Read Online Shopping With the Enemy by Carmen Reid - Free Book Online Page A

kind of inspirational image Elena and Gracie would want.
    Lana held up her phone then hit zoom because she didn’t really want the cool dude in the hat to know she was taking his picture. She looked at the screen and saw a pattern which made her eyes widen: black with a pink and orange stripe?
    She looked up and saw Parker – right at the table with the man in the hat – looking straight at her. It was such a heady surprise she fumbled her phone in fright, letting it fall with a clatter. She dropped down to pick it up. When she glimpsed up through her hair, hoping Parker hadn’t noticed, he was waving in her direction.
    Lana put the phone into her bag and took a calming breath. He was a cool guy so she would have to play it cool too. She would just go over and say hello. No big deal.
    As she approached his table, she set a smile on her face and tried to give off the natural born confidence of a New York girl.
    ‘Hey,’ Parker called out.
    ‘Hey,’ she replied.
    ‘You meeting someone here?’
    She shrugged and said: ‘Maybe later’ … proud that her voice sounded incredibly close to casual even if her heart was beginning to race. ‘Right now I’m just walking about, getting inspired. Can I take a picture of your friend? I’m crazy about his hat.’
    She gave the guy with the green hair her charm offensive smile.
    ‘Fabian, you have to meet—’ Parker began.
    ‘Lana,’ she said, holding out her hand.
    ‘I know, you don’t have to tell me,’ Parker said with a lazy grin, ‘So do you have a blog where we can see your photos?’ he asked.
    ‘Not yet … but I might set one up.’
    ‘You should. I’d love to see them. “Lana from London’s blog.” Think about it. Fabian, Lana really is from London, how cool is that?’ Parker asked.
    ‘Honoured to meet you,’ Fabian said in a deep, drawling voice as he extended his hand.
    ‘Fabian is from the South and he’s working a whole Truman Capote but with green hair kind of thing,’ Parker added. ‘Would you like to sit down and have a drink with us? We’re only drinking lemon tea, because we both have to work later.’
    ‘Lemon tea would be lovely,’ Lana said, pulling up the chair between them and trying to keep the grin across her face under some semblance of control.
    ‘
Lovely?
Now, isn’t that so English and so pretty?’ Fabian asked. ‘You’re probably related to Kate Middleton, right?’
    Lana laughed: ‘I don’t think so!’
    ‘OK, so let’s call the waitress over and order you a tall lemon tea, then you can tell us all about London,’ Parker said, ‘which we love by the way and want to move to like tomorrow …’
    ‘Really? But New York is better, so way better,’ Lana promised.
    ‘But this is how it is,’ Parker said, turning his lively eyes on her: ‘you’ve lived in London, you know London, so you love New York. We know New York, so we want something new and we can’t wait to move to London.’
    ‘In London, right now, it may be May but it is cold and rainy,’ Lana warned. ‘No one is sitting outside sipping at lemon teas, believe me.’
    ‘Right, but in New York we have the coldest winter you can imagine for six months of the year,’ Fabian countered.
    ‘Who cares about weather?!’ Parker exclaimed. ‘Forget weather! You have the East End. Every artist, every photographer I’ve ever heard of lives or exhibits or creates art in the East End.’
    ‘But you have Brooklyn and Willamsburg and NoHo,’ Lana reminded them, ‘and trust me, New York is way cooler.’
    ‘Do you think you’ll stay in New York or move back to London?’ Parker asked.
    ‘No contest, I’m staying in New York,’ Lana declared, ‘even though my mum’s trying to get me to go back and even live at home again. As if!’
    ‘Uh-oh … know all about that,’ Fabian sympathized: ‘my hair was the final straw. I still don’t know if it’s because she didn’t dig the grassy green or because I ruined not just one but three white towels in