That your looking for a boyfriend
I see that
Give me time, you know I'm gonna be that
Don't be scared to come put your trust in me
Can't you see all I really want to be
Is your boyfriend
Why does Grayson want to see me in her office?
I'm nervous as hell. My hands are sweaty and shaking slightly and my heart is beating heavily against my rib cage as I walk out of the elevator and towards her office.
She has never asked me to come to her office before. She hasn't ever really called me by my first name before either, it has always been 'Styles'.
My anxiety is really getting the best of me right now. I need to calm the fuck down.
"Get it together, Harry." I mumble to myself as I near her office door.
You know, it would be really nice if I dropped dead right now and I didn't have to go meet Grayson in her office. I'm just going to embarrass myself, like I always do.
Maybe the ceiling above me could spontaneously collapse right now.
Ooo or maybe I could find the fire alarm and pull it so I can sprint out of here like a bat out of hell.
Crushes like the one I have on Grayson don't do well for me. I'm too in my own head and introverted for overwhelming feelings like this. Ones that I know that I will never have the courage to act on.
Damn it, this building is too structurally sound for the ceiling to collapse. And pulling the fire alarm would be against the code of ethics. I guess I have to go in her office.
"Miss Saxton?" I speak up as I knock on the open door a few times and peek my head into her office.
The sound of the knock gets her attention and has her looking up from her paperwork on her desk. "Harry!" She smiles at me. "Come in!" She adds and waves me over.
With her words, I hesitantly make my way into her office and take a seat in one of the chairs across from her desk. "And, please, call me Grayson." She says with a smile while I put all my focus into sitting in the chair and not letting my ass miss it to make me fall to the floor.
"Okay, Grayson, I'm Harry."
She snorts out a laugh. "Yes, I know."
Of course she knows. She called me by my name already. Good one, Harry. "Oh yeah." Fuck, I already feel myself blushing.
"So, how are you doing today?" She asks me, seeming to be giving me her full attention. I almost feel like she is studying me. But I'm probably just overthinking things, like always, again.
"Well, I guess I'm not doing too bad. I'm pretty happy with how my presentation went. I did test some extra code with the microprocessor, just for fun, but I left it out of the presentation. I thought that I would just keep the necessities in the presentation for time sake, you know?" I ramble. "Plus the other code was just silly stuff like making a stop light with different speed intervals and blinking patterns."
"The presentation was great, Harry." Grayson reassures me and ends my anxious rambling. "But how about non-work related?"
"Oh, uhm, I thought the fact on my fact-a-day desk calendar was pretty cool." I shrug my shoulders matter-of-factly. "It said that The Eiffel Tower can fluctuate plus or minus six inches in height depending on the season. Which makes sense scientifically because it's made of iron and iron expands in high temperatures."
Grayson leans back in her chair, seemingly impressed. "Okay, Encyclopedia Brown. What else is on this calendar?"
"Hmm...well a few days ago it said that the only two body parts that never stop growing are the ears and nose. Which also makes sense scientifically because our nose and ears are mostly made of cartilage cells. And cartilage cells continue to divide more as we age."
"Interesting." She hums with a smile. "Tell me a little more about yourself."
About myself? Well, I'm pretty boring. And I don't really understand her sudden interest in my life. But I guess I should feel good about the fact that she wants to get to know me. I mean, this seems like an opportunity I have been hoping for...time with Grayson.
"Uhm..." I trail off, trying to think on my feet of how to make myself seem interesting. "I'm twenty-five. I'm from England, which you can probably tell by the accent and all, but I moved here because I got a full ride to MIT. Uhm...I like to read and make video games. That's kind of what I do for fun, I guess." I continue to ramble like an idiot.
"You seem nervous." Grayson states with a confused look on her face when she seems to notice me doing my anxious habit of fidgeting with my rings and bouncing my leg.
I look down self-consciously and will myself to stop fidgeting. "I tend to be a nervous person." I reply sheepishly. "Plus, you've never asked me to meet you in your office before so I guess I'm just hoping I'm not in trouble."
"Oh, you're not in trouble." She assures me. "I just wanted to get to know you."
