Page 20 of Love Affair in London (Once Again #12)
P iper went upstairs to shower. It wasn’t like her to shower twice in one day, but she wanted to feel fresh—just in case. Not that she planned to make the first move after knowing him for barely twenty-four hours.
Although, what was wrong with that? When you were in a foreign city, you could do anything you wanted.
She didn’t wash her hair—too much time to dry and style it—but she redid her makeup, then chose leggings and a tunic sweater better suited for the cool night she felt coming on.
The tunic was flowy, with a floral pattern, and under it, she added a pretty silk camisole—perfect if she got warm enough to remove the sweater.
She was down in the lobby in exactly one hour.
He’d changed, too, still wearing shorts but now paired with a long-sleeved polo-style shirt. He’d obviously showered and shaved, his slightly damp hair looking darker than it had in the sun.
The lobby was teeming with people, dressed in everything from party wear to casual shorts and ratty hoodies. Outside, the line of taxis had grown, but they strolled past them. Once again, Jared took her hand. It felt almost proprietary, as if they were a couple.
And she liked it. Maybe too much.
The evening was cooler, a breeze blowing off the water as they made their way up to the main road to walk once again beside the Tower of London, its moat gardens below.
“The Underground is just over there.” She pointed to the opposite side of the road, noting there were no crosswalks and the traffic was heavy.
“There’s a tunnel that goes under the road and right into the station,” Jared said.
“I know.” She bumped her shoulder against his. “Once you’re on the Underground, you can get anywhere in London.”
The sun bathed the Tower of London in its fading glow.
With the river on one side, massive skyscrapers overshadowed the monument on the other.
Such was the contrast of London—the old nestled amid the new.
Farther on, a small chapel, dating back to Elizabethan times, stood like a relic among these giants.
Surveying the tall buildings they passed, she suddenly gasped. “There’s the Sky Garden.” She recognized the front of the high-rise, the Sky Garden perched at the very top. She’d seen pictures before coming to London.
“They had to change the angle of the exterior.” She tipped her head back to gaze up at the amazing structure. “When the sun hit the glass windows, it created beams so hot they burned the paint off cars parked below.”
He raised a brow. “And you want to go all the way up there?”
“Not necessarily tonight. But I’m an accountant—I go anywhere that’s free.”
He laughed heartily, the sound warm and unguarded.
When they reached a small shop with a line already forming outside, she stopped. “This is it.” Just as she’d read, it was a hole-in-the-wall spot reputed to have the best fish and chips near the Tower of London.
They got in the line.
“It’s takeaway,” she said, using the British term. “When in London, speak as Londoners do.” She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “We can eat in the park over there. I saw several benches.”
“This is the real deal, huh? Like what you hear about in all the British shows?”
She nodded as the line moved. Finally, they stepped inside, which, surprisingly, didn’t take long.
They ordered one fish and chips. The man behind the counter barked, “Cod or haddock?”
She grimaced, then asked, “Which is better?”
“American? Take the haddock.” And the man punched in their order.
Customers grabbed their meals off the counter quickly, and soon theirs arrived. The fish came wrapped in white paper, the chips in a paper basket.
“You want malt vinegar?” the man asked gruffly.
Jared raised a brow at her.
“Absolutely,” Piper declared, and the clerk threw several small packets in with the chips.
After grabbing napkins, they carried their bounty back through the growing line, which now stretched almost to the nearby church, and found a seat in the park.
“Salt and vinegar.” She unwrapped the fish, sprinkling both the pieces and the chips with malt vinegar. “Hazel always said ketchup was sacrilege.”
He smiled, and she enjoyed that smile. Although it made him look even younger, which wasn’t exactly what she wanted, given that she was older than him.
But whatever.
The food was delicious, the batter crunchy, the white fish flaky. She pointed to the basket between them. “Now you have to try the chips.” Which were more like steak fries. “With vinegar on them. You’ll never go back to ketchup.”
“I’ve seen salt and vinegar potato chips, just never actually tasted any.”
She batted her lashes. “I guarantee you’ll be a convert.”
He took one chip gingerly, in mock fear, and bit off half. Chewing thoughtfully, as if this were a momentous taste test, he finally shrugged. “Pretty good.”
She gasped. “Pretty good? That’s all?”
His eyes crinkled at the corners. “All right, I admit it’s fantastic. So is the fish.”
