The Perfect Stranger

Prologue

Elliot Zedler is a good guy, scratch that he is a great guy; he is kind and polite towards everyone he meets, he is sensitive and careful with his words, he actually volunteers and spends times at the charities his family sponsors unlike any of his other siblings, he smiles even when he isn’t having a good day, he respects and views everyone equally, he helps people and his employs absolutely love him.

The point is he is good; he does good things so it doesn’t make sense when bad things happen to him. If anything, bad things happen to him just because he is a good guy, he is finally getting why everyone refers to him as naïve as he hides behind an itchy bush, his 2000 dollar Armani suit tugging over the itchy branches and leaves as he tries his very damn best not to sneeze and give away his position.

This particular ‘bad thing’ took form in the shape of his Ex-girlfriend and her particular brand of crazy that had him running for the hills, or hiding behind a bush in a crowded park next to what seems to be dog poo in his case. Now you see, all of this could have easily been avoided if he hadn’t been so goddamn nice and mindful of others feelings.

When he saw Paris almost a month ago in an airport of all the places in the world he hadn’t expected much when she had invited him for coffee, even if he did expect something it didn’t go past two friends meeting up with each other and retelling their old college tales, they had dated for a total of a silly month after college and had split on good terms the last he remembers, there clearly had not been any stalking or chasing around parks. And it had been good, it had been fun until he realized Paris had more than friendly intentions towards him (her hand on his crotch hadn’t exactly been subtle) and when she had clearly asked him back to her apartment what he should have done was clear things around and tell her that he wasn’t interested or ready to be in a relationship. 

He really should have done that, but then he had seen the big, hopeful, confident look on her face and his very kind, polite, helpfully nice self wasn’t able to do it, so like any rational 25 year old he had lied and said that he was already in a relationship with someone with as much as regret he could put on his words, and since a ‘relationship’ didn’t sound serious enough for someone like Paris to back off easily he had further added that he was engaged and was soon to be getting married just to get the point across.

She had taken it surprisingly well, she had been genuinely excited and apologetic about her passes towards him, there were no tears, threats or over dramatics on her part, her requests for getting drinks was easily avoidable thanks to his new imaginary fiancé who provided him all the excuses he needed and later she had even send him paid for bookings to one of her family’s star honeymoon suit in The Bahamas as a pre-wedding gift for him and his fictional fiancé. It had felt like the smartest decision he ever made and he made a mental note of making use of his new found fake fiancé whenever faced with such hard decisions such as rejection. If anything, he had just proved how much of a genius he actually was.

Until of course he had seen Paris again at his own party and he couldn’t think of one god damn reason for his fiancé not being present at his own press release party which was more or less considered to be a big day in his life and career, he had barely managed to cough his way through to the outside when he noticed that Paris had decided to follow him and he didn’t think twice before he had ran into the park in order to avoid her.

Okay, he’ll admit now that he recalls it again, he is the crazy one and not his ex-girlfriend, but still his integrity was on the line and he would rather hide next to dog poo than admit that he in fact did lie to her and forever live with the embarrassment of being the guy who was scared of his Ex, so yeah, hiding was what he was gonna do.

He almost falls into the dog poop once he catches sight of Paris’s dress again, he had no idea how the hell Paris managed to follow him in those heels, he curses under his breath as he thinks of a way to escape, but Paris’s bodyguards were by her side, most likely in the same look out as their boss so making a run for it was probably not a smart idea and he had just been talking about how much of a genius he is.