Rendezvous

Nick was taking his twins to the playground at the park one afternoon. He was watching Silvan who was pouring sand into a bucket with a small, plastic shovel, when London sat next to him on the bench in a pair of running shorts and a sweatshirt.

"Hi," she said, to which Nick replied with a 'hey'. As if reading Nick's mind that questioned why she was here, she said, "I'm just taking a jog, I miss this goddamn park." She saw the protective look in Nick's eyes so she guessed that he was probably watching over something, or someone. "Watching over your kid?" Nick nodded. "Which one is yours?"

"That's Ella over there," he pointed at the older twin that was on a kiddie swing. "And that's Silvan," he pointed at his boy at the sandbox. "They're twins."

"They're both so cute," London replied, staring at Silvan. She wondered if Nick looked just like him when he was little. "You and your wife must be really good parents."

Nick chuckled. "You can tell?"

"Yeah, they look healthy and happy."

Nick looked over her and smiled, muttering a 'thanks'. Nick read the writing across the chest of her sweatshirt and asked, “You went to Stanford?”

“What?” London saw Nick nodded at her sweatshirt. “Oh, this? Nah, I stole it from a guy I slept with.”

Nick widened his eyes in shock. His grayish blue eyes completely exposed themselves to London’s green ones. “You steal from the guys you sleep with?”

She laughed. “No. I only stole once in my life and it was this sweatshirt. The guy was too . . . erm, rushing to properly take off my clothes. My shirt was in pieces so I had to take his shirt when I snuck out in the middle of the night.”

Nick tried not to laugh. He had never heard a one-night stand story like that before. He could totally imagine her hanging out with Julian now, except that London was too young to talk about things like this when she moved to New Zealand.

“Besides, I wasn’t smart enough to go to Stanford,” she added, “Not that I wanted to go there.”

“So where did you go to college?”

“I went to Melbourne School Of Fashion. Graduated four years ago, worked as a stylist for magazines for a while but it was exhausting so I decided to get a freelance job instead. Now my job feels a whole lot relaxing but I still can make good money out of it.”

“Didn’t people, like, doubt you or something? Like telling you that you shouldn’t do it? Because that’s what my folks said when I told them I was dropping out of college to devote to the band.”

“Nope. Ever since I entered my teenager years I become this really stubborn girl. I started to not care about lots of things, just do shit my own way and work my way to pursuing what I want. My parents knew better than to stop me from doing things I wanted to.”

“So basically, you were spoiled.”

London laughed. “I wasn’t. I just found myself and what I wanted and fought for them.”

“Daddy!” Ella shouted, running towards her daddy, her blonde hair was bouncing.

“Hey, baby,” Nick smiled, picking her up and placed her on his lap. “This is my friend, London. Say hi to London.”

“Hi, London,” she waved at her and smiled shyly.

“Hello, Ella,” London replied, smiling in return. “How old are you?”

“Four,” Ella shyly answered.

“Four,” London repeated, nodding. She is so adorable, she thought.

Nick then noticed Ella’s small hand in a fist, as if she was holding something. “What’s that?”

Ella opened her palm, revealing a crushed purple flower. “It was pretty,” she mumbled.

“It still is.” He placed the flower on her ear. “Now it’s even prettier,” he said and kissed her forehead.

London only smiled at the father and daughter. The sight reminded her of when she was as young as Ella, when she would fall and scrape her knee and her father was there to soothe her. Her phone vibrated in her sweatshirt pocket, alerting her that she had an hour to get ready to meet a client.

“Oh, I gotta go. I have a client in an hour,” she said, standing up. “It was nice meeting you, Ella.”

London turned around and was about to jog back to her apartment, when Nick said, “Tomorrow at two we’ll have a studio session. You should come.”

London turned back around. “I’m pretty sure Jules will inform me about that.”

“Well, just for a heads up in case if he forgets.”

Just as Nick said it, London’s phone buzzed again. This time it told her that she had a new text from Julian. She scanned through it. “Well, he just sent me a text regarding tomorrow. I’ll come.” Flashing a last smile, she turned around and jogged back home. Nick tried to resist from checking out her bum, but in the end he did it anyway. She had a nice bum.

God, I hate myself, he thought after realizing what he just did.



The next day, London went to the studio Julian had mentioned in the text. She had baked some brownies earlier this morning, so she brought them. When she entered the room, it was only Julian, Nick, and their manager Ryan.

“Hey!” Julian greeted, rising from his seat and gave her a hug. “London, this is our manager, Ryan. Ryan, this is London I told you about.”

“Ah, the Chili Hair that Nikolai said,” Ryan replied, shaking London’s hand. “Nikolai’s right; your hair does look like chili. The color, I mean.”

“At least it doesn’t look like jalapeno,” London retorted.

