Too Close, Too Fast

Unspoken Truths

Vanessa

October 6

Yes, I am genius! Every part of my plan worked perfectly! I don’t mean my BIG plan to start seeing Nick and letting him fall in love with me, but the smaller one – the operation  “getting rid of the competition”, in this case Kirstie. The research about the fashion designer paid off – I pretended I am fan of Carrie Robinson’s work when I “ran into her” (on purpose, of course) on the airport. She was coming from Italy and had a lot of baggage that I was more than happy to help her with. She was grateful and hired me basically on the spot as her assistant. The next day I started working for her - I had to quit my waitressing job and the money’s not that great either but it has an upside. I am Kirstie’s co-worker now. Unfortunately she’s always bossing me around but I have to survive it. In exchange I gained a lot of new knowledge about her. She’s so self-centered that it wasn’t even that hard to get her to start talking about her personal life with me....

And now? William is here! It was incredibly hard for me to hide my happiness and satisfaction when he showed up here in the studio. I really hoped my phone call would get him to come but I wasn’t sure. I was just about to leave when he came (and I recognized him from a photo from his f*******:) but I quickly changed plans – sat down at my table and pretended that I am buried in paperwork. I was acting like I hadn’t even noticed him but the truth is, I’ve been carefully observing the situation...

He and Kirstie hugged and kissed but then she excused herself and left him there alone. Poor lonely boy... I guess she was feeling guilty about her affair (and she should be!!!) but she didn’t seem very happy about her fiancé’s arrival. I knew what I had to do next – make Kirstie jealous of William. Yeah, maybe she’s into my Nick now, but if she sees somebody else wants to steal HER guy, she will quickly come around and try to fight over him. At least I hope she will. I mean, Will is definitely not my type – yes, he’s young, handsome and as I know from the internet – pretty rich, or should I say... loaded with money. But he seems like a softie... Nick is a real man – taller, stronger, more confident!

Never mind, now William noticed me – at last! Ok, Vanessa, I mean, Natalia now… time for your next move. Smile and be attractive. Go to him and be nice and flirt with him. “Hello, I am Natalia. Can I help you?” Yeah, I really love my new name and identity. I wasn’t sure at first but every time I introduce myself as Natalia, people seem to be smitten immediately. So did William. I let him explain who he is and what he was doing here (even thought I knew) and then I pretended like he told me something new and interesting. “Oh, William! Yes, Kirstie has told me SO MUCH about you. I am so glad to see you finally in person! Wow, you look even better than in photos that she showed me!” Blah blah blah...

“Too bad Kirstie didn’t mention that you would come to visit her!” I played my part well, acting like I know nothing. He kindly explained it was a surprise for her. “Wow, you’re amazing boyfriend! What a nice gesture.” Flattery, compliment and a little flirting on top – and you get a guy just in the place you need him to be.

I let him babble about his trip and boy, was he boring! Finally, I noticed that Kirstie is approaching us. I pretended I couldn’t’ see her and laughed nonchalantly, as if William were actually interesting and charming. I also touched his arm a little, so Kirstie would feel threatened. She didn’t seem as angry as I had hoped, but I still could see she was bothered. “Thank you for keeping MY William company,” she said and practically dragged him away from me. He seemed happy that she was finally paying him some actual attention. That’s why he probably didn’t even complain and just waved at me, while they were leaving... YES! Now Kirstie will mind her own guy and Nick will be free from her power. I should probably prepare myself for the other part of my master plan. Better fast than sorry, right? I can’t let another b**** try to steal my love...

***

Kirstie

I am still not sure what to do, but I realized that I have to start act nicely to William again, no matter what. It was really sweet of him to show up here in New York, I guess. I was pretty tired but I invited him out for dinner. I figured out some pasta will make me feel little better. I wasn’t totally wrong, so it was a nice evening after all. William seemed to understand when I explained my life here is basically just work (oh and s*x with strangers? oh come, Kirstie, stop thinking like this!) and I gladly let him to do most of the talking that night. He was telling me all the news from London, how the preparations for the wedding are going (ok, I may have ‘gone deaf’for a little while there) and he also told me about his friend, who he met in a flower shop. I am so glad he has found a friend, even though it is a woman. I am not jealous at all, because I am the bad guy in this story. He would never cheat on me.

Plus William didn’t use to have a lot of friends –I don’t know exactly why. Maybe it’s because he’s gentler than most men are, so he doesn’t really have that much in common with them. He’s not interested in sports, doesn’t enjoy drinking beer (and actually he hardly ever drinks more than just a celebratory glass of wine or champagne) and I guess he’s too much of a romantic. William tries his best at work at the family business (big corporation which sells really famous soda and some snacks as well), talks a lot about art, theatre and literature (ok, that was part of his charm for me – he’s so intelligent and knowledgeable that you can spend literally hours talking with him) and believes in great love stories.

Even as his best man for the wedding, William chose his brother Peter rather than a random friend. I get it – family is really important for William. But if I’m being honest, I find Peter really obnoxious – he is a snob, an elitist and a self-centered bighead, who is interested only in himself. Every time I met him, I was just wondering, how it is even possible that he and William are brothers... or even related at all. They are different as day and night. Peter is the older brother, so William looks up to him and idolizes him a lot too. In William’s eyes Peter is the smarter one, the better looking one, the more successful one. I just don’t understand why – Peter is smart in his own way, but more sly than intelligent to me. He’s always trying to be the best at everything, make more money and find more women to sleep with. Last two years he’s even trying to succeed in politics. So, I guess he’s after power too. Ok, enough about Peter, I am just glad he didn’t come here with William as well. Two ‘Princes’ is more a horror movie than a fairy tale for me. Haha.

Back to the important part – after dinner I dragged William to see some of my favourite places here in the City – he was happy we can spend time together. And me? I was trying to buy me some time, before I decide what I’m gonna do about this mess.

We’ll continue this personal tour on weekend and if I am lucky enough and everything will go smoothly, I will forget about Nick after a while. It was nothing more than a mistake that won’t happen again. I just hope I won’t have dreams about that night with Nick again... I can’t get that great s*x from my mind.