"The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, we ever quite wish to." Dodie Smith

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XVII. Good Chat

"Did you take a taxi out here?" Sophie asked as she turned her head down the street, looking out for a black cab.

"I did, but I was nearly late with how long it took to drive out," mused Noah. "Thought I'd ask for those subway lessons early."

Sophie grinned. The tube was so much easier. They walked together, chatting, to Gunnersbury Station. Sophie enjoyed the ease of their conversation, liking that they could chat about something as menial as movie genre tastes when only yesterday she had been blubbering in front of him.

"You like romantic comedies?" Sophie asked in disbelief.

"Don't you?" Noah countered.

"Well, yes, of course. But I've never met a man brave enough to admit to liking them."

"Well, perhaps I'm more secure in my masculinity then," Noah joked. "Some of my favourite film scores are from romantic comedies."

"The music makes you feel warm and fuzzy, does it?" Sophie smirked.

"Yep," Noah replied confidently as they walked inside the station.

Sophie led Noah over to the tube map and watched in amusement as Noah's eyes widened in shock. She could understand how the tube might seem overwhelming to tourists.

"What the hell?" he gasped. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is supposed to be easy, right?"

Sophie laughed. "It is. Look, see here," she pointed to Gunnersbury. "We are here. And where are we going?" she asked. It occurred to her that she didn't actually know which hotel Noah was staying at.

"The Savoy," he replied.

Sophie sucked in a breath that got stuck in the back of her throat, forcing her to cough. Oh dear, what luck. Not only was the Savoy one of the most expensive hotels in the city, it was also where her parents used to take her for High Tea when she was a child. Her memories of that place were filled with lectures about table manners and posture.

"Alright, well, I suppose we would get off at Covent Garden." Sophie pointed to Covent Garden Station. "The train lines are all colour coded. We are on this line here." Sophie ran her finger along the green line. "This is the District Line. Covent Garden is on the Piccadilly Line."

"Do we need to go to a different station?" Noah asked.

"No, you see these little white bridges?" Sophie showed him the symbol. "That means it's an interchange station. We can switch trains at South Kensington, and we'll be taken to Covent Garden."

Sophie could see that Noah really had no idea what she was talking about, but she loved that he was listening. "Come on, I'll have you travelling like a true Londoner in no time."

Sophie helped Noah to buy an Oyster card and then took him onto the train for the first time. It was quite busy for a Sunday, and so they both had to stand, but it only made for several opportunities to spontaneously grab hold of the other as the train jolted and moved. Every tough made Sophie blush, and smile like a teenager with a big crush.

They passed the time by continuing to get to know each other's random little interests.

"Last song you listened to?" Noah asked curiously.

Sophie smirked, thinking that he would like her answer. She pulled out her phone and tapped her music library. She was halfway through a song. She spun her phone around to show him the screen, and a wide grin spread across his face.

"My song?" he remarked, raising his eyebrows. "Well, I can't criticise your taste. That is an excellent choice." He winked.

It was part of his score from his Oscar win. "I actually went to the pictures to see Forces when it came out," she revealed. "I thought it was very good."

"Made only better by my exceptional prowess on the piano," he boasted comically. He laughed at himself. "No, I joke, but I am very proud of what I achieved with that film. I wrote it while I was in college. Took my first trip to LA to conduct an orchestra as a kid who was half the age of every other musician there." He smiled again. "I've got the same feeling about this score now, the one I'm working on."

Sophie's eyes widened. "You think you'll win for this one?"

Noah shrugged. "I don't know. I can hope, and I know when something I've written is good."

Goodness, Sophie wondered what that must be like.

***

Sophie showed Noah how to switch train lines, and they arrived at Covent Garden Station within the hour. He seemed to recognise his surroundings a bit more from there, and they walked together towards Noah's hotel.

"Does your mum know you are going out with me today?" Sophie asked curiously.

"God, no," he chuckled. "If she did, she'd be on FaceTime trying to watch us or something, sticking her nose in and screaming at me to pull out your chair."

"Oh, dear, I shall have to dob you in if you do not pull out my chair then," Sophie teased.

Sophie felt a little tense as they approached the hotel. Visions of her parents hissing at her, criticising her, threatening her with punishment filled her head. They would never reprimand her in public. They would never be anything other than perfect in public, but their harsh discipline was enough to quieten Sophie into never making a peep while dining in such a place.

"Sophie, are you okay?" Noah suddenly asked, rounding on her.

They were only about fifty feet from the hotel's entrance. Perhaps Sophie's hand had become too sweaty and he'd noticed.

"Yes, of course," Sophie said flippantly.

Noah arched an eyebrow.

Sophie sighed. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely. "I just used to come here with my mum and dad when I was younger."

Noah seemed to read between the lines, and he nodded. "There's a Costa Coffee around the corner. Come on," he urged.

***

"My dad was never around, never home, and when he was, he was viciously unpleasant and cold," Sophie explained as she sipped her tea.

