It was a few months after I had graduated from Cambridge University with honors in a few topics but foreign languages had ended up being my specialty, and while I had expected to have to be a part of the fight to get a job in any industry pertaining to what I had graduated with, it was actually pretty easy because not long after graduation I ended up working with the large team at Heathrow Airport border security as a translator with Italian, German and Swedish being my main strengths, meaning that while they try, most nationalities can't fool me.
I had a few nights off in late November so my sister managed to convince me to go with her to the London premiere of THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, the second in the three films from Sir Peter Jackson's HOBBIT trilogy, with the third film to be released the following year and there were already rumours of its title being changed from THERE AND BACK AGAIN to something entirely different, although nothing was going to surprise the entertainment world where such a visionary director was involved as he was known for pushing the limits as far as film making was concerned.
I stood with my sister in the journalists line as the cast began arriving and while it seemed as if Benedict Cumberbatch (the Necromancer/Smaug) had shown a slight interest in me, and I do know that a lot of women out there might kill me for saying this, but the same couldn't be said for me because while I didn't admit it to anyone, one of my favorite actors was actually the one and only Richard Armitage, who had finally been able to come to professional prominence thanks to his significant part in the film trilogy as the dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield.
Knowing my luck, I thought to myself, he would be on the other side of the press line and the chance of seeing him after that would be second to none, even though Gabrielle had said that she would drag me to the afterparty if that was what it took. But luck was clearly on my side on that night because a few minutes after that thought had passed through my mind he was standing right in front of us, my sister assuming the stance of the professional entertainment reporter and Richard barely able to concentrate on what she was saying.
"He so wants you" she whispered as we walked into the theatre at Leicester Square, barely able or even trying to disguise her laugh as we continued on to our seats which just happened to be three rows down from where Richard sat with Luke Evans and Gabrielle's film star crush, Orlando Bloom aka elf archer Legolas and throughout the entire film as dark as the theatre was, it felt as if Richard's eyes never left me, even if all he could see in such a dark place was my silhouette from the light that was projected from the screen.
Gabrielle and I made our way to the film's massive afterparty and while she went off to join her colleagues in one corner of the room, I decided to sit as close to the main bar as I was possibly able, which some might have thought to be a defence mechanism against what was likely to happen at events like this. What I didn't count on however was Richard spotting me from well across the other side of the room and working his way through the massive sea of people, mostly his costars, until he could sit comfortably next to me.
"Hello again" he simply said with a slight hint of a smile as he promptly sat himself down on a barstool, quickly ordering a bottle of water from the nearby bartender, neither of us were aware of it at the time but Benedict was watching from across the room with disdain written right the way across his face as he watched Richard. I replied the same way that he'd addressed me and hoped to leave it at that, but I soon found out that Richard Armitage is nothing if not persistent, cosntantly attempting something until it finally gives way to him.
I must have been in a hallucogenic state or something because by the end of the night, I'd agreed to go on one date with him to a place of my choice when he returned to London at the end of the press and promotional tour that would take him around the world, including a favourite place of mine, Sydney Australia because it seemed as though no matter what the time of year was, that particular part of the world was never without sunshine, unless of course it was experiencing a particularly harsh rain season with the sun blocked for months.
Having garnered my contact details before he left, each morning when I opened my email account (at home, certainly not at work), I would see a picture Richard had taken of a place he thought enjoyable, and because he had found out Sydney was one of my favourite parts of the world, he said in the message that he 'thought he would torture me' with a picture of the sun setting over the back of the Sydney Opera House, but I could hear the good nature in his words as if he were saying them to me in a telephone conversation.
As much as I didn't want to admit it to myself, much less anyone else including my sister, I'd grown to miss him quite a bit more than I had expected, and the few times that we did get a chance to talk when he was alone in his hotel room, I could hear in his voice that he was beginning to feel the same way, even if he never said it because he knew that the best thing to do would be to take it as slow as was possible, get to know each other before going any deeper in.
