Chapter Six
2004 Words
“One double shot espresso, please.”
“What? Sorry, I didn’t get that.”
Charlotte watched the customer in front of her let out a sigh then shake her head. Regretfully, she bit her lip, hoping the customer would be nice enough to repeat herself.
“Is everything okay? You seem really absent minded,” the customer finally said, slight worry hinting in her voice.
“I’m fine,” Charlotte lied in response. “There’s nothing wrong. What did you say you wanted?”
“One double shot espresso,” she replied with another sigh. “Actually, no. Make it two.”
With a nod and fake smile, Charlotte turned and got to work hoping to not get distracted again.
It had been exactly a week since she and Wilson last met. Exactly a week since he offered to be her fake boyfriend and exactly a week since he had been living in her mind rent free.
It was crazy. How he walked into her life so suddenly and managed to make such a great impact in such a short span of time.
“Here you go,” she handed the freshly made coffee to the patiently waiting customer alongside another forced smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
With a sigh escaping her lips, she took a seat. Surprisingly Jackson had showed up only once since their last encounter and thanks to her best friend being present at that moment, she was able to drive him away easily. He shot her a glare though and promised to be back later, managing to remind her of Wilson Locke.
He must have taken his words a bit too literally as he was literally giving her time and space to think about his offer. After much consideration and thoughts, her thoughts fell into the same place- she literally had nothing to lose in the long run.
“Charlotte!”
Almost jumping at the exclaim of her name, she turned to watch her best friend dramatically walking into the coffee shop, hands filled with bags containing enough grocery to last them a week. She was full of cheerful smiles as she walked, her hair dancing with her every move.
“Rachael,” for the first time in a while, Charlotte sincerely smiled as she rose to her feet. “I see you’re in a good mood. Did you get a huge discount while shopping or something?”
“Something even better,” she replied her, dropping the bags on the counter. “I got a massive discount. I got everything here for free.”
“Free?”
“Mhm mhm,” Rachael replied, digging into the bag to pull out fresh vegetables and fruits. “All at the best quality too.”
“That’s amazing,” Charlotte nodded, still confused. “But how? I mean, how did you get em for free?”
“Technically, they weren’t free from the store,” she replied. “But I got them for free cause someone else paid.”
Eyebrows were knitted. “Someone else? Who?”
“Take a wild guess,” Rachael giggled. “You’ll almost never guess it right but go ahead, give it a try.”
“Um, Jackson? That’s the wildest guess I can take.”
“Ew, no,” Rachael rolled her eyes. “Told you you couldn’t guess right. But surprise, it was the one and only infamous Wilson Locke!”
Charlotte literally choked on her saliva. “What?”
“Crazy right?” Rachael laughed lightly. “Apparently he recognized me from the other day as your friend. I couldn’t even believe it myself until he introduced himself then offered to pay. I guess he felt bad for threatening you the other day so just wanted to make it up to us.”
“What?” Charlotte ran her hands though her hair. Crikey, her best friend literally had no idea. “No, he didn’t. Jesus, no. You shouldn’t have accepted it from him. Why did you-?”
“I was going to reject it at first but he kinda put me in a tight spot so I had no choice,” she defended. “And then he offered me a ride back here cause he apparently was on his way to see you so-”
“Pause,” Charlotte raised her palm to stop her best friend from talking. It was all happening so fast she was barely having enough time to process it all. “What did you say? On his way to see me? What?”
“Yeah,” Rachael nodded slowly. “He actually is outside already. Waiting to see you.”
“What?!” in a flash, Charlotte turned to look through the transparent door. Just like her best friend said, she immediately spotted him outside, leaning by his car, gaze fixed on her.
With a gulp, she stared at him unable to look away. He looked so good one would mistake him for a model of some sort of car company. It was getting late already and it seemed like every single streetlight shone on just him.
He was dressed in his classic suit, the shade matching his skin tone perfectly. He had one hand shoved in the pocket of his trousers, the other adjusting his sunglasses tucked behind his ears.
“s**t,” she muttered, looking away the minute she realized he had just caught her staring. “What the hell, Rachael. You should have told me the minute you got here.”
“Well I just got here.”
“s**t,” she muttered again, looking around her as she frantically took off her apron and tossed it on one of the empty seats. As quickly as she could, she brushed her jeans, smoothened her blouse and pressed her lips together. “Um, I have to go now.”
