Page 64 of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually (Actually #1)

Finally I reached the front. “I’m so sorry to push in like this,” I said to the attendant on the gate. “It’s really important I get to the wheel—I’m supposed to be meeting someone there.”

I expected there’d be an argument, or at least a look of “We get them all here, trying to push in—and look at this one, she’s even come in fancy dress!” But instead, the lady just smiled at me.

“Are you Scarlett?” she asked.

“Yes, yes, that’s me.”

“We’ve been waiting for you to turn up all morning. He’s been going round on this thing since 9 a.m.”

I looked up to where she was pointing and saw Sean coming into view at last. He was wearing a smart black suit and a crisp white shirt unbuttoned at the neck. He looked despondent as he rested his head dejectedly against the glass window of the capsule.

But then he glanced down in our direction, and his expression immediately changed. A huge smile broke out over his face and then an even bigger grin as his capsule finally came down to ground level.

“Quickly, miss,” the attendant said. “Be ready to board when the pod comes past. Otherwise you’ll miss it and have to wait another half an hour.”

There was no way I was going to let that happen. I leaped up onto the area where people were boarding the capsules as they passed slowly by. There were about fifteen to twenty boarding each capsule at a time. But when Sean’s finally came into view, there was only him inside.

“Hop on, miss,” another attendant said, helping me on board. “Safe ride.” He winked at Sean, who was standing up against the glass on the far side of the pod.

Inside the capsule, there seemed to be flowers everywhere.

Roses and lilies were arranged elegantly in a long glass vase. How did Sean know they were my two favorite flowers? Had I mentioned it to him in passing one day and he’d remembered?

They stood on a small table next to an ice bucket, which held a bottle of champagne patiently waiting to be poured into two empty glasses. I looked down and saw more flowers—a sea of pink and red rose petals covered every inch of the floor. It was one of the most romantic settings I’d ever seen.

“Oh, Sean, it’s just beautiful,” I said, walking toward him.

“I’m so sorry it took me so long to get here.

But it was the Blues Brothers, they didn’t arrive until today, and when they did finally arrive, as you can see”—I gestured at my dress—“I was already at the church. But oh, Sean, when they played that song to me, and said it was from you, I knew I just had to come here and find you. And then there was the painting, Sean, it’s just all so romantic, and so unexpected. How did you even know about that?”

Sean didn’t speak—he just held up his hand to stop me coming any closer.

“What? What’s wrong?” I asked.

Sean reached down and picked up some large white pieces of card.

He held the first one up in front of him, like a flash card.

Then he proceeded to communicate silently with me in lines from the movies I knew and loved so well.

Except they weren’t the exact lines spoken by the actors on the screen; Sean had cleverly changed them to fit in with our own story.

It was just like the scene from Love Actually I’d told him about—only better.

I say it best, when I say nothing at all.

I grinned at him as he turned over the next card.

In the spirit of Love Actually (The Bee Gees, and latterly Boyzone)

I should like to tell you how I feel in Words, if I may?

I nodded eagerly. Oh my God, I couldn’t believe he’d done all this for me.

Firstly, don’t apologize for being late, because when you’re in love with someone, apparently you never have to say you’re sorry.

First, how did he know I’d be late? And second, he was of course referring to the classic line from Love Story .

Sean turned another card while I silently watched him.

When I met you, frankly, Scarlett, I didn’t give a damn. And I wondered, of all the bookshops in all the towns in all the world, why you had to walk into mine.

I laughed at the classic lines from Gone with the Wind and Casablanca as he turned over the next card.

But then I thought, well, nobody’s perfect, I knew you wanted the whole fairytale.

I smiled again at another classic quote from Casablanca and his Pretty Woman fairytale reference.

So I asked you to meet me here today like this on the London Eye, because when I realized I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you, I not only wanted the rest of my life to start as soon as possible, but in a way we would remember forever.

I nodded in agreement, loving his twist on the classic quote from When Harry Met Sally .

So Scarlett, I ask you to excuse the fact that I am just a bloke you met in a bookshop, standing in front of the most beautiful girl he’s ever laid eyes on, asking her to love him.

A parody of the final bookshop scene in Notting Hill , of course…

Because I love you, Scarlett, just the way you are. You complete me…and I hope I complete you too …

Sean put down the final card—the classic Bridget Jones and Jerry Maguire quotes mismashed together to give yet another Sean-esque-style twist. And slowly he raised his head to look at me.

I ran toward him. “Can I speak now?” I asked breathlessly.

He nodded.

“That was just the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me, Sean. And I love you too—very much. I think I always have.”

Sean had looked ever so slightly worried since I’d arrived in the capsule with him. Now relief, mixed with joy, replaced that look of concern as I spoke the words he so desperately wanted to hear.

As I stood in front of him, I gently stroked his cheek with my hand. And he, in turn, equally gently took hold of my hand and tenderly kissed the palm.

Then he pulled me closer to him and silently wrapped his arms around me until there was nothing between us but our love.

Sean gazed into my eyes forever before he finally kissed me. But when he did, my heart only reinforced what it had told me earlier—by beating so fast that I think the entire Russian gymnast team must have been performing on it this time .

When we could finally bear to be parted again I looked up at Sean while he held me in his arms.

“There’s something I still don’t understand, Sean. You were the most unromantic person I’d ever met up until today. How on earth did you know all those lines from all those movies if you never watch them?”

“I watched them for you,” Sean said, speaking for the first time since I’d arrived in the capsule. “I started when I went over to New York, and I’ve been watching them ever since.”

I shook my head in disbelief as I continued to gaze up at him in amazement.

“I wanted to prove to you just how much you meant to me, Scarlett. By doing this with the wheel and the cards, I knew it would mean so much to you if I was romantic. But I also knew I had to do something a bit more than just send you a few flowers. I would have got you the real painting if I could. But even my budget doesn’t quite extend that far. ”

I stood up on tiptoes and kissed him again. “I know you would. But you really didn’t have to, Sean; the cards and the flowers and everything. I love it, of course, but it wasn’t necessary.”

“I think it was,” Sean insisted. “I had to make sure I was your Mr. Darcy and not just your Daniel Cleaver.”

I smiled at him. “Oh, Sean, you’re better than either of those two. But you really didn’t have to go this far. And do you know why?”

Sean shook his head.

“Because after everything we’ve been through together over the last few weeks—and to part-borrow another quote from Jerry Maguire …” I smiled at him. “You had me at…Ronan Keating. ”

A smile twitched at the corners of Sean’s lips and then it broke free into one of the infectious grins that I knew and loved so well now.

I grinned back at him and leaned forward to kiss him once more, but he stopped me, as the serious expression returned to his face again.

“There’s something else, Scarlett. Something very important I need to tell you.”

“OK,” I said, wondering what it could be.

Sean cleared his throat and then, to my surprise, a voice sounding incredibly like Sean Connery’s came floating from his lips.

“My name is Bond—Sean Bond,” he said with a completely straight face. “Scarlett, you’ve left me feeling shaken and stirred. I’ll be licensed to love you for the rest of your life, if you’ll have me.”

I tried to keep a straight face as I answered him.

“Sean, I’d go to Russia with love for you.”

Sean thought about this for a moment. “How about from Notting Hill with love…actually?” he suggested, grinning.

Then we could keep up the pretense no longer, and we fell into each other’s arms, laughing uncontrollably with happiness and love.

So while the rest of the world went about its daily business below, Sean and I held each other tightly while we gazed down at the London skyline together. Knowing this time, as the credits rolled, we were the ones with the happy ending.