“Saw your stupid smarmy ex, Bea,” Mara said and flopped on the couch next to me. My heart gave a traitorous lurch.
“Tom? You saw Tom? Where?”
Gemma scowled at Mara. “Good one.”
“What? She should know,” Mara said to Gemma.
“Know what?” I demanded.
Gemma sighed and sat down as well.
“It’s nothing. Probably. We bumped into him outside the pub. He was with a girl. It was a bit awkward when he noticed us.”
“Oh,” was all I could manage. My stupid heart started beating painfully fast.
“They might have just been friends, we don’t know,” Gemma said.
“I dunno,” Mara interrupted. “They looked pretty damn cozy before I punched him.”
“You what? You punched him?” I gaped at her.
“Just a ‘friendly’ one on the arm. He deserved it. Smarmy bastard.”
“I thought you liked Tom?” I frowned at her. Mara had called Tom all manner of names after he’d dumped me, but I’d just taken that as mandatory ex-boyfriend bashing to make me feel better.
Mara shrugged. “He was okay. I suppose. But you can do better. He thinks he knows everything. And he’s way too materialistic.” I opened my mouth to defend him, but then paused… she had a point.
“So what did this girl look like?” I asked, unsure if I even wanted to know the answer.
“Blonde. Pretty in a vapid kind of way,” Mara said casually.
“Prettier than me?” I asked then buried my head in my hands. “Forget I just asked that,” I mumbled.
Gemma patted me on the back.
“No, she wasn’t prettier than you.”
“You’re just saying that. Anyway. Who cares? I don’t,” I said, and tried to believe it.
“That’s the spirit.”
Chapter Eight
A certain Belgian comes to London
The tube station near our house was bustling with the usual crush of workers and students coming home from a long day. There was a slightly more festive air than usual. It was Friday; almost always a cause for celebration.
I was excited. I could admit that to myself, at least, even if I’d denied it to the girls. I liked Leo. He was a good person (at least, I thought so - how can you really know after only knowing someone for only a few weeks?) and I was looking forward to seeing him again. I hadn’t really thought that we’d see each other again, after we said goodbye in Lisbon. Sure, I’d hoped, but you meet so many people when you travel, and there are always the promises, sometimes genuine, sometimes half-hearted, to see each other again, to meet up in a new city, to have a reunion in that city, to come visit you in your hometown/country. Most of the time you end up leaving it at that. A good memory. Sometimes you actually keep your promises though and you do see each other again.
I tried not to, but my traitorous thoughts drifted to the blonde girl Gemma and Mara had seen Tom with the other night. Who was she? Had he moved on already? Did he know her from before? The thought of him moving on again made me feel decidedly odd, but the thought of him with another woman - either mentally or physically - while I still thought he loved me made me feel sick. Sick, stupid and betrayed.
I shook myself when I glimpsed Leo’s tall figure coming up the escalator and exiled Tom from my thoughts. I felt a smile creep up my face. I didn’t try too hard to banish it, even though I must have looked a bit odd, standing there just grinning away. People should smile more. I should smile more. More than once I’d been asked by strangers if something was the matter, if I was all right, or the dreaded “smile, love. It can’t be that bad,” when I’d been perfectly happy, just minding my own business. It really annoyed me when people said stuff like that; for all they knew, I could have been coming from my mother’s funeral or something equally horrible!
Leo came closer and scanned the crowd, a slight frown creasing his forehead. I waved until he spotted me. Times like this I was vaguely jealous of Annie’s bright red hair, or Mara’s mixture of height and blonde, tanned good looks. They stood out in a crowd. I definitely did not. Especially not when I was wearing a black coat, like nearly everyone else around me.
Leo was dressed smartly in a business suit and dark coat. He walked quickly through the crowd and gave me a quick hug and three kisses, one on each cheek, and another back on the first cheek. I was slightly startled, but quickly reminded myself that he was European and that was normal for them. It wasn’t anything romantic at all.
