For the date, I chose to wear a butter yellow sundress that came halfway to my knees, along with cute white flip-flops and a matching yellow flower pin to hold the front strands of my hair back from my face. Maybe it wasn't really an official date, but I still wanted it to be as close as possible, so I'd dressed up. I could tell Grayson was trying to dress up too, because he wore a sharp white t-shirt and black jeans, and regular sneakers to match. He looked incredibly nice for dressing so casually.
"What are we doing first?" I asked, feeling excited.
"I thought we could take our walk first, if that's alright?" he asked, seeming shy again.
I nodded, beaming. So we set off down the path towards the veranda, and my nerves almost exploded when Grayson took my hand in his large one. Noticing my reaction, he murmured in a very low voice, "There's security everywhere. I wouldn't put it past my mother to check the tapes later tonight."
"Oh," I said, nodding at his wise suggestion. Secretly, there was a twinge of disappointment in me, because the insane butterflies I'd gotten when he'd first grabbed my hand had been euphoric. Now I understood, it was all another part of our act. But it made sense; the more in love we appeared to Laura, the less she'd stick her nose in unexpected places. Nevertheless, it was still nice to hold his hand as we walked down a small slate pathway lined with rose bushes.
"Here," Grayson said, kneeling down and plucking a crisp white rose. He stood, weaving the short stem into my hair.
"No one will mind?" I asked worriedly.
"No, my parents rarely come out here, and even then it's a gift from me," he said, smiling. "You look really cute right now."
For some reason that made me blush more than anything he'd said to me so far. "Thank you," I said, so quietly it almost morphed into a whisper.
Tangling our fingers together again, we kept walking. My smile was so gooey, and I wasn't even faking it. I wondered if Grayson knew that, because every so often he would glance at my face and his own smile would get a little brighter.
"Oooh," I breathed as the path suddenly opened up and snaked under a curtain of ivy. Grayson pushed some of it aside to reveal a glimmering pond, complete with a small waterfall and a bubbling spring. I was delighted to see little frogs resting on lilypads, their little croaks adorable. The area surrounding the pond was magnificent, with a hanging willow draping its hair over the surface of the water. A huge magnolia tree sat in one corner, near the hedge wall, and the flowerbeds were filled with bright petals in every color of the rainbow.
"Why would no one ever come here?" I asked, still drinking in the beauty of this magical place. It didn't seem fair that there was such an enchanting corner of the world and no one ever got to enjoy it.
"Well, I do, occasionally," Grayson said. "But father is never home and mother prefers to do things instead of sit and admire them."
"How horrible," I whispered, wondering how long it had been since this garden had last seen a friendly face. I couldn't imagine knowing about this place and then never coming here.
Grayson was smiling at me again as he said, "You can come here whenever you like, Jackie. I've personally found that it makes a great hiding spot concerning my mother." The last part was said with a wink, both shocking me and making me laugh a little.
"Thanks," I said, still looking around in wonderment.
"There's more, but we can stay here a bit," he added, sitting down on an adorable iron bench.
"More?" I asked, my curiosity bubbling.
"Yes, none as magical as this place though," he admitted.
I gave a happy little hop, too overjoyed to contain myself. "No, let's see more! I'm sure it's all amazing."
So Grayson took me down on a different path, out the other end of the ivy curtain. We emerged in a beautiful rose garden, one much larger and more carefully crafted than the one right by the house. The smell was my favorite part; the surplus of flowers made the scent almost overpowering. Each bed was lined with a low brick wall, which of course meant I had to climb on top and walk along it.
"Careful," Grayson warned, smiling as he kept a hold of my hand so I wouldn't completely fall if I stumbled.
I made it to the end of the flowerbed without tumbling. Proud of my success, I jumped off and into Grayson's expectant arms. He laughed as he caught me, spinning around with me once before bringing me back to the ground.
"You want to see the greenhouse?" he asked, turning towards a door that had been so tucked away in the foliage that I hadn't noticed it before.
"Yes, please," I said, letting him lead me inside.
The first thing I noticed was the heat. It wasn't a normal strong heat either, but a tropical one. The humidity was cranked up to max, making me sweat the moment the door had shut behind us.
"A bit warm," Grayson agreed as I wiped the back of my hand across my forehead. "We won't stay long."
Yet again, my awe was taken to the next level. I had never seen most of these plants before, not even in books or anything. They were all so vividly colored, some of them on the verge of being neon. It was like a whole different planet, just sitting in a glass house.
