I'll be honest, when Leonard said secluded and nothing fancy, part of me still believed he would take me to some top secret restaurant, the ones where you go to a seemingly abandoned alley, knock on a hidden door with a bouncer opening a hatch, asking for a password - Yes, I know, I let my imagination run wild sometimes, thank you very much for the observation.

Except, when we finally exited the car, we weren't at some backway alley. Instead we had arrived at a street filled with food trucks and little market stalls. And people. It was still busy for the evening, but there weren't too many tourists around, it seemed. Everyone was minding their business, but Leonard had still put on a cap, pulled down heavily so most of his face was hidden from direct view. I wouldn't call this secluded though, and food trucks hardly left room for conversation as he had implied.

Leonard seemed to notice my puzzled expression and chuckled. He put his warm hand on my lower back and leaned down towards my height a little. It took all I had not to tense up or move away from him. Eyes on the price, Amelia, eyes on the price.

"We're not there yet, but we can't go on by car. It won't be too long a walk, I promise."

Tell that to my feet, you twat.

However, I didn't say that, no matter how much I wanted to. Instead, I smiled a little and nodded, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. When we started walking, I started severely cursing those bloody shoes. Walking in Louboutins, is pretty much the same as walking on pins and needles, I presume, not that I4ve tried the latter. Louboutins, in my opinion, were only justifiable to look pretty in a walk-in closet, or at an event that required only sitting down. Any other means for these shoes, or torture devices to be more accurate, were exactly that, pure torture. And don't get me started on that red sole! Walk around with them once, and poof, that precious, and expénsive, red sole is gone! You're better of buying some red nail polish and simple black heels at Primark and painting them red yourself! Your feet will thank you, I swear!

Leonard kept his hand on my lower back as we walked, gently guiding me as I had no idea where we were going exactly, and I was trying to mind my step as much as possible. He kept his pace slow, mindful of my poor choice of shoes, and shorter legs. He had even held me up once when I'd threatened to fall over because of a small gap between pavement stones. Yet, he hadn't uttered a word about them, for which I was grateful. I'd never have worn these shoes if I knew I was going to actually have to walk in them.

"So.. Care to inform me on where we're going exactly?" I finally tried to break the suspense.

"Nearly there, you'll see." he said, a smile ghosting the edges of his mouth.

I'm sure my eyebrows did some sort of dance between aggravation, surprise and apprehension. Deciding not to give him the satisfaction of begging or whining, I simply looked ahead, trying to figure out where we might be going. It surprised me how no one had noticed Leonard yet, I'd expected the cap to not do much. So at least he had been correct in picking out his location. We blended right in with the crowd, although our clothes might look a little bit too fancy.

Finally, when I was starting to contemplate on just taking off the damn death traps and going barefoot, Leonard guided me to a small pub-like establishment. I gawked at it, unsure of what to think. Never judge a book by its cover, but really, this didn't seem like the sort of place where we would be able to talk and get to know each other. Yet, I didn't say anything and simply smiled over at him.

"Just wait." he said, as if he could sense my doubt.

I bit my lip, I hadn't realised I had been quite obvious. I needed to work on my act, or this would never work.

We entered the small pub, but instead of taking a seat in the rowdy bar, he guided me towards the back, where the atmosphere was less heavy, with nice tables and seats. It was much more quiet, even though we were far from the only ones here. No one looked up to see the newcomers, for which I was thankful. I didn't want to face ten million fangirls the minute we walked outside. Leonard walked over to a table, seemingly knowing where to go and held out a seat for me.

Once I'd recovered, I smiled at him and made my way over to him, allowing him to offer me a seat. Consider the book not judged by its cover, I thought. Leonard walked around the table and sat down opposite me. It was a small table, and his knee was touching mine once he was seated properly. It irked me, but I couldn't move away without drawing any attention to us. I also didn't want him to think I wasn't interested, because then he wouldn't ask me out on a second date. No, I'd have to stay seated like this, and hope he would move at some point, so maybe I could move as well and for it to not be so obvious.

For now, I would have to get used to his jeans covered knee, rubbing against mine in a slightly rhythmic movement, although he probably didn't even realize it himself. I tried to focus on something else, but the contact was so distracting. It was sending jolts all throughout my body and it annoyed me even more that his touch still had such an effect on me.

A waitress soon made her way over to us and I noticed that she recognised Leonard, but paid him no mind otherwise. She wasn't fawning over him, nor was she giving me the stink eye for being here with "Leonard Cohen, famous popstar". I valued her professionality. Briefly I wondered if they were used to getting famous guests here. If his place was a well kept secret amongst the wealthy and famous. I glanced around the room, to see if I recognised any of the other guests, but most seemed regular people, like myself. Finally shaking the waitress' behavior of as plain professionalism, I noticed she was waiting for me to order.

