His Hired Girlfriend (5 page)

‘
Hope to
see you soon’
– Jayden thought –
probably too important to ignore, it usually was. He leaned across
to Peter, “Hey, I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

Disappointment flashed across Mary’s face, a slight blush
reddening her neck.
And this little black
dress had been just for you
– she
thought.

“You all enjoy yourself. I have
things to do in the morning.” He got up and stretched. “Bye,
everyone, nice to meet you all,” as he headed to the stairs.

Peter hid a smile at Mary’s
discomfort. “See you guys at work,” he said, following Jayden
out.

*****

CHAPTER 3

THE AROMA OF coffee greeted
Alex the moment she stepped through the door of SAN café. It was
toasty warm inside compare to the sharp, cold air outside, and she
sighed with pleasure. She headed to the counter and ordered her hot
chocolate she had been craving for since Friday. Afterwards she
grabbed her number and took a seat that faced the door, to make
sure that Peter would be able to spot her.

Alex glanced about her
surrounding, noting the busy staff, the happy customers and cosy,
classic décor of the restaurant. SAN café does the best hot
chocolate in town, not to mention their Cambodian food. It was
always busy and to get a table on a Saturday night you had to
pre-book a week or two in advance because it was so popular. She
and her friends had always met up there for their hot-choc
sessions.

She took off
her blue coat nervously. In fact her inside was shuddering with
anxiety as she waited for Peter and his friend –
whoever he was
– to show
up.

Peter had
called her very late last night – and after he had sang her a happy
birthday song very loudly – he had told her that she shouldn’t be
nervous meeting his friend who was supposedly a very nice person.
She trusted Peter since she knew he would never introduce her to
anyone who had a questionable character. Except for
that
one time with
Andrew. Of course he had admitted later that he knew very little of
the guy himself and vowed never to do that again.

Peter had said his name was
Jayden, and Jay could help her with her problem. Peter had hinted
that it was about her dad. Again that anticipation raised in her
chest.

A pretty waitress arrived and
placed the tall cup of hot chocolate on her table.

“Thanks.” Alex nodded her head
at the waitress in appreciation.

“No worries. Enjoy,” the woman
said sweetly and then went away.

Alone, Alex grinned and inhaled
the steamy liquid – her nose almost touching the thick brown,
chocolaty foam. She picked up one pink marshmallow and dropped it
into the hot chocolate and then picked the white one and popped
that into her mouth. She smiled as the light, sugary goodness melt
on her tongue. Then she picked up the cup and took a sip. The
warmth and sweetness of the liquid soothed the coldness in her
body.

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.

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?”