Hello everyone,
First of all, I'm sorry for screwing up the grammar on the last chapter and also thank you for the correction, especially you Orion06 and Therishipatel123 , I strife to be better at grammar and still on the process of learning to write. I just wish this chapter have less mistakes than before.
Second, thank you for my 2 new patrons, Alienmatt and Michael S Mifsud, wherever you are, you both are awesome.
Third, Happy Chinese New Year! There will be bonus chapter today, but I won't tell the specific time, it need a lot of polishing.
Enjoy The Chapter
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"That's Big Ben, well, the actual name is Clock Tower. Big Ben is the name of the clock, but tourists used to call it that way and the name stuck on it for hundred years."
"Is there any Mages there? Or maybe secret society of Magi to preserve their mage craft?" He joked.
Not a laugh nor chuckle nor giggle he received from her, but a frown and disbelief were radiated from her face.
He even heard her silently muttered, 'What did I end up to? Stupid girl!' She seemed to regret her decision to accompany him.
Maybe that was the way for British women expressed something on their mind. By silently muttering it, which kinda bad if they want to talk to someone behind their back.
"I'm just kidding Minnie, no need to be taken seriously."
"You American had a weird sense of jokes." She slowly shook her head.
A boy and a girl were seen sitting side by side on the passenger seat inside a taxi, nope, a cab. The girl has done well in her roles as tour guides. It has been few minutes since they took this classic cab that had become an icon for England.
They decided that the first destination was Buckingham Palace gates, which of course he would be visiting soon.
He observed the cute round face of hers and started to probe, "Do you see something special in the script, Minnie? Besides the plot, I'm sure you have something else you like. Giving a stranger a free tour, that's a brave move for a girl."
She smirked at his compliment and said, "I like the place where it happened."
"You mean Vienna?"
"My mother was born there, she always told me the story about where she grown up, and I really want to go there in the future."
She became excited, "Your script is really fascinating, I feel like I am also becoming a part of the story. Going to a place you have dreamed about, and spend the best day of your life with the person who you just met and fell in love with that person?"
"Sounds so much like a dream come true, and that was why I wrote that script." He gave her a warm smile, "Hey, Minnie, if we have a chance to meet again, will you come with me to Vienna? Well, if this tour end well of course."
Her heart fluttered and suddenly she had butterflies on her belly. His words were like ballads of confession to her and those warm smiles were like a million-pound painting.
She suppressed the inner feelings and said, "It would be lovely. You do realize that you said they will meet 10 years later, right?" She smiled.
"I wrote that script, so I decided if they wanted to meet in 10 years or 10 days." He smiled back at her.
The ride turned into comfortable silence, with a shy smiles painted on their faces.
"So, if your mother is Austrian, [You must understand the language then]" He said in German.
She was stunned to hear him spoke in German. "[I can, not fluent]" She replied, and continued in English, "I thought Americans only speak English and Spanish?"
"Not this one though." He showed off and she happily giggled.
"My father was German, so at least to honor him, I learned it a bit." He explained.
"Was?" She inquired.
"An accident took him and my mother," He said, her hand suddenly held into him and comfort him. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay, it has been a long time and I'm living my life very well. Enough about sad things, how about you? You have stories to tell?"
"Well, I was born here but my parents emigrated here before WWII because my father was a Jew."
"Really? I'm also a Jew, from my mother's side though. She was from Israel."
"An unusual match, but a proof that love triumphs of all." She said in a lovely voice.
"Here I thought you were not a naive girl. I should never trust someone who read Jean Austin's novel." She suddenly fisted his shoulder.
"How could you, she was a great writer."
"Never say she wasn't, but most of her book ended with marriages or at least confession from both of main lead."
"So you like Shakespeare's work then, as there no love without a tragedy." She joked.
"More like Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is wing'd cupid painted blind." He rhymed with his volume increased, reciting Shakespeare's definition of love.
"Though I too liked all of Jane Austen's works, I have quite an interest for books such as 'Howard's End' and 'The Color Purple'."
He released a chuckle, "Sounds obvious to me." His answer somehow lit her fuse.
