"Happy Friday!" I grinned, swinging the door open and allowing James to enter the front hall.
"Happy Friday to you!" James laughed, following me to the kitchen. I grabbed his panini off of the counter and handed it to him, taking my own and seating myself across the table.
"Hold on, I have to take a picture so people know we're together." James said, pulling out his phone. A second later my phone went off, and I pulled it out to see a picture of me holding my panini, grinning.
@iamjamesmcvey: @ElizabethW01 made paninis, my kind of woman;)
I rolled my eyes and took a huge bite, smiling and enjoying every second until I swallowed and the delicious flavour was gone. James laughed, but I still watched him as he took a bite, his face turning into a huge grin as he nodded.
"This is amazing!" James grinned, immediately taking another bite. I giggled and finished off my sandwich a few bites after James, who was leaning back and rubbing his stomach happily before popping a few raspberries into his mouth and chewing them.
"Alright, well let me go get cleaned up and then we can go." I said, getting to my feet. "I guess Joe is paying me per week, so I got my first deposit today." I added, taking James' plate and putting it into the sink, heading down the hall to the loo.
"Cleaned up? What is there to fix?" James asked, following behind me as I stepped up to the sink, using some mouth wash. James just watched me, observing the whole process. I spat out the wash and rinsed it away, then touched up my lippy and adjusted my hair, sprayed a bit of Daisy by Marc Jacobs, and then turned to face him.
"Let's go." I smiled, grabbing a cream studded tote from New Look to go with my outfit. Today I'd gone for some comfortable clothes that I could easily change out of for trying on clothes, which consisted of a maroon skater dress and black blazer with the sleeves rolled to my elbows, displaying some string bracelets all from River Island, as well as some rainbow jeweled cream flats from ALDO.
"You literally didn't have to do any of that." James pointed out, following me to the door. I locked the door behind me and we walked down to the car in silence, because I was trying to process what he'd said, what it meant, and how I was meant to respond.
"I honestly don't know what to say so I think you should start the conversation." I said once we were in the car and driving to the busy center of London to get some shopping done. James laughed naturally, smiling over at me.
"Thank you for lunch, it was brilliant. Where'd you learn to cook like that?" James asked, pulling into a car park and stopping the car.
"Mum was a chef and she made me take classes. I guess I really liked it, so when we moved to South Shields I took more classes and got a job at a small cafe, where I was just a waitress. But I loved it, so when I finally moved to London for uni and dropped out, I ended up working at Sweet Temptations." I explained. James closed the car door behind me and matched my pace as we headed down the busy London walkway, weaving our way through the other shoppers.
"That's interesting. Tell me about your parents?" James suggested. I let out a breath and thought of where to start.
"Well, my dad was a lawyer back in France but then he got ill and we decided to move to South Shields to be with his family. He's fine now and a CEO for some company, and mum is now the sick one. She got arthritis and handed her little French Bistro that she opened in South Shields to my aunt and retired." I said simply.
"That's very... normal, I guess." James said after a moment, turning and grinning at me.
"What did you expect?" I asked, giggling. James shrugged.
"I don't know, I guess I was expecting something dramatic like your parents died saving the world and that's why you're so nice, and then something like your mum being a French model, and that's why you're so beautiful." He shrugged, grinning at me. I blushed nervously, and James laughed, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