They demolished everything, and he wiped the grease off his fingers with a napkin. “Should we get another order?”
Piper snorted, not caring how it sounded. “You don’t have to worry about gaining too much weight over vacation, but I do. Between an English breakfast, pizza, and fish and chips, that’s all I can afford.”
He matched her snort for snort. “Believe me, you don’t have to worry about your weight.”
“I wasn’t fishing for compliments.” But she liked the compliment anyway. “You can get another order.”
“I have a better idea. You said you wanted to go to the Sky Garden. What if we do that now and have a drink up there?”
She beamed at him. “That’s an excellent idea.”
They tossed their trash into a bin, and Jared held out his hand. She took it, wanting this day to go on forever.
Piper didn’t care that she was far too old for him. This was a vacation. You could do anything you wanted because what happened in London stayed in London.
Was she as eager for the night to continue as he was?
If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have taken his hand and followed him to the Sky Garden, right?
A line had formed, but it wasn’t long. Behind them, a group of tourists chattered in Japanese. Within five minutes, they’d reached the front of the line.
The British guy working the entrance looked like a bouncer, with a thick neck and sharp crew cut. “Tickets, please.”
Piper’s mouth gaped for a moment. “I thought it was free.”
The man, in reserved English tones, said, “Entry is free. The tickets are for crowd control. We can’t have too many up there at once.”
She looked at Jared, her face turning pink with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t check. I just saw that it was free.”
“No problem.” He tried to soothe her anxiety. “We’ll come another night.”
They were about to step out of line when the Japanese woman behind them said in slightly accented English, “We have extra tickets. Two of our group didn’t arrive. Come with us.” She turned to the bouncer. “Is that all right?”
He shrugged. “A ticket is a ticket.”
“Thank you so much. You’re a lifesaver,” Piper said.
The woman smiled, holding out her phone for the bouncer to scan the tickets.
They funneled through a turnstile leading to two elevators where a small crowd had formed.
The doors opened, and they followed the group from Osaka inside.
The lady explained they were in London for two weeks, a family of ten, though some teenagers had opted to go clubbing instead of hanging out with the rest of them.
“You did your research better than I did,” Piper said. Obviously mortified, she squeezed Jared’s fingers. “I didn’t look deep enough to see we needed tickets.”
“It is sold out now through the end of June,” the woman said. “I’m afraid you wouldn’t have gotten a ticket.”
Piper put a hand to her mouth. “You saved us.” As they stepped off the elevator, she added, “I’d like to buy you all a round of drinks to say thank you.”
The woman’s laughter tinkled in the air. “But the tickets were free. They would have gone to waste.”
“Please let me do this.”
The lady agreed. “Thank you very much.”
“Oh my gosh.” Piper gasped as they entered the main atrium. “Look at that view!”
Jared had to admit the place was impressive. The glass ceiling curved above them, the atrium filled with tables, chairs, a bar at the center, and foliage trickling down from the terraces above. A viewing platform stretched the length of the building, accessible through several glass doors.
Piper asked what they all wanted, seeming to tick off the orders in her mind. “I’ll get the drinks. Would you like to get a table?” She turned to the woman. “Or shall I bring them out to you on the viewing platform?”
One of the young men said in English, “We’d better take a table over there, Mum, or we might not find one later.”
The tables were filling fast, and two lines stretched away from the bar, with no servers patrolling the atrium.
“I’ll bring the drinks over,” Piper said.
The lady bowed slightly. “So kind of you. And really not necessary.”
“But I would have missed the Sky Garden without you.”
They smiled at each other, and Piper joined the queue at the bar.
Jared followed. “I’ll help you. You won’t be able to carry all that.”
She waved toward the platform. “You go enjoy the view. I’ll take care of this.”
But he didn’t let go of her hand. “That was nice of you to offer to buy them drinks.”
She shifted closer, placing a hand on his arm. “I’m so embarrassed. I told you about the Sky Garden, and I hadn’t even checked to see that we needed tickets.”
“How were you supposed to know?”
“I should’ve done my research.” She drilled a finger into her temple.
“You just finished tax season. You probably didn’t have time to plan everything. And it’s not like you owed me a trip to the Sky Garden.”
“But—”
He reeled her in and planted a kiss on her lips to shut her up. It was nothing more than a peck, but it was sweet and left him wanting more. When he let her go, her eyes were wide.
“Everything worked out perfectly,” he told her.