“Hi,” I said and smiled up at him after he straightened up. “Welcome to Swiss Cottage.”
“I’m very happy to be here. I haven’t been out this way before.”
“Well, I’m very happy to be your tour guide!” Internal cringe. Why did I have to be so lame and cheesy? “Gem and Mara are going to meet us at the pub. Our friend Annie, too. You’ll like her.”
The evening breeze was rapidly cooling down and I burrowed down into my thick red scarf as Leo told me about his day while we walked along. It sounded rather boring, full of meetings and more meetings about the previous meeting.
“And how was your day?” he asked me. “It’s good to see you again,” he added.
“It’s good to see you again, too. My day was okay. Nothing out of the ordinary. Work was quiet, but that’s pretty usual these days. How long will you be in London for? I forgot to ask.”
“Just a quick visit this time. I have to go back home tomorrow, it’s my sister’s birthday on Sunday. She’s having a big party tomorrow night.”
Only a night. I tried not to feel too disappointed.
“Oh cool. How old is your sister turning?” I said, trying to sound upbeat.
“Twenty-five. She’s the middle child.”
“Cool. How old’s your brother?” Stop saying cool. You sound like a teenager.
“Joeri’s twenty-three. But he’s the most responsible. He’s married, and they have twin girls.”
“Oh wow! You’re Uncle Leo!”
Leo laughed. “Yes, I am. It makes me feel old. But, no, they are delightful. The best part is I get to hand them back to their parents at the end of the day.”
I laughed. “How old are they?”
“Let’s see. I think, eighteen months now? Maybe nineteen. Here, I have a photo of them that I took last week. Let me just find it.” We paused while he pulled out his phone and started flicking through photos. “Here you go.” I took the phone off him and looked at a photo of two adorable little girls, one with blonde hair and one with brown, in matching green overalls. “That’s Lotte with the blonde, and Hanne is the brown hair.”
“They’re both ridiculously cute.” I handed the phone back to him.
“I have to agree with you.” He laughed fondly and slipped his phone back into his pocket.
“Do you see them much?” I asked.
“I try to. Joeri and Anika - that’s his wife - live in our hometown, around the corner from our mother. It takes about an hour or so to drive there from my apartment in Ghent.”
“That’s pretty cool. The pub’s just up here.” I gestured up ahead to the pub where Annie worked. I’d asked her if she didn’t want to go somewhere else - she already spent half her time there, but she said she liked the pub; plus she got half price drinks for us here.
“My friend Annie works here. She gets us cheap drinks.”
Leo laughed. “Great!”
We walked into the pub. It was a nice pub, kind of old fashioned. Cozy. Warm. They had live music every now and then. Leo paused behind me as I scanned the room. I spotted Annie’s bright red mop of hair first. The three girls were sitting around a table. Mara looked up and grinned as we made our way over, dodging other patrons. Gemma and Annie both stood up when we got to the table.
“Leo!” Gemma gave him a quick hug, followed by Mara. “It’s great to see you again!”
“Leo, this is Annie. Annie, meet Leo.” I said gesturing between the two. They smiled at each other and Leo gave her a hug as well.
&n
bsp; Annie raised her eyebrows at me over his shoulder and mouthed “Cute.” I winked at her.
We all settled ourselves around the table. The girls already had drinks.
“How long have you guys been here? I wasn’t sure if you’d be here or not yet…” I said.
“Only about fifteen minutes,” Mara said.
“What would you two like to drink?” Annie asked me and Leo.
“Pint of whatever,” I said, helpfully.
“I’ll come with you,” Leo said, after unsuccessfully trying to scan the taps at the bar.
“So?” Gemma pulled her chair closer to mine once Leo and Annie had left, and looked at me expectantly.
“So, what?” I asked, puzzled.
Gemma rolled her eyes at Mara. I narrowed mine at both of them.
“So, what?” I repeated.
“Leo? Duh.”
“What about him?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant. What were they expecting? It had only taken us about five minutes to walk from the tube station to the pub. Not exactly time for much of anything.
