Unlikely Love: A Romance Single (8 page)

The hour passed by slowly, but Delilah managed to properly curl her hair, clip in her extensions, redo her makeup and put on a different outfit. She ditched the casual denim shorts and white vest in favor of a floaty summer dress. It was the only thing she'd packed that she knew wouldn't ride up her legs or show off her cleavage.

Outside of the hotel, she glanced up and down the street for Nolan, but he was nowhere to be seen. There were still a couple of minutes to go until the entire hour had passed. As she stood on the edge of the road waiting, she could feel the eyes of all the men staring at her, which only made her grateful for picking out an outfit with more coverage than she was used to. She made eye contact with one of the men on the motorbikes which were parked up on the side of the road, and she was sure she'd seen him somewhere before.

She looked down the road, before making eye contact again with the man, before remembering where she knew those hazel eyes from.

“Nolan?”

An amused smile spread from ear to ear as he pulled his helmet off. He ruffled his thick hair back off his face and confidently dismounted the small yellow bike.

“I wondered how long it would take you to spot me,” he winked, “I thought I'd be waiting for a lot longer.”

Delilah looked past him to the bike, where a pink helmet hung from the handlebar.

“No, no, no!” she laughed, taking a step back, “Not a chance!”

“Oh come on!” his voice was low and playful, “It's the best way to get around!”

His eye winked and he bit his lip softly, revealing his perfect teeth. How could she say no?

“This is crazy,” she mumbled taking a step towards him, “When you said sightseeing, I thought you meant we'd go into town, shopping or something.”

“Pfffft!” he screwed up his face, somehow still looking handsome, “How boring does that sound?”

He jumped back on the bike and tossed the pink helmet to her, which she had to leap forward to catch.

“This is going to mess up my hair,” she protested.

“Who are you trying to impress,” he winked again.

She didn't want to tell him that she'd spent most of that hour making sure she looked perfect in every way possible. Reluctantly, she gently placed the helmet over her head and clipped it under her chin. The metal clips of her fake hair dug into the sides of her head, making them itch.

“Let's get this over with,” she sighed, hitching up her dress to perch on the back of the seat.

With their bodies pressed closely together, she was surprised how much she liked the feeling. Reminding herself that it wasn't a date, she tried to edge backwards, making space between them. Clutching onto the bars next to the seat, she deeply inhaled Nolan's aftershave. Every time she noticed it, it made her insides twitch, and it smelt nicer with each breath.

“You might want to hold on,” he said.

“I am.”

“To me,” he laughed, “it might get a bit rough back there.”

“I'm fine,” she jumped in.

The thought of wrapping her arms around him was too much. She was still far too embarrassed at trying to kiss him to make such contact.

“You're not always right y'know,” he mumbled as he jump started the small bike.

The tiny engine roared into life, and soon they were bombing down the winding cobbled road at lightning speed. Delilah clung onto the handles with all of her might as they twisted and turned down alleys and pathways. With her eyes clenched shut, she didn't notice the locals blurring past.

“You can hold on, you know,” Nolan called through the breeze.

Delilah opened her eyes to see them hurtling up a steep road on the edge of what looked like a giant cliff. It only took one look over the edge for her arms to quickly slide around Nolan's firm stomach. The space between them vanished as she pressed herself firmly against him, clinging onto him like a life jacket.

Speeding towards their mysterious location, she could feel Nolan's solid abs tensing and relaxing every time they took a sharp corner. She didn't want to admit that it felt nice under her fingers.

They were soon driving down an almost empty dirt road next to a bright yellow sunflower field. Delilah had no idea that such places existed outside of postcards. The sky was bright blue and clear, the sun hung high in the sky and the sunflowers craned their necks to soak up the rays. It was almost perfect.

The bike suddenly slowed down, and they ground to a halt on the edge of the road. A cloud of dust cast around them as the tires ground against the dirt road.

“Why have we stopped?” Delilah asked, still clinging tightly around Nolan's waist.

“Because we're here,” Nolan laughed.

He gazed out to the field of yellow flowers, and Delilah followed. It looked like it spread out for miles and miles. There were no people, no houses and no cars. It was like they'd just climbed inside of a painting.

“I thought we were going sightseeing?” she was still shaken from the turbulent journey.

“Isn't this a sight?” he let out a long and content breath, which Delilah felt through her hands.

She had to agree, it was stunning, but she wasn't expecting such a place. She was expecting the kind of sightseeing she'd done on school trips, which consisted of looking at old stone buildings and wandering aimlessly around boring museums. She wasn't expecting an intimate slice of floral paradise.

“You can let go of me now,” Nolan glanced over his shoulder at her.

In a flash, she retracted her hands, almost embarrassed at how long she'd clung on to him after they'd stopped. She didn't even notice she was doing it.

He jumped off the bike and faced the field. Nolan was tall, but the sunflowers almost came up to his shoulders. Tearing off his helmet, he ruffled his hair messily. He didn't particularly try to style it, but it looked effortless. From his white shirt pocket, he retrieved his glasses.

“What are we doing here?” Delilah asked, taking off her own helmet.

She yanked the bike's mirror towards her trying to rescue her hair from the effects of the helmet. No matter how much she ruffled it, she couldn't get rid of the flat dent that covered the top part of her head. Her mascara had run from the wind and her skin was flushed and already starting to glisten. The vision of perfection she'd spent so long creating in the hotel was truly gone.

“C'mon,” Nolan turned and clapped his hands together, “get up!”

