Page 4 of Mr. Silver
Scott
With my hand at the small of her back, I guide Miss Walsh towards the staff car park and to my car. “I can arrange for someone to take your car home for you.”
“Of course you can,” she says with a laugh, although I’m not sure if it’s not more of a groan. “Which one’s yours?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Oh.”
“I usually get the tube to work. Not all of us can afford cars likethatto get places.” She nods towards my Porsche and looks anything but impressed by it.
I knew she was different from that first moment our eyes connected this morning, but I wasn’t expecting to have to put quite this much effort into getting her to have dinner with me. It’s not like I’m asking her to marry me.
After helping her inside, I march around to the driver’s side, ready to get this date started. What I’m not prepared for is the smell of her perfume filling the inside of my car. Vanilla mixed with something floral hits my nose and every single one of my nerves tingle with awareness. There’s something about this woman that speaks to me on every level. It’s a shame I don’t have a fucking clue what it is. All I do know is that I’m powerless to walk away from her.
I forget about most women after a quick, hard fuck. But Miss Walsh is very different. I don’t even know her first name and she’s already deep under my skin.
“This is ridiculous,” she sulks as the car creeps along at a snail’s pace through the afternoon city traffic. “I’d be halfway home by now on the tube. What the hell are you doing?” she asks when I pull off the nose-to-bumper road, onto a side road and park up.
“You seem to have some obsession with the underground. It’s been years since I went on it, so let’s go.” By the time I get around to the passenger door, she’s still sat with her mouth gaping open.
“You’re serious?” she asks as I grab her hand and pull her from the car.
“I told you earlier, once I decide I want something, I usually get it.”
“I wasn’t aware that included public transportation.”
“Me either.”
“Won’t you get a ticket? That’s residents only parking, and this area looks kind of exclusive.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Come on.” With her hand still tightly clamped in mine, we walk side by side down to the station.
The underground is everything I remember it to be, and I immediately am reminded as to why I stopped using it many years ago.
We’re sitting in the carriage, surrounded by others, when I feel her eyes on me. Glancing over, I see she’s giggling. “What are you laughing at?”
“You don’t blend in at all down here, Mr.Armani.”
Glancing around, I can’t help but agree with her. We’re sitting amongst mainly students and tourists.
“How did you know my suit’s Armani? I didn’t think you were impressed by expensive things.”
“I’m not. It was just a good guess.”
She guides me through three stations before I’m eventually following her up the escalator hoping I’m about to be able to breathe in some fresh air once more. She looks totally at home down here, surrounded by the rest of the city’s occupants and visitors. It’s a harsh reminder of how out of touch with reality I am. It wasn’t all that long ago this was my life. It hasn’t always been high-rise offices and hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of sports cars and designer suits.
“I’m sure it’s not quite what you’re used to,” she says sadly as we walk down a rundown street and come to a stop in front of a block of flats.
“You’ve not seen where I grew up. It makes this place look like Kensington.”
“I’m not sure I believe that, but whatever you say.”
A huge part of me wants to stop her and make her understand that I really have made my life what it is singlehandedly, but a bigger part of me is hungry and desperate for her. Dragging up the past will only put off both of those things. If I have my way, we’ll have plenty of time for heart-to-hearts later.
“You’re home early, honey,” a female voice calls the moment we step inside the flat. “Oh…you have company.” The woman who joins us in the hallway is quite obviously Miss Welsh’s mother.
“Mum, this is Mr. Hudson. He insisted on taking me out for dinner,” she says shortly.
