Vodka & cigarettes

chapter 2

Catarina

*6 years ago*

I look around one dark and really unfamiliar street of London. It must be midnight already, or something like that. My phone buzzes in my pocket and I grab to check it to see if my friend James finally texted me. "I am 25 minutes away from you, stand in front of the building that has a sign "Platinum lace" , I'll park there" it's all that the text says and I start making small steps towards the building. It's freezing, it must be -50°C outside. Being 18 without a driving license, alone at night in the middle of the city I just moved to, a month ago and not being able to take a bus or a taxi because of some holiday today, honestly sucks.

I turn around to see what this place actually is and when I notice a bunch of naked girls dancing inside I blush hardly and quickly turn around. Out of all the places, a strip club? Really James?

The reason why I am waiting now is because my business meeting ended earlier and I told James he was supposed to come pick me up two hours from now. Yeah, I know, businesses meetings at midnight, only the shitty company I work for does that.

I am standing in front of a huge strip bar, alone, in my black dress, black thighs and my white Nikes. Some people must think I am a kid. Girls are barely dressed, but they are either wearing Victoria's secret or Calvin Klein bra's and some animal print skirts that barely hide their panties and guys are wearing really expensive looking suits. I am wondering why is a strip bar working on a holiday and buses and taxis are not.

I shiver a bit as a group of drunk guys walks past me. Luckily, any of them doesn't even look at me, I am probably not interesting to them because they can see me wearing actual clothes. An hour passes and then another one and James still hasn't arrived, I am sat at a little chair on the sidewalk patiently waiting. He isn't answering my calls at all so I just give up of the idea of him picking me up and start thinking of a plan B. I feel a bit disappointed that my only friend in London who can drive me left me waiting like this for hours and not even calling me back.

"Do you maybe need help? You seem lost" an unknown male's voice says on my surprise as I fastly turn around to face a tall, handsome, skinny and young British man staring at me. His hair is chocolate brown and his eyes seem green on the moonlight. He is also wearing a suit, just like everyone else. "I ummm, kinda, my umm friend was supposed to drive me home, but he isn't coming" I bite my lip and play with my bracelet while talking, I never talked to someone who seems this fancy and probably with that amount of money to be able to give hundreds of bucks to girls every night if they liked their dance.

"I don't even know you, but I ummm, did you drink?" I ask out of the curiosity and self worry, I could never get in a car with someone drunk. The guys shakes his head and his green eyes look at mine. "I didn't, I am not in the mood to be here today so will you use the opportunity? I literally have no reason to kill you or something like that" he seems friendly enough so I decide to desperately give in. "Okay, fine, thank you so much, if I can pay you somehow, just say" he shakes his head and we start walking. "You don't have to pay me, I am glad to help" this guy seems really really nice, I doubt other people in this bar are like that too, sober.

"You don't have a British accent" he notices as we keep walking to his, far away parked car. I chuckle quietly and nod my head.
"Because I am not British"
"Where are you from then?"
"I'm from Portugal, I came here for college and I'll hopefully stay here" I say with a small smile as we finally get to his car. He opens the door for me and I thank him before getting in. "That's pretty cool, which college are you going to?" he gets in the car and starts driving to the address I told him before. "UCL" I look around paying attention to the car, it's really modern, it also seems expensive, the seats are made of black leather and on the doors there are some blue lights, also, all of the sounds that cars usually make while driving are almost impossible to hear.

"Wow that's so cool, my sister goes there too, maybe you know her" he says and I look at him with a curious face. This handsome guy might be a brother of one of my friends and I didn't even know it. "Who is she?" I ask him curiously. "Mercy Fiennes Tiffin" he says and I chock a bit on the air. Mercy is a girl that was the one of the rares people who first welcomed me into college and she is always so nice to me, we often study together, but did I mention that she is dating my best friend? Well, yes she is.

"Oh I know her, she is my really good friend" I look at the guy and give him a small smile. I didn't mention Mercy dating Kristina, I don't know if he knows about it or if he even supports it. "But now I would like to know your name" now I am the one observing him and a small smile appears on his face. "My name is Hero" he says and I let out a small chuckle. "Hero, like a superhero" I say smiling and I am glad to feel the atmosphere in this car already getting less awkward. "Yep, a superhero who came to save you from freezing outside" he smiles more and I nod my head multiple times.

"That's so true, and my name is Catarina by the way" he stops the car right in front of my building and turns to me smiling. Turns out I didn't get kidnapped, even tho, it doesn't seem like a bad idea. "You have a beautiful name, Catarina, but now I unfortunately gotta tell you that we are here" I look around blushing a bit and nod my head. "Right, thank you so much for driving me, I guess we'll see each other since you are Mercy's brother and I promise I'll make it up to you for this somehow" I say smiling and blushing as I open the door slowly.  "We'll see, see you next time, Catarina"

He sees me off with a bigger smile as I get out of the car and make my way to my apartment. I wasn't thinking he'd kiss me like in the movies, but that's what I was secretly hoping for.

No, no, no, Catarina calm down, you just met that guy an hour ago, you can't already imagine him kissing you! Even tho, something about him, either his lips and eyes, or the way that suit looks on him, or the way he is talking, or the way he is smiling at me, or his charm, I don't know what exactly, but something about him makes me go insane, up there and down there.