AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Wisconsin. Where's that? Isn't that kind of like in the middle?”
I wasn’t surprised he asked that. He wasn’t the first one since I’d come to England to wonder where Wisconsin was. It wasn’t necessarily one of the more well known states.
“Yes, that's a good way of putting it. I'm from a small town. There's maybe about 10,000 people. I decided I needed to see more of the world, so here I am.”
“Well, that's cool. What brings you to England?”
“I didn’t really know any other languages very well, so I thought England would be safe. I work at the Pediatrics Hospital as a nurse practitioner.”
He whistled. “Wow. Beautiful and smart.”
I felt my face get warm when he grinned at me. “Thanks.” My coffee order was called and I grabbed my cup. “Well, I'll be seeing you around.”
He nodded. “For sure.”
The next couple of days at work were crazy. I put in 16 hour days and was exhausted at the end of every day. I finally had a day off and decided to walk to the coffee shop before going for a walk in the park. When I got there, the photographer was there. I realized I never got his name during our exchange the other day.
He was sitting at a table and it looked like he was editing photos from the Notting Hill Carnival. I peeked over his shoulder. “Wow. You take great pictures.”
He turned around and grinned at me. “Thank you.” He pointed to the screen where it happened to be a picture of me. “It's easy to take good pictures when your subject is beautiful.”
I laughed. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Not really. Can I buy you a coffee? I’m Grayson by the way.” He held out his hand and I shook it, pretending not to notice how nice my hand fit in his.
I paused and looked at my watch. I didn't really have anything else going on today and it was just coffee. “I’m Vanessa and sure, you can buy me a coffee.”
He went up and ordered our coffees, coming back to the table to wait with me, making small talk. He told me how he grew up in the area and has lived here his whole life. I told them what it's like living in a small town in the middle of Wisconsin with only 10,000 people.
As I sat there talking to my new friend, in walked my ex Bill, and along with him came his little harlot parading behind him. She couldn't have been older than 21 with her bleached blonde hair and boobs.
He came over to the table. “Hey, Vanessa, how's it going?” He wrapped his arm around his new girlfriend and hugged her close.
“I'm good. How are you?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“Great. It's our day off and we were just headed to the park.”
I made a mental note to skip the park today to stay as far away from him as I could. “Fabulous.” I plastered a fake smile onto my face. He paused and looked over at my new friend. “This is Grayson. He's my new boyfriend.” I paused; what the fuck did I just say? I had no idea where that came from. Grayson's mouth opened a little in surprise, but he recovered nicely.
Grayson put out his hand to shake the doctor’s. “Hi, nice to meet you.”
I looked up and I could see the shock on Bill’s face. I couldn’t help but feel a little smug. As far as he knew, I had moved on.
“Oh, nice to meet you, Grayson. Well, we gotta get going. We'll see the two of you at the hospital fundraiser. Right?”
Grayson nodded enthusiastically. “For sure. We can’t wait.”
Bill and his girlfriend walked out and I put my head in my hands with a groan. I had no no idea what I was doing. I don't know why I introduced Grayson as my boyfriend. I had just met him. Sure I'd seen around. We talked a couple times, but I barely knew him. And now I was telling the doctor that he was my boyfriend.
I was thankful that he was so kind and would definitely owe him big time for going along with my little lie.
4
GRAYSON
Ihad no idea what the fuck just happened but somehow this beautiful woman sitting across from me in her tiny tank top and tiny shorts was now my girlfriend. Sure it was fake, but I would be proud to have her on my arm. You can bet I was gonna make sure we went to that hospital fundraiser so I could have an evening with her. I guess I could ask her out, but what would a pediatric nurse practitioner want with a photographer like me?
“I’m so sorry.” She leaned forward and whispered as soon as the man left with his girlfriend. “I don't know what I was thinking and telling him that you were my boyfriend. I opened my mouth and that’s what came out.”
