Page 9 of From Notting Hill with Love…Actually
Eventually it was all over, and we bade farewell to our guests. As David and I saw them into taxis bound for their hotel, the last of the Japanese men, the one who had pulled the popcorn from my hair, paused next to me.
“I thank you, Miss Scarlett, for vey pleasant evening,” he said. “But I think you would be enjoying theRomeoandJulietstory more than theKingLear—yes?”
I smiled at him. “Yes, Mr. Yashimoto, I think I probably would like that one better.”
He nodded. “I thinking this is so. Mr. David is good man, Miss Scarlett, but you are special lady too. I am thinking Mr. Shakespeare vey right when he say, ‘The course of true love never did run smooth.’ Hmm?”
I stared at him for a moment. “Er, yes, you could be right there, Mr. Yashimoto. I’ll bear that in mind, thank you.”
“You are vey welcome, Miss Scarlett,” he said and bowed.
I watched with David while he was driven away in his taxi, the words ringing in my ears. Whatever did he mean? I may not have remembered any of the Bard’s other quotes from tonight, but I certainly remembered that one.
***
“The Japanese chappie said that to you?” Oscar asked, aghast. “How very odd!”
“I know, isn’t it? Have you had enough yet?” I asked apologetically. “I did warn you it was a long story.”
“You mean there’s more?” His mouth dropped open.
I nodded. “Oh yes, much more.”
“Then do you know something, darling?” Oscar said, a solemn expression appearing on his face.
I shook my head. Had he had enough? I’d been babbling on for quite a while now.
“If there’s more story to be told, then we’re definitely going to need—morebiscuits!” Oscar cried, as he leaped off the sofa and hurried back to his kitchen for supplies.
***
The taxi journey back to our house that night was very quiet. David didn’t seem to be in the mood for pleasant chitchat.
And when we got home things weren’t much better.
“Look, David, I’ve said I’m sorry about earlier,” I said, straightening up a plug socket that was hanging off the wall by its wires before I could plug the kettle in. I thought if I made David his favorite hot drink of baby marshmallows in drinking chocolate before we went to bed, it might make up for tonight’s minor disasters on my part. “But I thought it went quite well in the end. The Japanese men all seemed to enjoy themselves.”
“No thanks to you,” David mumbled as he undid his tie and threw it on his Black & Decker Workmate.
“Hey, I heard that,” I said, spinning round.
“You were supposed to.”
I looked around the kitchen—if you could call it a kitchen. At the moment it looked more like the middle of an episode ofChangingRooms. Did I really want to start an argument with David now? It was late and I was tired…but still…
“So what was I supposed to do then? Just ignore George’s call?”
David shrugged and began to walk into the hall.
“Don’t just walk away from me, David. You started this.”
David turned around. “I started this?” he said, his eyes flashing dangerously. “I started this? I started this complete obsession you have with the cinema, so that it interferes with anything and everything we do?”
Oh,sothat’s his opening gambit tonight? This is a new one.
“I do not have a complete obsession with the cinema; tonight was about my job.” I corrected myself. “Mybusiness, actually.”
“I’m not just talking about tonight, about taking the call from George; I’m talking about everything. About the daydreaming for instance, like you were in the theater this evening.”