"Wow, a pineapple!" I said in delight, peering at the little bush with a small pineapple blooming from the center. "Can you eat it?"
"Yeah, but we only grow this one, so usually it appears one night at dinner out of the blue," Grayson said with a shrug.
I looked around at a few more fascinating plants before we both decided that the heat was going to kill us. Grayson locked up the greenhouse behind us, saying, "Okay, one last stop."
Holding hands again, we walked a ways in the other direction, past the house and more towards the forest. I gasped when we approached another small garden, this one an array of small flowers tucked away. But the best part was the checkered picnic blanket spread out in the center. There was an entire meal set out, complete with a jug of lemonade. Also, I saw cupcakes.
"Grayson, is this all for us?" I asked, looking up at him in astonishment.
He smiled shyly, squeezing my fingers. "Surprise."
Squealing in excitement, I threw my arms around his shoulders. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
We sat down on the blanket, unpacking the rest of our lunch. Grayson had put a lot into this, with nice napkins and glasses, and the food was still hot. Maybe he didn't care about me that way, but he sure was acting like an incredible husband.
"Don't think that I did all this myself," he warned. "I had the cook make most of it, I just picked the food and planned it."
"It's still the thought that counts," I said, practically glowing with happiness.
He scratched the back of his neck, seeming embarrassed before looking back at me. "I just wanted your first date to be perfect, since your marriage isn't."
Cue the waterfall beginning in my eyes. "Grayson, I promise, it was perfect in every way," I sniffled, almost on the verge of kissing him in gratitude.
"Oh, Jackie, don't cry," he whispered, taking his thumb and brushing away my stray tears.
"They're happy ones, it's okay," I choked out, making him laugh a little under his breath.
The tears slowed down and I finally met his eyes. Do you ever have that feeling where you really want to kiss someone for wholesome reasons and then out of nowhere those reasons turn unwholesome? Yeah, I wasn't accustomed to the feeling either. Apparently Grayson had had the same change of heart, because we reached for each other at the same moment.
If the security cameras were watching, I wasn't thinking about them as I laced my arms around Grayson's neck and kissed him burningly. The heat in the greenhouse was nothing compared to the hot itchiness of my skin; even my head felt hot, like I was on the verge of a fever. His hands on my waist only raised the temperature. Maybe in the rest of the yard it was a balmy summer day, but right here it was like standing on the surface of the sun. Not to mention his soft lips gave such emotional kisses, even if there was no love in them. My heart ached, begging to be put out of its misery as I drowned in selfish, stolen kisses.
"Jackie–" he started, still raining hot, messy kisses down on my mouth.
I pushed him back into the grass, leaning over him and whispering, "Don't say anything." Words would only ruin it, remind us that it was all a sham. It was a sham even for ourselves, because we were both holding onto what very little we had together.
Grayson nodded, sweeping his hand under my ear to pull me into another deep kiss. There was absolutely nothing right about this and everything wrong with it, and yet...for now it was the only thing holding us together.
Then it was over. It was over, just like that. I pulled away, freezing as I hovered over Grayson. He seemed to be in a similar state, looking up at me with an expression that was a mixture of captivation and of silent shock. Composing myself, I cleared my throat and sat back on the blanket, smoothing my dress.
"Er, we should probably head out ring shopping," I said, diverting my gaze to the nearby geraniums so I didn't have to meet Grayson's eyes. Whenever we kissed, there was always a subject change. Because if we didn't change the subject, things would be said that couldn't be taken back.
"Right. Just uh, I'll need to quickly change," he said, crawling to his feet. I was horrified to see streaks of green all down the back of his white shirt.
I covered my mouth with my hands, mortified. "Grayson, I'm so sorry."
"Don't worry about it, I have three others just like it," he said kindly. He didn't understand that it wasn't just about the shirt; it was that I'd kissed him so...so shamelessly that I'd literally ruined his clothes.
Except there wasn't anything I could do about it now. Nodding miserably, I whispered, "I'll pack up here and meet you out front."
"Thanks, Jackie," he said, heading back towards the house.
Feeling horrible, I collected all the trash and leftovers and stuffed them into the little picnic basket. It was bad enough I was sucking all the normalcy out of Grayson's life. Now I was messing up and wrecking his clothes. It seemed silly in comparison to wrecking his life, but I couldn't bear to be a burden, even for the smallest of mistakes.
If only small mistakes were the biggest of my worries.