His Hired Girlfriend

by Alexia Praks

  Who could Jayden be? She wondered as she took another sip. And how could he help her and her dad?

  She glanced outside through the cafe’s window and saw that it was raining again with a bitter cold wind. She watched as people wearing thick jackets with scarves wrapped around their necks rushed back and forth in a hurry, even though it was a Sunday. She supposed they wanted to get away from the cold wind and rain.

  She glanced at the entrance again. A part of her wanted to see Peter coming through that door but the other part of her didn’t want to see any sign of him at all. She picked up her cell phone to check the time: 2:30pm exactly it said. The tightness in her stomach intensified. Then she felt a breeze of cold air. She glanced up and saw Peter. Her heart skipped a beat. She straightened herself and stood up just a bit to get his attention. That was when she saw him.

  It’s him! Her heart did a triple skip. Then it started to beat faster and faster...

  So he was Jayden? The Mr. Hot-Choc she had spilt tea on? Gosh, she thought, he looked so... non-Kiwi. Not that she was a full Kiwi herself. She was half-blood after all. Her mom had been a refugee Cambodian who had migrated to New Zealand years ago just after the Pol Pot regime. Then her mom had married her dad, a real kiwi bloke to boot, who had been one of the many refugees’ supporters, along with Peter’s mom and dad.

  Peter saw her after a quick scan around the cafe.

  “Hey, Alex,” he greeted as he and Jayden advanced toward her. “How are you?”

  Alex nodded. “Fine, thank you.” She couldn’t help noticing that her voice was shaking just a bit from nervousness.

  “Alex, this is Jayden McCartney,” Peter said, nodding his head toward the handsome man.

  “Hi.” Alex stood slightly, giving him a fleeting smile, avoiding his eyes.

  Jay said, “Hey,” and offered his large hand in the air.

  Alex looked at it as though she had just seen a pig fly. Jay watched her, his hand still in the air. Peter glanced at Alex and then at Jay – waiting to see what would happen.

  Hesitantly Alex put her small, cold hand into his large, warm ones. They shook.

  Jayden thought that her hand was very cold, and it was so small it disappeared in his. She was also too thin for his liking. She still looked plain, wearing those skinny jeans and purple jersey. She must be very cold because she still had her pink scarf on that was wrapped around her neck even in this cosy cafe. Of course pink and purple didn’t really go together, especially in those shades, but he made no comment to that.

  As they took their seats, he saw her snuggling her chin deeper into the thick scarf.

  “Did it come of?” she asked, her voice low, her eyes watching him through her glasses.

  Jayden had just noticed that she was wearing glasses. He didn’t remember her wearing one on Friday or last night. He liked it better when she was not wearing glasses, as he could see her eyes. And last night had been an experience. Once he had spotted her with her friends in the thickness of the crowd in the bar, he had wanted the chance to get to know her. He had no idea what had come over him when he had seen the drunken man trying to take advantage of her. Without thinking, he had shoved the man around and had wanted to bash him senseless. It had only been the fear he had seen in Alex’s chocolaty brown eyes that had stopped him.

  He glanced at Peter and saw his friend eyed him quizzically. He said, “It did.” Not bothering to enlighten his friend of what did come of.

  “Oh good. I was so worried it wouldn’t,” Alex said. In fact she had been worried about his expensive jacket all that Friday afternoon once she had returned to the lab that she weren’t able to concentrate on her work properly.

  That, in actual fact, had not been the only reason. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him, the way he had touched her and the looks he had given her. And soon, of course, she had started daydreaming about meeting him again. Only she hadn’t expected it to be so soon.

  “Don’t worry, it came off,” he confirmed, though he didn’t know how because he hadn’t been the one who had done the cleaning. The washing machine did, and Peter’s mom, Mrs. Thompson the judge.

  “So, Alex, how’s Mom and Dad?” Peter asked.

  “They’re okay,” she replied, avoiding his eyes and fiddling with her hot chocolate. “Hey, don’t you want anything to drink?” she changed the subject.

