Christmas in Camden

by C. M. Steele

  I looked around the hotel room and he was gone. I could tell that he wasn’t in the bathroom since the door was open. I tried to hold back the tears. Standing up, I noticed a note on the lampshade.

  My Dear Holly,

  I had to go home and shower before work. Here’s my number. Please wait here for me and I’ll escort you around and promise you a real dinner.

  I hate leaving, but I truly have to go.

  Rest well,

  Gavin

  I flipped it over back and forth, looking for more. I don’t know what I expected, but this said it all. I shouldn’t feel offended, and yet I did. I put the note down, needing to wash last night and early this morning off my body. It wasn’t going to leave my brain at all, but at least his perfect pheromones wouldn’t be on my skin, reminding me that he wasn’t here.

  The hot water was nice, but I couldn’t enjoy it because I was thinking about what happened with us. Once I was out, I got dressed and then went downstairs for some coffee. They had a television in the lobby that caught my attention.

  There was a reporter with funky pink hair standing in front of the big Christmas tree. It must have been from last night because it was dark out. She reminded me of something out of the eighties, not that I’d been around at the time, but my mom showed me a lot of pictures. It was blasts of vibrant colors and mismatched clothes.

  I moved closer to the television and turned it up a little. No one else was in the area anyway, but I was interested in what she had to say.

  “Like oh my Lord, Terry. I have some breaking news. On assignment in Trafalgar Square tonight in front of the Christmas tree and the many tourists, I spotted an important guest spending some time with a young woman, snogging like randy teenagers.”

  “Oh, do tell us, Apple,” this Terry woman cheered.

  “Better yet, I can show you.” My eyes widened to see Gavin with his arms around me and his mouth coming down. They showed us kissing. “And if you can’t tell, that was the ever-dashing Lord Gavin Daniels, kissing a beautiful American woman.”

  “So, we suppose the rumors about him aren't true. The man is interested in the opposite sex,” the in-station newscaster said.

  “This is the first woman to be spotted with the handsome devil in more than five years. What is even more bonkers is that the couple met only hours earlier at the shops in Covent Garden, where the handsome lord was doing his annual charity work. According to one of the shop-goers and a sneaky reporter, the woman is on holiday and rumored to have a boyfriend.”

  “Well, having a title will make a girl forget her name, let alone some Yank back home.”

  “That’s true. I’d fall over myself around the bachelor.”

  “Anything else on her?”

  “That's all we know so far on the American girl but we’ll be checking for more. And I will add this. Apparently, the lord nearly boxed the other bloke at the shop who was interested in the woman. Lord Daniels nearly carried her out over his shoulder.”

  “Ooh, if this is true, we may be having a wedding very soon.”

  “From that kiss and the way they rushed off, it may be as the Americans say, ‘A shotgun wedding.’ Back to you, Terry.”

  “Thank you to our field reporter. Nothing like a little peer gossip to brighten your Saturday morning,” Terry giggled. I saw the news moniker and I realized it was their version of our gossip columns.

  I closed my eyes and did all I could not to cry. He lied to me big time. They did verify some of the things he said about his personal life, but there was a major thing he forgot to mention.

  “I knew it,” Gavin said, standing behind me. I whipped around to see him standing there in a suit with the jacket unbuttoned and his coat over his arm.

  “I guess there was something huge you forgot to mention?”

  “I didn’t forget. It’s not important to me, but I’d rather not have this conversation for everyone to hear. I was followed outside my meeting too.”

  We walked to the elevators without a word. He tried to press his hand to my back, but I darted out of the way. He pursed his lips, lowered his head while letting his shoulders slump, and his hands fall to his sides. Once we were on the elevator, I asked, “Were you ever going to tell me or were you hoping I’d think you were some coffee shop employee and dump me as I was leaving?”

  “I told you I didn’t want you to leave. That doesn’t change because I’m not a coffee shop worker.” We got off the elevator and walked to the room without speaking. I tried to use the silence to think about the possible reasons for his deception. He had several opportunities to tell me. Fuck, I was so mad that I didn’t want to hear anything he had to say.

