I was staying at the swankiest hotel in London. Wanted to treat myself to a nice week in one of my favorite cities. See some art exhibits, walk around. It had been too long, at least two years. But for some reason the weather gods decided to rain on my parade. It wasn't just a shower now and then; it was heavy rain coming from a dark, merciless sky. I was going stir crazy and decided to go downstairs to eat instead of ordering room service and watching TV; too depressing. When the elevator doors opened to the lobby, I was going to turn right to the restaurant/bar area, but something caught my eye. Wasn't that Gillian Anderson sitting there in the lobby? I'd always cringed whenever someone gawked at celebs, but here I was, dangerously close to doing just that. So I walked to the bar, cool as ever, not even looking in her direction, sat down and ordered a glass of orange juice.
"You probably think I'm in AA?"
The bartender had probably heard that one a million times before, but he managed a smile.
I sipped my baby booze and closed my eyes. Fucking Gillian Anderson. I chuckled at my Freudian slip and corrected myself under my breath. Gillian Fucking Anderson. What were the odds? Granted, apparently she spent as much time in London as she did in L.A. these days. Still, this was a one in a billion kind of thing.
"Can I buy you a drink?"
Some investment banker or lawyer, not bad looking, but right now he was the wrong gender, plus he had an annoying smirk on his face.
"Thanks, but no thanks."
Thankfully, he wasn't the stalker type and backed off. I didn't have the patience to deal with any bozos right now. I was busy thinking about Gillian Anderson, maybe still sitting right out there in the lobby. I'd taken a long time to warm up to her, never watched the X-Files -- shocker. It wasn't until I saw her in "The Fall" on Netflix in a hotel room one night in New York about three months ago that I discovered how insanely sexy and beautiful she is. It was like falling in love with someone you'd heard of, but had not yet met. And then, boom! Her voice, her mouth, her skin, her eyes, her cheekbones, her hair, her body, the way she moves, the way she looks at the person she's speaking to. Hitchcock would have gone gaga over her, the ice queen, very Grace Kelly but multiplied by a zillion.
"Drinking alone?"