Page 9 of An American in London

As I’m climbing Cowcross Street—and “climbing” is accurate, since the road is as steep as Everest—I make a mental note not to visit San Francisco anytime soon.

I also remind myself never to look up the origins of London street names ever again.

Cowcross sounded like a cute, eccentric name.

A Google search set me straight. Apparently, the name pays homage to the cows that have been herded up this road to their slaughter.

I’m in Smithfield, the meatpacking-slash-slaughtering district of London.

It’s probably not an area I would have visited, but I have a front door to find.

In Sunshine on a Rainy Day, Daniel De Luca played a down-on-his-luck artist on the brink of giving it all up when he meets an heiress in front of his favorite painting at a gallery.

I’m trying to find the front door of his studio flat in the film.

It might seem odd to want to visit a front door, but the scene where he and Jennifer Elm, my second-favorite actress of all time, argue and he runs out after her, barefoot, into the rain-filled street is one of my favorites.

Daniel barefoot in a rainstorm is a scene to be savored.

And I’m hoping it will bring me luck. Finding out the guy who may or may not lose an important deal because I declined to be his fake fiancée was my boss’s most important client wasn’t the highlight of my week.

I don’t think Ben will say anything directly to Mr. Jenkins, but he might be predisposed to nitpick the health check documents because he knows I prepared them.

After Ben dropped off the key ring, we had an awkward introduction where we kinda sorta acknowledged we’d met before.

Mr. Jenkins was distracted and didn’t push for details.

Since then, I haven’t stopped thinking about Ben and whether I should have accepted his offer.

Twenty thousand dollars is a lot of money.

And Ben? He seemed like a nice guy who needed my help.

My phone buzzes and I take a climbing break to see who’s calling. Panting, I think of the added insult to injury for those poor cows, who were forced into a grueling workout before being put to their death.

It’s Melanie. We still don’t have the time difference figured out, so we’ve been missing each other’s calls. I have so much to tell her.

“Finally,” she says as I answer.

“I miss you.” It isn’t how I’d planned to start our call, but hearing her voice triggers something in me.

“I miss you too. New York City isn’t the same without you.”

It’s only been a week, and it wasn’t like we saw each other every day when I lived with Jed, but I know how she feels. There’s something about knowing your best friend is a cab ride away that’s reassuring.

“How are you?” I ask, wanting to hear all the news.

Coming to London was so sudden. I haven’t seen our group of girlfriends since Jed and I broke up, and I’ve only heard from Melanie.

They probably don’t want me to think they’ve been gossiping, but of course they know we’re not together.

And they must know I’m in London—I posted an image of Green Park to Instagram a couple of days ago.

“Same old, same old,” she replies. “I want to hear about you. Are you leaning in to rediscovering Daniel De Luca? Have you come across the man himself during your quest? I’m convinced you’re going to. I feel it in my soul.”

Daniel De Luca quests. Maybe that’s a business idea I could run with if I get fired.

“I haven’t seen the real thing, but a Daniel De Luca look-alike offered me twenty grand to pretend to be his fiancée, and I turned him down and then found out he’s my boss’s most important client so .

.. London is interesting if nothing else.

” London is more than interesting. Setting work aside, I love how very different it feels from New York, and how similar it is, too—like the cities share the same bass line but have different melodies or something.

“Okay, I’m going to need you to break that down for me.”

I start walking up the hill again, taking my time, trying to keep an eye out for Daniel’s blue door as I tell Melanie about Ben.

I explain how I met him in Green Park at the very spot Daniel De Luca met Julia Alice in Love Me Like a Boss , then how I bumped into him again and again.

I recap dinner and how we went from strangers to discussing engagements.

“So I received my second proposal of marriage in London. Who’d have guessed? ”

“And he has a jet? Have you googled him? What did you say his last name was?”

“No idea,” I reply. “I never asked.” I pause for a second. “Of course I know his last name. It’s Kelley with an E before the Y .” I put Melanie on speaker and type his name into my phone.

She must be doing the same thing because she squeals. “He’s gorgeous. And you said no because ...?”

Melanie sounds incredulous, like I turned down a marriage proposal from Daniel De Luca himself.

Panic starts to echo in my ears. Did I do the right thing?

I thought my best friend would be high-fiving me through my phone for saying no.

She was always encouraging me to voice more of an opinion with Jed.

“To be clear, you’re looking for a reason beyond the fact he’s a total stranger? And I didn’t know he was a client of the bank at the time.” The panic grows louder.

I’m met with silence on the other end of the line. I can’t believe Melanie disapproves of my decision. We’re usually on the same page about most things.

“You think I should have said yes?” I ask. “He could be a people trafficker. Or a drug baron. Or—”

“A handsome, single guy who needed a woman to pretend to be his girlfriend and was prepared to give you a hefty chunk of savings, which you’ve been complaining about not having.”

Melanie sounds disappointed . We probably could get a bigger place if I had a little more cash.

My stomach curdles as the panic mixes with regret.

