Perfect Strangers

“I don’t follow?” Kai said with a vacant expression on his face.

“Simple. You tell her what your life’s goal is. She won’t be able to make that a reality before she needs to leave for Florida. Then you won’t need to help her out, you’ll have your excuse and keep your chivalry intact,” Josh smiled.

With a smile twitching eagerly on his lips, Kai leant forward and high fived him. “Josh, as much as you annoy the crap out of me, I could kiss you right now.” Licking his lips, he opened the laptop and started typing his reply to Myla.

*

Myla was camped out on Avery’s couch sipping a freshly brewed cup of tea and noisily dunking biscuits in it. She was hedging bets against herself to see if she could make the digestive reach from the cup to her mouth, without it crumbling and falling down her chest. So far, she was losing.

“You’re making a right mess there, Myla! Do you want me to borrow a bib from next door? Or how about a trough from the farmer down the road?” Avery asked taking up residence next to her.

“I’ve never quite mastered the art of biscuit dunking, it perturbs me that at my age I should know how to do it, but I can’t,” she replied as she dunked another into the mug of tea.

“Stop trying to avoid the inevitable, Myla. Have you apologized to him yet for storming away like a toddler?”

“No I haven’t, nor do I intend to. He laughed in my face, Avery and I wanted the ground to swallow me up. The man is completely insufferable, yet he was the best out of the three and he would pass for a lawyer.”

“Was he hot?” Avery asked eagerly. She tucked her feet up under her thighs and sat with baited breath for her answer.

Shrugging, Myla threw her a coy smile. “Maybe, he had a cute ass, and the most gorgeous eyes I’ve ever seen. Then he opens his mouth and his words are like arrows, spearing straight for a bull’s eye.”

“Maybe you two just need a bit more time to get to know each other?”

“That’s one thing I don’t have babe, time. I only have a few days before I have to fly, then there is all the trauma of prepping whoever I choose with all the bullshit details that have fallen from my mouth over the years.”

Moving Myla’s hair back over her shoulder, Avery gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. “Worst case scenario, you tell your parents you split up, sure your mother will give you a lecture but isn’t that easier than all this stress?”

“I’ve messaged Romeo this morning,” she replied quietly. “If he isn’t interested in helping me out, then I’ll just go alone and face the disappointment and snide remarks from my mother.” She shuddered at the thought.

She caught Avery snigger next to her, “Romeo? I can’t believe you spent half an hour in his company and didn’t even get his real name. I think Avery Walsh needs to give you a few pointers in dating.”

“I heard his name mentioned before I knew who he was, when he was frantically rubbing my breasts with a napkin, but I was so incensed, it didn’t sink in. It began with a K, I’m sure it was Karl.”

Flicking her hand, Avery scoffed. “So, what did you say to him in your latest message?”

Pulling her lips into her mouth, she sighed through her nostrils and looked at Avery. “I told him, he was the best of the bunch, and even though he was a jerk I desperately needed his help–”

“–and?” Avery cut in excitedly pushing herself on to her knees on the couch.

“And, I’d give him anything his heart desired if he would be my fake fiancé for the week.”

Clamping a hand over her mouth, Avery gasped. “Myla Fox, that is fucking desperate.”

“I know,” she drawled, “but it’s a needs must situation now, I’ve got to pull out all of the stops, I’m running out of time.” Leaning over, Myla placed her empty mug on the floor and began flicking biscuit crumbs from her chest. She could hear Avery tutting in her ear next to her, and she could feel her eyes penetrating her skull and bitch slapping her.

“Don’t panic Mrs. OCD, I’ll be sure to run the vacuum around before I leave.”

“Oh, I’m not tutting about the mess, Myla. I’m tutting at the pure desperation this whole wedding of Grace’s has sunk you to. What are you going to say if he wants to sleep with you? Use you as some kind of sex toy? Or make you his bitch or some shit?” She asked, each question louder than the one before, causing Myla to sink further away from her into the couch.

Myla grimaced as her words reverberated around in her head. “I never thought of that,” she whispered.

“Has he replied yet?”

“I don’t know, I’ve not checked.”

Standing up, Avery strode from the room, muttering obscenities under her breath. She returned seconds later and forcefully shoved her iPad in Myla’s direction. “Check it, check it now.”

Snatching the iPad from her they briefly eye-balled each other before Myla logged into her email account. Sure, enough he had replied. Chewing the inside of her mouth as nerves consumed her entire body, she opened it up.