From Notting Hill with Love Actually

by Ali McNamara

  “Sorry, I mean yes, I’d love to join you over there, David.”

  I turned back to Will and smiled. “Well, good buddy, you got your ears on? It’s time to pull the big switch on you, I’m afraid, because this beaver is over and out!” I grabbed David before Will recovered from his shock and took up the airwaves once more, and we made our way over to the table he had been sitting at with a few of Felix’s work colleagues.

  “Oh my God, was I glad to see you just then,” I said as David found me a chair and I sat down. I’d once sat through a marathon of trucker movies on one of the lesser-known Sky channels when I’d been off work ill one day. Who would have thought old Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood and his orangutan would have come in so handy one day?

  “Was Will entertaining you by any chance, with tales of his CB radio?” a young chap—who I think was called Graham—asked me. “Will’s always good for those.”

  “Was he half!” I said, as Graham poured the last remnants of a bottle of wine into a glass for me. “I think sitting next to Hannibal Lecter at dinner would have caused me less pain.”

  The other people around the table laughed.

  “Would you like a proper drink?” David asked. “I’m just going up to the bar.”

  “Yes, that would be great. I’ll have a large Jack Daniels, please.”

  I chatted with the people around the table while David was gone and then glanced around the room. The hotel staff were beginning to clear the tables, so they could arrange the room into one suitable for dancing to the band that had just arrived and were currently unpacking their instruments up on the stage.

  I saw Sean standing talking to a girl who had her back to me. She laughed and when she tossed her hair over her shoulder I caught a glimpse of her face. It was Danielle.

  Sean then gestured, would she like a drink? Danielle nodded, Sean took her glass from her and began to make his way toward the bar. He had to pass our table as he did so.

  I tried to look like I was deeply engrossed in what the women next to me were saying. They were actually discussing the pros and cons of grocery shopping on the Internet, but I tried hard to look interested in their conversation.

  “How’s it going?” Sean asked, as he passed our table.

  “Oh, it’s you,” I said, pretending to jump as I turned around.

  “Having fun? I saw you got stuck next to ol’ Rubber Duck over there at dinner. I met him at the stag do, interesting guy…”

  “About as interesting as watching the National Lottery show without a ticket, yeah. Actually I take that back, even watching it with a ticket is bad enough!”

  Sean laughed. “But at least you’ve escaped now. I saw David come over and rescue you. I would have done so myself but…” He looked back at Danielle.

  “Yeah, I can see you’ve been busy.”

  “Here we go—one large Jack Daniels,” David said, returning with our drinks. He looked with interest at Sean.

  “Sean, this is David, my fiancé. David, this is Sean…er…he’s my next-door neighbor in Notting Hill,” I said, not being able to think of a better way of introducing him.

  David put the drinks down on the table, and held out his hand to Sean. “Pleased to meet you, Sean.”

  “And you too, Dave,” Sean said, shaking David’s hand.

  “Id, it’s Dav-id.”

  “Of course, my mistake, sorry.”

  There was an awkward silence.

  “Well, I’d better go and get some drinks,” Sean said, holding up the empty glasses in his hands. “I’ll see you later perhaps, Scarlett.”

  I watched him walk over to the bar before I turned back to David.

  “Your neighbor?” he asked, sitting down next to me. “How does your neighbor in Notting Hill know Maddie and Felix?”

  “Er…he doesn’t. I invited him to the wedding.”

  “You did? Why?”

  When I’d told David the little bit about what I’d been up to since I’d been in London, I’d skirted around the Sean issue by saying that the “friend” I’d met up with I’d also been “out and about” with occasionally too.

  I took a deep breath and then a large gulp of my drink.

  “He’s the friend I was telling you about that I met in London.”

  “What friend?” David asked, looking puzzled for a moment. “Wait, you mean the one who you accompanied to a wedding and a dinner party and the opera?”

  I nodded.

  “But he’s a man?”

