Just a Fan (4 page)

I hadn't been this happy in a while...I couldn't stop grinning. Connor MacGowan...who would have thought anything like this could happen to
me
? I bounced through my flat, lighting all the lamps and carefully putting Connor's number in a safe place, after copying it out in my phonebook several times just in case. Still exhilirated and too restless to go to bed just yet, I skipped over to the TV - being careful to make no sound on the floorboards, of course - and knelt down by the shelf that held my extensive DVD collection. Beaming, I picked out my favourite one: a DVD with a glossy, dark cover that had a very dashing picture of Connor's brooding face on it, lit from behind. I bit my lip excitedly as I hungrily took in those familiar, alluring features and bewitching blue eyes, as well as the combed-back hairstyle he had for that movie. The glowing, fancy letters above his head spelled out "
Esquire
", the title of the movie that had come out a couple of years ago with Connor as its lead actor. I opened the box, and soon I was curled up on the sofa, engrossed in the movie, enjoying it more than I ever had because I knew I had so recently met the star of it himself, and his number was now sitting securely between the pages of my phonebook...

Life was
good
.

Chapter 3

The Red Terrace

'
You cannot be serious.
'

'I am,' I assured Julie on the phone.

'
Have you told Kate about it?
' she asked me.

'Yep. She went mad - she was going to pay me fifty quid for his number,' I told her.

'
Jesus. Did you give it to her?
'

'Of course not - he trusts me with it,' I replied. 'Now she's in a bad mood with me because of that.'

'
She'll get over it
,' Julie said offhandedly. '
Oh, Lilly, that's amazing! Connor MacGowan...the guy who plays Mr Murdock in that romancey movie...
'

'I can't believe it either,' I said, smiling.

'
Well, now you see that something good
has
finally happened to you
,' Julie told me wisely. '
You were so miserable because you didn't have a boyfriend or a job you liked...but now you're making friends with an actual movie star! God, it's just like a dream come true, I bet!
'

'You don't know the half of it...'

'
Well, love, I've got to be off now - I'm having a meeting soon
,' said Julie. '
I'll call you again when it's over, shall I?
'

'Sure,' I replied. 'Bye then, Julie.'

'
Bye!
'

I hung up and grinned happily, then walked off to the table, where my bag was. After a few seconds of rummaging, I extracted my trusty old iPod, which had survived countless falls and one unfortunate occasion in which it had been sat on. I put in the earbuds and flicked through my music, finally choosing the most light-hearted song from my current favourites. I turned the volume up, nodding my head to the beat. Feeling in high spirits, I felt like I could do anything - even tackle the dusting for a while. I skipped off to the storage cabinet in the kitchen and extracted the cloth and cleaning spray. Slipping my iPod into my pocket, I went back into the main room and began to attack the flat surfaces to the tune of Electric Six's "Danger! High Voltage". I cleaned to the beat energetically, starting to have fun.

'
Don'tcha wanna know how we keep startin' fi-yaaahz
!' I mouthed animatedly, dancing my way around the dining table while I buffed it up. My cloth left the wooden tabletop gleaming as I polished it with great enthusiasm.

'
Fire in the discooo
!' I yelled silently but dynamically as the song reached its climax. '
Fi-re in the - gates of hell
!'

I was just beginning to really get into the work and the crazy saxophone solo in the middle, when I was distracted by a persistent sound underneath the music. Pausing the song, I listened and realised it was the phone ringing. I sighed and put the dusting cloth down, along with the spray, and walked over to pick it up. That was a very quick meeting Julie just had...

'Grumpy Bachelorette Residence, Lillian Harwick speaking,' I answered in a receptionist's monotone. 'How can I help you?'

From the other end of the line there came an unexpectedly masculine chuckle that caught me completely off guard. '
Hello there, Lillian
,' a heart-stoppingly familiar, heavily accented voice laughed.

I froze, eyes wide and pulse suddenly racing. 'C-Connor?'

'
Aye!
'replied Connor, sounding deeply amused.

'Oh - sorry about that, I thought it was going to be my friend Julie...' I told him breathlessly, burning with embarrassment.

'
Don't worry about it
,' Connor chuckled.

I laughed too, then told him: 'I never expected you to call...I mean, this is such a surprise!'

'
A nice one, I hope? I'm not interrupting anything, am I?
'

'No, no, you're not,' I assured him candidly.

'
That's good...
' said Connor. I put a hand to my mouth in glee, bouncing up and down silently on the spot. His voice was unimagineably lovely even on the phone... '
So...I just thought I'd drop a line to see how you're doing. Did your neighbour hear you jangling keys, then?
'

I smiled. 'No, she didn't, luckily,' I replied. 'I'm still alive.'

'
Great
,' said Connor. I could hear his smile. '
Listen, er...are you doing anything this afternoon?
'

My eyes widened attentively. 'No, why?'

'
Well, there's that new café that's opened downtown
,' he answered. '
The "Red Terrace", I think it's called. Fancy going down there for a coffee or something later?
'

I could hardly believe it.

