Page 55 of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually
“Any time, dear,” Betty said. “You’ll let us know if you find her, won’t you? I’ll be wondering about it now—how you’ve got on and all.”
“Of course I will,” I said, smiling at them both. “Now we should really go. No, please, don’t get up, Betty—really, we’ll see ourselves out. Thank you both again.”
We left Bill and Betty sitting together in their front room,Bill still in his armchair and Betty perched on the arm, lovingly tucking his blanket back around him.
“Well, that’s that then,” I said as we let ourselves out into the cold afternoon air. I pulled my coat tightly around me as we began to walk back to the tube station.
“What do you mean?” Sean asked in astonishment, pausing from tapping the buttons on his BlackBerry. “I’m just working out when we’ll be able to get a flight to New York.”
I stopped abruptly and stared at him. “I can’t just drop everything and fly to New York!”
“Why not?” Sean asked, turning back to me.
“Because…I can’t afford it, for one thing.”
“I’ll pay.”
“No, I can’t let you do that. It wouldn’t be right.”
Sean raised his eyebrows. “Don’t be silly, Scarlett—I want to help.”
“Why?” I demanded.
“Why do I want to help you?”
“Yeah, what’s in all this for you?”
I knew I was being overly cynical and incredibly ungrateful. But Sean’s constant generosity of spirit and of wallet bothered me. Or had I just spent far too long living with David’s double-knotted purse strings?
Sean shrugged, tucking his phone away in the back pocket of his jeans. “Why does there have to be something in it for me? Can’t I just help out a friend?”
I folded my arms and looked quizzically at him. “So we’re friends now, are we? When did that happen?”
Sean grinned. “Maybe we did find each other a tad irritatingat first—neither of us can deny that.” He paused, and his expression changed. “But now…”
“Now?” I repeated. I half expected one of Sean’s wisecracks but instead he just looked at me. He wasn’t grinning anymore.
“Now, Scarlett, I—”
Mymobile phone rang now. “Sorry,” I said, hurriedly reaching into my bag. I looked at the name flashing on the screen. “I’d better take this. I’ll just be a minute, I promise.”
As I flipped open my phone cover, Sean closed his eyes and sighed.
“Maddie, hi.”
While I spoke briefly to Maddie about how everything was going in London (well, it was a brief phone call for us—only five minutes long), I watched Sean. He had wandered a little way away from me while I spoke—well, Maddie spoke mainly—and now seemed deep in thought.
“Sorry about that,” I said when I finally got Maddie off the phone. “That was my best friend. Anyway, before—you were saying?”
“It wasn’t important,” Sean said, smiling at me. “I was just going to say that your idiosyncrasies—shall we call them—don’t annoy me quite as much now as when I first met you.”
“Thanks,” I said, pulling a wry face. “I’ll take that as a compliment—I think.” But I desperately wanted to know what he was really going to say before Maddie phoned. I’d never seen Sean look at me quite like that before—and I think I liked it.
“Now, about New York—” Sean began.
“I’ve told you—I can’t just drop everything and fly over to the States.”
“And I’ve toldyou, I’ll pay.”