  Jay could tell that she didn’t like talking about her family. He wondered why. He thought she looked hurt. He thought he could sense a hint of pain, sadness, and frustration in her soft, husky voice. Not a singing voice – just a plain, simple voice –like the rest of her.

  “Yeah,” Peter said, getting up. “What do you want, Jay?”

  “A flat white, thanks,” Jayden replied, resting back in his chair.

  Peter nodded and walked off to the counter to order. Only he wasn’t the first in line because there was a bunch of uni students before him.

  Alex picked up her cup and started to nervously sip the hot chocolate again.

  Jay watched. He thought she suddenly became even more nervous with him studying her. He wondered if she was embarrassed about last night. But then again, he reasoned with himself, she had said that she had lost her contacts and that she hadn’t seen the drunken man coming. That meant that she wouldn’t be able to see him properly either. The look she had given him in that dim corridor said so. Then there was also the fact that she had told her friends she didn’t know him.

  Alex swallowed the warm liquid hard. It nearly choked her. She tried not to make a scene of herself and calm down. ‘He is not going to eat you, you ninny,’ she told herself. ‘Stop acting stupid just because this is the very first time in your twenty five years that a hot guy is sitting right next to you.’ Just as that very thought popped up in her head, she glanced at him and saw him smiling at her – a very sultry one that sent her inside shuddering with excitement. Fireworks! It felt like fireworks going off in her body!

  She lowered her cup and cleared her throat. “Sorry about that tea stain,” she said, as she couldn’t think of what else to say. “I promise it won’t happen again.”

  “Can you guarantee it?” Jay asked playfully, his eyes twinkling.

  She blinked at him. “Say what?”

  “Is it a guarantee?” he repeated.

  “You mean me promising not to spill tea on you?”

  “Yup.”

  “I don’t know. It’s human nature,” she said, not sure where this was going. Of course she would never spill tea on him again. She was never going to see him again anyway.

  Such an odd conversation, she thought, to have with a very hot man. She was pretty sure that when a girl is with a guy like Jay, she’d properly talk about something else. She wasn’t sure what, but she was pretty sure it’s not about spilling tea.

  “Human nature, and therefore, not one hundred percents guaranteed,” Jay said, nodding his head and folding his arms across his chest. “Which means there must be some type of compensation.”

  “A compensation?”

  “Yup,” he said, leaning toward her, his elbow touching hers.

  Alex bit her lip. ‘Calm down, old girl,’ she told herself silently. She tried not to notice too much just how good looking he was, and the fact that he was sitting beside her, very close to her, his elbow touching hers.

  “What do you think?”

  “All right,” she said, glancing at him. “I’ll wash the shirt for you if I were to split tea on you again.”

  Jayden chuckled. “You mean with your hands?”

  Alex loved the sound of his laughter. Suddenly in her world the sun was shinning again in this miserable, winter day. She flashed him a smile. “What about using a washing machine?”

  Jay’s face suddenly became serious. He simply stared at her. He realised right then that her eyes just kind of lit up when she smiled. It was like there was an inner glow that had been waiting for a very long time for the right moment to burst out, right through her eyes.

&n
bsp; He cleared his throat and said, his eyes still fixed on her face, “What if the washing machine destroyed my shirt?”

  “Well,” Alex said as she cocked her head to one side. “I’ll just have to buy you another one. But I can’t guarantee that it’ll be the same one. Maybe similar and cheaper.”

  Jay threw his head back and laughed. “That sounds fine by me.”

  Alex couldn’t help but smile back.

  “Sorry, guys,” Peter said, taking his seat. “Apparently it’s rather busy. It’s going to be a little wait.”

  Alex nodded. Luckily she had come in early because there hadn’t been a lot of people half an hour before. But now, however, the tables were almost filled and there was a long line of people at the counter, waiting for their turns to order. The majority were university students, coming in in groups and the minority were families. It was a Sunday. Town was always busy on a Sunday, even in winter. The three young women and two men at the counter looked hectic, rushing back and forward taking orders and making drinks. She’d hate to see what it was like in the kitchen.