"What did you mean by 'obvious' Mr. Edward?" She crossed her arms to her chest, "Did you disagree with the terms of feminism? Or are you American still hold the belief that men are superior to women?"
"Okay, now calm down sweetheart. I didn't mean to say that." He put his hand to her shoulder and put a light pressure to calm her down.
His hand worked like a magic as the electrifying feeling ran through from her shoulder through her body, heart, and a little to her groin. She began to calm down with a shudder by his touch.
"First, your preference of novel have women with strong personalities such as yourself." She smiled shyly and tried to hide her face in embarrassment.
Years of being underestimated because she was a woman made her reacted wrongly at him.
"I believe male privilege is a myth, maybe someone had said that we can become anything we like and yes that's true with hard work. But also sometimes we can't ask a fish to climb a tree or fly.
Humans are born different from each other, so equality does not always work like movies or fairy tales. What I believed was a basic human right, so I ignore male, woman, child, black, white, and any of those special rights.
Besides, males also have a fragile heart, look my little heart. Seeing you mad at me breaks my heart to pieces." She giggled at his last jokes after so attentively listening to him about his view of rights.
"Okay, how about Sci-fi, you have anything you liked?" Al sometimes regretted to ask a smart woman about books.
So there they were, spending their dates debating which one was the best book.
"I told you, Christmas Carol is one of the best novels for Christmas time that ever made!" Al groaned.
"It should be The Nutcracker!" She fought back.
"Okay lovebirds, stop fighting. All of the books both of you mentioned are great. How about you two made up, and pay the fare because we had arrived."
The two of them jerked their head to the car window, turned out they have arrived in front of Buckingham Palace.
They smiled in embarrassment and Al searched his pocket for changes and gave it to the cab driver.
"Be safe you two, don't let anything divide your love, happy new year!" The driver said before he hurriedly stepped on his pedal. Leaving him and Minnie with a red face.
"Sorry Minnie, I carried away." He scratched his head and smiled in embarrassment.
"Me too Ed." She embarrassedly smiles, "Want to see how the guards changed their shift?" She smiled.
He turned his vision upward and felt the gloomy and depressing mood of the sky of Big Smoke City.
"I'm not sure how long they will stand in this friggin cold weather." He said while heading to the guards' post.
Disappointment crept to his face as the guards already have gone away. Soon, his disappointed face turned to something mischievous.
"Hey Minnie, there's the ancient law of not being sockless within 100 yards from the queen."
"What you talking about?" Before she could express her doubt, Al opened his socks in public and screamed, "I am sockless!!" He was showing off his 2 socks to the public, and dancing like a lunatic.
She was stunned at his crazy act but before she could pull him out from his madness, the royal security carrying a rifle headed in their direction.
"What are you doing you bloody curls!"
"Run Minnie!" He grabbed her arm and dragged her out to run with him.
After running for a few miles, Al laughed in madness, "I didn't know that dumb rule still exist."
"It's because you are being crazy there in front of fukcin Buckingham Palace you idiot! Not because of that ancient rules!"
But soon her anger turned to laughter and Al was also following through. She shook her head and
gestured him to follow her.
They continued their travel by walking along the pavement that decorated with Christmas decoration to their next destination, Hyde Park.
By the time of their walk, he started to inquire about her life stories.
"Yeah I'm serious, if I was not forbidden by my father, I would be a Hollywood actress by now. As a protest, I cut my hair short and it was quite a sight to see him shocked by my appearance."
"I think you are still beautiful with those short hair." He said while ruffling her short hair which she quickly moved away out of his hand reach.
Being complimented about her short hair, she pursed her lips to hide her smiles and tucked her chin-length hair behind her ear only for it to flop back again.
They passed a music store and an idea popped inside her mind. "Ed, there was this scene on the script right?"
"Hmm?" He looked at where her face wandered to and saw a music store. He smiled and pulled her hand towards the music store.
The music store was clearly the same as what inside his mind, a medium-sized with a lot of racks filled with vinyl and audiotapes.
He saw the hall for the section and turned to her way to ask her preferences.
"Pop? Classic?" He asked.
She pointed to the section on the most corner of the store, "Rock, absolutely love them." He showed her teeth after she told him her music taste.
"Not so classic British ladies aren't you?" He teased.