He walked back over to Delilah and almost yanked her off the bike. She watched as he pulled up the seat to reveal a secret compartment. From within it, he retrieved a small picnic hamper and a blanket.

The more time she spent on the non-date, the more it was starting to feel like a date. If she didn't know better, she would have been sure that Nolan was trying to romance her.

“Is that a picnic?” she asked casually.

“I thought we could do lunch,” he smiled softly at her, “and if you can find me a more beautiful place, I'll give you everything I own.”

She laughed for a moment before flicking her hair casually over her shoulder. They stood, smiling at each other awkwardly on the side of the road, before Nolan started to lead Delilah through the tall flowers.

The flowers were almost as tall as her, and from the moment she stepped into them, they swallowed her up. If it wasn't for Nolan following an invisible path, she was sure she wouldn't have been able to find her way back to the road through the dense stems. They walked for a couple of minutes before Nolan abruptly stopped, causing Delilah to bang into the back of him.

“Here will do,” he announced, dropping the picnic basket on the ground.

There was a tiny clearing, where it looked like someone had chopped down some of the flowers, but it didn't look big enough to fit both of them. She watched as he unfolded the blanket onto the ground and sat cross legged amongst the flowers. He beamed up at her, like an excited child, before patting on the blanket next to him for Delilah to join.

For a moment she wondered what the hell she was doing. If somebody had told her that she was going to have lunch with a journalist in the middle of a sunflower field, she wouldn't have believed it, but as she gazed down at Nolan's smiling face, it seemed more real than anything. She kicked off her gladiator sandals, hitched up her dress and joined Nolan on the red and white blanket. There was so little space, she felt as if she was about to sit on his knee as she slowly lowered herself down next to him.

“Does this get Miss White's approval?” his voice was low and cheeky.

She looked up at the bright yellow flowers as they swayed gently in the breeze. The path they'd walked through had completely disappeared, as if the flowers had swallowed them up for real. It was complete madness. Through the madness and bizarreness of the whole situation, Delilah could feel herself warming more and more to Nolan with every second they spent together. He thought outside of the box, and that intrigued her, more than anything had for a long time.

“This place is something,” she nodded.

“Only the best for a pop star,” he winked.

Hearing him refer to her as a pop star felt strange because since their talk on the balcony, she felt less like the pop star, and more like the teenage girl who left East London to jump on her first plane to LA.

“Is that how you see me?” she asked quietly, “As the '
pop star
'?

There was a hint of a smile but he was trying to suppress it. He looked deeply into Delilah's eyes as they sat across from each other, cross legged, with only a picnic basket between them.

“No,” he sounded serious.

“How do you see me?”

“How do you feel?”

Delilah didn't understand.

“Warm?” she fanned the top of her dress.

A quiet and deep laugh escaped Nolan, but he didn't break the eye contact.

“I mean, do you feel like a pop star?”

“I don't know,” she shrugged.

The thought of LA and her team felt like a distant memory all of a sudden and she didn't know why.

“You're much more than that. I can see that,” he smiled at her.

Delilah glanced down to the blanket. If she looked into his eyes any longer, she was sure she was going to start feeling things that she didn't want to. She thought back to how much she didn't like Nolan when they first met, but it only reminded her of the strange attraction she'd felt towards the man who dared to say no to her.

“What do you see?” she fiddled with a fallen leaf, still not looking at him.

“I see a young woman,” he said, “I see someone lost and confused.”

“I'm not lost,” Delilah jumped in.

“There's a sadness in your eyes Delilah, and I know you see it too when you look in the mirror. You can distract yourself with fancy clothes and you can hide behind that huge attitude of yours, but I can see through that.”

Delilah sat in silence for a moment, toying with the leaf until it crumbled under her heavy fingers. She hated how Nolan seemed to know everything about her, without even needing to ask. Nobody had ever been able to see through her so easily.

“How do you do that?” she laughed, “You're so deep.”

“I guess I'm good at reading people,” he shrugged heavily, “and I've seen that sadness before.”

“Where?”

“In myself.”

It suddenly struck Delilah that in all of the conversations they'd had, they'd only talked about her. Nolan had shared very little.

“Why are you sad?”

He laughed softly, and lowered his gaze to the picnic basket. His cheeky eyes suddenly looked dark and glassy.

“Well, I told you about my divorce?”

Delilah nodded.

“I didn't tell you why we split up.”

“Why?”

She was suddenly itching to know.

“She slept with my brother,” Nolan laughed.

It was a laugh that was trying to disguise sadness.

“Wow,” was all Delilah could say.

“I came home early from work one day to catch Stella and Mikey fucking like teenagers in my bed,” he laughed again, but it was even sadder.

“I'm over her now.”

“You don't sound over her,” Delilah spotted the jealousy in her own voice.

Nolan looked up past his dark brows and smirked at Delilah playfully. It did strange things to her, once again. The tiny hairs on the back of her arm stood to attention.

“Don't worry, I am,” he said quietly, “it's the betrayal I'm not over. I could cope with our marriage ending, but it was the lies and the sneaking around I couldn't handle.”

Delilah's stomach flipped, but it wasn't from the butterflies. A certain French model suddenly wandered into her mind. Was she betraying André by having lunch with another man?

“If there's one thing I hate, its people who cheat,” he said, as if to sink the knife in deeper.

Delilah thought again about André, but it wasn't André who she felt she was betraying, it was Nolan. She tried to smile at him, but her lips quivered. Her mind was racing, filled with confusion. The sunflowers seemed to close in around them, making her feel even more drawn to Nolan.