Strangers

Chapter 24: Meeting & Other Things Starting With M

So Saturday morning, Alice and I packed up and headed to London. Expensive parking and two soy lattes later, we found ourselves wandering along Oxford Street and were really bloody cold. Alice was practically a tourist, even though I wasn’t from London either, it still felt like home to me.

“You don’t mind shopping while I go to my meeting?” I ask her, slowing my pace to a stop outside Picnic Café. I was about five minutes early for my ‘meeting’ with Talia, who must’ve felt privileged to be asked because she jumped at the chance to meet me/’Alice Bartlett’.

“Your mysterious meeting you mean?” Alice shakes her head, smirking at me.

“Yeah, that one.” I roll my eyes at her, sifting through my bag for my phone.

“Then no, I don’t mind shopping, I think I’ll survive.” She looks across the street, her eyes lighting up at the sight of a string of boutiques.

“Yeah, I think you’ll be fine. I’ll text you when I’m done.”

“Sounds good, where do I begin?” She asks herself more than me, her voice full of excitement as she walks down the street.

I make my way inside the café, checking my hair in the reflection of the window and looking around, my eyes faltering when I see her. A quick instagram and twitter search had determined that I was right, she was not prettier than Gemma and judging by her tweets she definitely wasn’t funnier, or as smart. I never would understand how guys could cheat on amazing girls with subpar ones. I know every girl is amazing in their own right, but putting Gemma next to Talia in my mind- anyone could see the clear winner.

Talia’s hair was brown, medium length and quite raspy. I immediately judge her on her plaid cardigan and ripped black jeans. It’s 2015, get over the grunge look for fuck’s sake you’re a stylist.

Her eyes widen when she sees me approach her, I had an instinct she would know who I was. I was Harry Styles girlfriend for fuck’s sake, and I had spent most of summer on tour with them, so she would’ve seen me around. I’d probably seen her too, but I was too infatuated to care what anyone else was doing.

“Talia?” I question, my voice not as assertive as I had planned.

“Lola, right?” She says, with a shaky smile.

“Yeah, that’s right.” I nod, pulling out the chair on the opposite side of the table she was sitting at.

“Oh- I’m meeting someone.” She says, sitting up straight.

“Yeah…you’re meeting me.” I take the seat, edging in close to the table.

“Oh…what?” Perplexion is evident all across her face.

“There’s no article, Alice is my roommate and I didn’t think you’d agree to meet if you knew it was me.”
Her eyes widen, her lips pouting slightly as she stares at me in shock.

“If this is about Ashton…It’s not my fault…’ She says, her words strung together in a nervous pant. Is she scared of me?

Good.

“Oh honey, I think you have to accept some of the responsibility.”

“He’s the one in the relationship…” She scrounges for some sort of excuse. That won’t work on me. I’ve been cheated on now, I know what it’s like and you’re going down. My subconscious has her boxing gloves on and I try not to laugh at the mental image.

“He was the one in the relationship.” I correct.

“They broke up?” She says and I detect a glimmer of excitement in her voice. Oh love that was a fucking mistake.