  “Yeah, and what of it? Are you saying that men and women can’t be friends?”

  Ooh, ooh, When Harry Met Sally, I thought excitedly—storing that one up to add to my ever-growing list of proof. But I kept the thought to myself—I didn’t think now was really the time to be sharing my latest finding with David.

  “No, but I mean…I just thought he was a girl, that’s all.”

  “Nope, Sean’s definitely not a girl,” I said, as a vision of him emerging from the shower last night floated into my head.

  “Don’t be facetious with me, Scarlett, I can see that.” David looked over to where Sean stood at the bar. “I saw him wink at you in the castle earlier.”

  “I know,” I said, trying hard to focus on David again.

  “And?”

  “And what, David? Are you telling me that because a man winks at me it means I’m having an affair with him?”

  “No, but…”

  Sean walked back across the floor with two drinks in his hand. He winked at me as he passed.

  I half smiled back, but then I noticed David frowning at me.

  “Look, David, Sean is just a friend, I promise you, nothing more. Anyway, if I was having an affair with him do you think he’d be over there chatting up Danielle?”

  David looked to where Danielle and Sean were now sitting next to each other, their heads close together as they laughed at a private joke.

  I felt a twinge in my stomach. This time one of the Olympic athletes—who had been performing their workouts with my stomach—felt like they had torn a muscle, ripped a tendon, or sustained some other career-threatening injury.

  I looked away. “Well, do you?” I asked him again.

  “I’m sorry,” David said, taking my hands in his. “You know how jealous I get when I see you with other men.”

  “It’s fine,” I said, deliberately not looking Sean’s way again. “At least I know you care.”

  And at this precise moment, David, for once I understand exactly how you’re feeling…

  Twenty

  I tried not to watch Sean too much during the rest of the evening—but I couldn’t help myself, because every time I glanced in his direction, I’d see Danielle somewhere near.

  “Hey, how’s it going? Are you enjoying yourself?” Maddie asked, arriving at our table just as I was staring forlornly in Sean’s direction once again. “Where’s David?”

  I jumped. “Oh, hi, Maddie…er…he’s at the bar just now. But yes, we’re both having a lovely time. How about you? Is it everything you hoped it would be?”

  “Yes it is, and so much more,” she said joyfully. “I’m so glad all my friends are here to share this with me. I’ve never been happier.”

  I stood up and gave her a hug. “I’m so pleased for you, really I am. When you first told me you were going to get married in Disneyland, I thought you were mad. But it’s been fantastic, honestly it has.”

  Maddie glanced over to the dance floor. The band had now been replaced by a DJ, and some of the guests, including Sean and Danielle, were dancing to a medley of Take That songs.

  “I just wanted you to know I didn’t encourage her,” Maddie said, staring in their direction. “After what I said last night, I thought you might think…I mean I would never have…after what you said and everything. Oh, am I making sense? I really have had a few drinks tonight.”

  “Yes, you are. And I know you didn’t. Anyway,” I said, turning away from the dance floor and looking at Maddie, “it doesn’t matter t
o me what Sean does. Why should it? I’ve got David.”

  “Yeah, I had the third degree off him earlier, asking me who Sean was, how long you’d known him, where you met, et cetera.”

  “Did you? When?”

  “Er…a little while ago, when I found him and Felix talking outside by the big fountain. Did you know David’s thinking of erecting a water feature in your garden?

  Oh no, not gardening as well.

  “So what did you tell David when he asked? About Sean, I mean.”

  “Just what you told me—that he’s just a friend you’ve met since you’ve been in London.”

  I nodded and glanced over at the dance floor. They were holding hands now. OK, they were at arm’s length, as Danielle spun around and Sean kept her upright. But they were still touching each other.

  Ouch, the athlete in my stomach just tweaked another muscle.

  “That is all you are—isn’t it, Scarlett?” Maddie asked, watching me. “Just friends?”

  “Yes…yes, of course it is. Don’t be daft.” But my eyes were still trained on the dance floor.