  I spun around, looked him right in the face, and said, “I can’t do this right now. You have to go. I’m sorry, but I’m too mad to even speak. And I don’t want to say something I’ll regret, so whatever your reasons for deceiving me were, telling me tomorrow won’t hurt. Right now I could kick you in the balls and get on a plane back home. So give me time.”

  “Holly,” he pleaded. I raised my hand to stop him because there wasn’t anything he could say right now.

  “Listen, I won’t leave until we talk, but I am going to tell you that I don’t know what’s going to happen. I gave you something special last night and today, I am trying to deal with the fact that I shouldn’t be regretting it.”

  “Please don’t regret it.” He took my hand and raised it to his lips. “I’m going to give you the time you need, but I won’t be far. You have my number. Ring me when you are ready. I will be waiting.” He turned around and left as I walked into the room. I pressed my kissed hand to my lips, wishing I hadn’t sent him away, but I had to stand my ground.

  Now, what to do. A nap. I climbed into the bed, crying myself to sleep.

  Chapter 8

  Gavin

  “Oh no, what are you doing here?” I griped, seeing my mother and grandmother stepping out of their car. I looked over to their driver, who should get a medal for dealing with these two ninnies.

  “Is that any way to greet your mum?” my mother said, walking right past me as I turned the key in my flat.

  “Sorry, Mum,” I muttered, waiting for the little old bat coming up my steps. “Grandmother, I see that you have trailed along.”

  At five feet tall, she reached up and squeezed my cheeks. “Well of course, cheeky boy. You seem to have been carrying on with a young lady and may have forgotten to mention it. Can’t imagine why.” She smirked deviously. They knew very well why I never dated. They deemed them unworthy.

  “Because you both are going to try to make me dump her,” I reminded the two dingy-birds.

  “We did nothing of the sort before,” my mother exclaimed, pressing her hand to her chest as if she was mortified. They should have joined the theatre. They would have won many BAFTA awards.

  “Wow, that’s a crock of shit,” I challenged. They weren’t going to get in the way of Holly and me.

  “Watch your mouth, Gavin,” my mother warned me.

  “I’m not giving her up no matter what you two try,” I told them, giving my grandma a warning glare.

  My mother smiled hard. “She must be important. The others you walked away from without so much as a peep from us.” Starting a pot of coffee, my mother turned with an overly smug expression. “Do we need to remind you that you thought they wouldn’t fit in your world before we said it?”

  Her tag team partner added with a bit of cheek, “We can’t help that you never cared for these women enough to fight for them. They were trollops anyway.” She waved off the possible relationships.

  “I didn’t get a chance to see,” I argued. I never managed more than a regular date or two at a social function.

  “Gavin, you’re a grown man, or so you claim.” My grandmother sauntered over to the table and chair, taking a seat like a queen. With a dismissive wave of her hand, she added, “You can be with whoever you wish, whether we approve or not. Speaking of, where is the American slapper
we saw on the telly.”

  “Mother, please control her.”

  My mother patted my cheek as if I was still five. “Dear boy, when will you learn that the old bat will never be tamed? I fear you may have to come to terms that she’s unmanageable, like a squirrel in your pants.”

  “Well—where is she?” Grandma asked, her overly made up eyes searching, looking toward the next room, hoping to find Holly hiding.

  “At her hotel.” I took out three cups and poured the coffee for us. They may annoy me, but they were my family.

  “And you are here? Is something amiss?” my mum questioned.

  Setting down the coffee on the table in front of Grandma, I took a seat. “Yes. She learned that I’m a lord and not coffee shop employee and is most put out with me.”

  “When did you tell her?” Mum asked me.

  “I didn’t. The press did.”

  “Oh no, poor boy. You may have cocked it up all on your own, didn’t you?” Damn it, the old bat enjoyed being cheeky.

  “I meant to tell her,” I explained.

