Be My Escape

Work the next day was the same. I finally felt like I was falling into a routine in England, and I was loving that fact. It was making me feel semi normal.

Unfortunately, I actually had things to do for my dad that day, so I couldn’t go to lunch with the others. Jake had run into me and asked, but I politely declined; instead, I bravely slipped him my number and told him to call me later so I could give him my address so he could pick me up for our date that night. His smile was 100 watts as he nodded and left for lunch, giving me a huge confidence boost and making me excited for our date.

After work, I hurried home. I had ended up staying well past five, until almost six, to help my dad with a few things after he begged me for my assistance. Of course I couldn’t say no to him, so I stayed, regardless of the fact that Jake would be picking me up at seven for our date.

When I got to my loft, I was standing in front of the door, digging through my oversized purse in search of my keys. Of course with the way my luck was going, this couldn’t go uninterrupted, and so Max appeared. “’Ello Peyton! You’re quite late today,” he noticed.

“Hi Max,” I greeted him, still looking for my keys that had suddenly gone missing. “What the hell?” I muttered, plopping myself down onto the ground in front of the door while I dumped my purse out.

“Er, what’re you doin’ Peyt?” Max asked me skeptically as he crouched down next to me.

“Looking for my goddamn keys,” I muttered, finally grazing over the cool metal with my right hand. “Aha!” I exclaimed, stuffing everything back in my bag and then getting up, shoving the key into the lock. “Sorry, Max, can’t talk I’m running late,” I called to him as I dashed inside my flat.

I didn’t even bother with shutting the door because I knew Max was going to follow me. “Late for what?” he questioned as I threw my purse on the ground and hurried through the apartment.

“I have a date tonight with one of my fellow interns from the publishing house!” I called over my shoulder in the general direction of the living room, where I knew Max was probably now sitting as I stripped out of my work clothes in the bathroom.

“Oh! My little sis has a date tonight and she didn’t even tell me? I’m hurt!” he called back, faking a hurt tone. I just laughed him off.

My shower was quick, because I wanted to curl my blonde hair to make it look somewhat presentable and washing it would have just taken a lot longer. I dashed down the hall with a towel wrapped tight around my body, shutting my bedroom door before diving into the closet where most of my clothes were hanging.

I quickly found a flowy, navy blue tube top from Forever 21, which I paired with a cute, cropped jean jacket from American eagle. I threw on a pair of dark washed skinny jeans and a pair of metallic silver flats. Once I was dressed, I spritzed some perfume on and hurried back into the bathroom to style my hair.

“Max, what time is it?” I called out as I turned the curling iron on.

“Six forty-five, love. What time is this bloke picking you up? I want to make sure I’m here for that scene.” Even though I couldn’t see him, I could hear the smirk he had plastered on his face in his voice.

“You’re not funny, Max!” I yelled out to him while I picked the curling iron up and started to curl my hair. I tried to concentrate on the hot iron in my hand while I wrapped strand after strand around it, but then I heard the familiar buzzing noise coming from the entryway and I groaned.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I muttered as I set the curling iron down and ran out to the front door, where I saw Max trying to discreetly walk over to the intercom. “Stop right there, Max Helyer!” I scolded him like a child with their hand stuck in a cookie jar right before dinner.

“Aw, come on Peyt! Let me have a little fun,” he whined as I brushed by him.

“Shush,” I silenced him as I pressed the button on the intercom. “Jake?” I asked sweetly, trying to hide my frazzled exterior.

“’Ello love!” he called back.

I smiled. I loved how he called me love and how it rolled off his tongue so sweetly. “Come on up,” I told him and then rattled off the floor and my apartment number. I turned back to Max with my half finished curled hair and planted my hands on my hips. “I’m going to let you answer the door for the poor guy, but please be nice. And please” I begged him, “tell him you’re my stepbrother. I don’t need him running off when he sees you in my apartment, alright?” At Max’s laugh and confirmation that he’d do this, I hurried back into the bathroom to finish my hair.

Minutes later, I heard the doorbell ring and I heard Max answer the door. “’Ello mate,” he said cheerily to who I assumed was Jake. “I’m Peyton’s step-brother.”

“Oh thank god,” I mumbled as I wrapped the last piece of my blonde hair around the curling iron. I waited a few seconds before releasing it and then I glanced at the finished product in the mirror.

“Peyton! Your date’s here!” Max called out to me and I rolled my eyes.

“I’ll be out in a sec!” I called back as I wrapped my hand around a bottle of my favorite hair spray. I ran my fingers through the curls quick to make them seem less sculpted and then did a quick spray before feeling I was done. I ran back into my bedroom and grabbed my candy-wrapper clutch and a gray, knit, loose beanie that I placed delicately on top of my head, trying my best not to smash my curls. I glanced at my appearance in the full length mirror on my closet, and when I felt satisfied I walked out into the living room where Jake and Max were seated on the couch, talking about soccer. Or rather, football.

“Hi,” I waved delicately to Jake when I walked out and he noticed me.

He instantly stood up, smoothing out his dark grey t-shirt and adjusting the black blazer he had on. He smoothed his jeans quickly and walked over to me, planting a quick kiss on my cheek which made me blush. “You look gorgeous, love,” he told me as he handed over a small bouquet of daisies. “These are for you.”

“Thank you!” I gushed, smelling them. Truth be told, flowers weren’t my favorite things in the world. They were just temporary gifts that were going to die eventually, a thought that made the gift in all actuality not very sweet at all. But, it was still thoughtful.

“So, are you ready love?” he asked me with a smile.

I nodded and the two of us headed for the door.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” Max called to me to which I just rolled my eyes and chose to ignore him.

“So where are we headed?” I smiled at Jake, prepared to have a good time tonight, even if I had to fake a smile.