"Not all British ladies are ladies you know." She raised one of her brows. "We also pursue fun and freedom by listening to rock music."
"Now we're talking." He searched through the content in the Rock section and gave her a single with black and white cover photos of the band members
"One Vision? this is Queen's right" She saw him nodding. "Their new singles after their performance in The Live Aid." He added.
"Best concert ever, I was there when they performed."
"Too bad I was in Philadelphia at that time, wanna hear it together?" A nod from her gave him the green light, so he stretched his hand which she gladly took and they went to the back section for listening to music with their hands held into each other.
He leads her into the private booth and both of them entered together, same as scenes on the script she read.
Because the booth was a bit narrow, they must stick closer to each other. He pressed the audio player button and Queen's song started to play.
His face was only an inch from hers and she could feel his warm breath slipped to her. Al paid her no mind as he was closing his eyes and enjoyed hearing the song.
Because he heard no sound came from her, he opened his eyes and just realized that her face was closer than he imagined. Then their eyes met and the time suddenly frozen.
She was stunned still like a statue. The song was heard through their ears but their focus wasn't here anymore but moved to their wonderland.
[One vision]
[So give me your hands, give me your hearts]
Not an appropriate song for lovers but, for a rock lover, it was enough.
They only snapped back to reality after the song has ended. The song lasted only a few minutes but their gaze at each other lasted like, forever.
Both of them started looking elsewhere beside each other face and went out of the booth clumsily. Whether they were stuck at the door because they went out at the same time or gave way at each other with nobody going.
This time, they separated from each other to check some songs on other racks but sometimes they stole a glance at each other from a distance.
Then suddenly, she came with some of the singles on her hands and he could see that one of them was written 'Shallow', the one he recorded with Alice, his cutest little sister.
His questioning gaze gave the answer he wanted from her.
"I like Alphonse, his song I mean, he's a great singer. One day I will go to Hollywood and have a chance to meet him." She said with a happy face.
"I heard he was a playboy you know? You don't really want to know him if you meet him."
"So you did meet him and do I heard jealousy coming from you? Mr. Edward is jealous of Alphonse Brandt."
He rolled his eyes at her then said, "Okay, let's buy his singles then."
He and Minnie almost bought dozens of audiotapes, some of them were sung by him. It looks like Minnie's provocation worked.
Minnie just realized she didn't bring an audiotape player when they were in the cashier. Fortunately, he brought a Panasonic walkman to play these tapes.
They spent their noon walking throughout the cold winter where the gloomy trees were rowing to greet them in Hyde Park.
They talked a lot of things about rock music, especially after she was so enthusiastically talking about it.
He was just happy hearing her speaking with that British accent of hers. He could listen to her forever without getting bored.
Accompanied by music from the walkman he shared the other half earphone with her, they were walking side by side, as the leaves and trunk tweak at each other composing a nature orchestra.
"Someday I'll get my driver's license, head west on the twenty in a car I can't afford, with a plan I don't have, just me, my music, and the road." He recited.
"Is that a lyrics from a song?" Minnie asked.
"Nope, from a movie in the future." She didn't quite understand about what he meant, but he is a screenwriter and maybe there will be those words on the script he will write in the future.
"But it was quite catchy, maybe we can make it like a song about it 'Head to west, with a car I can't afford and the plan I didn't have...', how was it?"
"You have a beautiful voice, Minnie." He fell into trance.
"And you have a smooth tongue Ed, let's go! The Hyde Park journey is over. Chop-chop, our time's limited." She ran as fast as she could, making him have to chase after her.
On their way out of Hyde Park, she panting in exhaustion because of running, but she still suggested he go to Trafalgar Square where he would feel the crowded city of London.
She told him there's always an ice skating ring in here and asked him to do a skating with her. Of course, she took no for answer.
The skating rink is really big, with some colorful lights and Christmas Tree enhancing further the Christmas atmosphere of Trafalgar Square.
There was a renting place for the shoes, he tried to pay for her part but she as a pioneer of an independent woman of course rejected him and paid for her parts.
Are all British women sturdy as coral as her or maybe just her?
"Did you ever skate Ed?"
"Only roller skate though, there was a rink for it."
