"Hello." I looked up to see Mrs. Mcvey popping her head into the door.
"Oh, good morning! I wasn't sure if anyone was up yet, so I stayed in here." I said in a slightly hushed voice so as not to wake anyone up.
"I thought I'd check in and see who was up, even my husband is still asleep." She said, and I glanced at the clock to see it was eight in the morning.
"Um, would you like to go to breakfast or something? I'd really like to spend some time with you all." I said, biting my lip and fighting back a blush. I'll be honest- I'd be lying if I said that maybe this relationship was starting to feel not-so-fake. I mean, it was fake. And I'm pretty sure I don't have any feelings towards James, but at this point... Maybe it was becoming such a norm that we didn't even have to stage it anymore.
Mrs. Mcvey perked up and stepped fully into the room. "I'll give you a bit of time to get ready, and you can just find me whenever you want to go. I know a lovely cafe in town, we could go there." She suggested. I grinned, nodding and capping the dark grey nail varnish I was using to paint my toes.
"I'll be down in a few minutes!" I chirped. Mrs. Mcvey grinned and nodded, closing the door quietly behind her as she left. Immediately I was on my feet, digging through my clothes. I opted for a cream shift dress with an embroidered collar that landed half way down my thighs and some tall light brown gladiators, as well as a brown shoulder bag. I did my makeup quickly, settling for some foundation, bronzer, and peach eyeshadow before putting my hair in a mermaid braid over my shoulder and heading down the stairs, but not before leaving a sticky note on James' forehead telling him where we were.
"Mrs. Mcvey? I'm ready to go as soon as you are." I said, entering the kitchen. Mrs. Mcvey got up from her seat at the table, setting down a book after dog earing it and grabbing her bag.
"Let's head out!" She grinned excitedly. I followed her to her car and we chatted about a few random things like the weather and how the train ride was. As soon as we arrived at a small French Bistro and had placed our orders, we began to actually talk. James' mum was surprisingly relatable and not stand-offish, and she seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say. We talked about everything to from the boys' label to my bakery to my family in France and back to her job.
By the time we had run out of topics to talk about, we had already finished our breakfast and had just ordered some lemon bars to top things off. Mrs. Mcvey had just asked me about some celebrity and we were laughing over Nicki Minaj's confession that she got bum implants.
"You're quite the young girl, Lizzie." Mrs. Mcvey said. I didn't really mind that she called me that, because when she said it the name sounded sophisticated. I smiled politely back and sipped my tea.
"Thank you, I've really enjoyed getting to know you, Mrs. Mcvey. I can see why James turned out so great." I complimented, and she smiled brightly.
"I'm so proud of him, especially that he's settled in with such a bright, ambitious, and beautiful girl like yourself." At this point I was bright red and beyond flattered. "Some girls out there are just... fake. And yet he found you." At the word fake slipping from her mouth my heart dropped. Because I realised that even though she liked the real me, she thought the real me was dating her son. I was worse than those fake girls because I'd gotten caught up in my own lie.
"Well I'm lucky to have him." I said before I could stop myself. Mrs. Mcvey beamed, digging into her lemon bar. I was slightly more reserved for the rest of the meal, the work 'fake' bouncing through my head.
