Learning To Love - Jamie Campbell Bower

London Bound

My "n" key is faulty and you have no idea how many times I had to change "girlfried" to "girlfriend." Horrible imagery comes with "girlfried"...

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"Come to London with me."

"What?"

Jamie looks at me from across the table. We are sitting in Sienna's, an Italian restaurant (to humour Jamie's claims we'd never been on a "proper" date, though I disagreed) and I was half finished with my enormous plate or tortellini.

Jamie places his fork down, blue eyes sparkling in the light. "I said, come to London with me."

"London? Didn't you come here to avoid London? Are you having second thoughts?"

Jamie laughs at this. "Of course not! No, I received a call this morning from my dearest mother, she misses me, and wants me to come up for her birthday, and you said you had a work break coming up."

I suddenly feel guilty that I didn't know anything about his family. "Oh, are you sure you want me to come with you? Does your family even know I exist?"

Jamie smirks. "I may have mentioned you in passing..."

"Jamie! How much did you say?"

"Oh, only that I have a god-awful girlfriend that insists on going everywhere with me...." He glances at my expression, which must be saying something because he stops. "I'm joking Heidi, I only said that I had a girlfriend."

I scoff. "As if! Mothers always interrogate on this matter, so what did you say?"

"I kept it as generalised as possible, I played the privacy card on her."

"Hmm," I'm not amused.

"She wants to meet you, and the rest of my family."

"She does?"

"Yes, and I want you to meet her, and try her chocolate pudding."

I pause. "Wait, you didn't make up with me just because you didn't want to turn up with no girlfriend in tow, did you?"

Jamie looks offended, eye wide, mouth open. I keep my face perfectly still for a moment, but my focus breaks. "I'm kidding."

"Never say that again." Despite the sincerity of his words, he's smiling.

I smile back sheepishly. "It's payback."

"So we're even?"

"We're even."

And so it was that, after I walked out of the hospital for the last time for a week, that Jamie helped me pack my bags and we set off to Perth International Airport to depart to from Perth, stop in Hong Kong, and continue to finally land in London, the day before his mother's birthday. It was still summer in Australia, which meant it was winter in London, so I had had to go out and buy some rather warm clothes. As much as I hated the cold, I figured it's probably easier than dealing with the heat, and, maybe I would see the snow for the first time. I tell Jamie this as we settle into our seats on the plane after a rushed hour running around the airport. I wasn't familiar with Perth International and Jamie was practically useless in that sense, too.

Jamie looks surprised. "You've never seen snow before?"

"Nope," I say.

"You know, most Londoners see the snow so much, they hate it. But I've found I never get bored of it, in fact, I've kind of missed it."