***

“’Ello!” The hostess greeted us as we walked up to her podium. “Just the two of you?”

Jake nodded and as she grabbed two menus and told us to follow her, he placed his hand on the small of my back and guided me gently through the restaurant.

“Is a booth alright?” she asked us as she brought us over to a roomy booth with dim lighting. We both nodded and took our seats on the respective sides of the booth while the hostess set our menus down in front of us. “A waiter will be with you shortly,” she told us politely before walking off.

“I can’t believe I’ve never been here before,” Jake commented as he opened up his menu with a smile. He was a smiler, that much was for sure. He was always smiling; at least he had a nice one.

“It looks pretty good,” I agreed as I scanned my menu. We were at a sushi place, one of my favorite things to eat, and I was extremely excited to finally have some good sushi again. I used to frequent a sushi place back home at least once a week, if not more, and it had been too long since I had had some.

We were quiet while we scanned the menu, only telling our waiter our drinks before going back to the menu. As soon as I spotted the Philadelphia roll, I knew that was what I was going to get because it was my favorite. I folded my menu back up and laid it on the table. “What are you getting?” I asked Jake as he did the same.

“California roll, I think.”

I nodded as I took a drink of my iced tea. “I’m more of a simplistic sushi eater, so I stick with the Philadelphia roll.”

Jake smirked and took a drink of his beer before speaking. “So you’re quite the sushi aficionado, eh?”

I laughed lightly and shrugged. I could feel the blush gracing my cheeks; I was embarrassed that he was making me sound like a sushi snob, even if it was true in some aspects. “I just eat it a lot, especially because the sushi in the dining hall at school was always really fresh and really good.”

“You’re a riot, Peyton,” he laughed and shook his head, his dark brown hair falling into his eyes messily as his eyes glowed under the dim lighting.

“I try, I guess,” I blushed harder. I wasn’t used to making people laugh. For the past year, I hadn’t even done much laughing myself. But, Jake was easy to please and it seemed that any little thing I said made him chuckle.

Just then, our waiter brought us out our dinner and we promptly dug in. “So?” I asked him when I noticed he took a bite while I was dousing my own roll in soy sauce.

“It’s good,” he nodded after swallowing. At least he has manners, I noted to myself with a smile.

We continued to eat and talk, just getting to know each other in between bites of sushi. Of course, a dinner made out of a couple rolls of sushi isn’t very much, so we had to order a dessert to share too. We ended up choosing crème brulee after a short discussion in which we found out neither of us had ever had the dessert before.

We were playing a sort of “20 questions” while we got to know each other. I thought it was a little ridiculous, but Jake claimed it was the easiest way to get to know one another.

“These are only questions that skim the surface!” I exclaimed while I dug my spoon into the dessert, crunching through the sugar and gliding through the custard-y filling.

“They’re still important, nonetheless!” he retorted, taking a bite of the dessert as well.

“Whatever, it doesn’t even matter because I’ve fallen in love with this dessert and no one will ever be able to top it,” I smirked, getting another laugh out of Jake.

“So I shouldn’t even try?” he quirked an eyebrow at me. I couldn’t help but blush at this and promptly shut up, choosing to take the second to last bite of the dessert instead.

When we left the restaurant, it had gotten considerably colder outside. I pulled my jean jacket closer to my body and shivered, which did not go unnoticed by Jake. “Cold love?” he asked me as he took his blazer off, not even waiting for my reply. He laid it delicately on my shoulders and I smiled at him.

“Thank you,” I said quietly. In response, he wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled my closer to his side.
“Better?” he whispered into my ear, sending a shiver up my spine again, which he noticed. He laughed and shook his head.

The walk back to my apartment was short, which was nice. But I was enjoying being close to a guy again, enjoying the feeling that someone might actually like me again that I didn’t want it to end. I knew it had to though, because it was a weekday and we had work the next morning.

Jake was kind enough to walk me all the way up to my flat. We stopped outside my door and I contemplated asking if he wanted to come in for a little while. But, I was tired and I didn’t want to give him the impression that he’d be staying over, because that most certainly was not happening. I smiled at him as we stood out front my door. “I had a really good time tonight, Jake,” I told him honestly.

“I had a wonderful time too, Peyton.” He smiled back.

I could feel him gravitating closer to me. I could feel his head lean down, his lips preparing to land on my own. If it had been any other night, in any other place, with any other guy, I may have turned my head away so he’d miss my lips. I didn’t want to get attached to Jake or anyone else in England, because I knew I’d leave soon and goodbyes weren’t my thing. I also knew though, deep back in the darkest corners of my mind, that maybe getting close to someone, telling them my secrets and getting all of the bad stuff off my chest may help. Maybe England was exactly what I needed to try and move on.

That’s why when Jake leaned down to kiss me, I didn’t push him away. I didn’t tell him not tonight, and I didn’t turn my head so he’d get my cheek instead. I let his lips land on mine and I let him give me a quick, but still extremely nice kiss. When he pulled back, we were both smiling like idiots. “That was nice,” I whispered while he grabbed my hand.

He laughed, his breath skimming over my face because we were still really close to each other. “I’m glad you thought so, because I did too,” he agreed with me.

He kissed me again, this time on the cheek, and smiled. “Goodnight, Peyton,” he told me. He gave my hand a quick squeeze before he turned and walked off down the hall.

I lifted my hand up to my lips and touched them briefly, still completely in shock that Jake and I had just kissed and I had actually enjoyed it. Right then and there, I knew that England was going to be exactly what I needed to try and get past all the previous bad in my life; maybe, if I was lucky, Jake would even be the one to help me get past it.

That night, with a smile still on my lips, I had the best sleep I’d had in awhile.