Chapter 4: An Evening in London

“Hey, luggage girl, right?” The man says after he crosses the pub and stops in front of me. That familiar accent makes something in my stomach bubble. I must be very hungry, it has nothing to do with his accent.

“Luggage boy,” I say in return and start to cringe at my response but he laughs.

“Lucas,” he reaches his hand out as a formal greeting and I can’t think of anything else to do or say so I take his hand in mine and let him pump our hands up and down twice before withdrawing. “I never caught your name?”

“I never told you my name,” I say but he doesn’t speak. “Mandy,” I offer up my real name reluctantly.

“So, Mandy,” He says, testing my name out. He smiles like he approves then continues talking, “what brings you to this part of London?”

“What’s wrong with this part of London?” I quip back and Lucas gives a half smile and looks around the bar.

“This is the nicest establishment around here, and that’s saying something,” Lucas chuckles and sits down on the stool next to me.

“Hey, I know I did not just hear you say that,” the bartender comes back and slides my basket of chicken tenders and fries across the counter. I pull them the rest of the way to me and start munching on them while watching the men interact.

“Oh come on, Edwin, you know I meant that in the nicest way possible,” Lucas leans on the bar and looks back at me with a grin on his face.

“Don’t let Lucas try to use his charms on you,” the bartender, Edwin, looks over at me and rolls his eyes but there is a smile on his face. “He gets away with too much already.”

I want to ask what he means but Lucas gives Edwin a stern look to which Edwin smirks and slides two drinks to us.

“First one is on the house,” Edwin says to Lucas then turns to me. “Good luck,” he says with a wink.

“Sorry about that,” Lucas grumbles a bit when Edwin walks to help another customer on the other side of the bar. “So, where were we?”

“I was just rejoining my friends,” I grab my food and lift the beer in cheers to him.

“Wait,” I hear him say but I keep walking. I hear a sigh but see him returning to his friends out of the corner of my eye.

“Yikes, did he strike out, hard?” Jackie asks when I slide into the booth next to her. Natalie looks a little sad about the interaction, probably wanted to hear some fairy tale story.

“It wasn’t great,” I tell them to their disappointment.

“He’s so cute though,” Natalie whines. “So cute and royal,” she adds and wiggles her eyebrows at me. I shake my head and take another bite of my fries.

“Royal?” Jackie looks more interested, she sits up tall and looks over my shoulder to try to get a better look at him. “That guy is royalty? Hm, I can believe that.”

“No, no, he is not. Natalie just saw an article about a runaway prince and he was the first cute guy she saw,” I wave my hand, going over the initial thoughts while dismissing the idea.

“Oh I don’t know, something about him looks pretty damn royal. Give him a second chance,” Margot agrees and her eyes widen, looking across the pub. I follow her line of sight and see Lucas and his group heading toward our table.

“Hello there, ladies,” one of his friends leans against the side of the booth. He has the same accent Lucas does and I can see Margot instantly falling for it. Natalie looks pretty excited about it too. “I’m Cadence, these are my friends; Alfonso, Lucas, and Liam. Can we buy you all a drink?”

“Oh we would love that,” Jackie flips her hair over her shoulder and bats her eyelashes up at the guy. “I’ll help you. I’m Jackie, by the way.” Jackie casually introduces herself as she gets up and slides her arm through Cadence’s, walking with him over to the bar to get drinks for everybody. I watch her go through her usual motions of flirting and see that they will be quite effective with Cadence.

“I’m Natalie, that’s Margot and that is Mandy,” Natalie points to each of us as she says our names. “While we’re waiting for those drinks, let’s go dance,” Natalie says to the surprise of the guys. She looks over at Margot, who breaks out into a grin and hops up out of the booth

“Here?” Alfonso says and he too has a similar accent to Lucas. I suppose to them, my friends and I all have the same accents too.

“Of course here, we can go somewhere else a little later,” Natalie smiles and winks at Alfonso then she gets up and he steps out of her way, holding his hand out to let her lead them out to the middle of the room. Margot and Liam join them but Lucas stays behind and I don’t move from my seat.

“So, Mandy, you never told me why you’re here in London?” Lucas sits across from me in the booth and asks while my girls charm their way into free drinks from his guys over on the dance floor. It’s not much of a dance floor but my friends can turn any space into one.

“That’s not exactly what you asked me though, is it?” I say and take a sip of the warm drink in front of me. I catch myself before I make an ugly face in distaste.

“Well, that is what I’m asking you now, Mandy,” Lucas smiles at me. “What brings you to London?”

“We just graduated from University,” I start and he lifts his glass.

“Congratulations,” Lucas smiles and takes a sip after I clink my glass against his. I humor him and take a sip before I set the glass back down on the table.

“Thank you,” I continue, “but we all have different plans now. Jackie and I have jobs waiting for us back home, and Natalie is going to Med School. And then there’s Margot, I’m not sure what she’s doing actually but I think she has a couple of gigs lined up in New York so who knows when we’ll see her again.”

“Gigs?” Lucas asks, and I can’t tell if he is interested in her career or if he just doesn’t know what it means.

“Yeah, she’s a musician. She’s a great singer,” I smile at my girls across the bar, watching them dance and enjoy themselves. They all have fresh drinks in their hands and Jacki and Cadence are already making out while simultaneously dancing. My best friend is quite talented.

“You don’t seem excited,” Lucas says and I look away from my friends and at him. “About your job. Do you not like this job you are returning to?” Lucas questions me, and I hesitate to tell him but he actually looks interested in what I have to say so I proceed with caution.

“Well,” I start and then sigh a little, “it’s my dad’s company. And yes, I am so grateful for the amazing opportunity, it is a good job…” I trail off and Lucas raises his eyebrows at me.

“But?” Lucas encourages me to continue. He sits back and makes himself comfortable.

“I want to go to Law School,” I admit and I can tell he wants to ask me more but coming to London was a way to forget about everything for a couple of weeks. “What brings you to London, Lucas?” I ask him, trying to get the attention away from myself. He pauses before he answers, looking at me intently.

“Similar reasons,” Lucas shares. I wait to let him continue talking, the same tactic he used with me. “My dad wants me to take over the family business.”

“And that’s not what you want?” I pry and feel a little bad but I don’t even think before I ask. It’s easy to talk to him and I want to know more.

“I don’t know. I’ve spent my whole life preparing for this job,” Lucas says and I give him a quizzical look, which he notices but chooses to ignore. “I just need some time to find out who I really am before…before I make this commitment.”

“I get that,” I say and Lucas smiles at me.

“Hey,” Lucas leans over the table, closer to me, “you wanna get out of here?”