Dreaming about London

I could feel my hands let go of the cart, walk past it and towards the blue eyes, never letting them out of sight at any second. I could feel myself smile back at the beautiful white teeth that were now revealed. The familiar warmth of his arms around me came flushing over me as I wrapped my arms around Niall’s neck and hugged him tightly.


“Niall,” was all I could say as we stood there breathing in to each other’s hair.

“God, I’ve missed you,” he said and pulled back a little. And then, without further talking he kissed me for the first time in front of all of his friends that were luckily very busy hugging each other. It was exactly as I remembered it; soft, tender and yet it felt firmly. I loved feeling those lips against mine.

We pulled back from each other both smiling like fools and I went to say hello to the others. Out of my canthus I saw Liam and Em with their arms around each other, standing with their eyes closed. I knew how much more happy it made Em to know that she would have Liam, in a time and place like this where she was feeling sad and most of all homesick, and I felt really thankful, knowing and feeling the exact same as she was.


“So this is why it had to be the entrance that was as far away as fucking possible,” Aida said while looking around at the people.

“Yeah, we didn’t want to attract too much attention,” Louis said and started helping us with our loads of stuff. Luckily they’d brought two extra cars, since there was no chance that all this would fit in one along with all the people.



Fifteen minutes later we were finally ready to head towards the city. I pulled out the papers about the apartment to find the address, and suddenly I was feeling extremely nervous again.

What if we’d been deceived? What if there was suddenly no apartment and we would then have nowhere to live?


No, it would be completely okay. Because it had to be completely okay. I kept saying that over and over in my head.


I sat in the passenger seat next to Harry who was driving and Em and Aida were sitting in the back. I typed in the address on my phone to get a driving instruction.

“So how are you guys?” Harry asked. “Are you excited?”

“Scared as hell,” I said.

“Feeling really sick,” Em said looking out the window.

“Think I’m about to shit myself,” Aida then said.

Harry laughed at our answers. “Don’t worry girls, I’m sure that everything will be just fine. Try to relax, this is England, not North Chorea. There are certain limits to the madness here.”


We all smiled at his attempt to calm us down, and it helped, cause he was right. So many people were surviving each day in London, why wouldn’t we be three of them?




The drive took about half an hour to get to London and then another half an hour to get to the apartment. Once we drove around a corner and in to the neighborhood that I remembered us being in a few months ago Aida, Em and I all squealed at the same time. It was indeed a very nice looking street in West End, I thought when I stood out of the car and looked around.


And there it was – our building that hosted our new home. It was an old but classic building with red bricks and wide white windows and a dark brown front door. I took out the keys that the landlord had sent to me about a month ago.


“Should we take a look?” I asked the girls not being able to keep myself from jumping around.

They did the same thing as we walked up a few steps to the door. I put in one of the keys and turned. The door opened.


“So far, so good,” I said with trembling voice. We entered the building and went up the stairs to reach the 1st floor where our apartment was.


I took a deep breath before putting in the other key and turned it. The door opened as well and we could now walk in to the apartment. None of us were speaking, only staring with our eyes wide open. Even though it was quite small there was plenty of light which made it all seem much bigger.


“Girls…” I began as I walked around until I was standing in the middle of what soon would become our living room. Then I turned towards them with my arms momentarily opened.

“Welcome home.”



And with those two words we all looked at each other realizing the exact same thing. We were now officially London citizens. I was all of a sudden feeling really emotional and I could tell on their faces that they were as well.




Of course that didn’t take too long before hell broke out. We all started screaming at the same time, jumping around with our hands in the air, absolutely unable to control ourselves.

“Someone’s feeling excited now,” we heard Harry’s voice sound from the door where he stood between the two suitcases that he’d carried up. “Man, those two are quite heavy…”


We laughed and kept fooling around until we heard more people coming up the stairs.


“You guys really have a lot of shit with you. Are you moving in or something?” Louis said smiling widely at his own joke.



So the boys kept carrying up our stuff and we stayed upstairs to place the things the right places. We’d already decided which room we would have and I had been lucky to get the biggest one down in the end of the apartment, since I would soon have a piano in there as well.

Even though they kept helping us all afternoon, we weren’t done before 10 o’clock in the evening.



“Thank you so much you guys!” I then said. “I really don’t know what we should have done without you.”

“No problem, things like these always take some extra hands,” Zayn answered.

“No really, this was more than we could ever hope for. And also on your day off,” Aida replied.



Because we didn’t have any furniture yet, except for the matrasses in our bedrooms we all found ourselves on the floor sitting in a circle like a bunch of hippies once we’d finished. Niall had taken Aida’s guitar and just sat and played a few chords loosely.

I couldn’t keep myself from lying on Harry’s thigh. “Man, I just really don’t feel like beginning at my new work tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock…” I sighed and closed my eyes enjoying the notes from the guitar.

