Page 29 of Pervade London
My drink tasted of sweet vanilla and I mulled over buying a box for Xander before we left the café. He’d love this.
“Em, that’s incredible!” Kitty smiled brightly. “Let’s grab that booth over there and you can tell me how he proposed.”
Kitty Adair had drawn the attention of every warm-blooded male in the café. She’d gotten her exotic looks—super high cheekbones and her tall, lean frame—from her Tibetan mum and American father. Kitty looked like a fashion model, but she wasn’t. She worked as a manager at Selfridges and it was her sense of fashion that landed her the job, she’d told me.
Even when she dressed down, Kitty was well put together. My student budget wasn’t as generous as her salary. Still, I was spoiled by Xander who loved to take me shopping. The ripped jeans and halter-neck blouse I was wearing at least made me less self-conscious around this glamorous fashionista.
“Okay, tell me how he did it?” She sipped her tea.
“In the Underground…where we met.” No way was I going to share with her that it was in the same spot I’d found him homeless at Piccadilly.
Xander had chosen that exact place because it meant so much to him. He’d told me, while on bended knee to propose, how quickly he had fallen in love.
“Afterwards, he took me to seeHamiltonand then we’d had dinner in Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester.”
Impressed, she raised her hand. “No one can get a table in that place.”
“I didn’t know that,” I confessed.
“How long have you been seeing him now?”
“Six months.”
And I’d only met Kitty a month ago, so we were still getting to know each other. She was studying me as though trying to fish for gossip. We’d become fast friends when I’d been busking in Covent Garden. Xander didn’t like me doing it so I’d finally relented and stopped, but those public performances had helped get me used to playing before crowds.
During my last public performance in Covent Garden, Kitty had stood close by and watched me play. Each time I ended a piece of music she’d thrown in five pounds.
Her enthusiastic clapping had won me over and afterward she’d invited me to have coffee with her in The Black Penny—the same café where we’d chosen to meet today.
I found it hard to make friends at the Academy and there was something about her that was so insta-friendly, I’d hardly had to try.
She wriggled in her seat with excitement for me. “No ring yet?”
“I don’t wear it to music school.”
“Bet you look cute together.” She wrapped her hands around the cup. “What does he do again? You never talk about him.”
“Tech.”
“Does he work from home?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good. What kind of tech?”
I didn’t exactly know but wasn’t going to admit it. “Communications.”
“Does he have a nice office?”
“Very.” I sat back and looked out at the passersby. “I feel like he once had this whole different life before me.”
“People do, right?”
“I suppose.”
“Does he seem happy?”
“Yes, I guess.” That was a strange question and I called her on it. “Why do you ask?”
