The Accidental Boyfriend

The Accidental Boyfriend Chapter 6

 Gracie's POV

After the date I was kind of looking forward to going home, curling up in a ball on my bed and trying to forget that this whole thing had happened. That wasn’t to be as the second I stepped through the door I had to recount the entire story back to Annie who listened with eager anticipation. “So then we just went our separate ways,” I finish.

“See that wasn’t so bad was it?” Annie exclaims.

“No, I guess it went okay. But it’s okay because it’s all over now,” I say unable to hide my glowing happiness which accompanies that sentence. But Annie seems to disagree. She simply shakes her head at me. “What?” I question my optimism fading in an instant.

“You can’t just drop the lie,” Annie warns me.

“Why not?” I ask in alarm.

“You have to stick with it to make it believable. If you cut all connections with Zack immediately Dan will know straight away it was a lie. You need to commit to the lie,” Annie instructs.

“For how much longer?” I ask exasperatedly.

“I don’t know. At least a couple of weeks,” she replies. My face falls into a picture of complete and utter horror. “Oh come on, it’s just a little white lie. It doesn’t take that much effort to uphold,” Annie encourages. Before I can make a grumbling reply of dissent Annie declares she’s going to bed. I moodily make my way to my own bedroom.

The next morning I wake up with a firm decision in my head. After having a little time to think about it last night I have decided that I am putting this nonsense to an end. I’m not carrying on with this stupid charade. I went on the date, I survived it and now I want this to end. I don’t care if it looks suspicious to Dan that my interest in Zack suddenly disappears directly after the double date. To be honest I don’t particularly care that much if he finds out the truth. This whole thing has been utterly ridiculous and the sooner I put a stop to it the sooner I can attempt to get my life back. Besides if Dan ever did find out its better sooner rather than later, right?  Can you imagine how stupid I would look if after weeks of pretence Dan realised it was a lie. This is the end, I’m never seeing Zack ever again and that’s final… I’m just not going to tell Annie this because I know she’ll just change my mind and I don’t want my mind to be changed. She doesn’t have to know that I’m not pretending to see Zack does she? But that means I’m going to have to tell another white lie to avoid the bigger white lie. With a groan a sudden realisation sinks into me that for the foreseeable future my life will be nothing more than a string of white lies no matter which path I choose. What happened to me? Less than a week ago I was happy. I didn’t have to lie. I was happy in a relationship. And I didn’t know anyone by the name of Zack. Now look at me. “Gracie, are you nearly ready? We’re going to be late for work if we’re much later!” Annie calls from the hallway.

“I’m coming,” I reply while slipping on some shoes and hurrying out the door.

When Annie and I left university we somehow managed to get really similar jobs in the same firm. At first I thought it was brilliant our desks were right next to each other, we had the same lunchtimes and we pretty much spent all day together. For a while it was fantastic getting to work with my best friend. It certainly made the job more bearable. This company is a work-your-way-to-the-top sort of system which means you start of right at the bottom. Annie and I accepted jobs well bellow what we’re qualified for because it was literally the only thing going. Besides in the long run it was going to get us far. So you would expect that working with alongside your best friend would be a dream come true, right? That’s at least what I thought. But I didn’t ever think about what would happen in the inevitable situation when Annie and I would apply for the same promotion. We promised each other that no matter what we’d be happy for each other and the promotion would in no way come between our friendship and I really meant the promise. I don’t know why on earth I was surprised when Annie got the job. Of course she was going to get it. I completely messed up the interview. I was so shy I stuttered through every sentence whereas Annie would have sparkled with her natural outgoing nature. I never expected it to be so hard to watch her do well while I was stuck at the same crappy desk. She got her own office, (on the floor above mine so we weren’t even close to each other anymore.) Her pay is considerably larger than mine so she can always afford thing that I can’t. For example she buys a coffee every morning from a fancy looking café while I make do with what comes spewing out of the company’s coffee machine which must be at least ten years old by now. To make it worse she’s started making friends with the people on her floor leaving me completely isolated.

The people I work with don’t like me at all. They had all been working here quite a while before Annie and I even started which meant they were had their own tight knit little group. Annie and I were outsiders. It was easy to deal with when there was two of you cast aside. But when you’re suddenly on your own and the people you work with try to ignore the fact you even exist it gets pretty down-heartening. To make matters even worse they all began to act even colder towards me after Annie got the promotion. They had all applied for the promotion too only to have it taken away from them by a person who had barely even been in the company for two seconds. They all hate Annie with a passion and as she’s my best friend they all hate me too. When they hired a new girl to take Annie’s position they all made an effort to make her feel as included as possible. So now it’s just me, on my own, in a job I hate and going absolutely no where. Needless to say I dread coming into work every morning. “See you later,” Annie says while ascending the stairs to her wonderful job with her wonderful-job colleagues. As a contrast a slouch of moodily towards the crappy little desk. “Hello,” I mumble to the other girls as I sink down into my chair. I don’t know why I even bother no one even looks up from their conversations.

I spend the rest of the morning counting down the seconds until lunchtime where I can escape at least for an hour. It appears that over the weekend the other girls all went out together. Hearing them recount the highlights from their wonderful social life makes me want to punch a hole in the monitor of my keyboard. Their chatter and laughter rings in my ears increasing my misery to the point where it’s almost unbearable. Just when I feel like ramming my head continuously against the desk in despair an email pops up in my inbox from Annie. Re: Lunch Thank goodness here’s something that’s finally going to cheer me up. I open it up eagerly and begin reading. Hey Gracie, I’ve been invited out to lunch with the girls from the third floor. I hope that’s okay with you? Anniexxx I read the email a couple of times hoping that the words will miraculously change in front of my eyes. But the miserable message remains. A sinking feeling of despair echoes around my mind. Of course that’s not okay with me! I’ve had a shit day and I was kind of hoping my best friend would be able to cheer me up. But fine. Go waltzing off with your superior friends from the third floor. I suppose it didn’t even occur to you to ask if I could come along. Thanks for being such a ‘wonderful’ friend. Fuck you. I type the message with such anger that I hardly even know what I’m saying. I read the message and then quickly delete it all in horror. Yeah that’s fine. I guess I’ll see you at home then :) I reply. She doesn’t even bother to send me a reply.   

With nothing else to do I listen to everyone around me discuss where they’re going to lunch while in my head I plan to go get a sandwich from the cheap shop nearby and then eat it alone on the bench outside. But something cuts through my miserable lunch plans. Another email pops up. But this one is from Zack. What time do you get off work for lunch? I need you to help me out. Answer ASAP. Zack So miserable all those things I said earlier about dropping these stupid little lies goes straight out of my head. I’m free in ten minutes. When and where? Gracie.