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‘Do you not have to meet with Dillon, Luke, and Gregg?’
‘Nope. We’re heading to the dinner separately, so you’ve got me all to yourself today. Dani is coming at four and the car is booked for six so we’ve got a few hours to kill. I was thinking we could grab some food then do some touristy stuff. You been in London before?’
‘Once or twice visiting my sister, but that usually involved being dragged out to a few clubs.’
‘Yeah, we won’t be doing that. Anything else take your fancy?’
‘Are you okay to just walk around in London?’
He sits on one of the chairs and rests his feet on the railing. ‘I’m not fucking royalty or anything. Of course I can. Besides, I’ve got my trusty disguise with me.’ He holds up a baseball cap and his sunglasses. ‘I’ll be in stealth mode.’
She raises her eyebrows and waves her hand at him. ‘It’s not just your face that will get you recognised. Your arms aren’t exactly inconspicuous.’
He pulls her onto his knee and Chloe straddles him. ‘I guess I’ll just have to rely on my girlfriend to protect me.’
Chloe beams when he calls her his girlfriend. It doesn’t matter how many times he says it, she doubts she’ll ever tire of hearing it. The fact she’s in a relationship after too many years alone is taking time to get used to. When you add in the small detail of the boyfriend in question being a famous rock star, it makes the entire situation so much more incredible.
Tate looks up at her and smiles. There are so many photos of him online, but in most of them he’s serious. He absolutely should be photographed more often smiling.
‘I’m sorry but there’s no way I’m getting in between you and your fans. I value my life, thank you.’
‘I’m sure you can more than handle them. So where do you want to go?’
‘You mean like Madam Tussaud’s and things like that?’
He makes a face. ‘Yeah, no. Not that place. Waxwork figures are creepy as hell.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Too right. My parents took me to the museum in Dublin when I was a kid. Memorable day out for all the wrong reasons.’
‘Anything else a big guy like you is afraid of?’
He slips his baseball cap on backwards as he thinks. ‘I wouldn’t go calling it afraid. More like I have a healthy distrust of them.’
‘Healthy distrust, huh. Okay, so what else do you have a healthy distrust of?’
‘Puppets. China dolls. Regular dolls. People dressed up as characters at theme parks. Clowns too. I really fucking hate clowns.’
‘Okay. Your parents must have loved taking you out when you were a kid.’
‘You could say that.’ Tate smirks at her as he pulls his phone out of his pocket. ‘There’s bound to be somewhere you want to go in London that doesn’t have scary ass clowns.’ He checks the screen and laughs loudly. ‘Now that’s just spooky.’ He tuns the phone around to show Chloe the picture of Dillon and Gregg standing outside Madam Tussaud’s with cheesy grins on their faces.
‘That is spooky. Are you sure you don’t want to go meet them?’
Chloe laughs loudly at the look of horror on his face at the suggestion. ‘Absolutely not.’
‘Well, there is somewhere I’ve always wanted to go and I’m certain it doesn’t have any rampaging clowns in it.’
‘Sounds promising already.’
‘You’re going to laugh, but I’ve always wanted to go to the Tate Modern.’
He grins as he lifts her off his knee and grabs his coat. ‘Absolutely can’t argue with that. C’mon then. Lunch first, then Tate will take you to the Tate.’
They decide on a small cafe for lunch and eat monstrous rolls filled to bursting with chicken salad, then watch the world go by for a bit while they have their tea and coffee. Chloe is pleasantly surprised that no one has launched themselves at Tate so far, but he’s blending in remarkably well.
After lunch she spends the next few hours absorbed in the art in the Tate. She rabbits on continuously to him as she moves from piece to piece and he listens to every word. She doesn’t even mind when she loses him for a moment as a group of art students swarm around him, temporarily trapping him in one of the rooms.
