Amanda stretched in the morning, her alarm buzzed like an annoying gnat in her ear. She reached and turned it off. She got up out of bed and showered.
She felt refreshed as she went out to get the elevator down to the seminar room. Mike walked up to the elevator as she waited. “Good morning lovely. How did you sleep?” he asked.
She smiled at him. “Like the dead. I can’t recall the last time I’ve slept that well.”
“Must have been all the activity you undertook last night!” He laughed.
“How did you sleep?” she asked.
“Horribly. I need about a liter of coffee before we start the seminar. But today, after we finish, I’m taking you to Big Ben, and then we’re going to eat at this fabulous Indian place near my house,” he stated.
“Oh, that sounds nice.” Amanda wondered if she would get to see his place, or if his wife was there. Stop it, she chastised herself, you don’t know that he’s married.
“It should be nice, though we will be stuck in a bit of traffic, most likely. Depending on the time we get away for the day. I may cut it short, but I have to be careful. If people feel they didn’t get their money’s worth, all hell will break lose and refunds will be desired.”
“Yeah, I know.”
He kissed her when they got on the elevator. She could feel him as he held back from deepening the kiss. She knew it was for the best, their passion was explosive and if they allowed this to go too far, they’d have to go back to the room.
“I wish I would have stayed with you last night,” he whispered into her ear.
She looked at him and laughed. “Would either of us have gotten any sleep?” she asked.
He shook his head and chuckled, his deep voice vibrating against her skin. “Not a wink, I’m sure of it! But tomorrow is Friday, and the weekend has been scheduled off for the seminar. So guess who is spending the night together for two nights, at least! Maybe if I can get myself under control around you, I can stay more than that.”
“Get yourself under control?” She quirked her eyebrow up and looked at him.
“Haven’t you realized that you drive me crazy? All I can think about is touching you and making love to you. I want nothing more than that. When you are around, my mind is muddled and can only think of hearing you scream out, or your fingernails raking down my back,” he whispered into her ear.
She shuddered in anticipation of their next time together. But, then she remembered that she should stop the sex. She would miss it, when she had to leave 8 days from now.
Part of her wanted to throw caution to the wind, and bed him for those 8 days, and do nothing else. But, she knew her heart would be entangled in him by then and leaving would hurt her emotionally.
“Well, I don’t want to waste this time in London, there are a lot of things I want to see. You did say that I had to allow you to show me around, so that we wouldn’t get homework today. I’ll come up with a list of things to see, if you think it is a good idea.”
“Yes, that is perfect. Because, honestly, the things that tourists, or you, may want to see are old hat to me. I mean I live here, so Big Ben is something I see all the time. Along with other things you’ll want to see.”
“If you want I can find a tour company to show me these things. I don’t want you to be bored,” Amanda offered.
“Oh, I won’t be bored, not when I’m spending time with you.” He smiled.
“Okay, but you’ll tell me if you change your mind?” she asked.
“Sure, I will. But, I know it won’t happen. Look, we will talk more later. I have to start the seminar as soon as we get down there,” Mike said and kissed her one last time before the doors opened in the lobby of the hotel.
Amanda sighed contentedly and she was quite happy. She could feel that her heart had linked to him already. She just hoped leaving would be easy, however, she wasn’t dumb enough to believe it.
“Okay, did everyone do their homework?” Mike asked the room.
Everyone answered with an affirmative nod of their head.
“Alright, I’d like to see what you all came up with. Please bring it up on your laptops, and I’ll come back and look at them. I’ll give you my honest opinion of what you did, and what, if anything I think you should change,” Mike stated.
Amanda brought up her homework and waited for him to make his way to her. She watched as he commented on the other participants’ work, and kept thinking about the night before. The things that man had done to her body once more had simply awed her.
She shook her head and focused on her screen. She needed to stop thinking about it, she would be soaked soon if she didn’t. She pulled up the internet and did a search on attractions to see in London.
There were so many choices; museums, shopping malls, and castles. Far too many to see in the time that she was here. She needed to really figure out what was most important to see. But, if she dated Mike, wouldn’t she come back to visit?
Amanda sat, rattled, she knew that if she was thinking this way, she had become attached already. What was she going to do? It is something to be enjoyed, not thought about too much, she thought to herself.
She made a list, it would possibly be changed as she looked more.