They were seated within the little Costa on a wooden table in the corner. Noah was drinking an overly complicated coffee, while Sophie had been brought a little teapot. They had ordered one of every pastry and cake in the display and were quite content eating their weights in sugar.

"I grew up in a beautiful home in perhaps the richest suburb in London. I went to the most prestigious private schools and had every door there was opened for me if I ... if I did and said whatever my mum and dad wanted," Sophie continued. "My mum is obsessed with image. Hers, my fathers, and mine, once upon a time. You can imagine, I'm sure, their reactions when I told them my idiot boyfriend of five minutes had gotten me pregnant."

Noah listened. He kept eye contact with Sophie, his brow deepening with every poor rich girl detail she revealed.

"I left home, I got myself the only flat that I could afford, and I found a job at Pete's. He took me under his wing, fudged the paperwork a little seeing as I was still a few months shy of turning eighteen. It's been hard. God knows it's been hard," Sophie voice cracked. "But there have been so many more highs when I've had four pounds to my name, than when I seemingly had everything." Sophie felt her eyes water. "Oh, Jesus. I need to get my tear ducts glued shut or something." She fanned her face with her hands and looked up, trying to dry her eyes.

"Your eyes get a little lighter when you well up," Noah observed. "Almost a gold tinge to the normal brown. It's really beautiful."

"Stop it," Sophie demanded. "You can't make me start as well!" She quickly fished one of the napkins out of the dispenser and dried her eyes.

Noah chuckled. "Okay, you want to laugh?" he asked, raising his eyebrows. "My mom asked out and paid my prom date in senior year." He held up his hands. "No word of a lie."

Sophie didn't mean to, but she snorted as she tried to stifle a giggle. "What?" she asked in disbelief.

"I hadn't asked anyone because I really wasn't planning on going. But my mom had it in her head that she wanted a picture of Tally and me going to our prom. It's a twin thing. Apparently, we can't be photographed by ourselves." He shook his head. "So, she went up to a girl that she deemed good enough after school one day, asked her out, and paid her twenty bucks to go out with me."

"All for a picture?" Sophie smirked.

"All for that picture. It's still hanging up in my parent's house next to Haley and Casey's prom pictures."

"Your mum really does sound like bundles of fun," promised Sophie.

Noah exhaled. "I know I'm lucky. As much as she kills me sometimes, she has the best heart, and she would do anything for anybody." He smiled at her. "You ought to be really proud of yourself, Sophie. Really proud. I've thought you were a good mom from pretty soon after I met you, but you really have become an even better one despite the crappy hand you were dealt when it came to the lottery of moms and dads."

That really did mean a lot to Sophie coming from someone else. "I often feel like I'm a shit mum," she said honestly. "It's hard to feel like you're doing anything positive sometimes." Especially when a child struggled like Maddie did.

"Have you ever given up on Maddie?" Noah asked bluntly.

"No," Sophie said vehemently.

"Then you're not a shit mom," he promised her.

"You've honestly made me feel less shit in these last few weeks than I have in months," Sophie said croakily. "What you've done for Maddie I will forever be grateful for."

"It's been my pleasure." Noah smiled warmly at Sophie, and reached across the table for her hand, which had been resting on the side of her teacup.

Sophie linked her fingers with him and breathed easily at the calm that spread over her. "Tell me more about your family. I don't want you to see me cry for the seventeenth time this week. I liked that prom story," she teased.

"Oh, trust me, there's plenty more of Joy where that came from," he assured her knowingly. "Well, where to start? I grew up in Napa, that's northern California. Wine country. My dad's family have owned Bentley Grange for four generations. That's what my dad does, and my oldest sister now. My dad is a winemaker, and my sister, Haley, runs the business side of things. She's got an MBA and is smarter than everyone.

"Haley was definitely our second mom at times, but I do look up to her. She's sensible and responsible, and she is the person I would go to if ever something was really wrong. She has been dating a guy named Mark for about seven years or so. He's in the Marines. They're waiting for him to retire before they settle down.

"My middle sister, Casey, is hardly ever in the same place between phone calls. She's a photographer, and her job takes her all over the world. She words for National Geographic. She's very good at her job, and always has the best stories. She's in Peru at the moment and her assignment is finishing before Christmas so I'm looking forward to seeing her then. Casey is married to her job, and I can't see her ever settling down or having a family. She's very passionate and creative, and she loves travelling and adventure more than anything.

"And Tally, well, Tally is the reason why my mom knows about you." He rolled his eyes. "Tally is my twin, as you know. But she's also my best friend. I adore her, I trust her. She's got my back with the real things, and I probably wouldn't have gotten through my childhood without her kicking the ass of several bullies. I talk to Tally every day and it does feel really strange to be so far away from her.

"I live with Tally and her girlfriend, Vanessa. Vanessa, as well, is a very close friend of mine. She'd have to be to put up with me as a roommate." He chuckled. "I hope you get to meet Tally one day, because I know she'd love you. She'd probably help you to gang up on me." Noah winked.

