I love you, Ian Somerhalder

Three

"Hi there!" Paul said cheerily. After receiving a mere squeak from Amy, he turned to me and smiled.

"Hi." I replied, rolling my eyes. I have to admit, I was slightly intimidated and I thought he was very attractive but I felt like I had to make up for Amy's behavior by keeping my cool. It was difficult but I used all of my willpower and just about managed it.

"Ooh, is that a British accent I sense?" he asked, chuckling slightly at my attempt to act uninterested.

"Yes."

"Kat, Ian!" Paul twisted around to face the other booth excitedly, "Come over here! These girls are British."

Meanwhile Amy came to her senses and whispered for me to be nice. I smirked at her and folded my arms.

Kat agreed and stood up, sitting next to Paul. Ian, on the other hand, simply turned around in his seat to look at us. He could only see the back of Amy's blonde head but looked at me and smiled.

"Hey, Natalie25London!" he exclaimed before immediately getting up and sitting next to me.

Oh my god he remembered!

I scooted over to make more room. All attempts to act cool went down the drain; I was completely and utterly mortified.

"So what's your name?" Kat asked Amy. She had almost returned to her regular self despite the deep breathing and mesmerized look on her face.

"Amy." she replied, smiling.

"And this is Natalie." she gestured to me.

"So.... 25London is your last name?" Ian teased from beside me.

"No, actually it's Shipman" I retorted.

"Well it's nice to meet you both." Paul stated, "Do you mind if we eat with you?"

I opened my mouth to answer but Amy butted in.

"Of course not! That would be great!" She was beaming like I'd never seen her beam before.

I sighed, this was going to be interesting.

Our waitress looked petrified when she came to take their orders. The others only wanted dessert so Amy and I ordered ours too. There was no question on what we were both going to get. I wanted chocolate fudge cake with a large dollop of vanilla ice cream while she went for a stack of pancakes with maple syrup drizzled all over. This was her only weakness - dessert. She called it a "cheat" but I thought she was just bad at keeping diets. When the delicious masterpieces arrived, no one wasted any time in getting stuck in.

We mostly just made small talk, with Amy asking a million questions about life on set and me listening to the conversation more than actually taking part in it. I jumped when I heard Ian Somerhalder's voice in my ear for the second time that day.

"So what do you do for a living?" he murmured.

I turned my head to face him and he didn't move away in time. The close proximity was awkward but I oddly enjoyed it. After a moment of staring into his bright blue eyes, he pulled back, took another bite from his cake and looked at me expectantly.

"I'm currently writing a book to hopefully start a career as an Author. How about you?" I replied. It wasn't until he burst out laughing that I realized what I'd said. I was so stupid. Of course I already knew what he does for a living.

Good one, Nat.

The others looked over at us and I had to tell them what happened. They all laughed with Ian and somewhere along the way I found myself giggling too. We eventually calmed down and everyone went back to their previous conversation.

Soon afterwards, Kat looked at the time and decided it was probably time to go.

I checked my own watch. 21:43.

"Yeah, we should get back to the hotel." I said, glancing at Amy. She nodded in response.

After paying for the bill and waiting while Kat, Ian and Paul took pictures with our waitress, we made our way outside to the car.

Ian placed his hand on my shoulder, guiding me to the exit. The contact with his skin sent shivers running down my spine. I smiled at him.

Once outside, it was time to say goodbye.

Ian pulled me into a stiff hug and I patted his back awkwardly.

"When do you go back to England?" he asked.

"Next week." I replied with a slight sad tone to my voice.

"Oh, well that's too bad." he sighed, "here, give me your hand."

I obliged, confused. He pulled a pen from his pocket and started writing a number on the back of my hand.

"Call me and we can hang out again over the next week. I really enjoyed this evening."

I smiled at him.

"Me too."

After hugging the others, and exchanging a few last words, Amy and I headed back to our car.