  “But I thought men and women couldn’t just be friends?” Maddie said knowingly. “That’s what they say in the movies, isn’t it—sex always gets in the way eventually?”

  This time it was Maddie who was the one referring to When Harry Met Sally, a movie she’d watched with me many a time.

  I lifted my chin, turned toward her, and smiled. “Oh look, your new husband is after you.” I beckoned across the room to Felix, who was watching us. He immediately came over.

  “Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt you,” he said. “You both looked like you were putting the world to rights.”

  Maddie kissed him on the cheek. “No, not the whole world—only Scarlett’s world.”

  Felix smiled at me. “I’ve only come over to say your mother is looking for you, Maddie. She’s saying something about you having enough time to get changed before we leave.”

  Maddie rolled her eyes. “Tonight has been wonderful, but it’s just flown by. I’d better go and find her. I’ll see you later, Scarlett, before I go—yes?”

  I nodded.

  “Come on then, hubby, let’s go find your new mother-in-law!”

  I watched them walk away together hand in hand. Then I heard the DJ announce that he was slowing it down for a while and I heard the first few notes of “Angels” by Robbie Williams float across the room.

  Oh no, this was one of my favorite songs. I couldn’t bear to watch Danielle and Sean smooching the night away to it. Wait a moment—why should I care what they did to Robbie when David was here with me? Then another thought occurred. What if David asked me to dance, and we had to go over there right next to them? But he wouldn’t…he hated dancing. But he knew I loved this song and he would enjoy scoring points off Sean. I knew that about him…

  “I’m just going to get some air,” I called to David, just to make sure, as I hurried past him at the bar. “I’ll be back in a while.”

  “Should I come too, Scarlett?” I heard him call after me.

  I shook my head. “No, David, I’ll be fine. I’ll only be gone for…” I thought quickly. “About four and a half minutes—I promise.”

  I left David puzzling over my precise timing and walked out of the hotel into the cold night air. Outside was a courtyard, and a little way across from that a large garden with a white picket fence. Inside the garden was a Mickey Mouse face planted entirely in flowers, a large fountain, and some benches high up on a small hill. I climbed the hill, sat down on one of the benches, and pulled my stole tightly around my shoulders. Then I watched the clear flowing water cascade into the large pool below while I tried to collect my thoughts.

  What was happening to me? Why did I feel this way about Sean? To begin with, I’d pretended it was because he resembled so many of my favorite movie stars—but now I knew that wasn’t the truth. We didn’t have that much in common—everything I liked Sean seemed to detest and vice versa. So why should I be jealous he was dancing with Danielle? I mean it wasn’t like I was alone, was it? I had David, my fiancé, here with me, and yes, David and I had our problems, but he was still the one I’d chosen to be with, the one I was supposed to love. I should have been happy to have been here today with David. I should have been content. So why wasn’t I? Sean annoyed me, Sean irritated me, and Sean made me feel…just how did he make me feel?

  I paused to reflect on what should have been a difficult question for me to answer. But I found I could answer it almost immediately.

  Sean made me feel alive; he made my life exciting, and he made me happy. But more than all of that, he made me feel wanted—for all our differences.

  I let my head drop into my hands. What was I going to do?

  “Hey, what’s up, doc?”

  I looked up in despair to find Sean standing next to me. He was grinning as usual.

  “Sorry, that’s not Disney, is it—it’s Looney Tunes.”

  “What are you doing out here, Sean?”

  “Mobile rang.” Sean held up his phone. “Had to answer it, could have been important.”

  “Which business are you shafting at the moment, then?” I asked, and instantly regretted it.

  “The call was about you, actually.”

  “Me?”

  Sean sat down on the bench beside me. “Yup, I said I might have some news for you later, and that was it.”

  I’d almost forgotten about that, what with the Danielle drama and everything else going on. “What sort of news?”

  “Well, my dear Scarlett. It seems if your mother is going to be anywhere, it’s not New York after all—it’s Paris.”

