Short Term Girlfriend

Chapter 8.

The one thing Diana Martinez confidently did was to walk through the array of book shelves in the college library but that was until she inadvertently led Zac to believe he would find her there. And now she was walking---no tiptoeing around in the library like a tiny mouse dreading to be cornered by the gigantic cat.

She didn't want to come across Zac no matter what. Her heart was thumping so nervously it made her feel ill. She could easily be sassy with him over text but surely couldn't be the same when face to face with him. Thought she was able to when he had blocked her path earlier that morning, she'd be a fool if she thought she'd get twice lucky.

The last thing she wanted was to stammer like an idiot and be hopelessly clumsy in front of him.

If it weren't for a particular page in a particular book that she compulsorily had to refer before her next class for the day, she'd have stayed miles away from the library.

But now that she was here, the plan was pretty much simple. Get to the right book shelf, pull out the right book, browse through the required page in less than nine and three quarter seconds and walk out of the library like a torch bearer of the laws of invisibility.

But then here's the flaw. Zac had already found her much to her unawareness. So when Diana turned around after referring the book and pushing it back among other books, she found herself on Zac's face. She tried to back away from him at once in reflex but felt her back against the book rack. Zac had caged her.

Diana felt her pulses grow warm feeling his rugged breaths hit her face. Now that she was staring at him from this close, he looked so much more gorgeous than he normally did to her. The perfection of his facial features gave rise to sparks in her veins and his dark enchanting black eyes held far greater depth than it did when she had looked at him from far, far away.

His cologne made her feel the temptations she never knew of before. His hands were on either side of her face. Thus she couldn't miss how the sleeves of his brown swag shirt fitted tightly around his arms to show off his hard well toned biceps....

Zac was irresistibly hot. And Diana wished his exotic gazes weren't penetrating her eyes so deep. She was afraid he might recognise himself in her heart beats.

"I'm not fooling you, Diana," his voice was thick and heavy, pulling her out of daze. "I know the pain of being cheated. I've seen it in others."

More like, have felt it myself. 

"My life has been strange. Thus I too have to make weird choices to keep up with it," Zac added.

"Explain me those choices," she willed herself to speak, struggling to ignore how attractive he looked and how close their faces were. Zac was so determined to clear his stand that he just didn't realize their proximity.

"You can get the hottest and sexiest girls to be your pretend girlfriend. They'd kill each other off to be the one to move in with you. Then why not Alesha? She is the best of all. Why me?"

"I'd rather not share an apartment with girls who cannot think or speak anything beyond make up, clothes, make up, shoes," he responded flatly, referring to Alesha. "Besides, I don't want to move in with girls who want to always throw themselves on me. It's great though but definitely not at the cost of my privacy which I value above all."

"Ohh..."

"I know for a fact that I don't appeal to sensible and intellectual girls like you, Diana. You can never come to have a thing for me nor could you ever bother whether I existed or no. I mean nothing to you and that is exactly what I'm looking for in a flatmate," Zac said seriously.

Wait....what???!!!

Diana was absolutely dumbfounded hearing that. If only he knew.....

"If-If you want that apartment so much, then why don't you ask one of your guy friends to move in with you and pretend that you two are gay in front of the landlady?" she said abruptly.

There she goes speaking gibberish, exactly the thing she had dreaded.

The look that Zac gave her made her clumsy and she glanced sideways.

"Erm...forget what I said..."she mumbled, "Rather than pretending, wouldn't it be easier to stop having flings with bimbos and actually date a real girl? Just--Just a suggestion to help."

"I don't date, I have sex," he replied bluntly.

"Ohh..." she murmured, cursing herself to have opened her big fat mouth. The direct use of that three letter word always mortified her and got her rather awkward.

Suddenly she felt the warmth, she was starting to grow so used to, leave her. Zac had stepped back from her.

"I really want to live in that apartment," Zac said meaningfully, "I've made my enquiries. There are no other seaside apartments vacant right now nor will there be in near future. So obliging to this landlady's terms and conditions is the only option with me. So, where do we stand now?"

That felt like the most difficult question she had ever been asked.

"I know what you're thinking," Zac said quietly, making Diana's heart miss a beat. Did he come to know about her feelings for him?

Of course he did. After all, she could bet that it showed rather clearly on her face how dazed she was by him.

"I know you don't approve of me at all," he said. "The notion of having to live with me makes you cringe. But I assure you it won't be for long. You will have to put up with me just till the end of this college year, like six months from now. Nothing more than that."

Diana felt her heart sink. What he thought would surely get her to agree to him was actually coaxing her to refuse.

Say No, Diana.

Say No.

This will only lead to further heart break. Nothing else.

He has nothing for you. He will never.

He has even given you an expiry period for this fake drama, six months!

You don't want to be his temporary fix, his short term girlfriend.

Say no, Diana.

"I need some more time to think..." she told him instead. "I'll get back to you on this as early as I can?"

It wasn't what Zac was expecting to hear. But he agreed to be patient. After all, what other choice he had than this.

"Alright," he exhaled a breath.

Diana watched him turn around and leave. He was soon out of sight. She slumped against the book rack.

She had a lot of thinking to do. Should she agree to move in with her crush who did notice her but failed to understand the language of her eyes and doesn't bother knowing it either?