Sophie smiled. "I hope I do." She really loved how affectionately Noah spoke about his sisters. She had always wanted siblings as a child and had envied several of her friends who had them. "I've never actually heard the name "Tally" before."

"It's a nickname," Noah explained. "She was Hallie for about a week when we were newborns, before Casey started calling her Tally and it stuck."

Sophie could just imagine a little toddler babbling as she attempted to say a new word. It reminded her of when Maddie was first learning to talk.

"Are you close with your dad?"

"I am." Noah nodded. "We weren't always. Not for a long time, actually. Uh ... you could say I wasn't exactly the son that he envisioned." He grimaced a little, and Sophie could see that this was a sore spot for him. "Only son with three girls, he was looking forward to ball games, me going out for varsity sports, bragging to his friends about however many touchdowns I was going to make. He even put a basketball court in our backyard the minute he found out that he was going to be having a son." Noah sighed. "Obviously that never happened. He took me down for peewee football when I was a kid, and I lasted ten minutes. He tried me in basketball, and in baseball. I hated everything, and ... well, for a long time my dad did give up on me."

Sophie's face fell as she took in that awful statement.

"I was into music. He wasn't. He didn't really have anything to say to me. He didn't know how to connect with me, and he stopped trying. Some of that's on me, too. I didn't try with him either." Noah's voice began to sound very raw, and Sophie wondered if he'd ever told anyone this before. "We could go weeks, really, with barely more than a passing greeting."

Sophie, who was still holding his hand, squeezed it in comfort.

His eyes had dropped, but he lifted them back up to her. He smiled reassuringly. "I definitely can empathise with you, Sophie. I know what it's like to feel like a complete disappointment to a parent. I wasn't what my dad wanted, and for about fifteen years, if there was a return to sender option, I honestly thought my dad would take it, and order a new son who wanted to go outside and throw a damn ball."

"How did you fix it?" Sophie wondered.

Noah smiled at the memory, and a lot of the sadness left his shoulders. "I came home from school one day. I think I was about sixteen or seventeen. I went into my bedroom, and on my bed was a brand-new acoustic guitar," he recalled. "There was a note on top telling me to bring the guitar out to the basketball court. So, I did. And I found my dad outside with a guitar of his own." His smile grew. "He'd been taking lessons. And we played together for the first time on that basketball court. Not the game my dad envisioned for us, but we played together. And we've been playing ever since."

Sophie gasped as her heart swelled in her chest. Just like that, Noah had gained a relationship with his dad. "Oh, for God's sake," she squeaked, seizing another napkin. "I thought you were going to make me laugh." Sophie wiped her eyes.

Noah chuckled. "Alright then, let's circle back to Joy." He thought for a moment. "When I was five, she dressed me up as her fourth daughter Noeline, to win a Mommy and Me, Mother Daughter beauty pageant as I was the only one of her kids who had a showcase-able talent. We won."

Sophie all but snorted tea from her nose as she burst into a fit of laughter.

"Yes, I know," Noah said dryly. "I should really bill her for all the therapy I need," he joked. "Um, what else? When I was twelve, she tested her new box dye peroxide on me, and paid me ten bucks for it, and I spent the next month being called "Slim Shady" before it finally grew out enough for me to cut it off."

Sophie continued to try to stop herself from laughing uncontrollably.

His face softened, before continuing softly, "She put a band-aid on every little scratch I asked her to. I never went to school without my favourite lunch. She was front row at every single performance I ever gave. She never made me feel weird or different, but special and talented. We tease her and make fun of her, but Goddamn am I grateful for her."

Sophie and Noah spent the rest of the morning exchanging stories, and simply getting to know what events had led them being exactly where they were on that day.

Sophie found the way that Noah spoke about the people who were important to him one of the most attractive things about him. His people were his grounding force, and he loved and adored them.

The second thing that she found really attractive about him was, aside from Sophie bringing up his music on the train, he didn't at all feel the need to talk about his success or his fame for want of a better word.

They were discussing what parts of their lives had shaped themselves, and Noah's thoughts went solely to his family.

It was really decent of him, Sophie thought.

The third thing was, perhaps, that the more he spoke of his love for his family, the more handsome he became to her. He already looked terribly good looking in his smart attire, but he had a certain smile, and a certain look in his eyes, when he spoke about his family.

They ate as much as they possibly could as they talked, and Sophie knew she was in for a crash after so much sugar. They both ordered another hot drink and were all but rolling out of the Costa around lunch time.

"Do you want to do something really cliché and tourist-y?" Noah asked her as they stood out on the street.

"Absolutely," Sophie agreed.

"How do you feel about the London Eye?" Noah shielded his eyes from the spontaneous sunshine as he looked to wonder which was to go.

Sophie took Noah's unsuspecting moment and stood up on her toes, gently pressing her lips to his. She pulled away after only a few seconds, and said breathlessly, "The London Eye it is."

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Hope you enjoyed it! 

I'm doing my best to get two chapters up a weekend because I can't update during the week!

I hope you are all safe and well. 

Vote and comment xxx