Stonehenge
The London Eye (Saw it on a Dr. Who episode)
Tower of London
Buckingham Palace
Thames River
Big Ben
British Museum
Covent Garden
Tower Bridge
Westminster Abbey
Sky Garden
She stopped, she had already made a list of too many things to see and there were already so many other things that she would have loved to have seen as well. Maybe I’ll let him take me to places that he thinks I’ll like. She considered it as an option. Her list would have been ten pages long, or more, if she wrote all the things down she’d love to do.
Maybe I should have decided to stay in London longer. But who knew that I would have met him? Nothing had prepared her for this. It had shocked her to the core, just like his ever-attentive sexual prowess had.
“Let me see what you came up with.” Mike had moved to her side.
She looked up. “Sorry, I was just looking up things to see in London.” She blushed and pulled up her homework.
He bent down, his scent filled her nose, and she melted in her chair. His spicy scent turned her into a puddle of desire. She licked her lips as she tried to not make it obvious to the other people in the room, that he bothered her quite a lot, but in a good way!
“Very nice. Where did you get the drawings you used?”
“Those are drawings I’ve done over the years. I started when I was 10, and I’ve saved anything that I thought was good.”
“You are very talented. I really like this one.” He pointed to a drawing she had done of Sean Connery. It was done in charcoal.
“That is one of my favorites. I always thought he was sexy,” she admitted and turned a bright red.
“So, you have always thought older men were attractive?” he asked, too low for everyone else to hear.
She nodded her head in agreement, she was scared to speak. She wanted to scream out, take me now! However, somehow, she didn’t. He moved to the next person. Amanda relaxed in her chair. She thought that she was going mad!
It took him quite a while to get through the group. Amanda had worked on the list of attractions a bit more, but finally gave up. She decided it was best to ask him what to see. After all, this was his part of the world.
Now, if he ever visited the United States, and came to Arizona, she’d know what to take him to see. She dreamed about that visit for a few minutes, then shook her head. No use doing that, she wanted to shout out loud. Why? How did you allow this guy to get under your skin Amanda?
“Everyone did a good job on their homework. I’d like to show everyone a few of them that I think went above and beyond. They displayed the concepts I told you about yesterday in class.”
“First Amanda Cousins, she incorporated some of her own artwork, and some animated words to pull in the viewer. I think this concept will help attract people, and keep them interested, and possibly have them hiring her for her services. Great job, Amanda!”
“Thank you,” Amanda said.
“Also, Matt Johnson. He used many tools to create a fabulous and very attractive design. The use of more than one tool, like both of these people did, is what will have you succeeding in this field. Everyone else did a fabulous job as well. I’m proud of you all.” He paused and looked at his watch. “It seems like it took me longer to go through all the homework then I had expected, let’s break for lunch. Get back here by 2 p.m.,” he announced.
Amanda wondered where the time had gone. It seemed like it was 9 in the morning, now it was already noon. She had lost an immeasurable amount of time as she looked for attractions in London and had silly girly dreams about Mike.
“Hey, you want to go to the pub?” Mike came and asked her. “They have much better food than they serve here.”
She recalled the bland food from the day before. “Does it at least have some flavor?”
He laughed. “Loads of flavor!”
They walked out together, he placed his hand on her back in a possessive way that made Amanda smile inside. He likes me, as much as I like him! She did a silent dance of delight inside of her head.
“What do you suggest for me to order?” she asked when they got seated at the pub.
“Personally, I love the fish and chips. They are one of the best in London.”
“Okay, I’ll try it. I’m not normally a big fish fan, but why not?”
Mike ordered two fish and chips when the waitress came back. “What do you want to drink?” he asked Amanda.
“Coke… I guess.”
“Want a lager? They have Guinness!” Mike asked.
“You drink beer at lunch?”
“Not always, but I feel like one today, kind of a celebration.” He smiled.
“What are you celebrating?”
“You… meeting you, getting to know you better,” Mike stated.
She blushed and stuttered, “Sure, I guess, I want to be a part of the culture here!”
“Give us two Guinness lagers, dear,” Mike told the waitress, who had watched their conversation with a small smile on her face.
The fish and chips, which to her surprise, were fries, were delivered to the table steaming hot about ten minutes later.
“Chips, are fries?” she asked.
“Oh, you didn’t know that?” He laughed. “I just figured you would know that.”
“So, what else is different? I mean what things do you call something that is different, like this?”
“Let’s see, there are jumpers. Here they are shirts, over there, I think they mean someone who’s going to jump off a building to kill themselves, right?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Trainers, are tennis shoes, here. What you call underwear, we call pants.”
“No way, what else?”
“A bird is a female, bog is what we call the toilet. Braces are called suspenders, and the trolley is what you would call a shopping cart. You want some more examples?” He laughed at the amazed look on her face.