“Where are you going to work?” Harry asked looking down at me.

“Aunt Betty. It’s like a bagel shop…” I began but he cut me off by exclaiming: “I love that place! It’s really cozy and cute and their bagels taste amazing. What a great job!”

His comment lightened my mood and calmed my nerves a bit. “Yeah, I owe that to Em, she has found some really cool jobs.” I smiled over at her, making sure that she heard me giving her credit. She decided to make a weird face that showed all of her teeth like a monkey, instead of smiling, which made both me and Harry laugh.



An hour later the boys, Eleanor and Perrie decided to go home, when Aida, Em and I were looking like we would fall asleep if stayed any minute longer. Actually I had already fallen asleep on Harry’s thigh, but woke up once he started to move.


We walked them to the door, our door.

“See you soon. Have nice day at work tomorrow,” Niall said and pecked me softly on the lips.

“You too,” I smiled back at him before he went down the stairs after the others.

“Ok ladies,” I then said. “I think I’m going to retire if I want to keep that job and get up tomorrow morning. Love you.”

“Sleep tight,” Aida said.



Since I was so nervous about not getting I actually ended up waking up by myself and stare at my phone to realize three times that it wasn’t even half past six yet. When it was finally time to get up, I feeling completely exhausted from yesterday and I looked the same way once I took a glance in my hand mirror.


I put my hair up in the same messy bun as yesterday, since most of the work would already be done for me that way. I splashed some water on my face and put on a light makeup. I again chose to wear my black skinny jeans, a plain black top, a thin brown belt in the jeans and a cowboy jacket and my white All Stars.


I left at 7.15 to be sure that I had time enough in case I would get lost and also to get some breakfast on the way. I checked that I had everything; Mastercard, passport, driver’s license and the Oyster Card that Aida had gotten for us.


The closest tube station was Marylebone, it was only a few minutes away only about three or four stops from Tottenham Court Road, which was the one closest to Aunt Betty, according to the address that I had typed in on Google Maps at home before leaving.


As I stood up in the overfilled tube – I stood as close to the door as possible, afraid that I wouldn’t get out else – I started getting really nervous again. Nervous about the job. What if it was not a real job? What if I wasn’t good enough? And what I couldn’t understand a word because of that god damn British accent?


I needed some coffee, I guess. So when I got off the tube at Tottenham Court Road I found a place where it looked like they sold breakfast.

And they did – English breakfast, which consisted of white bread, beans and sugary cereals. Things that a normal Dane wouldn’t eat most of the time.

“Uhm, just a cup of coffee,” I said to the man behind the counter. “And… do you have any whole wheat toast?”

He looked at me like I was some sort of freak and shook his head.

“Oh, okay. Then I’ll just have this,” I said and grabbed an apple from a basket on the side of the counter.

I took my breakfast and sat down on a bench outside to eat. Once I’d finished my apple I took out the map that showed the way to the bagel shop.


And there it was; a brown sign with crème colored letters saying Aunt Betty. So far, so good, I thought the same way as I had done it yesterday while unlocking the door to the apartment.

I looked through the door and windows to see a girl in her mid-20’s chopping up some salad. She looked at me and I tried to motion for her to open the door. She pointed to the left so I walked that way and saw a door on the side of the building that was slightly open. I went inside to what might be the staff room and the girl from before met me in there.


“Hello, I’m Maja, I’m supposed to begin working here today at 8 o’clock,” I said.

“Yes I know, Betty told me that you would be here. Nice to meet you, my name is Nathalie.”

“Nice to meet you too, Nathalie,” I said smiling.

“I have a t-shirt for you to wear. It’s a good thing to keep your hair up, the way you’ve done it today.”

I nodded and put on the t-shirt that was the same color as the sign outside.

“We don’t open until 9.30, but I thought you might as well learn most of the features, before we have costumers running in an out of the café.”

I nodded again and followed her in to the shop.


“Wow, it’s really pretty in here!” I exclaimed while looking around.

“Yeah, that’s what the customer’s usually say as well,” she said smiling.


She spent the next half an hour to show me how to use the cash register, where the different food was, how to use the espresso machine and how to make a regular bagel sandwich. I was soon feeling quite dizzy with all the information, and Nathalie said: “Don’t worry, most of it you will learn once you get to use it the real way.”

Suddenly a guy walked through a door on the right side of the café.

“Oh, this is Nick. He’s baking all of the buns,” Nathalie said.

“Hi, I’m Maja,” I said and shook his hand.

“Nick,” he said politely with a very deep voice. “Nathalie, how many of the tomato buns do you want me to make?” He had turned towards her now.

“Uhm… Just two portions, Monday is not usually a very busy day,” she answered him.

“Okay.” He headed towards the door again.

“Is that the bakery out there?” I asked and she just nodded. “Now is the time to chop up all the different vegetables for the bagels, so take a knife and a cutting board, then you can do the parsley for the dressing.”