  “So, Pete, how’s your holiday so far,” Alex said. “Did you enjoy Sydney and Queenstown?”

  “Yeah. What about you, missy? Isn’t it about time you get yourself a holiday?”

  “I have been warned.” Alex shrugged. “I have too many annual leaves left.”

  “Sounds like a holiday around the corner,” Peter commented. “Ah, our coffees.”

  The waitress placed two small, white cups in front of them. As she was doing so she eyed Jayden with appreciation. Alex noticed this and glanced around. She saw that almost every female in the café was openly ogling at Jayden. Well damnit! He was good looking. What did she expect?

  “Didn’t take long at all.” Peter handed one to Jay. “Thanks,” he said to the waitress.

  The young woman nodded. Before she left she winked at Jay who just grinned innocently back at her.

  Jay lifted the small cup to his lips and took a sip. He smiled in satisfaction and relaxed back in his chair. He straightened his long legs, and accidentally, he kicked Alex’s. “Oh, sorry about that.”

  “That’s okay,” Alex said, shifting back. “Pete? Can we like talk?”

  “Hmm,” Peter began. “Let’s get on with it then.”

  “No wait,” Jay said to Pete. “I’ll do this.” He turned to Alex.

  Alex glanced from one man to the other, wondering what was going on.

  “Alex, may I call you Alex?” he asked.

  Alex nodded, her eyes on him.

  “Alex, I have a proposal for you. Just think of it like a business term. Actually it’s more like I’m hiring you, an employee,” he said, watching her carefully.

  Alex blinked as she listened, not knowing where this was going. “The problem is I already have a job,” she said, her eyes questioning.

  “Yeah, well, I know that. But this isn’t like a real job.” Jay sighed as though he found it hard to voice what he was about to say next. “I need your help.”

  “What kind of help?”

  “It’s kind of personal. It’s family related.” He leaned toward her. Looking deep into her eyes, he said, “Can you pretend to be my girlfriend?”

  Alex just stared at him. She got the word girlfriend and that was about it. She blinked. “Sorry?’ She had to ask. “I don’t get it. I’m lost.”

  Jay glanced at Peter for help. Pete understood and leaned towards Alex. “Look, Alex, Jay is having a hard time at the moment. His parents, well more like his mum and nanna are demanding that he brings home a girlfriend. Otherwise they’d start match-making him again,”

  “So?” she queried, still not understanding them.

  “So? Alex,” Jay said, “it’s a big deal. I’m simply sick of them trying to sort out my life. I’m thirty.” That last bit he said with an exaggerated frown and a big shrug of his powerful shoulders, which told Alex of how really annoyed he was. “I know we’ve just met, but...”

  Alex looked down at her now almost empty cup. Slowly she began to understand everything. She said, “But what about your real girlfriend?” She did not dare look at him when she asked him that question.

  “We broke up,” he said.

  She studied him then, her eyes questioning him.

  Jay understood her quizzical gaze. “It’s personal.” When he saw her hesitation, he said, “Look I’ll pay you. Like I said, you’re like my employee. I’m hiring you to do this. You just name the price. A hundred thousand?”

  Alex nearly chocked. She blinked. Money! The dollar sign suddenly appeared before her eyes along with the ding, ding, ding that sounded like Scrooge McDuck. She didn’t even buy a lotto ticket and suddenly she was about to get a hundred thousand bucks just like that? If she was to agree to this ridiculous proposal that is.

  Was Jay rich? Well, she didn’t need to ask him that question. She could tell by his expensive clothing and his powerful aura. He walked and acted like he own the world. Well maybe he did – parts of it anyway.

  Suddenly her dad’s heart transplant didn’t seem so out of reach after all. Maybe she could also use the money to pay off the mortgage, and her mum wouldn’t need to work so hard.

  Okay, she thought, so what if she agreed? She licked her lips nervously. “So, erm, what do I have to do to pretend to be your girlfriend. Hypothetically that is, if I were to agree with this, erm, proposal of yours?”