Was my refusal too rash? “But you know the saying—there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

If he was offering me that much money, there had to be a reason. ”

“Sounds like you didn’t stick around long enough to find out.

Maybe he just really wants those hotels.

This Ben guy sounds super wealthy. He probably just picked a number he thought you couldn’t say no to.

Although, if it were me, I would have negotiated him up fifty percent.

Can you call him and tell him you’ve changed your mind? ”

“I don’t have his number,” I say. I could probably find it in the bank’s system.

Hell, I could probably run into him at Coffee Confide in Me, although I haven’t this week.

“Didn’t I come to London to keep my job?

Not to follow some rich guy around pretending I’m engaged to him.

I don’t want to lose focus on the end goal here.

” The pretending bit wouldn’t be that hard.

My broken engagement is still fresh, but the tingles I felt when I touched Ben revealed that my vagina isn’t as loyal as my heart.

“Maybe,” Melanie says. “Or you could be killing two birds with one stone by saying yes. In fact, I count three birds. First, you don’t make an enemy of the bank’s important client. I mean, that’s a win. Impressing your boss is why you’re there.”

It’s a compelling argument I can’t ignore.

“Second, you don’t have to worry about not having money for an apartment, plus some savings to fall back on. Then finally, and I think this is most important, pretending to be a gorgeous billionaire’s fiancée sounds fun . And a fun injection is exactly what you need about now.”

Everything she’s saying is true, and I feel terrible for not talking it through with her before saying no.

“You don’t think pretending to be a stranger’s fiancée for money is too weird and sex-workery?”

Surely she’ll see my point. She’ll understand why I said no.

“So if he didn’t pay you, it’d be better?”

I spot the blue door on the other side of the street. Except it’s not blue. It’s been repainted peacock green. I recognize the tarnished brass doorknob and the lantern hanging outside.

“I’m serious,” Melanie says. “Say that when you bumped into him in Green Park, he hadn’t been so grumpy.

Maybe the two of you had a brief flirtation.

Perhaps he recommended a restaurant and took a picture of you so you didn’t have to rely on selfies.

Then you bumped into him at the coffee shop .

.. Let’s say he bought your coffee, and the two of you sat down for a chat.

Maybe he asked you to dinner, and you found out about his dilemma. ”

Melanie should have been a lawyer.

“You’re right, it’s a good way of looking at it,” I confess. “But isn’t it different when he’s offering to buy my time?”

“Why?”

I don’t have an answer. “I don’t know. Do you remember the scene in Sunshine on a Rainy Day when a barefoot Daniel rushes after Jennifer after the fight and gets locked out?” I stand in front of the door and just stare at it.

“Of course I do.” Melanie has also watched every single DDL film ever made. One of the perks of being my best friend. “That was your mom’s favorite.”

It didn’t matter how often we watched the movie together.

When we got to the scene, she’d always say, “Make sure you marry someone who’d run after you barefoot in a rainstorm.

” Then she’d talk about the time she and Dad got locked out of the car at a music festival.

“It didn’t rain, and we didn’t argue,” she’d say.

“But if circumstances had been different, your father would have come after me no matter the weather or his footwear.”

“You okay?” Melanie asks.

“Yeah. I have so many happy memories,” I say. The bit I leave unsaid is, I wish she was here with me. But Melanie knows.

“She would be so happy you’re in London.”

I nod. “I know.”

“I think she’d want you to pretend to be this guy’s fiancée.” Melanie certainly does, and I can’t ignore her opinion. She’s my best friend.

I turn away from the door. For all the nostalgia it inspires, a door is only interesting for so long.

“You really think it would be a good idea?”

I’m not sure what my mother would say. She’d probably tell me to follow my heart.

She was a romantic like that. It’s moments like these when the grief surfaces.

They don’t happen very often now. I still miss her, but I don’t rail against God in the way I used to.

I’ve accepted things how they are. I got to have her for as long as I did.

I have wonderful memories and I knew her heart.

I know what she would have done in most circumstances I come across.

Being asked to be someone’s fake fiancée, though .

.. Amazingly, it never came up in all our what would you do if scenarios.

“Your mom was a dreamer. A lover of fairy-tale romances. She’d tell you to pretend to be this guy’s fiancée because even though it might start off as pretend, it might turn into a love story.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’ve seen how hot this guy is. And he’s rich AF. He can date any girl he wants.” I haven’t told Melanie about the surge of electricity I felt when Ben touched me. Just because I felt it doesn’t mean he did.

“Okay, so take the romance out of this. It’s practical. You get the money and you don’t make an enemy of a client. You could even negotiate. See if he’ll pay you more.”

The scales are tipping. Melanie’s making really good points. “You think I should try and call him?” I ask.

“Maybe,” she says. “Or maybe fate will intervene and you’ll bump into each other again. Didn’t you say you work in the same building?”

Gail said Ben’s offices are in the same building as the bank’s and that she sometimes sees him in the lobby. Ginny says he goes into Coffee Confide in Me every day. It shouldn’t be too difficult to “coincidentally” run into him. Although with my luck, I’ll never see him again.