I did as I was told.

“So. Betty tells me you’re from Denmark?” she then asked after a while of standing next to each other.

“Yeah, I just moved here to London with my two friends, we arrived yesterday,” I said.

“Wow, you must feel exhausted!”

“I am. It’s not as bad now though, but it’ll probably get to me very soon.”

“Why did you leave your country?”

“Uhm…” I hesitated but decided to be honest. “To be a musician.”

“Really? That’s great! What kind of music do you play?”



As we stood and chopped up the different vegetables she asked me all sorts of different questions and seemed very interested in what I had to tell her, she really seemed like the nicest person.



“But what about you?” I finally managed to ask. “What are doing besides this job?”

“Well, I have a son at home, Brady and he’s two years old. His father and I broke up a year ago, so now it’s just me and my baby living in a small apartment in East End.”

“East End? I heard that was a bit, you know… tough area?” I said.

“That depends. I live in a quite nice neighborhood, but there are definitely some areas that are much more dangerous and loud than mine. I’ve been living there for my entire life so it doesn’t really seem that bad to me.”

“Isn’t it hard to be a single mum with a full-time job like this?”

“Yes, it is. Very much in fact, but you know I kind of have to make the money to support a child. Even though I would like to go back to school someday. To get an education and a proper job that might make it a bit easier for us.” She smiled at me, and at that moment I instantly knew that she had been through a lot. Her face already had fine lines many places, probably because of all the concerns that she’d had to deal with and all the work that she must have been doing.


At exactly 9.30 people were standing outside the door to the café and I started to feel extremely nervous – how the hell was I supposed to deal with all those?


And it really was difficult. I was lucky that the most of the customers at this time of the day just wanted a plain bagel with cheese and ham or something, but as soon as we came closer to lunch time it became much more stressful. The cash register wasn’t hard at all to deal with, cause I was used to stuff like that from my work at the gas station, but each customer wanted a different filling and I couldn’t help but feel very bothered by those who couldn’t decide what they wanted on their fucking bagel, since the people were lining up constantly.



I was doing my best. Really. But it ended up with Nathalie having to take of two thirds of the food, since I was moving a lot slower than her.

Once we finally had a short moment off, she said to me: “You’re doing really well, compared to the others on their first day.”

I smiled trying not to look as exhausted as I was feeling. “How can handle all this stress every single day?” I asked.

“I’ve been working here for two years, trust me – you’ll get used to it.”



Then a guy walked in. “Hello,” he said.

“You can take that,” Nathalie said while walking away to the staff room smiling at me and I turned towards the guy.

“What can get you?” I asked.

“Uhm, I would like a bagel,” he said.

“What kind of bun? We have…” I began but he interrupted me by saying: “Surprise me.”

I looked at him a bit stunned. “Oh. Okay. And do you want the filling to be a surprise as well?” I then asked.

“Yes, I would like that.”

I nodded and tried to look like I knew what I was doing, but inside my head was about to explode. I took a look around at the thousands of different vegetables, meats and dressings and started to put some different things in that I knew would go well together; Salmon, brie, salad, cucumber, carrot, parsley dressing…

I was feeling quite nervous as he stood there waiting.


“So, I haven’t seen you here before,” he suddenly said. “How long have you been working here?”

“I just started this morning,” I said politely.

“Oh, then I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to challenge your skills this early…”

“No that’s okay, it’s not that difficult a job it’s just quite stressful sometimes.”

“What’s your name?”

“Uhm. Maja.”

“Hi Maja, I’m Eric. I come here quite often, so I guess you’ll be making me a lot of bagels from now.” He smiled and that was the first time I actually looked at him. He had warm, brown eyes and dark hair. Quite cute actually.


I smiled as I gave him the paper wrapped bagel. “There you go. That’ll be 4.99.”


I received the cash from him and he went out the door again. At this moment Nathalie came back from the staff room and said: “He’s been coming here several times a week for a year now and has been ordering the same chicken bagel every single time. Didn’t know where that behavior came from.” She winked at me, while I didn’t know how to react so I just rolled my eyes at her.

“Do you know where I can find a locksmith?” I asked her to change the subject. “I need to make a copy of a key.”

“Yeah,” she said a bit surprised. “Just turn to the left at Starbucks.” She pointed to the right.



I left Aunt Betty at 15 o’clock and headed towards Starbucks a bit further down Tottenham Court Road and made a right in to a lot smaller street. I found the locksmith and went in there to make the copy.



Half an hour later I found myself in the tube, this time sitting down, feeling completely wiped out. I dragged myself down the streets thinking that it didn’t feel like I was living that close the Marylebone tube station as I’d thought earlier that day.

I walked up the stairs looking forward to see my girls again. I opened the door and walked in to something that was definitely not my apartment.

Notes

They're finally there! London wuhu! And Maja just had her first busy day at work, let's hope she will love working there! :-D
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