“Sure, this is fun.”
“A dummy, is a baby pacifier, shag is; well I think you know that one!” He laughed as her face turned bright red.
“I love this, it is really eye-opening and educational. I’m sure there are more, but I don’t want you to spend our whole lunch talking about this.”
“Oh, there are more, but we can talk about whatever you want. How is the list of what you want to see coming along? I saw that you were working on it while I was checking all of the homework today.”
“Sorry, but I figured it was a good way to spend my time.”
“Sure, it was. Did you come up with something you really have to see?” Mike asked.
“You know, it is hard to narrow it down, I know we don’t have a ton of time. I mean I’m leaving the day after the seminar is over, and while the seminar is running, we can’t really go and see things.”
“No, but you could always change your tickets and stay longer. I could show you around then. I’ll take some time off of work, and we’ll go and see whatever you want,” Mike offered.
Amanda was stunned. “I guess, I’m not sure how much it would cost to change the ticket, and if I can afford it. But, I’ll look into it.”
“I can pay for the change, I’m the one who is asking you to stay,” Mike stated.
“I don’t know if I would feel right about that,” Amanda admitted.
“Well, think about it, you can change it up to the day of the flight, right?” He smiled at her.
Amanda smiled at him. “You are just a sweet guy, not married, not hiding anything.”
“Why would you think I was married, or hiding anything?” he asked.
“Well, my friend, Janice, she thought you might be married,” Amanda stated.
“But, it was because the first day of the seminar you were kind of ignoring me. I know you explained it, but this was at lunch, when I called her. She thought maybe you were married, that was why you were acting the way you did. However, when I explained to her your reasons, she had to admit it made sense.”
“I was married, but I’ve been divorced for years now. I have never found a woman who I thought was worth the time and commitment, to be honest. My first wife, well she wasn’t either, however, I was young and foolish.”
“Really, how young?”
“Twenty-one years old. She was just as young, we thought we were in love. But, it only lasted six months, and we knew we’d made a mistake.”
“I’m sorry to hear that… well… not really.”
“What about you, have you ever been married?” he asked.
“No, but I had a guy who asked me to marry him. I refused, he was too immature and needed to grow up and get a real job. But, even then, I wouldn’t marry him.”
“Why not? What is wrong with him?”
Amanda turned red. “I’d rather not say here, I don’t want anyone to overhear me.”
“How about you whisper it to me, when we leave to go back to the hotel.”
“Sure, I guess I could do that.”
The meal passed quickly, and soon he looked at his watch and informed her they had to get back for the seminar. When they had walked outside, he pulled her to the side, and kissed her. He whispered into her ear, “So what couldn’t you tell me in there?”
“I wouldn’t marry him now, because he’s not you. He doesn’t make me feel the way you do when we make love,” she whispered back to him. She felt her knees turn to mush as they threatened to give out with the admission.
He pulled back. “Good, I’m glad to know that. I don’t want you going back home and having him sweep you off your feet.” Mike smiled and kissed her on the cheek.
“One of the other people from the seminar just saw that,” Amanda told him.
“I don’t care. Like I said I’m not married, and this isn’t a college class. They can’t claim you were treated as a favorite, it’s a bloody seminar,” Mike commented.
She smiled at him, she had worried he’d be upset that someone had seen them. But, why would he chance kissing her if that was the case. Sometimes she hated her untrusting side. She should trust Mike, he’d given her no reason not to. Perhaps, she feared if she trusted him too much, she would have fallen in love with him.
Falling in love would be nice, but, not really. The distance between them would honestly make a long-term relationship almost impossible. Unless they were both serious about it, and she made enough money to travel and visit him once in a while.
Amanda knew he had money and could afford to travel. Was it fair to make him be the only one who traveled, though? She didn’t think so. However, she wished it would be a possibility. She didn’t know if in 10 days, unless she moved her flight back home to another day, she’d be willing to say goodbye to him.
It saddened her to think of her departure, and she seriously considered a change of plans. I could stay another two weeks, maximum, and have more time with him. Amanda tried to think of something else.
Mike looked at her. “Hey what’s wrong?” he asked, as he stopped and pulled her into his arms.
“Just thinking of going back home,” Amanda said, but she didn’t say how much she would miss him, and how strongly she felt about him already. She would seem like a naïve little girl.
“Extend your stay, you can stay a while longer, right? How about a month?”
“I don’t know if I can stay that much longer.”
“We can talk more about this later,” he said. “We have to get back inside.” Mike hugged her once more and they walked into the class together.