His Hired Girlfriend (2 page)

Jay glanced at his friend he
had first met at Harvard University, the man he had only met again
recently back in Sydney just before, well, that incident. “They’re
at it again,” he said, annoyance clear in his tone.

“What, matchmaking?” Pete
chuckled again; this was hardly a new situation.

“Jesus man, it’s not bloody
funny! What the hell am I going to do?”

“I suppose they are getting
worried. You’re the heir, you’re thirty. Not getting any younger,
bro,” Peter said, heading to the refrigerator in the kitchen and
whistling again. He opened the door and rooted around among the
various brands searching for a bottle of Heineken. “Want one?” he
asked over his shoulder. “Yeah, sure,” Jay replied,
distractedly.

Peter took two out and tossed
one to Jay.

Six bottles of Heineken, two
packs of Blue Bird chips, and four packets of Giant Cookies later,
they were still contemplating the dilemma at hand.

“Any suggestions?” Jay asked
finally.

Peter glanced sidewise at his
friend, “I suggest you find yourself a new girl, bro, and take her
to New York.”

For an extended moment, in the
complete silence that followed, Jay’s blue eyes stared intensely
into Peter’s green ones, “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope,” Pete replied. He
stuffed some crisps in his mouth, chewed loudly, and took a solid
gulp of beer.

Jay considered this for a
second, “I’m not up for it, Pete. You know I’m not.”

Peter raised his eyebrows in
question, “Sarah?”

“It’s still too new,” Jay
muttered. No, he hadn’t gotten over Sarah, and yet, dating again
right now just seemed wrong, odd, like they remained linked in some
way, and basically he was just not ready.

“Look,” Peter began, “you don’t
have to do this dating thing yet. I said you just need to find a
girl and take her to meet your parents. You don’t have to date
her.”

“Meaning what, exactly?” Jay
looked at his friend in a weird way.

“Meaning you hire a girl to be
your girlfriend and take her to see your parents.”

Jay said
nothing, but his expression quite clearly said –
Seriously, dude, can’t you come up with a better
plan than that?

No, wait. It was supposed to be
a joke. Peter was simply joking with him that’s all. On cue Jay
started laughing. He laughed so hard that his stomach hurt and
breathing was difficult. When he managed to stop, he looked at his
friend and said, “You are joking, right?”

Peter’s face, however, was
serious, “No, mate.”

“What?”

“Not at all, just hire a girl
as your girlfriend. Simple.”

Must be a
Kiwi thing, Jayden thought, but he couldn’t stop himself from
blurting out, “Who the hell is desperate enough to want to
pretend
to be my
girlfriend?”

“Lots,” Peter said,
“Professionals. Hire one.”

Jay narrowed his eyes. “Oh no,
I’m not hiring those types of girls, no way man. Gracie and Beth
have criteria.”

Peter, who had just taken
another big gulp of his beer, nearly choked. He touched his throat
and said, “What? You mean your girlfriend has to fit your
grandmother’s criteria?” Then it was his turn to start
laughing.

“Damn it, Pete! Help me out
here,” Jay snapped, and punched Peter on the arm.

Peter continued chuckling, as
he rolled away from the punch, though the hard glare from Jay
managed to dampen his amusement.

“Okay,” he said calmly, “You
really need a new girlfriend, a fake one. I think I just might know
where you can find one.”

“She better
not be a professional. She has to be
perfect
,” Jay warned, and he managed
to sum up the criteria for Peter.

“Nope, she is not a
professional at all,” Peter confirmed. And grinning like a Cheshire
cat, he added, “In fact, she’s the total opposite.”

***

AS PETER MANOEUVRED the SUV
through the streets of Queenstown in the quiet hours of the
morning, Jayden gazed out at the sleeping town and knew he’d come
back. He hadn’t realised until then just how much he had actually
enjoyed this place. He loved the view, the placid waters of the
lake, the food, the people and even the crazy sports. This, he
thought, was a perfect holiday spot. He’d definitely be back.

