Page 30 of The Vow We Made
He takes a step back. “Wow, you really are a sight for sore eyes.”
My attention immediately falls towards the navy dress with embroidered flowers I fell in love with as soon as I tried it on. “This?” I question, holding the pleat to my skirt. “It’s nothing special.” Except it did take me three hours on Oxford Street to find something I felt this good in, so I may be telling a small white lie.
Aiden takes the bottle from the ice bucket and shakes off the loose droplets of water before popping the cork with expert ease. While he fills our glasses, I take advantage of standing so close to him and examine his flawless skin and how his stubble neatly runs over his cheekbones, although not too high as to cover his face.
My concentration is broken when he hands me a drink and raises his glass towards mine. “To new experiences.” The chime of delicate glass rings out while our eyes meet over the first sips of Champagne.
“Thank you for this.” I hope he can tell how sincere I am. “This date has only just begun, yet is already memorable. You’ve put so much effort into it.”
Aiden places his hand at the small of my back and guides me around the pod. “You must have been on some seriously crap dates.” My hand covers my mouth to suppress my giggle while he continues, “I wanted to bring you somewhere original and working on the theory most Londoners passthe Eyeevery day and don’t take a blind bit of notice, excuse the pun.” We both groan at his joke. “It was a safe bet.”
“And you thought I’d be one of those Londoners?”
His lips part and turn up at each side. “Lucky guess.” Then he slides one hand in his pocket while taking a sip of his drink with the other. “When you’ve lived somewhere for so long, and inyourcase all your life, your brain misses elements of your everyday surroundings. Buildings, people, environments, they don’t catch your eye once you’re used to them and are taken for granted. I was the same when I first moved here twenty-two years ago. I was a young lad who wanted to explore it all, while trying to adjust to my new life. The fascination soon took a back seat. When I reached eighteen, I lived in the halls of my university. I had Big Ben at my front door, I could walk to Buckingham Palace if I wanted, or past 10 Downing Street, but they were just a backdrop because my degree came first.”
I interrupt at this point. “Which University did you go to?” I ask because I wonder if we might know some of the same people.
“University College London is where I took my medical degree, and after that, I trained everywhere from Guys to St. Thomas’s until qualifying as an A&E Consultant.”
It’s only at this point I realise, I’m touching his arm, but I make no move to take it away. “You reallyarea doctor?”
“Are you saying you didn’t believe me, Victoria?”
“I’m saying, I thought it was a line. You can’t deny, you could’ve told me anything that night, I’d had a lot to drink.”
“I never lie.”
I have to remind myself to take my eyes away from his lips instead of willing them to press against mine and maybe use his teeth to bite them. Perhaps he knows what I want, which is why he’s teasing me with his deep, sexy tone.
I quickly recover from the hypnotic state he has me in. “And now you’re in A&E?”
He sighs. “That’s right. I’ve been training and working there for eight years now. I love it but it has its pressures.”
I can see in his eyes, the heavy weight his job must hold so I quickly revert back to our previous conversation. “I’ve thrown you off course.” Although it’s quite clear, I’m the one being thrown. “You were telling me why you chose this as our first date.”
“I’m glad you’re already planning for another.”
“I meant—”
His lips twitch, holding in a smile while I try and gain some composure. “It’s okay. I know what you meant,” he says, taking a long sip from his glass. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and it has the added bonus of being as far away from the crowds as possible.”
“You don’t like crowds?”
“I don’t like being interrupted. At least up here we won’t get distracted by a relative barging their way through our conversation or friend who’s had too many tequila shots for their own good.”
I giggle thinking back to poor Faith. “I’ll drink to that.” I raise my glass in his direction. “Although you might regret it,” I tell him.
“I don’t think so.” He smiles.
“Oh, I don’t know. You have no escape up here. I’m actually a very nosey person and I can’t think of a better place to find out all about you than above London’s skyline.”
He opens out his arms, “And what, exactly, would you like to know?”
“Let’s start with where you come from because from what you said, you’re not a Londoner.”
He leans against the glass and answers, “Do you know Dorset at all?”
“I visited Bournemouth as a child.”
