Nicole

"Wait what?! He ran into the ocean?!" Diane furrowed her brows while she looked at me, hoping a different answer than the real one would come out of my mouth. 

My best friend and I were spending our Saturday night at her place like we usually do - drinking margaritas, watching a movie, and talking - only this time the movie that we chose for the night was being totally ignored by the both of us since the topic of our conversation was my current situation with Matt.

"Yep. A fucking doctor had to check him up after the coast guard helped him out!"

She couldn't believe the scenery that replayed in my mind over and over again as I explained her how everything went down, her mouth was literally agape and her eyes wide open.

Not a very common look for Diane.

"That's ridiculous!"

"You're telling me! I felt so humiliated and embarrassed but at the same time I was so worried about him. You should have seen him when they pulled him out, he was literally purple. Not exaggerating."

She took a sip of her drink before she turned to her side to put the triangle shaped glass on the table next to the couch. 

After going back to her initial position and facing me she sighed and started with the I told you so speech I knew she had prepared for me since the moment I told her me and Matt were dating, three years ago. 

"Nic, I don't mean to be all cliche and be a bore to you and I don't mean to tell you something you probably already know but... I told you so." 

Here we go, I thought.

 "I know this is the last thing you want to hear right now but you know I love being right and once more, I was, I am." She threw her humor at me and I threw a pillow at her that she easily caught with her hands. "What did I tell you when you told me you and Matthew were dating?"

"You told me it would never work out."

"And why did I say that?" I rolled my eyes, knowing the answer all too well, especially now.

"Because Matt and I are two very different people."

She assertively nodded her head. "I rest my case."

She was right. She always was, that was true. And now, the one time I followed my heart and ignored her take on the relationship, she was right again and I was left with a broken heart.

I was lost in thought while nursing the rest of my margarita, twirling the base of the glass in my fingers. 

"What about us?" I asked, my voice implying my doubts.

"What about us?" She looked confused to say the least, not sure where I was going with the conversation.

"We could not be more different!" I stated matter of factly.

She let out a small laugh and explained herself, again. That's who she was, she always made it look like she had the theories for everything.

"We're best friends! It works well for us that we're different, it's why we are so close. When it comes to guys, although I am a big believer that opposites attract, I just doesn't work that well in a relationship."

I was processing everything she said, thinking she was indeed right, when she interrupted my thoughts.

"You wanna know what I think?"

"What?" I said with a fake smile, knowing the best I could do at this point is exactly listen to her. After all she knows me since we were little kids, she knows me probably better than I know myself. 

"I think you should use your current situation, your hurt, your heartbreak, everything you're feeling right now to focus on your book. Like Taylor Swift does with her songs."

I laughed as her words registered in my brain. "My book? God, Diane, I don't even know if they're gonna like it and publish it."

"But you know they're gonna read it. And that means something. They have editors, they have people who will help you go places, trust me."

"That's a really pretty picture you're painting but... I can't just stop working." One of the benefits from working with my best friend was that anytime the work got a little pacific, so to speak, (which was almost never), I waltzed my fingertips on the keyboard and wrote every time I had the chance. "I need to pay my bills or else I'll end up living under the Golden Gate bridge." I stated before getting up from the couch to get the large glass water pitcher we had used to put the margarita mix.

One glass was never enough for a whole Saturday night for the two of us, and this conversation required multiple refills.

"I need my job. Plus where the hell am I going to find a boss that's the best girl alive aka my best friend aka you?" I questioned with a knowing grin. At least this night was making me feel a little better. 

"You're right, no boss can't compare to me, I am a pretty good one." She replied with a smile as bright as her blue eyes and blonde hair. 

Diane was an actual version of the sun, if that was possible. She was always, and I mean always glowing, always carried a bright smile on her round face, eyes the color of the blue skies, her blonde hair was her baby, she took care of it better than some mothers take care of their children and therefore, the below the shoulders length hair was always on point.

"But... what's exactly stopping you from writing it? You've been working on it for how long? Two years?"

"A year and half." I corrected as I contently made way back to the couch with my filled glass. "It's... I don't know what it is, really. I've got the whole idea in my head but all the details about the city and the way people live there, you know the small but important details I need for the characters, are really throwing me off."

"Don't you do research?"

"I do my research but still, I feel like there's a void in the story itself, it's too... superficial when it comes to that. I should be giving the reader more information."

Diane seemed be to lost in thought when I turned to her for attention. "Hey, Lady Di, are you listening to anything I'm saying?"

"What if you go to London?" She blurted out the question with a mischievous smile. My face must have given everything away and she didn't waste a moment in explaining her genius idea to me. 

"Think about it - you move to London for a couple of months, you do your research on the actual city - every good writer does that-," She added before continuing her line of thought. "You finish your book, come back here and present your final and complete draft to the publishing editors."

I chuckle at her suggestion, still trying to grasp the concept of it all. It sure sounded great, but I can't eat and drink air while I'm there. Plus, from my very unproductive research for my book I read that rents in London are hella expensive. 

Isn't it so ironic that I broke up with a guy who was consumed by money and now, money was my biggest problem? I carefully chose to keep that one to myself. 

"Diane, I can't move across the Atlantic with just my savings, I need a steady income to support me over there. You know, London is expensive." I protested, that feeling of disappointment and sadness rushing over me, knowing all too well that what the girl sitting next to me was suggesting was a pretty damn good idea, but it was still something I couldn't do, at least not now. 

And the more I thought about the not now part, the more I thought about how far this dream of mine is from my reach.

