love and haikus // grayson hawthorne

Chapter 12

"When I'm with anyone else, I feel like I can't be myself"

-I'm only me when I'm with you, Taylor swift

"G-Grayson" Cordelia stared blankly at Grayson, who was wearing a white shirt, half tucked into his black slacks, "I need to talk to you." Cordelia opened her mouth to reply, but before anything came out, Grayson pulled her into a small boiler room , he then stalked over to to the boiler in the corner of the room and pulled out a wire from beneath, Cordelia could only stare, confused as to why Grayson was pulling wires out from a boiler, until the wall shifted to reveal a dark staircase leading down to what appeared to be a basement, "I want to show you something, follow." Cordelia smirked "ask nicely."

"What?" Grayson spun around on his heel to face her, his face was only inches away from hers, "you heard me, ask nicely" she was grinning even wider now, "no."

"Then I'm not following you." Graysons jaw tightened, "follow me, please." He sighed "there is that better?" Cordelia nodded her head more enthusiastically than needed, "yes it was, quite satisfactory" she put on a deeper, grumpier voice to imitate Grayson, and she could've swore she saw a small smirk appear on his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The room was cozy, it was small, about the same size as a small log cabin, and every single wall was lined with books, except one, that one had a small fire place and above it were three shelves, one filled with vinyls, Cordelia smiled as she saw Red (Taylor's version) on the shelf, the album she had made Grayson listen to over and over when she was 15, on the next shelf, there were trinkets, or objects people had given to Grayson she assumed, as there was a small cat teddy bear with a note that said 'thank you for being the best brother - Gigi a.k.a best sister ever' on it, the last shelf was stacked to the brim with papers, not just any paper all the paper had curled because of the ink on them, some were so worn around the edges it looked like a cat had nibbled the sides of them.

Grayson cleared his throat, she had honestly forgotten he was there, "so," Cordelia started, taking a few steps towards the table he was stood at, "what is this place?"

"It's mine, I had the old man make it for he when I was seven because my brothers kept barging into my room, and I wanted privacy, there's a secret passage way that leads straight to my room,"

Cordelia was still mesmerised by the room, she walked around, brushing her hands against the bookshelves, they had massive libraries at Cordelia's mansion back in Oxford, but this felt personal like it was really graysons, she turned back towards Grayson, he gestured for her to take a seat in one of the two oversized reading chairs, she noticed a cold cup of coffee on the desk alongside graysons computer, how long does he spend in here? "Would you like a tea?" Graysons voice snapped her out of her trance, "Yes please," she perked, "no milk-

"No milk, two sugars, yes I remember" Grayson laughed, and it was probably the best sound she had heard in a while, it made her smile too. A minute later Grayson sat in the chair opposite her and handed her a tea for herself, and took a sip of his coffee.

"Grayson?"

"Yes, daisy?"

Her cheeks flushed at the use of the old nickname, "What did you want to tell me?" Grayson took a deep breath and placed his coffee on the table.

"I need you to date me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I need you to date me." Graysons throat clenched as he waited from a reaction from Cordelia, when none came he added, "it would all be fake of course, just for the press."

"Why?" Cordelia lent forward and furrowed her eyebrows, "why do you need me to fake date you?"

Grayson blew out a long breath, he could lie, but he wouldn't, he would tell her the truth, "the press thinks I'm still in love with Avery, even though I'm not, and if they see me with someone else they'll know I've moved on." He wasn't sure how to feel about Avery for months after she chose Jameson over him, but he was sure now he had moved on. Cordelia lent back in her seat and twirled a piece of her brown hair around her finger, "what would I get out of it." Grayson had not thought about that, so he replied, "whatever you want." Cordelia thought for a bit longer before finally saying, "I'll date you, only for 6 months, no longer with absolutely no strings attached."

"Deal, you will be my girlfriend for 6 months and we will make sure the press sees us together multiple times, then after 6 months we will go back to being strangers again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Strangers, Cordelia didn't like that word but nether the less she nodded, and the rest of the day was spent with her and Grayson hatching their master plan to be the best couple the world had ever seen.