The diner has been a little less crowded than usual, and Rue and I have been getting the chance to chat more. All of my co-workers knew about me being admitted to the hospital because of which Dean gave me off for two whole days, the happiest days of my life. No one knew the actual reason I was in the hospital for, everyone knows the lie that I and Audreya told Dean⎼me having severe stomach aches.
I was standing with my back on the counter table chatting with Rue, gossiping to be precise. "…And then he pulled me towards him." My eyes widened hearing about her love life, and I let out a dramatically shy gasp. "He did not. What god do you pray to, lady?" She has the best possible love life I ever came across in my whole life.
We were still chatting, and giggling when the familiar sound of the bell rang in our ears making us both stand straight. Customers started to enter and it got crowded in no time. With so many customers, a familiar guy entered whom I didn't notice until he came to me.
"Welcome to Dean's, what can I get for you?" Just when I stopped and looked up at him, I couldn't help but notice his strange all-black outfit as if he was about to rob someone. He had black jeans on with a black T-shirt, and a black leather jacket on top. His half face was covered with the black mask, and the other half was covered with a black baseball cap.
He suddenly started to remove the mask, guess he sensed my discomfort with his strange outfit.
At that moment I realized it was none other than the one and only, Christian Larsen. "What are you doing here?" I didn't realize my voice was so loud until Rue let out a fake cough to bring me back from the trance, except I wasn't in any. "How did you know I worked here?"
"I have my ways." He shrugged his shoulders as if it was the easiest thing he could do.
"I wanted to talk to you."
"You could've called me." I leaned myself on the counter so that only he could hear what I was saying.
"I didn't have your phone number."
"Such a nice way to ask a girl for her phone number, Isn't it?" I let out an exasperated scoff. "Why didn't your 'ways' help you with my number?"
I was so blinded by his annoyance that I didn't even realize people were waiting behind him until Rue nudged me. Thanks to her, she asked all the waiting customers to join her counter to give me time to settle. "You have to order something." I insisted as I saw Dean looking at me deadly from the corner of my eye as if he was going to kill me the second this diner would close. "Fine, I'll get a coffee." I nodded.
"Coffee coming right up." In no time I started preparing his coffee. He sat comfortably on the counter chair continuously looking at the way when I was making his coffee. Does he think I might poison him? I mean I might, but not when Dean's glowering at me. I can't just put my job at stake for him. He again tried to get me into the argument and won. He could screw up with my mind like no other. When both of us couldn't shut up, Dean came to take matters into his own hands, but his tone changed from infuriating to weirdly polite when Christian removed half of his mask for Dean to recognize him. "Mr. Larsen, what a pleasure meeting. What brought you here, tonight?" To my surprise, they knew each other already, I didn't know people could change just by his appearance. The respect and admiration he got was exactly what I had always dreamt of, and I'll work my ass off to achieve everything one day. "Go and help Rue, I'll take it from here." From the moment he saw Christian, he became extra polite. Scared too.
God knows what this stupid Larsen has in himself that made people swoon over him, even my boss. Thankfully not me.
As I was getting ready to leave, Christian spoke up. "Actually," I couldn't see his face because of the mask and the baseball cap he was wearing, but I could tell he had a dangerously calm face and his voice was more professional than polite, "She was doing her job quite impeccably." Huh?
Did he just praise me? I couldn't believe my ears, so I shifted my gaze to Dean. He still had the face of the scared cat and hardly managed a nod. He shifted giving me back my place, patted my shoulder, and muttered an 'of course'. "I'll leave you to her capable hands." His new behavior gave me chills. I folded my arms around my torso, "If you won't start talking I'm going to pour a smoothie right over your head." I blended a smoothie, just in case I opt to forgo soaking him, I'll savor it.
"How about we take a walk outside?" The diner was normally crowded at the moment, but there were still people around. I understood his statement correctly, so I asked Rue to help and take it from there, which she did, and Christian and I walked outside with the smoothie.
After his long, and chaotic talk, I stood straight with my arms folded around my torso while my right foot tapped on the ground every now and then. "Let me get this straight, you want me to be your fake girlfriend in front of your family because you lied to them about having one." I pointed my index finger to my forehead, "What do you think is written here, stupid or desperate?" He had a look of bold professionalism but I was not scared of him. He had removed his mask and we both stood in front of each other on the street right next to the café.
"My mother had been trying to tie me up with her friend's daughters, so I lied that I already was with someone. However, you're the only girl I have ever talked to."
"What about Nailea?"
"When did you see me talking to her?" His statement made me splash into a deep thought, and I realized that he was right. "I'm quite surprised hearing from you that you've never talked to a girl before."
"So, what do you think?" He asked.
"It's your problem, handle it yourself." I rolled my eyes and was about to turn around to leave until he decided to speak, again.
"I knew you would say no, so I have an offer." Offer? What am I a dealer? "How about you help me and in exchange, I'll help you with a job at LGC? This way we'll both be even." I was in desperate need of a job, a nice paying internship, but how did he know? "I'll also make sure you get a nice amount of advance." I looked at him with suspicion in my eyes.
"Are you bribing me?"
