Page 13 of The 21-Day Boyfriend
I can’t hold back anymore. “Can I at least breathe? Or do you want me to hold my breath all night, too?”
“I’m just trying to…”
“To turn me into a mannequin you can drag around with you.”
“Something like that.”
At least he doesn’t try to deny it.
I don’t care about any of the shit that’s come out of his mouth during this short but horrible car journey. I don’t care that he’s asked me not to touch him – I mean, we only met two days ago, so there was never any danger of me trying to hold his hand. And with someone like him?! But the fact that he’s asked me to be something which hurt me for so long… I can’t let that slide.
“Try not to say anything that could mess this all up, okay? Just… Do that.”
“What if someone asks questions about us? About how we met, or…?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he says, exasperated.
He pulls into an enormous car park outside a hotel, then turns off the engine.
For the first time, he turns to face me.
“No one cares about you.”
I wonder what the hell I’m doing here; why I’m doing this favour for someone who I don’t and will never like. Why am I letting him talk to me like this? But then he continues his sentence, under his breath: “just like no one cares about me.” Suddenly, my longing to ditch this evening and leave him to his fate just dies.
The problem is that I find it impossible to be a dick – even when I try my hardest. And I can never stay mad at someone, even when they hurt me. And I don’t think I’ll ever change. Maybe I don’t want to. I’m happy the way I am. I’m happy with myself.
This absurd evening and his absurd behaviour won’t make me doubt who I am.
“Come on. How hard can it be?”
I try to be encouraging, because I don’t like the concern on his face and because the air in this car is becoming heavier and heavier.
“If I can do it, you definitely can. Besides, you have a date that you can take all your frustration out on.”
He shakes his head. “You’re not here to motivate me.” The atmosphere changes again, bringing us right back to where we started. “You’re here to play a part – just try to do it right.”
5Eric
At the entrance to the Radisson Blue Hotel, one of the front-of-house staff comes immediately over to us.
“Good evening, gentlemen. May I help you?”
“We’re here for the St. Vincent event,” I say, my voice quiet.
My date is too busy looking around with his mouth wide open in shock to listen.
I know there’s no point being secretive about this evening – we’re already here, after all – but I keep putting off the moment when I’ll have to explain my family to him, and tell him why I didn’t follow in their footsteps, like everyone expected me to.
I pull the folded invite out from my jacket pocket and hand it to the man. He opens it and looks at me.
“Mr. O’Shea, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Please, follow me. The event is being held in our Imperial Hall.”
My date steps over just as the man invites us to follow him, and we walk in silence towards the room.
He closed his mouth when I told him to just play along; to be honest, I think I’ve been a bit of a dick. But we’d just got here, and I was nervous at the thought of seeing my family again. So I took it out on Sean, who has no idea what he’s even doing here.
“Dr. and Mrs. O’Shea will be happy to see you.”