“What’s going on? Is he going to help keep you warm tonight?” Mara asked with an exaggerated waggle of her eyebrows.
“Don’t do that, it looks creepy,” I complained. Mara just laughed into her pint. “And I doubt it.”
“So you’re not?” Gemma tried again.
“I honestly have no idea what is going on. Either with Leo, or with this conversation.”
There was an awkward silence when Annie and Leo rejoined us at the table.
“Were you guys talking about us?” Annie asked lightly as she pushed a pint of cider in front of me.
“Of course, we never talk about anything other than you, my sweet Annie.” Mara laughed and reached out to rub Annie’s arm.
“I knew it,” Annie preened.
“Cheers,” I said and held up my glass. The rest of the group followed suite and we all clinked glasses.
The pub got busier and louder as the night went on. We were soon joined at our table by Matt, a friend of Annie’s. I’d met him a few times before. Ninety-nine point nine percent sure he had a major crush on Annie. She seemed to be oblivious to it. The empty pint glasses began to fill up the table. Leo’s leg was a warm, solid presence against mine. I wasn’t sure if he was leaning against me on purpose or by virtue of being squished at the table. Either way, I liked it too much to move. Annie gave me a big thumbs up behind Leo’s back when he leaned over to say something to Matt. I just laughed and shook my head.
I’d lost count of how many drinks I’d had. I wasn’t too drunk, so it can’t have been that many, but between Annie and Leo, I always seemed to have a pint in front of me. Leo had charmed the socks off Annie. I felt a slight panicked pang when I saw them get along so well together. What if they ended up hitting it off? It’s not like Leo was mine, I hadn’t staked my flag in him. He wasn’t out of bounds to my friends. We hadn’t said anything about being together or anything even remotely like that. We’d just kissed that one time, and nothing since then. He was perfectly free to pursue something with Annie if they were into each other. And who wouldn’t like Annie? She was great. She was smart. She had a Ph.D unlike the rest of us, in biochemistry of all things. I couldn’t even be bothered doing my Honours year in history let alone a Ph.D. And she was gorgeous to boot. Her bright red hair was beautiful, and the new haircut she’d gotten suited her really well. Her brilliant green eyes were startling and mesmerising. She sometimes caught me staring at them. She was rather self-conscious about them, and had only just stopped hiding those beauties behind chunky glasses in the past few months. She didn’t like people staring at them, she’d said when we’d asked her why she tried to hide such beautiful eyes. She still had a tendency to look away quickly, if she caught you staring. Pretty, smart, and so goddamn nice and funny. In short, she looked almost exactly how I pictured Lily Potter to look. I had nothing to compete with, really. She was making Leo laugh now. I missed what she’d said.
I jumped when Gemma poked me.
“What are you glaring at?” she whispered into my ear.
“Nothing,” I lied and blushed.
“Bullshit. Tell me,” she demanded.
“It’s nothing. I promise. Just my resting bitch face.” I smiled wanly at her.
“Sure…” she said slowly and narrowed her eyes at me.
“I think I need some air,” I said after a moment and stood up.
“I’ll come with you,” Leo offered and stood up as well before any of the girls could do anything. I paused. I hadn’t realised he’d been paying attention.
“Okay,” I said and grabbed my coat. He followed after me through the tangle of pub goers. My ears rang slightly as the door shut behind us and the relative quiet of the street contrasted to the cacophony of sound coming from the pub. It was brisk out, and I quickly pulled on my warm coat. There was a group of men standing nearby, puffing away on their cigarettes. I took a few quick steps away from them so I wouldn’t breath in any of the smoke. I couldn’t stand the smell. Some of Tom’s friends had smoked and I’d kind of gotten used to it over the years, but not being around them for a couple of months now had made me more sensitive to the smell. I watched my breath come out as a cloud; it almost looked like I was smoking too.
“Your friends are nice,” Leo said, breaking the silence.
