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Sinking down into the guide’s chair at the front of the bus, hands gripping the arm rests too tightly, she waited to find out.
‘Hello, everyone. I’m your driver, Dominic. I’m afraid that today’s tour is going to be taking a little bit of a detour. You see, not very long ago, your tour guide, Faith, introduced me to a side of London—and a side of myself—I’d never seen before. Then, for reasons we really don’t need to get into, but suffice to say it was mostly my fault, she left me here alone in this big city. And now I want to show her my London, and how it looks without her.’
Faith’s cheeks burned at his words. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t even acknowledge what he was saying. Was he trying to humiliate her? Was this some sort of ridiculous revenge? No. This was Dominic. Whatever might have happened between them, he wouldn’t do that to her.
‘And, Faith?’ he said. ‘Trust me, this is going to be far more embarrassing for me than it is for you.’
Somehow, she wasn’t entirely convinced.
‘On your right, you can just about still see the River Thames.’ Dominic’s voice automatically took on the cadence she’d heard when he was presenting at meetings, or holding court over debate at the dinner table. ‘We’re now officially on the South Bank. Coming up, you’ll see the back of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, amongst other things. We can’t really get close enough to the river in this big old thing, but that’s okay. All you really need to know is that every single time I walk along this river, I think about Faith. I remember walking along the South Bank with her, practically in the middle of the night, looking out over the London skyline.’
Faith was pretty sure that wasn’t all he remembered. Whenever she thought of it, her body remembered his arms around her, his chest under her cheek, the way he’d kissed her as if she were the air he needed to breathe...
‘As we swing around here,’ Dominic said as the bus lurched around the corner, ‘we can head back over the river. From here you can see the London Eye, and across the way the Houses of Parliament. But what really matters is, if you look back along the river the way we came, you can see Tower Bridge in the sunshine.’
Tower Bridge. The place they’d first had dinner with all his clients. What on earth did he remember about that night? Behind her, the tour group were all whispering, chatting and giggling. About her, Faith assumed. Well, at least they were having fun. And it wasn’t as if she hadn’t had more embarrassing moments in her life. Even if she wasn’t exactly sure what this one was leading up to. Another way to convince her to let him help with Fowlmere? A really weird first date?
‘Tower Bridge was where I first realised how incredibly smart, intelligent, organised and good at her job Faith is. How she could take on my job in a second if she wanted. Anything she sets her mind to, this woman can do.’
Faith tilted her head to stare at the ceiling, trying to ignore the blush burning her cheeks.
‘Is it working, love?’ the old woman sitting behind her asked. ‘Have you forgiven him?’
‘It’s not about forgiveness,’ Faith muttered, sitting up straight again. ‘We agreed this was a bad idea, is all. I’m not going to work with him.’
‘I don’t think that’s what he’s asking, dear,’ the woman said. ‘Besides, I don’t think he’s finished yet.’
As Dominic steered the bus back across the river, he pointed out the spot where they first kissed, giving her a lingering look as he spoke that nearly resulted in them crashing into a bollard.
‘Eyes on the road,’ Faith screeched.
Dominic laughed and, before they’d gone very much further, pulled into a bus stop and pulled on the brake. ‘Okay, ladies and gentlemen. This is where we need to continue our tour on foot, I’m afraid.’