I can't help but laugh. "Why?" I ask.
Not many people usually show interest in getting to know me.
Grayson's sudden interest in doing so is welcomed. But also confusing for me.
"Well, Janet was-" She starts to say but I cut her off.
"Oh God, what did Janet do this time?" I groan and run my fingers through my hair.
Janet promised me that she wouldn't meddle in my silly crush on Grayson. Thanks a lot, Janet.
"She didn't do anything, don't worry." Grayson waves off with a laugh. "I'm just in a bit of a predicament and she told me that you would be willing to help. So I thought that it wouldn't hurt to get to know you a bit."
"A predicament? Are you okay?" I ask in a worried tone.
"Oh yeah, I'm totally fine." She says, calming my concerned state of mind. "And this is not really like me to ask this of you, especially when I barely know you. But Janet told me you two are good friends. So I trust her when she says that you wouldn't have a problem with this."
"Okay..." I trail off, now way more confused than worried. "What's going on?"
"Well," Grayson starts to say but seems apprehensive. She then runs her fingers through her hair and looks down momentarily. "Fuck, how do I phrase this correctly?" She mumbles to herself.
I give her a moment to collect her thoughts, remaining silent in my seat.
This is so fucking confusing. I have no idea what is going on.
And the fact that Janet was talking to Grayson about me...good thing her and Brandon are coming over to my place for game night tonight so I can ask her about what the hell she was thinking.
"I guess I will just put it simply. I need someone to come with me to my family vacation and pretend to be my boyfriend." She blurts out suddenly.
I practically start choking on air. "You're what?" I ask through coughs.
Am I having a stroke?
"My fake boyfriend. It would be paid vacation time, I also have a work function I need to attend a day prior to the trip, so you would come to that too." She says calmly, like I'm not fucking struggling to breathe right now.
"You want me, me as in me Harry, to be your temporary boyfriend for..."
"For two and a half weeks." She finishes my unspoken question for me.
"Two and a half weeks?" I squeak out, my voice sounding close to that of one of the Alvin and The Chipmunks characters.
"Yes, and I totally understand if you don't want to...I mean, I'm your boss so it's probably a little unprofessional to ask this of one of my employees. But I only feel comfortable asking you this because Janet assured me that you would be okay with it."
Okay with it? I guess that's one way to put it.
But I do need to be logical about this and think before I decide what I want to do. I mean, yes I want to go with her. But this would only be a temporary thing, two and a half weeks. I feel like this won't help with my feelings for Grayson. It will only make my feelings more intense.
I don't need that to happen when I already know that she is way out of my league and my chances of actually being with her are slim to none.
Can I even go? It was hard for me to even come to her office right now. How am I supposed to spend two and a half weeks with her without being a constant nervous wreck.
"You can take some time to think it over, I know it's a big thing to spring on you out of the blue like this." Grayson speaks up, snapping me out of my spiraling thoughts. "Here's my number, text me when you make a decision." She adds with a smile as she hands me a piece of paper with her personal phone number on it.
I lean forward and extend my arm to take the small paper from her before placing it safely into the front left pocket of my trousers. "Okay, uhm, I'll let you know. When would we need to leave?" I ask as I stand up from my seat, getting ready to leave her office to go back to mine for the remainder of the work day.
"Wednesday night, most likely. If not Wednesday, then Thursday morning." She informs me.
Fuck, thats two days away.
No pressure, Harry. Just thoroughly question your sanity and then make a decision. Easy.
"Okay, I'll let you know by tomorrow at the latest." I inform her. "Have a nice rest of your day, Miss Sa-" I start to say before I cut myself off. "Grayson. Have a nice rest of your day, Grayson."
"You too, Harry." She laughs. The sound has my stomach doing somersaults. "I look forward to hearing from you."
And with that, I leave her office thoroughly confused as to what the hell just happened.
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A/N:
Hello my digital bookworms (:
I'm sorry for not updating this story for so long and putting it on the back burner. I was focused on finishing Turbulence. But now that Turbulence is over, get ready for some nerd Harry.
I'm excited.
-M