'Oh - oh, yes, of course!' I replied after a brief, shocked pause, sounding
very
interested indeed. 'That would be great.' I was ready to burst with excitement.

'
OK, then - I'll come by and pick you up at about three, shall I?
' Connor proposed.

'Sure, sure, yeah,' I said, trying to sound normal.

'
Could you give me your address again?
' Connor asked, and I hurriedly told it to him. '...
Right,
' he said after a short while,
'got it down. So, er...I'll see you this afternoon then?
'

'Yes,' I replied, definite and smiling. 'I'm button number five on the intercom thingy outside the door. Bye!'

'
Bye, Lillian
.'

I put the phone down calmly like a normal person, then clamped my hands over my mouth to stop the cry from escaping. A long, high-pitched squeal left me instead, and I leapt onto the sofa, unable to stop myself from youthfully bouncing all over the place from sheer excitement. This afternoon! Connor MacGowan himself! It sounded lovely -
he
wanted to meet
me
! He wanted to
meet
me! I paused in my ecstatic jumping as a sudden thought occurred to me. Was this...a date? No, it couldn't be...he had sounded so casual when he had asked me. There was no need for me to wildly jump to conclusions - it was probably just going to be a meeting between friends.

Friends! I grinned madly to myself, and then, abandoning all thought of further housework, I bounded off to begin to sort out what I would wear. Connor MacGowan...oh, I was so excited!

* * *

A few hours later, my excitement had turned to outright panic. I was on the phone to Julie again, and she was trying to calm me down.

'
It'll be fine, Lilly, just sort through your clothes calmly and keep a clear head
,' she instructed me as I feverishly rifled through drawers, the phone wedged between my ear and my shoulder.

'Yes, but it's half-past two and I still can't find what to
wear
!' I said helplessly, at a loss what to do. 'I have no idea how to dress for it...'

'
The trick is to look like you haven't put too much effort into your appearance, but to look pretty all the same
,' advised Julie, who was well-versed in these matters. '
Why don't you wear that dark red jumper you have, with your black skinny jeans? Apparently it's good to wear red on a first date.
'

I sighed.

'Julie, I said before, this is
not
a date - it's just a casual, platonic meeting for a coffee, however much I'd like it to be the opposite,' I told her exasperatedly. 'I don't want to go there looking like a tart, aynway. And those skinny jeans make my legs look too short.'

'
You
won't
look like a tart, Lilly
,' Julie patiently reassured me. '
Just put on the red jumper and dark jeans, and you will look casual and pretty at the same time. And keep the makeup subtle, like you always do
.'

'I wasn't thinking about making it
un
-subtle at all,' I grumbled, lifting piles of clothes until I found the jumper and jeans. I laid them out on my bed, and found Julie was right - they did look quite nice together. The jumper would keep me warm while at the same time showing off a little curvature, and the neckline wasn't anything too radical. I smiled in relief.

'Julie, you're a lifesaver,' I told her.

'
No problem, Lilly
,' she replied.

'Right, I'd better get dressed, then,' I said. 'I'll call you sometime tonight!'

Once the phone was back where it belonged, I managed to get dressed in record time, and brush my hair without making it float outwards in a static halo. I tackled the makeup quickly but efficiently, and soon I was grinning at myself in the mirror, feeling ready for anything. I looked around the flat for anything I might have forgotten, but to my surprise I found I already had everything I needed. I chose my versatile black handbag for my purse and other necessary items, and was just about to go and anxiously check my appearance in the mirror for the twentieth time when the white intercom phone by the door buzzed.

I ran awkwardly to it, since I knew that even modestly-heeled shoes could clop on the floorboards and summon the wrath of old Mrs Windsor. I picked up the phone.

'Yes?' I said a little breathlessly.

'
Hi, Lillian, are you ready? I'm just outside
,' came the wondrous voice that I could listen to for hours, made a little crackly over the background noise and the intercom, but still beautiful nonetheless. This man had the kind of voice that would even sound good when speaking through a half-clogged
drainpipe
.

'I'll be right down!' I told Connor, then put the phone back on its holder, grabbed my bag, and rushed out of the door, remembering to lock it behind me. Keeping my errant fringe out of my face with one hand, I clattered down the stairs, not caring about the noise, just anxious not to keep Connor waiting. As I had expected, the door of the flat below mine opened when I arrived on the ground floor, and the bony, slippered figure of Mrs Windsor appeared in the doorway as I sprinted for the glass door, through which I could see a familiar figure.

'Where're you rushing to like that, young lady?' she squawked. 'Don't you know there are people here who need their peace and quiet?'

'Sorry, Mrs Windsor, I'm meeting someone,' I told her hurriedly, not really paying attention.

'Well I hope you're not going to be bringing back any
young men
- there's enough noise in this place as there is!' she cried after me disapprovingly as I opened the self-locking front door.

I emerged into the gray sunlight with a smile on my face, because right there stood Connor, his hands casually in his pockets. He grinned at me as I came up to him.

'I see what you meant about that old lady,' he said. 'I hope she won't be too harsh on you when you come back.'