  “Paris? But how?”

  “Well, I’ve done some digging with the help of a friend of mine, and she says someone with the same name as your mother moved on to work in Paris after taking her job in New York—with the same company, apparently, just in a different country. It was Louis Vuitton Bill was thinking of; that’s where she went to work after Fenwick’s.”

  “Oh, of course, the man’s name,” I said, thinking fondly of Bill and Betty again. “But how has your friend found all this out?” I asked, looking at Sean in amazement. “I mean, we didn’t even know who she was employed with!”

  “Jennifer works for one of New York’s top fashion magazines—she has contacts with all the major designers. So I told her what we knew, roughly when your mother went over to New York to work, and she rang a few people, got them to check their records, and bingo, came up with your mum’s name. But then she found out she’d been transferred to Paris about a year after she went over to New York.”

  “And is she still here?”

  “That, I’m afraid, is where the trail ends. Jen’s contacts are all based in New York. Once she tried to continue digging in French soil, the ground—so to speak—became awfully hard.”

  I thought about this for a few seconds.

  “So she could actually still be in Paris?”

  Sean nodded. “Yes, possibly. So what do you reckon, Scarlett? Shall we take a shopping trip into Paris tomorrow?”

  I looked at Sean in astonishment. “I can’t believe you’ve done all this for me. I saw you on your BlackBerry today—several times—and I just thought you were wheeling and dealing.”

  “Nope, I’ve been speaking to Jen on and off for most of the day. I didn’t know if she’d be able to help at all because our information was so vague, but she’s been extremely helpful.”

  “Thank you,” I said, looking up at him. “Thank you so much.”

  “We don’t know for sure she still works at one of the stores yet.”

  “No, I don’t mean for that—well, yes I do—but as well as that, just thank you for…for caring enough to help me.”

  Sean smiled. “Don’t be daft, we’re friends, aren’t we? Well, I hope we are after everything you’ve put me through over the last couple of weeks.” Then he grinned, and one of the athletes—the gymnast, now recovered from her earlier inj
ury—did a backflip in my stomach.

  I reached over to hug Sean, and as I put my arms around him, in reply I felt his own strong arms slowly wrap themselves around me. He felt warm and solid—just what I needed right now. I closed my eyes and rested my head on his shoulder. We held on to each other for longer than we should have, both of us easing each other’s body just that little bit closer every second…

  “Oi!”

  My eyes snapped open, and I saw David hurrying across the courtyard toward us. Instantly we pulled away from each other as he approached, and Sean stood up.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing with your hands all over my fiancée?”

  “David, calm down, it’s not like that,” I protested.

  “What is it like then, Scarlett?” David panted as he reached our side. “He’s been winking at you on and off all day, and you’ve been unable to take your eyes off each other all night.”

  How could David even think that, when Sean had been all over Danielle? I might have been glancing in his direction occasionally, but Sean hadn’t been watching me—had he?

  “Dave, old chap, calm down.” Sean put his hand on David’s shoulder. “It’s not what you think.”

  “I think you’d better take your hands off me,” David said in a voice that was just a bit too calm. “And it’s Dav-id.”

  “OK, OK,” Sean said, holding up his hands in surrender. “Whatever you say, mate.”

  This appeared to anger David even more. “And I am certainly not your mate! Scarlett, come with me, we’re going in.” He grabbed my arm. “We’ll talk about this inside,” he hissed in my ear as he began to march me away from Sean.

  “David, stop it. You’re behaving ridiculously.” I wriggled under his tight grip.

  “I think you’d better do what Scarlett asks,” Sean said, following us.

  David stopped abruptly and turned to face Sean. “Or what?”

  It was Sean’s turn to look angry now. “Just do as she asks, all right?”

  David released his grip on my arm. “And I’ll ask you again: or what?”

  Sean turned away from him and spoke to me. “Are you OK?” he asked gently.

  I nodded.