A Night at the Royal Albert Hall
Chapter 1
With Christmas fast approaching, Sandra and Max were now back in the UK. He had thoughtfully bought them two tickets online for one of Andre Rieu's Christmas concert performances at the Royal Albert Hall.
The couple strolled through Heathrow together, hand in hand. The two of them looked so in love. "Oh it's good to be back" Sandra declared once they made their exit from the airport.
Her hair had grown half a length. Today she was now wearing a white festive jumper, blue denim jeans and red bubbly coat, to help keep her warm.
"Where would you like to visit first?" Max asked .
He was pleased to see her delighted and beautiful response, at being back in the UK. The tone of his French accent was certainly irresistibly sexy and pleasantly charming to listen to, this made Sandra realize just how lucky she was to have a very handsome boyfriend in Max.
"UCOS. I need to catch up with my boys." She responded. In a matter of minutes, they were able to catch a taxi outside the main entranceway of the airport's taxi bay.
"May I ask you? why UCOS? Wouldn't you rather us booking into one of the hotels first and then maybe grabbing something to eat instead. Then maybe later this afternoon, we could go there then." Max asked, out of curiosity.
"Actually I've got something important, I'd like to ask both Gerry and Steve." She hinted.
xxxx
"Sandra emailed me the other night, said her and Max are spending Christmas in London. According to her, his sister lives in Camden."
Out of the blue, Gerry had decided to broadcast this happy information. At least to him, he felt glad to hear from her. They hadn't kept in touch for over a month. So it seemed sensible enough, for one of them to email the other, especially what with Christmas coming up soon.
Steve soon cottoned on to the real reason behind why, his friend had suddenly decided to mention this now. "Oh and you just so happen to fancy the idea of inviting yourself to Max's sister house on Christmas Day, do you Gerry?"
"No, of course not. If you must know, I'm spending Christmas Day and Boxing Day at Paula's house, but then again I was thinking I could go and pop into Camden to visit Sandra while she and him are at Max's sister house on the 27th." Gerry said.
"Now why doesn't that surprise me to hear. No doubt you'll flirt for England, once you set your eyes on her. Let's just so hope, she knows what she's letting herself in for, eh pal." Steve curiously suggested.
Gerry knew exactly what sort of funny game, his outspoken Scottish friend was attempting to play with him and quite frankly he wasn't going to let him, get the upper hand because of it. "I should be saying the same for you too, well you do like flirting for Scotland, from what I've seen."
"Well at least I have all the charisma and the best chat up lines, that a woman maybe searching for in her dream man." Both men argued their case and seeing as nobody else was in the office at that moment. Decided to set one another a challenge.
However before the two of them got the chance devise a few, well thought out challenges for each other. Sandra walked in unexpectedly, and surprised her two friends. Although they both looked pleased to see her again, the fact that the two of them didn't even bother to get up from their chairs, made her wonder what was afoot in the office.
"Well is no one going to ask me, why I'm here, a couple days earlier than expected? Gerry? Steve?...Right who started it?"
"We haven't started anything...well to be honest, me and Steve are just getting bit too competitive, I guess that's all." Gerry told her.
He then got up from his chair and walked across the office, they gave each other an hug. "So how's things going with the War Crimes Squad? How many cases have you solved, while you've been there?"
She laughed to herself, she could tell he hadn't changed one bit since she left last year. He still had the annoying habit of asking too many questions, without thinking first. "Okay, one question at a time Gerry."
"Where's Max?" Steve asked.
"Oh he's booking us into Dorchester for a few nights, then we're going to be staying at his sister's house, from Christmas Eve to 2nd January." Today was the 20th, so Max was booking them into this hotel for the next four days and four nights.
"Ooooh fancy" Gerry grinned, showing off a bit of old school cheekiness.
"Shut up Gerry!...The War Crimes Squad is doing brilliantly at the moment. We've solved 150 cases in the last 11 months." She revealed some interesting facts about how her first year of her new job had gone from strength to strength.
"Wow that's...that's very impressive." Steve expressed his surprise after hearing this.
They pulled away after sharing their pleasant hug but remained standing alongside one another.
"So why are you here then?" Gerry asked her. He raised his left eyebrow and looked curious, regarding her early homecoming arrival for Christmas in London.
"Well the reason why I'm here, talking you at this certain moment is because I'd love to invite you both to come with me and Max, to the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow night. We're going to see Andre Rieu's last performance of the year there."
"Really? I don't know what to say." Steve felt a bit lost for words. Classic music wasn't one of his favourite types of music, but hey ho, perhaps it was worth agreeing to go to the concert tomorrow night.
"I thought you were going to say you were getting married and you wanted me to give you away at your wedding." Gerry embarrassingly had misread her signals and blurted out what he thought, she might have actually been wishing to tell him and Steve, in confidence.
"Not quite yet. If I did want to ask you that Gerry, I'd be emailing you my happy news as soon as possible. So back to answering my question. What do you reckon? are the two of you in or out on going to Andre Rieu concert?"
"Alright I'll go, dress up in style" Steve smiled, as he agreed to come to the concert.
"I'll come too." Gerry was happy to accept the invitation.
Celebrating Christmas in one big style was always one way Gerry preferred doing. - Getting multiple chances to sing Xmas songs on the Karaoke and taking the grandchildren to the nearest outdoor Ice Skating rink were a few of his favourite highlights he liked doing this time of year.
xxxxx
Esther was planting seeds in the back garden, while Brian was typing on his computer as he usually did everyday. Today he had kept himself busy, by typing up the last few sentences of Chapter 3 of his first crime novel, which he'd named Inside the Mind of a Good Detective. He had based the lead character DI Harry Andrews on himself and created three other characters - Melanie Stewart, DCI Stephen Standing & DS Robbie McGregor.
As a matter of fact, he had also based these devised fictional characters on Sandra, Gerry and Steve.
Just then there was a knock on the letterbox, Brian abandoned the computer for a few seconds and went to go and answer the door. He assumed it would probably be one of those nuisance door salesman selling something or handing leaflets out. Perhaps it might be British Gas/Scottish Power people, who were trying to sweet talk residents into switching the gas/energy to one of these particular companies.
Before he opened the door, he caught a glimpse of the person standing on the other side of it. When he did get round to answering the door, he greeted Sandra with a joyful smile.
"So good to see you again. What brings you back to London?" He asked her on the front doorstep.
"Max wants to spend Christmas at her sister's house in Camden and he's also bought me and him tickets to see Andre Rieu in concert at the Royal Albert Hall."
"That sounds brilliant. Esther's a fan of his music."
"Is she?"
"Yes, she's had me listening to his latest album."
"How would you feel, if I invited you and Esther, come with me and Max to the concert tomorrow night. That's if you haven't got anything planned." Sandra came out and asked her cheerful friend.
"No we haven't...We'll be there...You said Max bought two tickets, didn't you?" Brian confirmed that he and Esther would clearly love to attend the concert.
She revealed something to him, which she didn't mention to Gerry and Steve back at the UCOS office. "Yes he did. Then again, I sneaked onto his computer when he wasn't looking and purchased four more tickets."
"How very sneaky of you...I'm guessing Gerry and Steve are coming to the concert as well?" Brian asked her.
"Gerry said, he wouldn't miss it for the world." She smiled, obviously she was lying of course.
"Do you fancy coming in for a tea?" He asked.
"No sorry I can't. I meeting Max for a coffee in Piccadilly Circus. I promise I'll bring him around and introduce the both of you, tomorrow morning." Sandra pledged she would definitely do this. The two friends shared a hug before she eventually left.
End of Chapter
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