  Peter and Jay glanced at each other. This was good. Her asking question was a sign that she was thinking about the proposal, that she was weighting the pros and cons, and ultimately that she might agree. Jay said, “You know the usual girlfriend stuff. I’ll take you back to New York and introduce you to my family. It’s my sister’s wedding. It’ll only be two weeks max. I promise.”

  “All the way to New York, huh?’ she murmured, her eyes large behind her glasses. Okay, she thought, girlfriend stuff. Intimate stuff like going out dating –movies, dinners, picnic and all – stuff that she wasn’t familiar with. Well considering the fact that she has never had a boyfriend and the fact that she had never dated, she shouldn’t really blame herself for being so ignorance about this boyfriend-girlfriend stuff. But what if she really fell for him when they were fake dating? And then his ex-girlfriend decided to come back into his life? That would sure be a real big problem.

  She glanced at Jay who was watching her, waiting for her answer. No, she thought, it wouldn’t be that hard for her to fall head over heels in love with him. She thought that she was actually starting to do it right now. Oh God, she didn’t want to get hurt. Yeah, Alex might be a romantic – always dreaming about some hot guy like Jay coming into her life and making a difference – but she was also a realist. Nothing like that ever happens in real life, and if it did, there’d sure be a real, big heart-break to follow.

  She pushed her cup away from her and put on her jacket.

  Jay and Peter both watched her. Jay thought she was getting colder. Peter, however, thought differently. He knew she was backing out and there was nothing he could do about it. At least there was nothing he could do right now. But maybe later...

  She picked up her satchel and said, “I’m sorry, Jay, Peter. I don’t think I can help you guys.” She got up and rushed to the door.

  Jay shot up and was about to go after her when Peter caught his arm.

  “What the hell happened?” Jay asked, confused. It wasn’t like he was going to eat her up, for God’s sake, he thought. The girl was truly odd. One minute she was sitting there, listening and questioning them, and then the next – Poof! She was gone.

  “She needs time to think,” Peter said. “The offer is too much for her.”

  “Ludicrous more like it. I think she thinks I’m nuts,” Jayden said, lifting his coffee cup to his lips.

  “Maybe,” Peter commented.

  “So tell me about her,” Jay began, setting his cup down and relaxed back in his seat. “What is she like?”

  “Sweet, innocent, and loyal,” Peter said. “
There, I’ve summed it all up for you.”

  Jay narrowed his eyes. “Very funny, Pete. Has she had any boyfriend before?”

  “Nope. Zippo.”

  Jay cocked his head to one side in thought. “Maybe that’s why she’s scared.”

  “What?” Peter looked at his friend.

  “She’s afraid of men. That explains her nerves around me. She’s probably afraid that I might hurt her. That explains why she has never had a boyfriend. Tell me, has she been abused by any man before?” He was actually thinking about last night. Perhaps that kind of things was common in her life, which explained her nervous around him. Poor girl. She needed a real man to look after her.

  Peter had to try very hard not to laugh in front of his friend’s face. As far as he knew, Alex had a very loving family. Jacob, Alex’s dad, was the best. He loved his wife and children to bits. He was in actual fact very proud of them for the mere fact that they were half-blooded. Maly, Alex’s mom, had lost all of her family and relatives after the war in 1979 back in Cambodia and had been through so much that the mere thought of anyone abusing her children would probably anger her so much she’d kill the bastard herself. No, Peter thought, Alex had never been abused by anyone as far he knew. It was probably more the culture of which her mother had taught her. The Cambodian culture which made Alex the way she was.

  He said, “No, at least I don’t think so.”

  “You have to convince her to help me, Pete,” Jayden said.

  “Me?”

  “You’re close to her. She’d probably run away from me again if I approached her.”

  “You’re right,” Peter agreed.

  “Tell her something that’d soften her heart toward me. Anything.”

  “Anything, huh?” Peter said, nodding his head. He knew just how to go about it. ‘Oh boy this is going to be fun,’ he thought, rubbing his hands together.

  *****

  CHAPTER 4