Page 18 of Love Will Save the Day
Chapter Fourteen
On the walk around Holland Park, Henry receives a text message from Auguste that his latest video has been uploaded and is live on YouTube. He immediately pulls up the app to check on the views and comments. I watch as he taps about on the screen before a big smile crosses his face.
‘You’re a hit!’ he says, showing me the phone. ‘This is the most amount of views I’ve had in the first hour of posting!’
‘That’s great!’ I say, enjoying how thrilled he is. We sit down on a nearby bench as Henry continues to scroll.
‘Ha!’ he laughs out loud.
‘What is it?’
‘The viewers are ‘shipping’ us.’
‘Oh? Is that good? What does it mean?’
‘It means,’ Henry says, slipping his phone back into his pocket, ‘that they think we’d make a good couple.’
‘Oh!’ I say in surprise. I mustn’t have made as much of an idiot of myself as I thought, if people on YouTube thought I was anywhere near close to Henry’s league. ‘Right. How funny!’
‘Is it?’ Henry says. ‘I mean, I think it sounds rather lovely.’
‘Huh?’ I splutter inelegantly. Is he saying what I think he’s saying?
Henry leans nearer to me and I am once again taken by how ridiculously handsome he is. This close I can see that his eyelashes are even longer than mine.’
‘Shouldn’t we give the people what they want?’ Henry murmurs, pressing his gloved hand to my cheek. And then, before I can even consider what’s going on he kisses me. Henry Byron, the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in real life, the man who has given me a job and somewhere to live and a chance to start again, all under a massive misapprehension, kisses me.
His lips are warm against mine. I can taste the champagne on his tongue. I try to melt in to the kiss because technically it is a very good kiss, but something isn’t quite connecting, which is stupid because he is perfect.
I wrap my hands around his neck as the kiss deepens and try once more to get in to it. But for some reason, the little fizzes and sparkles one would expect from kissing a man like Henry Bryon do not materialise.
I pull away awkwardly. Hmm. Maybe my body knows that getting in to something romantic with Henry would be making my ‘temporary, little white lie’ into something a whole lot more destructive. And I can’t do that. This whole situation is already precarious and letting it become something more could be a disaster. And absolutely not fair on Henry, since I am, you know, not who he thinks I am. Getting into some sort of relationship with him would be super creepy of me. And I might be a big old liar, but I am definitely not a creep.
We don’t really say much on the walk home. Henry seemed more than a little surprised that I wanted to stop kissing. I bet no woman has ever been the first to end a kiss with him. I told him that my belly was super full from the meal in a bid to make him feel better, but he was still super quiet the entire way back. He genuinely seemed disappointed, which is frankly bonkers.
Back inside the mews house, Henry immediately dashes off to his office to reply to comments from our YouTube interview. I need to go straight upstairs to continue my job hunt, but Auguste calls me over from the kitchen table where he’s sitting, staring intensely at his laptop.
‘What do you think of this?’ he says, pointing at a bunch of writing on the screen. ‘Is my English okay? Do you mind to check it?’
I sit down beside him and peer at the screen. It looks like some sort of personal statement. ‘What is this?’
‘It is my application for the London Indie Film Festival. I am submitting my short film and I have to write these things down.’
‘Oh! That’s exciting. Let me have a look.’
I slide the laptop over so I can get a better look and start to read, occasionally correcting Auguste’s grammar on the page as well as suggesting parts where he could add in more detail. Ooh, he went to film school in New York. How cool. Ah, it is “his great joy and passions to make movies”. That’s how I feel about personal training and about living in Notting Hill. They are my great joy and passions.
‘This looks fab,’ I say, when I’ve checked through the whole thing. ‘What’s your short film about then?’
Auguste narrows his eyes. ‘You really want to know or are you just being polite to me?’
I roll my eyes at his cynicism. ‘I really want to know. But quickly – I have a ton of job searching to do.’
Auguste gives me a curious look before clicking onto his laptop and bringing up a video clip of a woman swimming underwater in slow motion. It’s beautiful, all the colours crisp and vivid. Some sort of classical electronica plays along with the image.
‘I won’t show you the whole thing because you are in a rush, but this is one clip.’ Auguste gives a little nod. ‘It is about a couple who live on a small island in the south of France and an exploration of the magic that can be found in ordinary life and small moments.’
‘That sounds gorgeous,’ I say. ‘Can I watch it soon?’
