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Chapter One

Hauling open the heavy black wooden door, the freezing city morning hit my face as I stepped out and promptly skidded across the first of two frozen concrete steps. Waiting for the pounding in my chest to subside, I clung to the iron railing with both hands, silently cursing the British weather before tiptoeing onto the step below and out through the front gate.

With the collar of my coat turned up against the cold, the winter sun began its lazy arrival above the London skyline as I reached the bus stop. Still heavy with sleep, my eyes squinted against the brightness of its  first rays as I yawned, the chill of winter stabbing against the back of my throat in icy daggers.

It was already clear that a long first day back lay ahead.

Winter term always sucked harder than the others. When the mornings grow darker by the day and the sharp scent of cold creeps into the air, it should be illegal to do anything before lunchtime. Unfortunately, if I was ever going to finish the degree that would set me on the road to becoming a music teacher, I could only hope that the bus would hurry up and make an appearance before I froze to death.

Finally, like a big red reminder of why I should have got my driving license, the communal chariot of the poor, elderly and students rumbled down past the endless row of white brick houses. Its driver, much like every other passenger that stared blankly straight ahead as I boarded, looked about as happy as I felt.

Rushing up the last few steps to the top deck, a sudden jolt on the brakes sent me stumbling back down the narrow stairs. Grappling around for anything to grab hold of, something – or should I say someone – behind me broke my fall, a pair of strong hands gripping my waist to steady me back to my feet.

The breath still knocked out of my lungs, I turned to thank whoever had just prevented an early morning trip to the hospital.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry."

As my eyes came to rest on the messy blonde head of hair stood a couple of steps down, the accidental hero looked disinterested, to say the least.

"No worries." 

He shot me a quick, tight smile before raising his eyebrows in a way that suggested I was now little more than an inconvenience blocking the top of the stairwell.

Clearing my throat, I climbed the remaining few steps and made my way to the first available seat I could find. Never an easy task at 8:02am on what seemed to be London's most popular bus.

Squeezing in beside a large woman wrapped up in an even larger fur coat, I glanced up towards the stranger making his way down the aisle, his head lowered as he focused on the phone he now held in his hand.

A gust of cold air as he dropped down into the seat behind rushed against my neck, reminding me of the ridiculous half-bun mess that I had piled on top of my head before leaving the house. Shooting up a hand to pull out the elastic tie, my damp hair fell loose like long, dark rat's tails.

"For fuck's sake," the stranger muttered behind me.

Spinning around in my seat, my shoulders relaxed as I realised his scowl was directed towards his phone, rather than at my failed shampoo commercial moment.

Glancing up through his brow, a pair of piercing green eyes met mine in the harsh, artificial light of public transport. His dark blonde hair was pushed up and back from his face in a rough side parting. Under his faded brown bomber jacket, the reluctant Prince Charming of the number 159 had braced against the January cold with an unzipped grey hoodie and a black sweatshirt.

He silently maintained eye contact long enough to make any normal person look away. Not me, though. Apparently, I now had a staring problem on top of a complete lack of balance.

"Is there something wrong?"

His voice was deep and more well-spoken than I would have expected, based on nothing more than his scruffily stylish outfit and boyish features.

"No, nothing's wrong," I said, taken aback slightly. "I just wanted to say thank you for helping me out back there."

"No problem," he replied with a slight shrug, before returning his focus to the phone in his hand. Clearly, that was my signal to turn back around and shut up.

Reviewing his sculpted features once more - for a couple of seconds longer than I probably should have - I huffed as I shook my head back to face the direction in which we were slowly travelling.

"You want me to swap seats or something?" The fur-clad woman next to me whispered, her large frame shaking against my arm with gentle laughter as she nudged her elbow against mine.

My cheeks flushed with unwelcome warmth. Mustering a polite-yet-dismissive smile, I pulled out my book and buried my face deep into the beaten-up paperback as the bus continued its slow trundle through rush-hour traffic.

I was already poised and ready by the exit before the bus even came to a stop. Glancing back over my shoulder, a pair of scuffed brown boots made their way down the stairs as the piercing hiss of the opening doors finally allowed me to escape.

"Hold on a minute," I heard the strong, still unfamiliar voice call, as I jumped from the bus and began to stride down the street.

I didn't look back again until the sleek, glass entrance of The Academy of Modern Music was in sight. Still slightly out of breath, I shook myself down as I stepped into the welcome warmth of the lobby. Picking up a handsome stalker wasn't exactly what I'd intended to do when I rolled out of my tiny single bed that morning, but at least it seemed I'd managed to lose him.

Blending in with the crowd of students bustling back into the new term, I couldn't help the tiny smile that crept onto my lips as I remembered the strength of his grip around my waist. 

Perhaps I might have overreacted just a little? My mum may have been worried about me moving to London from our quiet hometown just outside the historic city of Bath, but not everyone in the capital automatically had bad intentions. 

Maybe I should have waited to see what he wanted to say? He was pretty cute, after all.

Pulling open the door to my first class, I shook all thoughts of the blonde stranger out of my mind. I wasn't in London to meet green-eyed boys on buses. I was here to learn. To improve my craft. To be me again and forget about the last few years.

Hopefully, I wouldn't be bumping into him again.