I’m going to kiss Grayson,she told herself.Well, first I’ll explain what happened with Riggs and then, if he’s OK with it, I’ll kiss him. And if all goes well, I’m going to tell him. I’m going to tell him about me and what I see. If he runs a mile, it wasn’t meant to be but that’s OK. This is good. This is the start of a new chapter. A new me. I need this. This is good. This is good. This is good.
The theatre was beginning to let people in and was heaving with excitement. Four front-of-house staff stood either side of the main entrance, checking everyone’s tickets.
‘Excuse me!’ A huge burst of adrenaline overcame Lorelai and pushed her forward. She leaned over the rope where ticket holders were queuing, the front most woman giving her a very pronounced tut. A staff member politely stepped forward to speak to her. ‘A Grayson Brady doesn’t happen to work here, does he?’
‘No, sorry, love.’ The woman shook her head, her ponytail swinging from side to side. Hope crumbled away.
‘OK. No worries.’ Lorelai knew it had been a long shot but she really had hoped that he’d be at the first theatre she tried. It would’ve meant that fate or destiny or stars were aligning for a perfect movie moment.
‘Do you know Grayson?’ the woman asked. The glimmer of hope restored itself back into Lorelai’s heart.
‘Doyouknow Grayson?!’ Lorelai asked eagerly, and the woman laughed.
‘Yes, I do. Not well, but some of these guys—’ she gestured around at her colleagues ‘—they know him so we’ve all ended up at drinks together before. He works at The Palace.’
‘Buckingham…?’ Lorelai said it without thinking.
The woman cackled. ‘No, The Palace Theatre. End of Shaftesbury Avenue.’ Lorelai remembered now that Graysonhadtold her where he worked. ‘Keep walking that way and you won’t be able to miss it. But I’d hurry up because as soon as the show starts at seven-thirty he’ll be harder to find if you don’t have a ticket.’
‘Thank you!’ Lorelai called out, as she broke into a run.
Maintaining the run was virtually impossible, with eager theatregoers filling every inch of Shaftesbury Avenue. Lorelai had to keep stopping and starting and huffing and apologising and dodging and swerving. She moved as fast as the crowds allowed and was doing all she could to get a bit more momentum behind her. After what felt like an eternity, The Palace Theatre came into view and it was bigger and grander than she had ever realised.
Have I ever walked past this place before? I’m sure I would havenoticed,Lorelai thought, but in reality she probably wouldn’t have. She never took much interest in London’s architecture because she very rarely looked up. She would make a point of doing so now. The building was beautiful. Theatres, Lorelai realised, were beginning to look like London’s elderly relatives, wise and with hundreds of stories to tell.
The crowds deepened and Lorelai had to squeeze herself through to get close to the building. Finally, she was close enough to try to grab someone’s attention.
‘Excuse me!’ Lorelai waved madly at the man on the door taking tickets. ‘Hello! Yes! You! Hello!’ He had caught her eye, but she saw him bend his head to his shoulder and lift his hand to press a button on a walkie-talkie. There was no doubt that he was warning someone inside that she might be an issue. ‘I just want to ask a question! I won’t be a moment!’
The man held up a finger to the person who was holding out their ticket and just as he stepped off his position at the door, Grayson appeared behind him. Lorelai couldn’t hear what they were saying but if Lorelai’s lip reading was correct, it looked like Grayson said, ‘I’ll deal with this.’ Lorelai immediately felt on edge. Grayson was treating her like a nuisance, not someone he held any affection towards. Not that long ago he had wanted to kiss her and today she was a problem to solve? Lorelai knew she was in his bad books but even so, this stung.
‘What’s up?’ Grayson said without much feeling.
‘What’s up?’ Lorelai repeated, her face burning.
‘Yeah. I need to get back to work.’
‘So do I,’ she snapped.
‘Right.’ Grayson looked behind him, distractedly. Lorelai sighed.This wasn’t why she’d come here. She needed to pick her battles, so she tried to ignore how annoyed she felt.
‘I came to explain,’ she said.
‘Explain why you disappeared or explain about you and Riggs?’
‘All of it but firstly, there is no “me and Riggs”. What you saw was him coming to apologise to me for behaving so badly and me accepting his apology.’
‘Right,’ he said again. He still looked unconvinced, but the hard edge to his voice had softened.
‘He’s been through a hard time, but he seems to be back on his feet and… it was just a hug, Grayson. It wasn’t anything more than one friend accepting an apology from another friend. It didn’tmeananything. Not like that.’
Grayson simply nodded, but Lorelai saw his shoulders drop, as though he’d finally let go of a breath he’d been holding in.
‘As for the thing the other day. Me leaving you in Trafalgar Square.’
‘Yeah, that was…’ Grayson raised his eyebrow, trying to find the right word.
‘It was weird. I know. And I have an explanation. But it’s going to take longer than a couple of minutes outside of your work to explain properly. Could we maybe meet for a drink after you’ve finished here?’ It was Lorelai’s turn to hold her breath. Grayson didn’t say anything. He looked over his shoulder at the hundreds of people filtering in through the theatre’s doors.
