A Love Not Mine

A date with Richard

"Okay, tell me everything I need to know before dating Richard Randall." Said Paris. Her mother looked at her surprised and at the same time happy. Payton was smiling happy that her sister had agreed to help her. "Right away Paris" answered Payton with the same smile on her face.

After hours of listening, learning and reflecting on what Payton had taught and told her, Paris felt that she was finally ready to meet her sister's fiancé or should I say, her fiancé. The three of them were sitting on Payton's bed when Mr. Moore came in with a smile on his face.

"Payton dear," he started, "The doctor has called and said that a chance has come. You've found a donor." The twins and their mother were so overjoyed that they did a group hug. "Now I can have my sight back" said Payton cheerfully. "Yes dear. He said that by the evening he will have provided us with the needful information about how everything will go" added Mr. Moore.

That evening, Paris was sitting in the living room as she waited for Richard. According to the clock hanging there in the living room, it was 5:50 and Richard was supposed to pick her at six. Even though she had practiced a lot, she was still nervous and every now and then she would take a deep breath to feel at ease.

She was wearing a red satin dress and on her neck, a mole had been painted there to fully resemble her sister.At six sharp, a grey Porsche pulled up in their driveway. Richard got out of the car and went to ring the bell. Paris opened the door as Richard rang and there he was standing and smiling at her. He gave her a hug and though she was supposed to act as Payton, she still felt guilty to be hugging someone else's fiancé like that.

"So how is my princess Toni doing?" asked Richard cheerfully. 'So he even does call her Toni', thought Paris.

"Good as I'll ever be now that you are here!" answered Paris but this felt mentally awkward.

She was afraid that if she kept looking him in the eyes, he would find out that this was not Payton, so she went towards the car door and opened it. She didn't see Richard coming, so when she turned to ask him if he was not coming, she saw a surprised Richard with a grin on his face, "Did you just open the door for yourself?"

She immediately remembered her sister's words earlier,

"Payton Moore does not open the door for herself with her fiancé around. And that's the beauty of it."She smiled and said, "Yeah right! I must have woken up on the left side of the bed" and then she entered the car quickly and took a breath of relief as he saw Richard coming on the other side of the car and they drove off.When they stopped, Paris turned to look at a fancy enormous building in which they were headed too. They went inside and there she saw a lot of people seated at different tables.

The room was spacious, so even though there were many tables, it was not crowded. Clinging of glasses and low chatters of happy people was what could be heard. This felt peaceful not like the restaurants that she used to go to which were loud and crowded. Her family was not poor but they were not that rich to afford such deluxe restaurant.

She did admit that even though money was not everything but being able to afford and enjoy such luxuries did feel good."You are amazingly too quiet today" Richard's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

She only managed to smile and at the moment a young man came towards them. Richard looked at him and said, "I made a reservation for Richard Randall. A table for two."

The young man smiled and said, "Certainly sir. This way please". He stretched out his hand for them as he led the way. Their table was somewhere in the middle of the room and as they walked towards it, some people kept glancing at them and some of them even murmured to each other as they looked at them.

'Well, I guess this comes with being Richard Randall's fiancé, one of the richest bachelors in the city', thought Paris and mentally shrugged off the nervousness these people's glances were bringing her.

Eventually, they reached to their table and Richard pulled a chair for her to sit. 'Such a gentleman!', she thought as she sat on the chair. When they were both settled down, the same young man handed them a menu each.

When Paris was still scanning through the menu, she heard Richard making orders as he handed back the menu to the young man. "We will both have...

'Wait, now this is too much. Does he even have to choose what I'll eat? Oh, yeah right. Because apparently, my pampered sister can never choose for herself when her famous fiancé is around', raged Paris internally.

'Alright, at least I don't have to go through the mental battle of which one to choose and which one not to.'

Richard noticed how she was lost in thought, "Today you are acting quite amusing and weird. Are you alright?" he said. "Oh, Yes I am" said Paris quickly pulling herself back out of her thoughts.

"You sure?" asked Richard. "Yeah, sure" she replied.

"You know you could talk if something is wrong" insisted Richard. "No thank you. Everything is just fine" said Paris through gritted teeth as she was trying to control herself from getting angry. This was another thing that distinguished the twins. While Payton was patient and self-controlling, Paris was short-tempered. She had anger issues.

Before Richard could say anything else, their orders arrived. "Your orders sir, ma'am" said the waiter as he placed a plate in front of each.

"Thank you" said Richard while Paris only nodded her head in accordance. The food really smelled good and Paris was impressed.

"This does really—

Before she could continue, she started sneezing uncontrollably. In just a few seconds her nose had turned red.

"Are you alright?" asked Richard.

'Of course I'm not! Or does this look like alright to you', thought Paris.

"Does this have ginger in it?" she asked ignoring his question as she kept sneezing.

"I mean; this is 'Toasted Sesame Ginger Salmon' so yes! It does have ginger in it. why?" replied Richard

"Oh, my goodness" cried Paris as she slightly pushed away her plate, "I can't have this. I'm allergic to ginger."

"Wait! I thought you were allergic to garlic" said Richard.

That was true. Paris was supposed to act as Payton and Payton was the one allergic to garlic while Paris was allergic to ginger. Her heart sank at the thought of this as she tried to think of an excuse to make.

"I told you that was my sister. She is the one allergic to garlic not me" she lied.

"Really?! Could have sworn that was what you told me" said Richard.

"How can't you forget when you're almost fully immersed in your work'' said Paris. This also surprised Richard because this was the first time Payton complained about such a thing.

That was true though. Though Richard was a caring man, but he spent most of his time at work. And now that he was about to take over his father's company, he was rarely available.

In fact, Paris didn't understand how her sister could keep up with that for long. Because according to the love life that she dreamed of, her partner must provide enough time to spent with her not like this.

At that moment Richard's phone dinged notifying that he got a message. He checked it and after half a minute of reading the text message he raised his eyes and looked at Paris. His look made her feel uncomfortable and nervous and that ginger food smell was not helping the situation at all. So she excused herself, "Excuse me, I need to use the restroom" but before she could stand up, she heard Richard's voice saying, "Now I know what's going on and why you've been acting weird"

Hearing this, Paris froze in her place as she looked directly at Richard who was staring back.