Wild World Comms

Chapter 10: April - Richard Curtis' New Film

The month or so following your second meeting with Dan could easily be mistaken for a Richard Curtis film.

Eugh, its actually embarrassing how adorable the two of you are together.

So, to save myself the awkwardness, I'll give you a whistle stop tour of the key events over the last few weeks; I'm not really in the mood to describe every rom-com like event in your life. I'd have to switch the coffee in my mug for bleach, and then you would never get to know where your story ends up.

To be honest I still don't know how it finishes. But trust me- I'm rooting for the two of you. And Will and Kyle and Woody. God, WWCOMMS can go fuck themselves.

I should probably shut up now, because this isn't my story... I'm nobody. Forget about me.

It was the Sunday following the coffee date that the two of you decided to meet up again. Thinking it best to leave all quiffy haired matters until the weekend, as you felt guilty about constantly making up excuses to appease Oliver. Especially after he pulled you into his office at the end of that week to ask if there was anything going on. Although Oliver, being the kind person that he is, phrased it in a more compassionate manner; 'I just brought you in here to ask if everything was alright? Lately I have noticed that you've been a little distracted. I just want to make sure that all of my team is at their best'.

Your response was something that you weren't expecting your brain to come up with. As you spat out a tragically twisted lie about how your parents were going through a rough divorce and how you had been busy dealing with that. It was a smart lie though. With your parents happily married up north, Oliver would be none the wiser to their marital status, or any of your family affairs for that matter. It's a universal truth that any southerner does not believe life to exist above the M25.

Of course he believed every word of it. You knew this for sure after you saw his abashed face; explaining how it was completely unnecessary for you to work the extra hours that you had offered to catch up for anything you had missed out on. And of course, you felt awful taking full advantage of your bosses aged kindness.

With work sorted out, it meant that you could spend a full day with Dan- stress free. Coffee was the plan again, although it was his turn to choose the location. He surprised you with a little place tucked down a side street somewhere south of the river. It's quaint rustic aesthetic matched well with the earthy blend of the roast, and you knew you would find yourself coming back there if you were ever on that side of town.

After you'd finished your drinks, you wandered around the winding alleys of Borough, stumbling upon an independent bookshop- which happen to be surprisingly more elusive than record stores. You both stopped short in your tracks, not believing what you were seeing in front of you. It was almost like you had never seen a bookshop before.

Its insides were as magical as you had hoped they would have been. Every wall and space was lined with books; tall oak shelves supporting an abundance of literature, poetry and plays. It was as if the two of you had just fallen through the wardrobe and into Narnia. You followed each other throughout the pathways of the store, taking it in turns to pull out the novels you love and recommend it to each other. There were books in there that you'd never have dreamt of being able to hold; a battered copy of Fahrenheit 451, The Bell Jar, 1984 in hardback. God, you wanted to buy them all, though it would have set you back almost half a year's salary.

Dan was acting considerably more like a fangirl than you were. Especially when he found a copy of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. You were embarrassed to admit that you never read it before. Until a decidedly shocked Dan instantly grabbed your phone out of your hand, and added it to the reading list that had been growing on your notes app since you had entered the shop. He went on to tell you about how he majored in English Literature at University, and that Capote's novel was one of the books that he became infatuated with on the syllabus. Dan spoke with the with similar adorable enthusiasm as he had Twin Peaks at your first meeting, and it made you feel all fuzzy on the inside when you watched his animated puppy like face.