  “Bloody hell, meant? Pure rubbish. You’re descended from peerage. You are now a lord even if you’re not in the House. They’re pompous twats anyway. You should have introduced yourself as Lord Gavin Thaddeus James Daniels, you have a nice pair of baps.” Heavens, hearing her speak of a woman’s breasts only tightened the knot in my gut, urging me to retch.

  “Mum?” I asked for some assistance.

  “Oh Mother, please leave him be. He doesn’t need to be hearing about baps and all that nonsense. He needs to be respectable. My poor Gavin actually cares for her.”

  “The boy has gone arse over tit and yet you’re still sitting here talking to old biddies. What ya here for?” she tossed out.

  “Because she asked me to leave her be.” I ran my hands through my hair, wishing to kick my own arse.

  “Young blokes all around London. And from the brief shot of her, she’ll get lots of attention from them.” I was up from my seat.

  “Go, we’ll lock up. Go get your Yank and we expect to see her at Christmas.”

  “She plans to go back in less than a week.”

  “Well, that doesn’t sound like someone enamored with a woman.”

  “I didn’t say she was going. She’s just supposed to.”

  “Well, if she’s got family back home, drag them here. They can’t be as bad as this one,” my mum added. I kissed them both on their cheeks and bolted out of the door and down to my waiting car. Holmes knew me too well.

  We were back in Covent Garden and her hotel. I entered the hotel, but rang her room to no answer. “Hello, Lord Daniels,” David, a bellhop, said. I nodded in acknowledgement. “Ms. Carlson stepped out. She hopped into a cab.”

  “She didn’t happen to say where she was off to, did she?”

  “To see the tree,” he answered with a grin. Of course, he must have seen the report as well. Bloody chits causing chaos. I rushed back into the car. “Trafalgar Square, Holmes.”

  “Yes, sir.” We made it to the square within minutes, even with the late afternoon traffic.

  Holmes let me out of the car, and I rushed to where we kissed. She wasn’t there. A disheartening feeling came over me. Then, I turned to see her with none other than the two wicked witches. I dashed over there to stop the madness.

  Chapter 9

  Holly

  I was getting over my nutty, virgin-no more attitude. It was serious to me that he lied by omission, but the more I thought about it, I wondered if he had a good reason. Being judged by his status instead of his character must be hard. Taking a rational breath, I decided to get some air and think things through.

  I washed my face and braided my hair. I looked cute, but it wouldn’t be enough. If any of those gossipy bitches saw me, I had to look extra. I added eyeshadow, liner, mascara, and a twelve-hour lipstick that was a dark red. Looking in the mirror, I wasn’t over done at all, but I hated wearing makeup, so this was the best it would get. Fuck them, at least I didn’t bite off Cyndi Lauper’s style.

  When I stepped into the lobby, I thought I would run into a bunch of press people, but thankfully I didn’t. The nice hotel guy lent me a hand and got me a cab. Everyone was so friendly to me that I was going to hate leaving. As soon as I got to the square where Gavin kissed me, my mother called.

  “Hey, Mom.” I moved to a side where it was still pretty empty and sat on the bench. I didn’t like when people were on their phones in public having loud conversations. It was rude to me, but I always took my mom’s calls. She was my best friend.

  “How’s it going in London?” she asked. If she didn’t have to work, she would have been here. She taught fifth grade and they didn’t get out until three days before Christmas. It was lousy, but hey, she wasn’t big on traveling anyway.

  “It’s going well,” I lied spectacularly. I missed Gavin and hated that I was in this position.

  “Have you seen everything already?” she asked, taking me out of my thoughts.

  Even though she couldn’t have seen the reports, I blushed over the phone. “No, I got here a little late yesterday and time just flew by.”

  “Well, I’m off to work. I can’t wait to see you next week for Christmas.”

  “Have a great day, be safe,” I said.

  “Love you.” I missed my mom.

  “Love you back,” I answered, hanging up the phone to see two well-dressed women standing in front of me. Neither of them were smiling.