"Oh!"

Embarrassed, I glanced down at the card and quickly ordered a coke, saying I needed more time to pick out what I wanted to eat.

When I dared to look up again, Leonard was looking at me with an amused smile on his face, one eyebrow slightly raised. I couldn't help but feel slightly offended that he was considering me entertainment, but I reminded myself that I needed to keep my cool.

"Sorry about that, I think I was just expecting some jealousy, I'm here after all with Britain's number one pop sensation. One third of it anyway." I said, kind of flirty, with a wink in the end.

His smile widened a little, but he shook his head, dismissing my words before speaking.

"Would you have been jealous, if she'd paid me more attention?"

He shot the ball back and left me looking like a fish for a few seconds. My mouth opened and closed again, only to repeat the process, but without any words leaving it. What was I supposed to reply to that!

"Maybe. Guess we'll never know"

I finally settled for the answer that was just the right amount of evasiveness, but also left him wondering.

He nodded, although the smile didn't disappear.

"Maybe I should bribe the waitress next time, to give me more attention and then we'll know."

I couldn't help the giggle that came out. Probably because his reply was something I could actually see him doing, but it was also a genuine fright reaction. Would I be jealous?

"Maybe you should." I said instead, smiling at him, seemingly shy. I wondered if I could blush on cue. That would be so helpful. Maybe if I thought of previous embarrassments?

After our banter, I realized I should probably choose what I wanted to eat, or the waitress would have to come back a third time.

"What's good here?" I looked up after scanning the menu for a while and found Leonard watching me already. I didn't have to try to blush on purpose this time. The heat that suddenly rushed to my face was all genuine. But it wasn't because I was shy or flattered, I was afraid he was beginning to realize who I was.

"Everything." he said after a while, when I thought he wasn't going to answer. "Do you eat meat?"

I nodded. Being a vegetarian or whatever might be cool and what not, but I loved a good piece of steak every once in a while. As long as I didn't have to think about the animals prancing around in a meadow beforehand. Call me a hypocrite, but I can only think of meat as meat, not as an animal that has lived and breathed, had parents and maybe even children. Oh look, I'm doing it again.

"I'd try the horse steak then. It's really good for a small establishment like this."

I nodded, trying to shake my mental images so I'd be able to eat once it was served.

"Sounds good! What are you ordering?"

"I think I'll get the same to be honest, I don't get to eat a decent horse steak that often."

I nodded, it seemed fair for him to suggest something he liked eating and picking it himself. No eating off each other's plates though. Not that I would want that of course, that's so cliché and only for real couples. I could only imagine how that would go, him trying to feed me. The thought nearly made me gag.

"So, how long until your next tour?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

"We're on a little break at the moment, trying to get some family time in, while working on some new stuff. We need the break to get our creativity levels back."

I opened my mouth to reply, when he continued.

"So I'll have a lot of time to spend with you."

Astonishment, that's the only proper word to describe how I felt. My mouth popped open, but luckily for me, I was saved from further embarrassment and having to answer his statement, because the waitress appeared at our table again.

"Have you been able to make a choice?"

"Yes!" I replied, a bit too forcefully, the effects of his statement, had clearly not subsided.

"I'll have the horse steak, well done, with a side of béarnaise sauce if you have that, and french fries please."

She jotted my order down, assuring me about the sauce and turned to Leonard, who pretended nothing had happened and order the same, as he had said before, but medium and with a different sauce.

The waitress turned and left us alone again, and I felt the need to grasp on to her, so I wouldn't have to deal with Leonard, but of course, I behaved and smiled at Leonard, who was now clearly waiting for an answer.

"Well well, aren't you the charmer."

I finally managed.

"I know what I want, and when I want something, I'll get it." he replied, without batting an eye or looking one bit insincere. But he was always good at that, he was a songwriter of course, they were good with words.

"Sure you do." I said, playing along, but not giving in so easily.

He reached across the table and grabbed my hand.

"I'm serious, Amelia. I would like to get to know you, there's just something about you, that I can't explain and I feel this overwhelming need to be near you. Will you let me?"

Without thinking, I heard myself saying:

"Yes."

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A/N: I wanted to add another flashback to their school years, but at nearly 2000 words, decided that the chapter was probably already fairly long. You'll learn more about how Leonard played Amelia in the next chapter.

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I'm trying to make Leonard a likeable guy, am I succeeding in that? Are you #teamlennie or #teamamelia

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