“I see that,” Rachael replied with a smirk. “What’s up with you two? You seem like you knew he was going to be here already.”
“What? No?” Charlotte stumbled with her words, patting her cheeks. “I just don’t think it’s okay to leave him waiting outside. He came to see me, you know. He probably has something important to say.”
“Sure, sure. Go ahead.”
Ignoring the mischievous look on her best friend’s face, she ran her hands through her hair and walked through the door to meet him. On spotting her approach him, he broke into a smile and waved at her.
“I feared I was going to have to come meet you inside,” he said as she got to his front. “But I guess I was wrong. You’re here. Must have been as eager as I was to see me.”
“What?” Charlotte fought the urge to roll her eyes. “My best friend’s inside. I just didn’t want her to you know, know about us.”
“Us?” he wiggled his eyebrows at her words. “Does that mean-”
“Why are you here?” Charlotte quickly cut him off before he could utter any words to have her insides jump.
“Did you lose count?” he asked. “Or weren’t you counting down? I said I was going to be back in a week to get my response.”
She wished that was the case. So desperately wished she hadn’t spent the past one week thinking about his absurd request and counting down to the day she was going to get to see him again.
“Right,” she pretended to have forgotten. “You did say that. Has it been a week already?”
“Ouch,” he dramatically clenched his chest. “It kinda hurts to know unlike me you weren’t anticipating our next meeting. Anyways, we can work with that. So tell me, what’s your response? Have you made up your mind?”
“Um-”
“Wait,” he stepped forward to stop her from talking. “Before you give your response. I have a question.”
She swallowed, watching him shorten the gap between them. “Okay?”
“Did he- your ex show up again?” he asked, taking another step closer to her. “Did he show up in front of you again?”
For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to lie to him. Not with those dark intent eyes staring at her. “Yes, he did.”
Not breaking the eye contact, he continued. “And?”
“Rachael was with me,” she replied. “So she was able to send him away before he came closer.”
“And if Rachael wasn’t with you?”
His voice was like music to her ears. So melodious and so impossible to not dance to. “I don’t know what I’ll have done. I’ll have probably tried to send him away but- He also threatened to be back for me.”
“What the f**k?” Wilson cursed out, stepping backwards to rake his fingers through his hair. “That dude is really something, isn’t he?”
She shrugged. “I guess. Why are you getting so worked up though? It’s not like anything happened.”
He looked at her then let out a deep exhale. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
“Yeah.”
“So?”
“So?”
“I don’t trust him, Charlotte,” he breathed out. “That dude seems like a psycho.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Still-”
“Isn’t that why you want to be my fake boyfriend?” it was her turn to cut him off with a small smile. “To protect me? To ensure I’ll be fine.”
“What?” slowly, a smile spread on his lips. “Is this a yes? Are you accepting to be my fake girlfriend right now?”
She stared at him and broke into a wide smile, unable to control herself. He had such a beautiful smile, the type that was easily contagious. The kind that had his eyes light up and make you dissolve in them.
Slowly, she nodded. There was something about his words that made her believe them. He seemed genuine and seemed like he sincerely wanted to protect her.
She couldn’t deny, it felt nice. Throughout the period she dated Jackson, it felt like she was the shield. She was the one who constantly felt the need to protect him so she couldn’t deny it felt good to want to be protected for once. Even if it was going to be all fake, at that moment she didn’t mind.
“Mhm mhm,” she nodded, the smile not leaving her face. “I’ll be your fake girlfriend, Mr. Wilson Locke.”
With a seductive smirk, he pressed his lips together. “Perfect. Oh, right. I have a little something for you.”
She blinked, watching him head to his car to unlock it. “What’s it?”
“Just a little something I got you in case I needed to bribe you to change your mind,” he said then pulled out the biggest bouquet of flowers Charlotte had ever set her eyes on. “Here you go. For you.”
A gasp escaped her lips as she stretched her arms forward to collect the bouquet. It was the first time she received flowers and they were absolutely beautiful.
“They’re,” she whispered, sniffing them with her eyes shut. “So beautiful. Thank you.”
“They’re daffodils,” he said in response. “Heard they signify new beginnings so well, to new beginnings.”
She smiled at him, sniffing the flowers again. Maybe, just maybe it wasn’t going to be a bad idea to be his fake girlfriend after all. Her whole life had been nothing but monotoned and she sure as hell deserved some colour in her life.
“Yeah, sure. To new beginnings.”
- Writer