“Ugh, the color of jalapeno is horrible.”

“I know!” London laughed. “By the way, I brought some brownies,” she held up the box full of brownies and placed it on a coffee table in front of the leather couch. “Where are the others?”

“Well, all of a sudden Fab got a really bad stomachache so he can’t come, Nikolai’s kid wouldn’t stop crying so he’ll be late, and Albert’s picking up some pizza,” Julian answered for her.

“Ooh, did you make this yourself?” Ryan asked, poking a piece of brownie.

“Yeah, just this morning, actually.”

“You know what goes along with brownies?” Ryan asked again.

“…Tea?” London said, unsure.

“Actually, the answer is coffee, but tea isn’t so bad either.” Ryan picked up his wallet from the coffee table, hitting Julian on the shoulder. “Come on Jules, let’s pick up some coffee – and tea for Miss Chili Hair.”

“Now?” Julian whined.

“Yes, now. Come on.”

“Why me?”

“Because I’m Ryan fucking Gentles and I can do anything I want and right now I want you to do it with me.”

“Why not Nick?”

Nick looked up from his laptop when he heard his name being mentioned.

“He’s watching porno and that’s a good reason for not doing anything else,” Ryan answered.

“I’m not watching porn!” Nick shouted.

“He’s not watching porn,” Julian repeated.

“Whatever. Come on, Jules! Or no brownies for you,” Ryan insisted.

“Fine, fine,” Julian sighed and let Ryan dragging him out.

London smiled as the two exited the door. She placed her bag and jacket on the couch before walking over Nick, looking at whatever he was doing on his laptop.

“Hey there,” Nick said, feeling her presence behind him.

“Hey. What are you doing?”

“Just mixing some songs.” The sweet smell of London’s perfume was starting to intoxicate him and it was going to drive him crazy.

“Can I hear it?”

“Yeah, sure.” Nick pressed play and the song started to play. He couldn’t resist the scent of her any longer and to stop himself from doing anything crazy, he rose from his seat and went to grab a glass of water near the couch. The scent of her fading away gave him a relief.

London took over the chair and listened to the song. It was mixes of indie songs like Lasso, Jump In The Pool, Sad Sad City, and Electric Feel. It was really nice and she was enjoying it, until all of a sudden she heard the line ‘Flash yo’ titties!’ from Get Crazy by LMFAO and she started cracking up. Nick chuckled when she did so.

“What the fuck!” she laughed.

“Is the song any good, though?” Nick asked, smiling.

“Yeah. Just one tip: delete that shit from LMFAO,” she answered, still giggling.

“What? It’s a perfect touch,” he smiled, walking over. “And I was just messing around with the mix,” he reasoned and bent down to add more touches to the song. London looked at him next to her, watching his face and noticed the attractive jaws and neck he had. Her hand rose and her fingertips lightly touched his jaw, grazing down to his neck. Nick felt himself tense up by the contact and tried to remain calm.

“I like your jaw,” London muttered.

Nick chuckled. “So does Julian . . . and Nikolai.”

She smiled before leaning towards him and kissed his neck lightly. Nick tensed up even more as she kissed him up to his jaw. He turned to look at her and their eyes met, and when London was about to kiss him on the lips, the door slammed open to reveal Albert and boxes of pizza. Nick quickly went away from London and pretended to drink his glass of water.

“Pizza’s here, bitches!” he announced. “Oh, hi London!” he smiled at the red hair when he noticed her sitting by Nick’s laptop as he placed the pizza on the coffee table. “Where are Ryan and Jules?”

“They’re getting some coffee to go along with the brownies I brought,” London answered, smiling. Nick just eyed her, couldn’t believe how she could act as if nothing happened just a minute ago. If it wasn’t for Albert barging in, Nick didn’t know if he could stop himself from what was going to happen.



London just went out of the bathroom when Nick was waiting for her by the door. “It’s empty now,” she smiled.

“I didn’t want to use the bathroom. London, about what happened earlier,” Nick started. “Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen, okay? I’m married, I have a family. I don’t want to betray them.”

“But you didn’t refuse,” she replied.

It was your goddamn perfume! Nick screamed inside his head. “I don’t know why I didn’t.”

“You were staring at me on the first time we met. All the time, may I add.”

“It was your hair,” he lied.

“What, is it that weird?”

“No, it’s eye-catching – look, don’t do it again, alright?” Nick’s beautiful eyes pierced into hers, and she couldn’t say no to them. London sighed before nodding her head. Nick sighed in relief – it was easier than he thought it would be. “Thanks,” he smiled, tapping her shoulder before going back to the room where the guys were.

London just stared at his back entering the room. She wanted him. She wanted him so bad. Kissing his neck tasted good enough – she wanted more. Nick said he didn’t know why he didn’t refuse, but London knew. He wanted it too.