https://youtu.be/qHm9MG9xw1o

   In a week since I got back to Morning's Dew, I still have not gotten any job interviews. I sigh in fustration as I read my book. "Honestly! How long does it take to say 'Yes, let's bring her in for interview.' or 'No'." I growl as I turn the page in my Adventures of Sherlock Holmes novel. I put down my book and pace behind the counter. Lately, my life fell into this little rut.

   The rut acts like this: I wake up, eat, brush my teeth, change, and get a cup of coffee from downstairs. Then, most likely, Grantaire will be awake and sitting up on the couch when I get back and I must go down once more for another cup of coffee. The cafe and the bar are the only places aside from his house that he is allowed to go. I think it has something to do with the fact that he drinks incessantly, but I am not really sure. I come back up to see him smiling wistfully while staring off into space. I hand him the cup of coffee then head to the kitchen in Maurice's apartment to make breakfast. If Grantaire stays over, the breakfast is normally pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

   After breakfast, I help the hungover Grantaire out of the apartment and down the stairs. I guess you can call me his care taker since no one else in the town is stepping up.

   That is just the morning. In the afternoons I do nothing considering I am only paid for morning shifts. I help out sometimes when Maurice is short on staff. 

   I guess I do not mind it as much as I seem to believe since I do not complain about it all that much. Currently, on our slow day, I am reading the newspaper looking for aparments for sale. Last night, Grantaire was sober enough to go home, so I had a while to myself and started googling this. The bell rings and I look up. Three people come in, one right after the other. Two of them sit down while the third walks in front of me. "What are you doing?" It is a decidedly male voice. I have to blink a few times to realize that a not-so-but-at-the-same-time-completely-cognizant Grantaire talking to me. I can barely make a sound.

   "Y-you're sober." I say in an extremely elegant manner. Catch my sarcasm? I did too.

   "I know, I am more sober than this entire week you have known me.... and I have a favor to ask you.... more like a proposition actually." Grantaire answers to my blantant observation.

   "What do you need?" I ask him. He is actually sober, I still cannot wrap my head around it. For an entire week he has been drunk, yet here he is now at least a little sober.

   "A girlfriend." He replies in all seriousness. I almost choke on the coffee I had been drinking.

   "Why do you need a girlfriend? If this is your way of asking out a girl--"

   "I am not asking you out. My parents are coming over in two hours to visit me, and, in some futile attempt to thwart their efforts, I told them I had a girlfriend." Grantaire explains a little harshly. "Now, they want to meet this girl I have been seeing, and, since you are the only person in this town that actually spares a glance at me, I am asking you to be my fake girlfriend."

   "How long?"

   "For as long as they are in town."

   "Which is....?" 

   "Two months?" Grantaire replies sheepishly. I almost spit out my coffee, again.

   "How long have you told them that you were dating someone?"

   "A year...."

   "WHAT? I DON'T KNOW A YEAR'S WORTH OF FACTS ABOUT YOU!" I whisper-shout at him.

   "Please. I don't want my parents to see what I have become and I cannot bare to let them down." For one second, I see a broken-ness within the man. Here he is, the proud man who would put up somewhat of a fight when I tried to help him, pleading for me to do this huge favor for him. I lose my voice. Could the tone of a person's voice do that?

   "Fine," I find myself agreeing. "Is there anything else I should know?" I ask with a sigh before continuing on with apartment hunting. 

   "That we are living together." Grantaire replies offhandedly. My head, which had wondered down to stare at the page in the Morning's Dew Post snaps back up. "I'll pick you up at seven!" He calls to me as he walks out the door. My mouth drops to the floor.

   Did I just agree to be his girlfriend for two months?!