"You take two months off at the firm, that's done. I pay you your Christmas bonus in advance, also done. Then you just find a small flat like they say over there, get a part time job as a waitress or something and it'll be enough for you to get by for the two months you'll stay there."

This girl always had a way to make the hardest things sound like the biggest piece of cake, most of the times that's how she always convinced me to do something, and this time was no exception, especially with the help of the alcohol running through my system. 

"Okay, I think I can do that."

"Yay! See? I got the best ideas. You're gonna get over Matt faster than you can blink, this is gonna be so good for you, trust me." She said with a smile before she drank the rest of the drink left in her glass. "And I'm always right!" She added while raising her finger at me before the two of us bursted out laughing out loud, unable to stop.

 "Alright, so... Karaoke?" She asked with the TV remote in her hand, still trying to catch her breath after we spent so long laughing until our stomach hurt.

I found myself in the same situation and I couldn't think of a better way to spend my Saturday night, just after I broke up with the guy I thought was it for me.

"Yes, please!" I answered with an accepting nod and smile.

 * * *

My parents still lived at the house I grew up, in Malibu, near Los Angeles, with the fantastic view of the beach in our line of sight and the sound of the waves crashing and the seagulls calling out of each other from six o'clock in the morning until nearly ten P.M. 

I loved that place and I loved that house but both my (ex) boyfriend and my best friend called me out to go to San Francisco, so I did and at twenty one years old I was officially an English major working for Diane at her firm and sharing an apartment with Matt who was working on a tech company in the Silicon Valley.

But that familiar white house that after all these years still had the smell of my childhood encrusted in its walls held my parents in it and it was my one, true home, and that was exactly where I was heading back from now. Yep, a ten hour drive total, back and forth to my parents was all I needed to do before embarking on this adventure that, after sobering up seems to be crazier than I probably should have agreed to. 

After two exhausting weeks of flight research (and house hunting!) I realized something - turns out a flight from LAX seemed to be always more expensive than one from the San Francisco Airport, so I chose to go over to my parents for a few days to tell them the news and say my goodbyes to them.

I kept hearing their worried voices in my mind as I drove back to my small apartment in San Fran the day before my flight to London.

"London? But that's... in England!" My father said, as if he only came to that conclusion now, at fifty three years old. I laughed alone in the car, ignoring the sound of the music that my playlist was playing. 

"Are you sure?" My mom asked, concern written all over her face.

If I was being honest, I was just as concerned. Moving to a different city, in Europe, all by myself for a few months was scary, it was a risk but then I thought about being twenty four years old and not ever having really jumped into an adventure by myself.

If I wasn't living life now, when would I?

I put all my concerns aside - or at least, I tried to - and with my fingers I rolled the sound controller of the car to the side, turning up the volume of a song I didn't love but also didn't hate and took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for this new chapter that my life had waiting for me.

So, after an eighteen hour flight where I, somehow, managed to get some sleep, and a three hour layover at Lisbon Airport, I was touching down on the lands of her majesty the Queen. I was arriving in London, most precisely at Heathrow Airport that was - and I am not exaggerating when I say this - five times bigger than the one in Portugal. 

I thought about unfastening my seat belt once I felt the impact of the wheels hit the ground but decided to wait until it was the right time and took my time in my seat to admire the night sky of city of London. And no, it wasn't night time. I lifted up my arm to look at my clock (that I took the liberty to adjust to the London timezone while I was waiting for my second flight in Portugal) and it was nearly thirty minutes past five, local time. 

Yep, the pilot also confirmed it for me when he spoke into the plane to let the passengers know we had arrived. If I thought my clock had somehow stopped working, I could forget about that possibility. 

So... this means there will be no sunlight at eight or nine P.M.? What kind of nonsense is this? I thought, before a sudden feeling of regret was slowly starting to take over me until I was interrupted by the man who was seated next to me.

"You want me to get your bag down?" His accent told me he wasn't  from the US or the UK, but probably from some other European country, maybe even from Lisbon.

"Oh, um... Sure, yes." I politely replied with a smile and an accepting nod, trying my best to hide my fear of the unknown.

With my bag down on the isle next to me, and half the passengers slowly moving out of the aircraft, I did the same and a few moments later I found myself inside the airport, starring at the big yellow and bright  signs up above while following the directions that lead to Baggage Claim.

After waiting for my larger bag to come out on the rolling carousel of bags for nearly twenty minutes, I followed the directions to the tube - look at me sounding British already! - and in less than two minutes I was sitting on the small, individual seat of the carriage. 

In the London tube they have a designated space in most carriages that do the Heathrow station route for bags and strollers and all other objects that take up the place that's meant for people, and that was where I put my bags. 

According to the Google Maps' calculations this was going to be a rather long journey, having to take the Piccadilly line (blue) to the Leicester Square Station where I would change lines to catch another tube, this time it was going to be the Northern line (black) to my final destination, the Hampstead Station. So I took my time to take in the surroundings, to look out the window and see the houses, the lights, the people on their daily routine and station after station I was falling more and more in love with the city that in its simplest ways was becoming the love of my life.

 * * * 

Author's Note:

Hey sweeties! What did you think of this bonus update? And don't you just LOVE Diane? 💁‍♀️

I hope you liked this chappie and don't worry, the next chapter will be ready pretty soon! So stay tuned, follow me if you haven't, add this story to your reading list and don't miss the next chapter of this book! 💓

Also, I am from Lisbon and I didn't actually know that we held layovers from San Francisco at our (very very small) airport lol live and learn, am I right?

And I know I sound like a broken record but again, I ask you to vote, comment and share this story with whoever you want! 🙏

Xoxo, Mars