heard a quick rap at the door joining my room to Elisha's.

"Come in!" I called, figuring it was just Elisha.

She bounced in wearing dark blue skinny jeans, with a flowing green top and gold bangles and chandelier type earrings. Somehow she had even already managed to curl her hair, which had small sections from the frame of her face pinned half way back so the curls cascaded down her back elegantly.

"So what do you think?" she grinned and did a quick twirl.

"You look fabulous! Sheesh, I need to bust a move, you're already done getting ready and I am still in my grungy first-day clothes," I laughed.

"Have you picked out your outfit yet?"

"Well, I know I don't really want to wear a dress, so I got my black jeans and my flats out, but I have no idea what top I will wear. All of mine are wrinkled from the trip." I pulled a face and flipped through the shirts in my closet, more to show Elisha than for my own benefit. I knew what I had brought with me... it was limited to say the least.

"Wait a sec, I'll be right back."

She came back before I had the time to even walk all the way back to the fluffy chair (which could either be a measure of her speed, or a measure of how truly large my room was).

"What about this?" she held up a gorgeous silk blouse that had a multi-colored floral print in hues of rose, with a cerulean background. It had two shoulder straps, about an inch wide, and it V-ed at the front.

"I take the jaw-drop as a yes?" she giggled.

"...Definitely."

"Well, try it on already!" she tossed it to me, and I pulled off my shirt and slipped the blouse on.

"It's perfect." she beamed, like a proud mother.

I walked to the closet and opened the door where there was a full length mirror on the inside and gazed at the way the shirt fit. It hugged in all the right places to make my slim figure look a little curvier than it actually was, and it hung in a way that was insanely flattering.

"Elisha, I love you. You are officially my new wardrobe go-to person. You're going shopping with me next week because I need more clothes like this!"

She laughed, "Sounds like a very good idea. I love shopping, and I do it far too often for my own good."

"Consider me your new charge. You can shop for me all you'd like and I will gladly foot the bill."

"You are my kind of gal, Molly. Now hurry and take a shower and get ready. We are leaving in twenty minutes." She waved at me and went back to her room.