All She Wants for Christmas

 

Chapter 1

 

She hadn’t been to London in many, many years and she was busy looking up at the Christmas decorations and wasn’t looking where she was going when she, quite literally, bumped into the back of the man of her dreams. She fell to the ground and, as she busily tried to get to her feet whilst brushing off the snow from her coat, she looked up into a face she had seen so very many times yet had never imagined being this close to. Her first thought was, oh my god, he is more beautiful in person than I thought he could be! Then he smiled at her and she lost the ability to breathe. He was stunning in a way no other man could ever hope to be. He reached out his hand to help her up.

“I’m terribly sorry” he said in that smooth husky, oh so British voice she loved to listen to. “Now you are all wet!”

Her immediate thought was you have no idea!

She took his hand and he helped her to her feet. She couldn’t take her eyes off his wondrous face. This was surely all a dream. It couldn’t really be happening. Of all the people to crash into it had to be him. Until this moment he had been simply Jack Easton, an actor she had longed to meet but never really expected to. This sort of thing didn’t happen to women like her. Yet, there he stood in all his glory. Tall, dark and too handsome to be human!  She was sure that if she blinked, he would disappear but, when she did, he didn’t.

 

“Are you alright?” he asked.

“Yes, I’m fine. I am so sorry for bumping into you” she said hoping he couldn’t hear the tremor in her voice.

He smiled at her and her legs almost gave way.

“Don’t be sorry” he said, “I’m not”

A look of concern crossed his face and then he said something she couldn’t believe. She had expected him to simply walk away but, instead, he said,

“You’re shivering and your coat is wet! Let me buy you a cup of coffee while it dries. I wouldn’t want you to catch a cold because of me”

“I bumped into you so how could it be your fault?”

“Well, if I hadn’t been standing in the middle of the footpath you wouldn’t have bumped into me. Anyway, can we discuss who’s to blame over a hot coffee?” he said and then he laughed. It was a deep, velvety laugh that she could happily have listened to for the rest of her life.

“You don’t have to do that” 

 

“I know I don’t ‘have’ to I want to. I would feel extremely bad if I thought you became ill because I wasn’t aware of my surroundings and of other people walking on the street. Please, allow me to do this”. He held out his arm in order for her to take it. 

 

 

 

He sounded so sincere and, she had to admit, she was cold and now feeling the wetness seeping through the material of the coat. So, she took his arm and said, 

 

“Very well, kind sir, let us away for coffee” 

 

He laughed and replied, 

 

“This way, my lady, tis not far and will be most pleasant me thinks” 

 

He was right. In a mere minute or two they were standing outside a Parisian styled coffee shop.

To Be Continued