The Accidental Boyfriend

The Accidental Boyfriend Chapter 5

After a very long silence the waiter eventually arrives. Gracie and I have been glancing through the menu for the past couple of minutes just for something to do. I’m pretty sure we could both recite you the wine list from memory if you asked us. “Can I get you some drinks?” the waiter politely asks us.

“I’d stick to the soft drinks if I were you,” I tease quietly so only Gracie can hear me. To my shock instead of telling me to shut up like usual she smiles at me sweetly. It takes me a while to work out it’s an act. “Please shut up,” she whispers back to me proving me correct in my assumption. “Why don’t we order a bottle of wine between us all?” Dan suddenly suggests. I’m pretty sure he just started talking to break up what he suspected was a ‘moment’ between Gracie and I. I don’t think he liked the fact that we were talking and he had no idea what about. “Yeah sure,” I reply with a forced smile. This man is really starting to annoy me. With an air of importance he picks up the menu and starts flicking through. “Is white okay?” he asks us. We all nod in agreement. “We’ll have this one,” he declares pointing to the menu. I’m pretty sure he’s just pointed to a name at random. “This is an excellent wine,” he assures us. Liar, he probably can’t even pronounce the name which is why he only pointed to it. We all order our meals and then once again the table descends into silence. “So where did you two meet?” Dan asks. Dan’s desperate attempts to start conversations are the most infuriating thing I have ever experienced. “In a café. I was trying to buy a coffee but I forgot my purse so Zack offered to buy it for me and the rest is history,” Gracie explains perfectly. That little story had been in the book of things I had to learn. “Well you say coffee,” Dan chortles to himself without explanation. Chloe shoots him a look of confusion so he continues to explain. “Well Gracie always says she orders coffee in cafés but she’s lying; she always orders…”

“…A banana milkshake but tells people coffee because she thinks it sounds more sophisticated,” I interrupt. Dan looks at me in fury whilst Gracie looks at me in shock. “Yeah I learnt it now stop looking so shocked,” I mutter to Gracie who then immediately snaps her mouth closed again after staring at me with an expression akin to a goldfish. “Well I’m glad you’re happy,” Dan smiles.

“Yeah no hard feelings,” Chloe chimes in sweeping some of Dan’s hair as she speaks; quite clearly an attempt to mark her territory. I watch the expression on Gracie’s face sink. She’s clearly not one for hiding emotions. “We’re very happy thanks,” I reply putting my arm around Gracie.

Gracie’s POV

I have to admit Zack has just saved me. I was seconds away from giving the game away. In fact I have to admit Zack has been a complete shock all night. I wasn’t even expecting him to show up to be perfectly honest. But he did and he remembered all my stupid little instructions and he followed them. He must have read my notes in detail and spent time remembering them because he remembered the whole banana milkshake thing. Then just now he put his arm around me and stopped me from obviously showing jealousy towards little-miss-lip-gloss. As much as I hate to say it if it weren’t for Zack I don’t know what I would have done. As long as I’ve got Zack all I need to do is stay calm and then everything will be absolutely fine. He’s got this completely under control. By the time our food comes the conversation has loosened up slightly… well Dan’s spent the last ten minutes bragging about a whole host of mundane things but it’s better than silence. It’s actually quite entertaining to watch Zack’s muffled sighs of annoyance get more and more obvious as Dan’s self-involved narrative goes on. By the time we’ve all finished dinner Zack looks like he’s about to top himself as Dan still hasn’t stopped talking. “Should we get dessert or coffee?” Dan inquires.

“No!” both Zack and I exclaim at the exact same time perhaps a little too overenthusiastically.

“I’m still on that diet,” Chloe moans.

“And I’ve got an early start tomorrow, so we better get going,” Zack explains. At that he attracts a waiter’s attention at lightning speed. I’ve never seen a bill order and paid for with such speed. “Well thank you for inviting us,” I conclude rising to my feet along with Zack. We make our goodbyes and then escape as quickly as we can. “There that wasn’t so bad was it?” I ask with forced optimism.

“How long did you date him for?” Zack suddenly enquires.

“Two and a bit years,” I reply.

“Is he always like that?” he asks again.

“Yeah,” I respond.

“How on earth did you survive those monologues of his?” he questions once again.

“I have no idea,” I laugh back.

“Well see you later then,” he finishes and like that the ordeal is over and furthermore I survived it with the little white lie still intact. How Zack and I managed to pull it off I’ll never know.