“Justin!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t even recognize you!”
“Good,” he replied, sounding satisfied. “That means my disguise is working.”
“Where are the others?” she asked.
“We couldn’t all decide on one thing to do,” he explained. “So we pretty much just split up and went off on our own. Are you here all by yourself?”
“Yeah, I didn’t have anyone to come with me. I’m in London on my own.”
“You don’t have any assistants or anything?” he asked.
“Nah, I’m not that pretentious,” she giggled. At the look on his face, she faltered. “Oh, I didn’t mean to offend you! It’s not that it’s pretentious to have assistants, I just meant… I mean… I just…”
“Don’t worry, I know you didn’t mean to offend me,” he cut her off. “I know you were just joking.”
“Okay, good,” she smiled, eliciting one from him in return. She then gestured to the CDs, “I guess I’d better go pay for these now.”
“Okay,” he replied.
“I’ll see you tommorrow, I guess. Thanks for helping me pick these up.” She gave him a small smile, then started making her way once more towards the registers.
“Audrey!” Justin called, surprising himself.
“Yes?” Audrey turned around, just as surprised as he was.
“Well, since we’re both out here by ourselves, wouldn't it make more sense if we, you know… hung out together,” he suggested, a bit stiltedly.
“Sure,” she replied, after a small hesitation.
“Great!” he replied. “Here, let me help you with those.” He took some of the CDs from her arms and led the way to the front of the store. “Belle & Sebastian?” he asked, reading the name off of one of the CDs. “Who’re they?”
“They’re a great little Scottish band,” she replied. “One of my favourites.”
“What do they sound like?” he asked.
“They’re very soft, folkish. A lot like Simon & Garfunkel. I’ll have to play them for you sometime.”
“Okay,” he agreed, not really sounding very interested.
Audrey quickly paid for her CDs and they left the store, wandering aimlessly around Picadilly for a little while before deciding they needed some direction.
“Where should we go?” Justin asked.
“Why don’t we go to Trafalgar Square?” Audrey suggested. “It’s pretty close, and I want to feed the pigeons!”
“Sure,” Justin agreed, and the two headed off at a brisk pace, making idle chit-chat along the way.
Within minutes they were at Trafalgar Square. Audrey immediately left Justin as she raced for one of the vendors selling pigeon feed. She gave the man 20 pence and accepted the tiny plastic container filled with birdseed that he gave her in return. She sprinkled a bit of the feed on to her hand, and held it out, and within moments she had two birds perched tamely on her arm, pecking at the seeds.
“You love this, don’t you?” Justin asked, observing her animated face as she watched the birds.
“Oh yeah!” she replied. “I can’t believe how tame the birds are! They would never do anything like this back in Toronto.”
“Toronto? Is that where you’re from?”
“Well I’m originally from St. Catharines, which is a small town between Toronto and Niagara Falls, but right now I’ve got an apartment in Toronto as it’s much closer to the airport and I’ve been doing a lot of travelling lately.”
“How do your parents feel about that?” he asked.
“Probably the same way yours do about you being away from home all the time,” she returned. “They don’t like it, but they’re very supportive and understanding of my decisions.” She looked down and realized that all the birdseed had disappeared from her hand, as well as the cup she was holding, and a small smile graced her face. “Shall we go get some more?”
“Yes!” Justin exclaimed, and the pair raced back to the vendor to purchase more birdseed.