Page 82 of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually
I looked at the distance between the two balconies. It wasn’t too bad; I could probably stretch my legs between the two—I shouldn’t fall.
Listen to yourself, Scarlett. You shouldn’t fall? You shouldn’t be going across there in the first place!
But I couldn’t bear the thought of Sean seeing that note. It would have been bad enough normally, but now I knew he’d spent the evening with another woman it would make my embarrassment even more painful. I had to get it back.
I took a deep breath before turning to face the wall, then, holding on to a drainpipe with one hand, tentatively dangled my leg over the edge of my own balcony and toward Sean’s. “Thank you, God,” I whispered, as my foot felt something solid underneath and I was able to place it down on a firm surface once again. So now I was straddled between the two rooms—one leg on each balcony—I had to take the next brave step and bring my right leg over to meet my left.
I took another deep breath, closed my eyes, and, before I could change my mind, quickly swung my other leg over the gap and on to Sean’s balcony.
“Phew,” I said, opening my eyes again. “That was easier than I thought it would be.”
Gently I pried open the French windows and slipped quietly inside. The room was in darkness.
Pleasedon’t let him have come back without me knowing, I thought, hurriedly trying to remember where the light switch was in my own room.
I stumbled, literally, into a floor lamp, and after groping about for the switch for a few moments, managed to turn it on. At once the room was flooded with light.
I breathed another sigh of relief when I saw the bed was empty. I looked toward the door and saw my note lying innocently at the base of it. Quickly I ran toward it and was just about to reach down to pick it up, myMissionImpossiblecomplete, when I heard a key card being slotted into the other side of the door.
Shit! I thought, looking around me. I grabbed for the handle of a door that in my room would have led to the bathroom. But I hadn’t realized the rooms were set out as a mirror image of each other, and I found myself opening the door to a built-in wardrobe. I had no time to go elsewhere, so I quickly climbed inside and pulled the door to as best I could without a handle to help me.
I heard Sean’s voice first and then a woman’s.
“Sean, I’m impressed,” the woman said. “You’ve certainly come up in the world since I knew you. Better class hotelsandbetter class rooms.”
“Indeed.” Sean spoke now. “There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then, though.”
“So it would seem.”
There was a slight pause before Sean spoke hurriedly. “Look, let me find you those brochures I was telling you about. I think they’re in my suitcase.”
OhGodno, his suitcase was wedged in between my legs at this precise moment.
“Forget that for now, Sean,” the woman said. “You know what they say about all work.”
To my relief the wardrobe door didn’t open. But when the room went silent I realized that Sean finding me inside his wardrobe was going to be nothing compared to the embarrassment I might have to endure if what I thought was going on on the other side of the doors right now developed any further.
Now is really not the time to be living in a movie scene, I thought, recallingFourWeddingsandaFuneral, and in particular the scene where Hugh Grant is stuck in the closet while the bride and groom bonk on the bed outside.
Nofilms, I silently prayed.Notnowofalltimes—please, not now!
I think someone must have been listening. Because then I heard Sean’s voice—
“No, I’m sorry, I really can’t do this.”
“Sean, darling…come on, just for old times’ sake.”
I heard a sort of scuffling noise.
“No, Jen! Really, I can’t. There’s someone else now.”
“Who? You never mentioned anyone else at dinner.”
Yes, who, Sean? You’ve never mentioned anyone else to me either.But if it means getting rid of this Jen…wait, wasn’t Jen the name of Sean’s contact in New York?
“Well, there is,” Sean said so quietly I could hardly hear him. “And she’s very important to me.”
“So what was tonight all about, then?” Jen demanded. “Just dinner?”