The drive was exhilarating, and
Jayden let his eyes feast on the rough beauty of the Central Otago
area. Coarse, snow covered mountains, pristine blue lakes, and
twisted, gusting rivers came together as one in picturesque
harmony. Now and again distant winding roads led to vineyards and
orchards and the remote formless dots of farm houses. Sometimes the
roads were so close to the edge of the cliffs that Jay felt they
were toying with the end of the world.

Three and half hours of driving
later they arrived in the city of Dunedin on the east coast.

“So this is it? This is George
Street, the centre of the city?” Jay asked as they came through the
short length of the Octagon toward the north end of the town.

“Yep,” Pete responded, coming
to a stop at the traffic lights on Hanover Street. “It’s a small
town, bro. The Edinburgh of the South they call it. We’ll have to
park in the Meridian car park building; Damn busy on a Friday,
bloody students everywhere.”

“A city of students, huh?”
Jayden commented, eyeing the crowd crossing the streets in front of
them.

“Yeah,” Pete responded, taking
out his BlackBerry.

Jay glanced at his friend, his
eyebrows rising. “Not supposed to be texting while driving.”

Pete chuckled and his thumb
moved faster, like he was on texting marathon.

Jay shook his head and turned
his attention back to the streets. There was a thick crowd looking
mostly like students, as Peter had said, and yet they were very
well dressed. Young men in fashionable jeans and coats – a few in
shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops (in this cold winter month?), while
the young women wore flimsy coats, super skinny jeans or leggings
and miniskirts and three inch heels. They strode and mingled as
they laughed and chatted with their shopping bags in hand. The
flawless faces of the girls were similar to that of the supermodels
back in New York, by design no doubt. Not bad, he thought, for a
small city from a near forgotten country. Certainly few in New York
would be familiar with this place.

Perhaps it was for this very
reason that his eyes were suddenly drawn to a young woman striding
across the street. She was completely different from the others.
She wore a bright blue coat that had seen better days, and her
long, dark hair was a mess, streaming around her as she dashed
across the street. She darted her way from person to person,
passing through them like a trained soldier racing through a
minefield. He noticed that she wasn’t wearing the high heels so
liked by others. Instead she wore a pair of white sneakers that
were a complete contrast to her black jeans. Jay had to shake his
head. She had no sense of fashion whatsoever.

“Done! You didn’t see that,”
Pete said suddenly.

Jay glanced
at his friend and saw Peter slotting his BlackBerry back into his
jeans pocket. As the traffic light changed to green and Pete’s foot
pressed on the accelerator, Jay glanced at the girl in the blue
coat. He noticed that she had slowed down her pace. She slipped her
hand into the pocket of her coat and pulled out a cell phone. As
she strolled toward a door, her head was down as though she was
reading a message. Jay glanced up and saw the logo in blue, big
bold letters –
ANZ Bank
. Perhaps she had trouble with money, he thought.

Not long after that Jayden
found himself in the Dunedin Public Hospital cafeteria, looking
about his surrounding in astonishment. The atmosphere was as grey
and dull as the faded wall paint, washed out carpet, and the smell
of hospital food.

Had he
actually agreed with Pete to cancel their full week of fun extreme
sports and to drive for most of a morning along the dangerous
snow-covered, twisty roads from Queenstown for this?
Looking at patients eating their lunch?
If this was Peter’s idea of a joke then it was in
very poor taste, Jay thought, as he watched an elderly patient
sitting across the table from them trying to pick up a sandwich
with wrinkled, liver-spotted hands that shook with the desperate
determination of old age.

“What the
hell are we doing here?” he hissed. “I thought we were supposed
to...you know...” He suddenly felt rather self-conscious. Even
though he had dressed down, it now occurred to him that the people
in here couldn’t care less what they or he looked like. Most were
dressed in baggy clothing, but then again, Jay told himself,
they
were
in a
hospital. Who the hell cares what they look like when they are more
worried about their health?

“Looking for the perfect
girlfriend for you,” Peter said enthusiastically.

“Very funny,” Jay snapped,
picked up his ham sandwich and took a bite. They were looking in
the wrong place. No proper socialite chick, even one desperate
enough to be hired for whatever reason, would be found in this type
of place.

