Page 5 of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually
Oscar laughed. “Oh, Scarlett, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t find it funny, because it’s your life. But it’s the way you tell it.”
I had to smile. “It’s OK, at least I’m not boring you.”
“No, darling, far from it. But I want to get back to the story. Now, where were we? Let’s see now, rewind, rewind…” Oscar circled his hands around like film spooling from a reel. “Oh yes, you were at the theater with your fiancé and the hordes of Japanese chappies…”
***
So, although my first attempt at “business entertaining” hadn’t got off to an awfully good start, I was determined to make up for it.
After the slightly embarrassing incident earlier, David and I had managed to gather our oriental guests together outside the theater, and we were now standing on the pavement trying to hail enough taxis to drive us to the restaurant where we were about to have dinner, when the familiar tones of “Let Me Entertain You” began reverberating from my bag.
You’d have thought by the look on David’s face that the real Robbie Williams was calling to confirm a date with me next week.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, rummaging about in my bag. “I’ll just silence it.”
“Ah Wobbie Williams—Take That,” one of the Japanese men said as he climbed into the taxi. “Vey good singer—I like. You like?” he asked as David went to close the taxi door on him.
“Er yes, Mr. Yashimoto, I like,” David lied, nodding enthusiastically at him.
I looked down at the phone as I pulled it out of my bag, meaning to silence it immediately, but I saw the Grand cinema’s number flashing on the screen.
Gosh, it must be important if the cinema was calling me.
“I’ll just be a minute, David,” I called, moving away from the curb. I knew the manager of my local cinema well and he’d once had Kate Winslet in to watch a movie when she’d been appearing as Ophelia with the Royal Shakespeare Company. I’d never forgiven him for not calling me to let me know she was there. Maybe he’d got someone else famous in his cinema today?
But no, my life was never quite exciting enough for me to bump into passing celebrities on a Friday night. As I spoke to George on the other end of the line, I quickly found out it was just work.
“Come on, Scarlett,” David called from the open door of a taxi. “We’ve got to go now, to catch up with the others.”
“I’m really sorry, David, but that was George at the Grand,” I said, holding up my phone by way of apology. “It’s their popcorn machine, it’s broken down again and I’ve got to get over there immediately.”
“What, now? You are joking, Scarlett. You can’t mean to say that you’re going to work tonight?”
I nodded.
David rolled his eyes. “If you were a doctor on call I could understand the emergency, but surely they can manage without you just this one night?”
“You don’t understand,” I said, approaching the taxi. “George has got a big meeting of his Movie Club on tonight and he has to have popcorn! You can’t possibly have one without the other. This is work, David. I thought you of all people would understand.”
“But so is this, Scarlett,” David said, gesturing at the remainingJapanese businessmen waiting to depart in the taxi. They were managing to stare at us but still do it politely as always. “This ismybusiness.”
I could feel the unsaid words,Andit’s more important than yours, hanging in the night air between us.
“Don’t force me to choose, David,” I said in a low voice.
David stared at me and I saw a challenging look flicker across his eyes. But he obviously decided now was not the best time for a face-off. He slammed the taxi door closed and rolled the window down.
“How long will this machine take you to mend?” he asked, looking straight ahead.
“Not too long, I hope.”
“Shall I order for you, then?” he asked as he turned his head slowly toward me.
“Yes, please.”
“I’ll do my best to try and pad them out a bit with drinks at the bar first, but you’d better be there by the first course, Scarlett,” David said, his voice low so our guests couldn’t hear him. But his expression remained resolute.
“I’ll do my very best, David,” I said, grateful he’d calmed down and not just stormed off in a rage. He could be so childlike sometimes.
