Not to be found

Chapter 8 - The Meeting

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry." I exclaim looking up at the guy with wide eyes hoping that he doesn't recognise me.

He's looking down at the large coffee stain on his shirt and trying to remove it with nothing but his bare hands, I hope he knows that it won't work. I feel hopelessly embarrassed right now, only I would do this.

"Don't worry about it," he says actually half laughing, "it was my fault, I'm always not looking where I'm going."

I smile back at him, trying not to look too nervous. I've never properly spoken to a guy before, not on my own anyway; I feel kind of intimidated for some reason, maybe its because I don't have Monica at my side to do all the talking for me. But she never does the talking for me, its always for herself.

"My name is Noah," the guy reaches out to shake my hand, a smile is still imprinted on his face, "What's yours?"

Oh wow. What do I say? I can't say Lacey, he'll immediately know who I am. Think Lacey think, you can do this its simple, just say a name for crying out loud he's waiting you're going to make yourself look stupid and suspicious, who doesn't know their own damn name? I don't have amnesia for gods sake, I didn't walk into a wall, however I did walk into a rather lovely guy who seems to have me speechless and searching for my words.

"My name is Gracie," I shake his hand in return wondering if I chose a name that's too close to my actual name, what's done is done now there is no going back from this.

He looks at me for a minute, examining my facial features, I panic on the inside, I can feel that horrible warm feeling arising within my stomach and the dizziness in my head as the room spins around me.

"Would you like to join me?" Noah asks pointing towards an empty table.

I have just eaten but how can I turn up this opportunity, how is he going to know? Plus I would be lying if I said that I wasn't still hungry, truth be told I could eat another sandwich or two.

"Umm, sure." I reply putting my hands in my pockets so that he doesn't notice the moisture on them from my nervous sweat.

Something tells me this is going to be the longest lunch of my life, he is pretty cute; blonde hair that's quite long, hazel eyes and even though his shirt now has a huge coffee stain on it, it still looks great on him.

"Have you been here before?" he asks me curiously.

I consider my choice of words, "No, just a flying visit." I reply, the pun was unintentional.

A smile emerges on his face, "You're funny," he chuckles, "So you're not staying?" a frown replaces his brilliant smile, making me question what has dulled his mood.

That's a good question actually. Am I staying? I mean the place seems pretty quiet, I wouldn't even say its a town, more like an over sized village to be honest. I could see myself hiding out here actually, it seems so peaceful. What the heck? Just do it Lacey, I mean Gracie.

"Yeah I should be," I smile back at Noah, whose smile has now returned which makes mine brighter. "Are you from here? or are you just visiting too?"

He pulls the menu down from his face, "Oh, I'm actually training to be a pilot."

That explains the white shirt, black trousers and boots. "My dad is just over there," he points towards a man that appears to be in his late forties sipping from a tea cup and eating an egg sandwich. His hair is brown unlike his son's and he's wearing a white shirt but it has a gold crest on it, indicating that he is in fact a pilot himself. I look over at the man for a while longer, he has Noah's facial structure but that's about it, he must be more like his mother.

"Is he training you?" I ask, this time with the menu covering my face, it makes it easier to talk as I don't have to look at him directly.

"Yes, he's been training me for a couple of years now and I'm doing quite well. He says I maybe able to take my test in a few months," I can hear from his tone of voice that he's proud of himself, meaning that doing the whole pilot thing must be important to him.

"That's wonderful, I wish you luck when you eventually take the test," I reply taking the menu down from my face so that I can see the wide smile that is still growing on his face.

After a bit more discussion, we eventually order our food and wait just ten minutes for the waiter to bring it out t us. Thankfully its not the same one that served me earlier and so I don't have to see a strange look on anyone's face. As we eat I ask Noah some more about himself and I find out that he's lived in this village for his whole life, he lives in a big house with quite a bit of land. His mum has her own salon and his dad works for a big security company, he is twenty and finished university two years early receiving great grades and honours. Once he's done talking about himself we have actually finished eating and before I know it his father is approaching us from the other side of the room,

"Who's this you've found then?" he asks as he stands over the table.

"Dad this is Gracie, we had an incident as I came into the terminal," he said showing his dad his coffee stained shirt which makes me flush with embarrassment, "it was totally self - inflicted, you know me constantly walking into things."

Noah's dad laughs a little and then smiles warmly at me," It's nice to meet you Gracie, I'm Mike." he shakes my hand, "Noah doesn't sit down and have lunch with every girl he meets just after ten minutes alone so there must be something about you."

Noah shifts in his seat and I notice that his neck and cheeks turn a shade of red, "Dad, please?" he says still looking down at the table, not making eye contact with either of us.

"Tell you what, Gracie have you got anywhere you need to be?" Mike asks me, waiting for a response.

"No, not immediately," I reply not wanting to sound eager.

"Well then, I insist that you come back to our house." he says.

I almost spit out my water, I've only just met Noah and now I'm being invited back to his house. What the hell is going on? Even though I'm shocked I can't pass the opportunity up, they clearly have no idea that I am Lacey Grey and so I should be okay. I can do this. I nod and Noah gets up from the table and him and Mike lead me to a rather expensive looking Range Rover, I tell them that I have my own car and that I will follow them and that is what I do.

Where is this leading? Will his mum recognise me? Am I actually thinking straight?