"That's American thing right? There is also one here in London but only popular with the American community over here."
"Pity, you should really try it sometimes. Skating with colorful disco light and music makes you want to groove." He tried some disco move like John Travolta did in
"Someday Ed, but now, we ice skate first." She smiled.
They wore their ice skating shoes though he was tried so hard to regain his balance. His roller shoes technique didn't work on this thing.
He kept falling on his arse as Minnie just laughing silly at him. Minnie could do this well and she offered him a private lesson for him.
With his roller skate experience, he finally able to did though it was with only a slide.
He ended his ice skating experience with a disheartened face, while Minnie smiling with a smug face at him.
"Okay, let's do my specialties then." He said.
A question mark appeared above her head if this was a cartoon.
He saw a street musician was playing his song, 'Don't Look Back In Anger', and gathered many audiences and of course pennies.
"Let's rock, Minnie!"
"What do you... no, no, no; don't do it, Ed, I swore..." She was ignored by him who was running to the street musician.
"Hey, my name is Edward." He introduced himself to the street musician.
"Yeah, and I'm Ghetto, Ghetowayfromme you brute American!" He shouted.
Patience is a Virtue... "Okay, so I had this girl who wanted to be a singer, I'll pay you a 100 pound to borrow your guitar for a half-hour, how was it."
His offer stunned him, a hundred for a half-hour, who didn't want to, "Why you don't say so! The name Liam Gallagher by the way, but only for a half-hour okay?"
He didn't quite catch his name as he was so excited after he took the guitar from him.
"Come on Minnie!" He saw her covering her face with one hand while her head was bowing down.
"Come on Minnie, I'm frozen over here." He used the microphone and started to shout. The crowd was also sided with him as they were also cheering over her.
With a herd persuasion, she finally gave up and also stood beside him who was holding a guitar.
The sound of chords reverberated to some parts of Trafalgar Square. Because he could see the fondness when she was hearing 'Shallow', he decided to play this music with her.
With him singing the verse first, Minnie with her nervousness only let out a small voice. He encourages her by strumming the guitar harder and she finally able to express herself through the music.
Their duet caught so much attention in Trafalgar Square walker, and hundreds of people suddenly gathered around them.
Finally, their duet was over and they heard the sound of cheer and applause directed at them.
She crossed her arms and said, "Didn't know you are also a good singer." He just shrugged, "You never asked."
"Hey Minnie, I had this one song and I hope you'll like this." She nodded, she wanted to escape the stage due to embarrassment but was stopped by him.
"I mean, I'll sing this song for you." He teased, he plucks another string and started to play the song with the guitar.
"Please don't see just a boy caught up in dreams and fantasies. Please see me reaching out for someone I can't see." The song made her attention turned to his handsome face.
[Who are we? Just a speck of dust within the galaxy?]
[Woe is me, if we're not careful turns into reality]
[Don't you dare let our best memories bring you sorrow]
[Yesterday I saw a lion kiss a deer]
[Turn the page maybe we'll find a brand new ending]
[Where we're dancing in our tears and]
[God, tell us the reason youth is wasted on the young]
[It's hunting season and the lambs are on the run]
[Searching for meaning]
[But are we all lost stars, trying to light up the dark?]
(Tribute to Lost Stars by Adam Levine)
Those lyrics made her stunned, did he just confessed his feelings for her, or is it just a mere lyric from the song?
It disturbed her feelings very much, she hoped he was really doing it not just playing the song.
But alas, dreaming she was, she jerked back to reality as he finished and got another cheer by Trafalgar's Square visitors.
"You like it?" He asked.
"Very much, although the meaning is profound and gave someone assumption if you played to a girl like this."
"Let's make it true then." He said.
Her heartbeat quicken, blush on her face; bliss on her heart.
"Although we only met for one day I felt that we had so much chemistry. I like you, Minnie." He confessed.
"Let's spend this day then, our schedule is tight and I don't want to waste it."
She ran away from him, and he chased her after he gave back the guitar to the guy named Liam. "Come on Minnie, say it. One word, say 'Yes, me too'." He teased.
He teased her all the way from their walk to taxi to their next destination.
To Be Continued in part 3
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