Suddenly a large group of young
doctors came into the cafeteria with trays of food and drinks in
their hands. Some were wearing scrubs, while others, the younger
ones, wore semi-formal clothing with stethoscopes hanging around
their necks, and Jay noted that a few of the female doctors looked
quite appealing.

“Hey, I can tell you like the
looks of this,” Peter said, his mouth full of food, as they watched
the doctors taking their seats not far from them.

“Is she a doctor?” Jay
asked.

Peter shook his head.

“A nurse?” Jay watched a pack
of young and old nurses wearing dark blue scrubs file into the
cafeteria.

Again Peter shook his head.

“What does she do then? You
said you know her,” Jay said, watching a pretty, young doctor
heading their way.

She looked
very attractive – long legs in heels, medium brown hair that flowed
down her back, full lips, and a bedroom eyes.
Perfect!

Peter nodded.
“Of course I know her. She’s exactly what the criteria
are not
.’

“What? But she’s perfect.” Jay
watched the woman glide across him. Then she smiled at him. My God,
he thought, she was beautiful. She could be a model if she wanted
to; only she was a doctor, which was even better. She had brains
and possibly a good family background. What about manners? He had
no doubt that she had excellent manners because he couldn’t imagine
her yelling and screaming insanely at her sick, elderly
patients.

Yup, she fits the criteria all
right.

“Really, that’s good. I’m glad
you agree,” Peter said, eyeing the woman coming toward them. He
waved and she approached the seat opposite them.

“Hey, you,” she greeted. “I
thought you were on holiday. What are you doing back here?”

Jay liked the sound of her
voice. It was soft and sweet.

“Mary, this is Jayden, a friend
of mine,” Peter introduced, nodding toward Jay, who rose and
offered his hand.

“Hi,” Mary said, “I’m Pete’s
cousin. I’m a trainee intern.”

Jay liked her hand, too, that
was still in his. It was soft and yet he could sense both
gentleness and strength in it.

“So how is your holiday going?”
she asked, “You’re not back before you’re due, right?”

Peter shook his head, “Not for
another week.”

She nodded prettily and turned
to Jayden with a sparkle in her eyes. “So where are you from?”

“The States,” Jayden replied
promptly.

“I like your accent.” She
laughed delicately, brushing her hair over one shoulder. “So what
brings you to New Zealand?”

“Just a holiday.”

“Having fun so far?” She leaned
toward him across the table. Then beep, beep, beep... she glanced
down. “Oh damn, my pager. Excuse me for a sec,” she got up and
hurried to the phone on the far side of the room.

“She fits some of the criteria
so far,” Jay commented, watching Mary. He saw her eyeing him as she
was talking into the phone and jotting down notes.

“How do you know when you
haven’t met her yet?” Peter asked, sipping his coffee.

Jayden glanced at his friend,
frowning in confusion as he brought the cup of hot coffee to his
lips. “Mary?”

“Nope, not
Mary...
Her
,”
Peter nodded toward the far entrance of the cafeteria.

Jayden glanced in that
direction and his eyes widened in shock. His breath caught at the
back of his throat and he started spluttering, hot liquid burning
his tongue.

“Hey, are you all right?” Pete
asked.

“Yeah,” Jay
muttered, wiping his mouth with the napkin. He glanced up and
watched intensely, his frown darkening into a scowl. This female,
the girl in the blue coat he had seen in the street – the girl who
was walking toward them now with a satchel over her small shoulder
and a cup of tea in one hand – was nothing like what he had
expected. She didn’t fit the criteria.
Period!

So let us do the check list
then, he thought. She was average height. He estimated her no more
than five feet and four inches – if she was lucky. She was not
pretty. In fact she was very plain. She was also a mess. Those old
jeans that had seen better days did not look like they fit her
properly at all. Her baggy jersey was an odd, dull grey colour
didn’t exactly enhance her skin tone either. It made her face look
pale and ghostly. Her long, dark hair was a mess and hung forward
in long bangs that hid her eyes.