Page 136 of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually
“How do you know all this, Tom?” Mum asked. “How are you able to form such a rounded opinion of someone you’ve only met the once, like me?”
My father sighed. “Look, Scarlett, Sean asked me not to tell you this—but I feel now with so much hanging in the balance, I must. Sean has offered to invest in our business. He’s recently bought a chain of cinemas over in the States, and he wants us to provide not only the popcorn makers for every single outlet, but all the food concessions too.”
“He’s done what?” I asked, slowly absorbing this information. “But that means…”
“Our business will be made for life, Scarlett—yes.”
“But…” I couldn’t take all this in.If we exported to America with Sean, that meant we wouldn’t need David’s cinema chain…
“Sounds like he cares more about your welfare than you realize, Scarlett,” Maddie said knowingly. “If he’s gone to all the trouble of buying a chain of cinemas for you.”
I shook my head. “They’re not for me—they’re just a business venture. There must be money in it, or Sean wouldn’t be involved.”
“May I just say something?” a polite voice asked, and someone stepped forward to join our debate. It was Ursula. “I haven’t said anything up until now, because being Sean’s sister you’d all just think I was biased. But it was actually Sean who helped reunite you with your mother, Scarlett.”
I looked at Ursula.
“No, it wasn’t. We just bumped into each other accidentally in the cinema one evening—you should know, you were there.”
“That’s what I thought at the time too. But it was Sean who encouraged us to go around to your house that day. Sean who suggested we take you out for the evening, and Sean who absolutely insisted we take you to that exact cinema.”
I turned to Oscar, who nodded in agreement.
“Scarlett, you know Sean and I don’t exactly see eye to eye,” he admitted. “But Ursula’s right. He was the one who insisted it had to be the Coronet. He told us it was because of theNottingHillconnection and we’d be helping you out with your movie thing by taking you there. But the truth of the matter is we found out later he’d actually tracked your mother down, found out she worked there, and even knew what shifts she was on so he could guarantee you’d bump into each other.”
I stared in astonishment between Oscar and Ursula for a few seconds before turning first to my mother, and then my father, and then Maddie, who all stared back at me with similar expressions.
“I…I don’t know what to say…I don’t know what to do.” I returned my gaze to my mother. “Mum, what do you think?”
She thought for a moment. “Forget what I said to you on the telephone, Scarlett. I think Sean has put an awful lot of expense, but more importantly thought, into trying to win your heart. And you won’t find many men who can do both—believe me, I’ve spent long enough looking for one. And, if it hadn’t been for him, it seems I wouldn’t be standing here now. But onlyyoucan decide what to do for the best.”
“Dad?” I asked, looking at my father again.
“Scarlett, you have my blessing whatever you decide to do—both now and in the future. But whatever you decide, all I ask is, you forget about the movies for once. This is real life you’re dealing with now, not a film script. Youmusttake it seriously.”
“But I do take it seriously. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all along. In the month I was away I had so many experiences that completely back up my theory, but you wouldn’t listen when I tried to tell you. Lifecanbe like a movie—perhaps not always in the same saccharine sweet way they portray it to be in the cinema, but maybe living with that sort of hope and those types of dreams is the only way you’ll ever find a happy ending in life.”
“Then why stop now?” I heard a voice behind us call. I turned around and saw David standing high up on the steps of the church. “Why stop, Scarlett, when you’re on a roll? Let’s live out a real movie scene right here, right now.”
“David, I…”
“Perhaps we’d better go inside,” my father said, attempting to herd everyone together. “David, you and Scarlett should discuss this in private.”
“No, why bother?” David said in a tight voice. “You’ve all heard everything else. You might as well hear this too. Plus,” he said, looking directly at me, “it will be so much more dramatic this way, and that’s what Scarlett likes, a bit of drama and excitement in her life—don’t you, Scarlett?”
Even though it was a warm April morning, I felt a shiver run through me as I stood and watched David speaking at the top of the steps. I never wanted to hurt him. I hadn’t meant for any of this to happen.
Everyone around us stood in silence as I gazed up at him. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Dermot and Finlay removing their hats.
“I’m going to make this really easy for you, Scarlett,” David said, looking down at me. “You know when we hired a wedding planner to help us plan for this wonderful day in our lives, you thought she would be just like Jennifer Lopez in the film?”
He waited for my answer, so I just nodded.
“And she wasn’t—she turned out to be more like…now what did you call her? Cruella De Vil?”
I nodded furiously as Cruella scowled at me from where she was perching on a nearby gravestone.
“Well, this part of our wedding is going to be just the same as in that movie. Do you remember it, Scarlett? The bit just before the couple are due to get married.”