  “Sorry, was I too loud on the phone?”

  “What a slag,” said an older woman who was still beautiful, but her makeup was a bit excessive. The other woman nodded in agreement.

  “Excuse me?” A slag?

  “You stay away from my son.” Oh, that explained it all.

  “So, slag is some comment about being not wealthy enough for people like you.”

  “No, it means you’re a whore.”

  “Wow, that’s a bit much, Mum.”

  “Okay, you must be mistaking me for someone else.”

  “No we are not. You were on the telly,” the old broad said.

  “So your Gavin’s family. He said you were a bunch of nuts, but he didn’t say you were brutally mean.”

  “Mean? You tell someone you love them while leading my boy on.”

  “Yeah, my mother. But fuck if I knew that was a bad thing. Is that how it is here? Be a cunt to your mother?”

  “Mother, what a cock up.”

  “We’re a bunch of spanners, aren’t we?”

  “That we are. I’m sorry for going barmy on ya. It’s just they say you have a bloke back home.”

  “Because I lied and said I did so they would leave me alone. I had no idea it’d bite me in the ass.”

  “A bite on the ass can be pleasant,” the older woman said with a wink. The woman was a firecracker for sure. She looked elegant, but had the mouth of a crass broad. Now I understood what he meant about his family.

  “Mother,” Gavin’s mother implored.

  I couldn’t hold back the laugh. It was too much. This woman was a nut and then some.

  “Mother,” Gavin muttered, standing between us. He spun around to me and said, “I truly apologize for them.”

  “You should be apologizing to her for your cock up.”

  “Mum, we must be going. Gavin, Holly, I apologize. Mother and I will be doing some Crimble shopping. I’m Caroline and this is my mother, Elizabeth.”

  “Hello,” I responded. I really didn’t know what to say because I was just harassed, insulted, and apologized to, by two overly flamboyant women.

  “We’ll be seeing both you at Christmas.”

  “I’m going back home this week.”

  “Oh, please, darling. I highly doubt that,” his grandmother said, smiling and patting my arm. “It’s adorable that you think so.” She winked and strutted away. “Come on, dosser,” she said, calling Gavin’s mom.

  Gavin turned to me and I already forgave him. His eyes, bright and g
lossy from the cold, stared into mine. He closed the distance with his hands cupping my chilled face. “Holly, I didn’t start this off the way I should have. Frankly, I was a total tosser, but I promise that I’ll make it better. I promise that if you want I’ll put those two birds in an asylum where they belong,” he said.

  “Those other women were weak, if they were scared by those two old crazy cat ladies.”

  “As it happens, I agree. But those others never mattered. For you, I’d do anything.”

  “Gavin, you’re amazing, but…”

  “Don’t do that. Don’t say that this won’t work. I can already see the cogs turning in your head. I am not going to let an ocean separate us,”

  “I can’t stay. I’ve got one semester left and I’ve worked very hard to make it.”

  “We’ll work it out, I promise. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I hear.”

  “Okay,” I answered.

  “So tell me what is it that you do? Are you lords just naturally rich and don’t work or what?”

  “I own my own security tech company. I create security systems and the hardware that goes with them. Most lords are in name only. I have the title, but I am not a part of Parliament or anything. It was passed down through my family from my mother’s father to me. It helped me in social circles, but my family happens to be one of the wealthiest in the country.”

  “Are there any more secrets?” I asked him, my brows raised and my lips pouty.

  “Nope. I wish I told you from the start, but it wasn’t that easy.”

  “I get it. It was nice to be normal for a change.”

  “Yes, and I was afraid you’d run. You were so skittish before our time out that I thought you would run out of the shop screaming for a bobby.”

  “Goodness, I have to get used to some of the phrases. I was thinking, ‘Who’s Bobby?’”

  “I suppose that is something to get used to because I’m not letting go that easily. In fact, not at all,” he finished that last part in a hushed voice. I smiled and like that we were back where we left off. Kissing in the middle of Trafalgar Square with probably a few onlookers.