"I'm helping you. So what do you think now?" He was staring at me as if he was staring deep into my soul which was excruciating. I couldn't deny the offer, but I couldn't help him lie to his whole family either, it would be absurd. After two minutes of complete uninterrupted silence, he decided to dismantle my patience again. "I'm afraid this offer only lasts till the next five minutes, so, tick tock." Are you kidding me? Asking me for a life-changing decision and not giving me time to think it through, how is this fair? I sat at the side old rusty bench, carving my fingernails into my palms⎼it's the reason I don't grow them out long because sometimes I end up carving them with such force that makes them bleed, even unintentionally while thinking.
"Alright," He was sitting right beside me, using his phone and his face snapped up just as that one word left my mouth. "I'll do it, but not because I'm short on cash or in need of advance, okay?" I thought his lips turned to a downward smile until he cleared his throat. "Also, no need for the advance, I'll be okay with my normal salary." He shook his head, stood up, and straightened the collar of his leather jacket.
"There is a party you need to be at, tomorrow, as my girlfriend, at my place."
"Fake girlfriend. And just send me the details, and I'll be there."
What kind of facade did he get me in? I gave him my number and left. Rue asked me a lot of questions about- Who was he? Why was he? And How was he? Well, she thought he was my boyfriend to which I practically puked.
My shift ended fifteen minutes after and I spilled all the beans. Her face showed a pinch of shock but her eyes displayed something else, as if she was pretending the shock.
At night when I was lying on my bed, reading my bedtime chapters, I got distracted by a notification on my phone.
Unknown: Hey, Josette.
Me: Who's this?
Unknown: Just checking if the number was right :)
The idiot Larsen brother. I didn't reply further because sleep got over me.
The next day, while walking alongside Evelyn in the halls of Norside, I was wearing a black, long-sleeved fleece turtleneck and black straight-leg jeans when Christian approached me. "Hey," Without a doubt, I could tell he was in distress as soon as he approached me. It was unmistakable as his face was tense and he appeared to have been running towards me.
"Hey back." I smiled looking at him, still walking. I held my novel in one hand and the strap of the tote bag with academic books in the other. I could sense that Evelyn's behavior turned quite peculiar. She seemed confused and lost by how Christian came by my side as if there was something more to it than just a simple greeting. "What are you doing now?" He asked and all I could think was such bad timing, idiot Larsen. I knew Evelyn wouldn't say a thing because it's just who she is. But she would ask me later on and I didn't want to tell her anything about the past few days. She seemed a bit off lately and I just don't want her to stress more. "I, uh, I don't think I have any classes for the next two hours," I stated and looked at Evelyn for confirmation. She just nodded in agreement. Christian shook his head too.
Just as he was about to say something further, I turned to him widening my eyes while making a⎼It's pretty awkward with Evelyn being here and you're not being your usual self⎼face. He didn't get it because then he made a⎼what⎼face.
"I was going to get some coffee, do you want some?" Bad timing number two, idiot Larsen. At this point, I could declare a little kid being smarter than him. "Uh, Evelyn, would you like one?" I asked her. She shook her head in no. "I could have one." I turned to him waving my right hand in the air. "Actually, can I come with you?" If I hadn't looked at him, I probably wouldn't have noticed that he made a different and weirdly exciting face which disappeared in the next second.
"Evelyn, will you be okay on your own? I could use some air." I asked her the first part in a normal voice but whispered the last one, so only she could hear, which she did and shook her head again. "I got to go, I have a class in like five minutes." She spoke and left after I nodded.
Christian and I walked towards his car, it was different than the one I saw yesterday.
"How many cars do you have?" I inquired while gently caressing the door panel. His face snapped and his siren honey eyes looked into mine. "It's just, that the car you had yesterday was black and this one is white. I'm sorry I don't know anything about cars, not even their models." I shrugged. He called me broke probably in all the possible languages there were in this whole universe. He awkwardly slightly shook his head, he does that a lot. I shouldn't have asked that question though, it's probably weird asking a rich guy about the cars he owns, or maybe it isn't that weird, maybe it's just who he is, a weird guy himself.
I sat inside the luxurious white Mercedes Benz E300 whose car seat would cost more than my kidneys, and fastened the seat belt. As I sat inside his car, the first thing I did was sniffle my surroundings. He looked at me and chuckled. "What?" I looked at him with raised eyebrows, not so politely requesting him for answers and he shook his head in 'no'.
"This isn't your car, is it?" He again looked at me with suspicion on his face. "It smells like lavender. You don't smell like lavender. You smell like cinnamon." I thought I just noticed a little grin on his face, "You got a sharp nose, don't you?" I shifted my gaze without saying anything towards the quiet parking lot. "It's Noah's." He spoke.
"Noah likes Lavender? It's very feminine of him. I've never seen guys liking floral scents."
"How many guys do you know, may I ask?" His voice was more bold and dominant.
"No, you may not."
I was so mesmerized by such beauty that I couldn't stop touching it and feeling it. It all felt like I was in an actual dream. I never thought I would get a chance to sit with Christian Larsen in one of his lavish cars.
We didn't talk about anything because I was so enchanted by the magnificent beauty I was sitting in. I didn't realize that I was so hypnotized by the car that Christian sneaked a few glances at me. "What?" I raised my left eyebrow in questioning. "You smell me." It was more like a statement than a question, and his voice was more sarcastic than usual. His gaze stuck to the road with one hand on the steering wheel. "Don't flatter yourself." I rolled my eyes.
"You smell me." His tone changed to as if he was proud of me smelling him, gross. "What else is the purpose of a nose?" He took a quick glance at me and then shifted it back to the road. He's annoying, extremely annoying.