“I know,” I said. “You and Annie seem to be getting along well! I knew you’d like her!” I cringed at how hearty and strange my voice sounded.
“Yes, she’s very funny,” he said with a slight smile.
“Yeah. Smart too. Did she tell you she’s got a Ph.D? We should really be calling her Dr. Annie.” I watched Leo’s face carefully. He looked a bit surprised. Or was it impressed? I couldn’t tell.
“No, she didn’t. What is her speciality?”
“Biochemistry.”
“Interesting,” he mused.
“Yeah. Do you like her?” I asked, and then promptly wanted to bite my tongue.
“Yes, of course. I like all of your friends,” Leo said with a small smile.
“Well, she’s single if your interested!” Oh god, why am I still talking, I thought. Just shut up. Shut up now.
Leo just looked at me with a slight frown on his face.
“Let’s go back inside,” I quickly said, before he could say anything, or I could say anything else stupid or embarrassing.
“Wait, Bea.” I pretended I didn’t hear him though and kept walking. I felt his hand touch my arm and stopped. “Beatrix” he said again. “Wait, please.”
I turned around to face him. We were standing very close together. I looked up into his warm blue eyes and gulped. He was so handsome. What was I even thinking? Guys this handsome never go for mousy girls like me.
“I wanted to…” He stopped and stared intently into my eyes. His eyes kept flickering down to my lips.
“Wanted to what?” I prompted.
“I just... I... why did you say your friend Annie is single?” he asked with a frown.
I blushed.
“I don’t know. She’s nice. And smart. And funny. You two seemed to be getting along really well,” I said in a rush.
“Yes. I was making an effort. For you,” he said intently.
“For me?”
“Ja. For you.”
“Why?” I wondered for a moment if I was about to wake up from this. Or if I was misunderstanding him.
“I thought it was obvious. I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind since Lisbon. I thought… I thought maybe you felt the same way…” Leo paused and looked at me expectantly. I just gaped up at him. Was this actually happening? “Maybe I was wrong though. I’m sorry, Beatrix. I’ve put you in an awkward position. Forget I said anything. I should go.” He took a step back, looking disappointed, and took his glasses off to rub the bridge of his nose.
I shook myself.
“What? No, Leo. Wait. Hang on,” I said and reached out to grab hold of his sleeve. He froze and lo
oked down at me, a slight crease in the middle of his brow.
“I’m sorry I’ve been a bit weird tonight,” I started. “I just... I was really excited to see you again. And kind of nervous. And...”
“You were? Excited to see me?” He took a step closer.
“Yes,” I said simply. A smile slowly spread over his face. He leaned down and hesitated, lips close to mine. I could feel his breath. I leaned in, closing the gap. He kissed me softly at first, and then when I didn’t pull away, with more passion. His arm pulled me close and mine snaked up around his neck.
I’m not sure how long we stood there, exploring each other. Tentatively at first and then gradually with more confidence. I inhaled his scent, trying to commit it to memory.
“Oi, get a room you two!” guffawed one of the smokers. His friends around him laughed. We broke apart. I giggled, feeling my face flush. Leo smirked.
“Should we go back inside?” I asked.
“Sure, if you want to.” He held my hand as we went back into the pub.
Mara raised her eyebrows at me when she noticed, but thankfully didn’t say anything.
“Will you be staying here long, Leo?” Mara asked, trying to be casual, but failing.
“No, unfortunately. I have to return to Belgium in the morning.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. Can’t you extend your trip?” she asked.
“No, I’m afraid not. It’s my little sister’s birthday party. She wouldn’t be very happy with me if I missed it. And she can be a bit scary when she’s not happy with me,” he said with a laugh and squeezed my hand under the table. I smiled at him.
I sat there, quite excited and happy in my new knowledge that Leo liked me, possibly as much as I liked him. I had no idea where it would lead, if anywhere, or when I’d even see him again, but at that moment I didn’t care.
Unexpected: A Backpacker Romance (The Backpacker Romances) Page 9