Masquerade, A Tom Hiddleston Story

Part 26: 'Helpless'

"I can tick off 'being whacked by Jeremy Irons and his gold rings' from my bucket list" Tom touched his cheeks as if to demonstrate the trauma.

Ron sat across the table from us. His eyes wide and glazed with admiration. His face flushed from laughing non stop.

Tom is an excellent storyteller. He has that gift of making his stories come alive. It's as if me and Ron was actually there on the day he shot a scene for the Hollow Crown series. The scene where Prince Hal received a slap on the cheeks from his father the king. How that scene was improvised by the great Jeremy Irons. And how Tom as Prince Hal had no idea he was about to be smacked hard. He even described the big gold rings Jeremy wore to the occasion.

"I loved the Hollow Crown. You know come to think of it... prince Hal or the future Henry the V wife was Katharine of France..." Ron gave me a gleeful look.

I started to give him my best death stare when I sense a pair of serene blue eyes searching for mine.

"O fair Katharine, if you will love me soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like me, Kate?" Tom's velvet smooth voice seemed to drown the busy chatter of the cafe.

I feel my cheeks burning. I closed my eyes trying to remember Katharine's line. And of course my photographic memory decides to fail me now.

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. Those baby blues, chiseled cheeks and sexy mouth still transfixed on me. Waiting for an answer he knows I know.

"I can't remember..." I laughed nervously.

"Wow really?" He smiled amusingly.

Well if you would stop dazzling me with that face and that voice maybe I can remember. I closed my eyes dramatically and waited for my brain to work.

"Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is..." Tom started in a mock timid female voice.

"Like me!!" I half shouted my line.

"An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an angel" We said in unison.

We laughed at our own dorkiness. Suddenly Ron, the people in the cafe and New York City became silent as Tom took my hand and kissed it softly.

On the corner of my eye I can see Ron squirming in his seat.

"Ahem... I'd better go..." Ron cleared his throat.

Tom and I snapped out of the bubble we created.

"No stay... Let's have dessert" I offered. Poor Ron. It's been quiet a morning for him. First his boss and travel companion informed him that she will be leaving him all alone on supposedly their last day they were in New York. And secondly, she told him that they will be having lunch with Tom Hiddleston, the man she is sort of in love with.

"Fuck me!!" Was his reaction. And all through the process of helping me pack my things and moving them to Tom's suite, Ron said the word 'fuck' multiple times. Well until I told him about the whole "two days only" thing we have planned. After that his vocabulary expanded to "Holy fuck".

But I got to hand it to him, Ron is one cool cat. When Tom finally joined us for lunch (he had some schedule juggling and compromises to make with Luke in order to get two days off), Ron was composed and relaxed.

"No thank you... I have this afternoon thing with Paul..." Ron said as he begun to lift his hand to ask for the check.

Tom grabbed Ron's hand and forced it down.

"On me..." Tom gave a wink.

Ron blushed uncontrollably. He opened his mouth to protest but is cut off by the ringing of Tom's phone.