The semester wound to a close and Simon had worked on his dissertation research with every ounce of spare time he had. The assistant professor job filled a lot of his schedule, but the pay was too good to pass up.

As much as he enjoyed work, the real highlight of every day was when he had time to read. Assistant teaching counted towards credits he needed through their doctoral program scholarship and would eventually help him get placed for his residency. The professor he was working with was notorious for writing passionate and moving recommendation letters.

He had chosen to help teach in a biology related field instead of one directly linked to psychology for a very specific reason. His real passion involved reading about the research done with biomarkers for post traumatic stress syndrome and related disorders. The biology factor that contributed to people suffering from PTSD fascinated him. His dissertation involved research for the biomarkers on local students suffering from PTSD. Simon wanted to find a new biomarker similar in all or most of the PTSD students. Right now he was in the research portion of his study, but planned to conduct an experiment. He desperately needed to convince the board to give him a grant in order to do this.

He had read everything he could get his hands on in the last couple weeks. All of his spare time had been packed with research, study data and DNA examination. A small portion of his constant business was to keep his mind off of a certain woman that hadn’t returned his calls.

He had to think it was because of the catastrophic way they had ended the time in her apartment. Usually, Simon was the kind of man that wouldn’t get attached to someone if he felt like there was no future involved in the relationship. He wasn’t looking for casual dating. Dating for the sake of sex or relationship status never ended well. He had avoided relationships like that altogether.

For some reason Simon was drawn to this klutzy, beautiful, American girl. He had this feeling in the back of his mind that they were destined to be in each other’s lives. It was a feeling that he couldn’t shake.

Today, Simon had nothing to do except enjoy his reading time. He sat at the same coffee shop that he had taken Hannah to on their first date. The corner of the shop was his favorite. He could sit with his back to the wall and look out and watch people without actually being in the middle of the crowd. The book he currently read was entitled PTSD and Current Translational Research. The textbook was fascinating and paired well with his cup of Earl Grey. He took an occasional sip, engrossed in his reading.

He was startled when someone sat at the same table. The woman he had been fretting about was there with her long auburn hair framing her pale skin. Her green eyes were stunning against the backdrop of her freckled skin. He noticed the shiny gloss on her lips and wondered briefly what it tasted like.

“Hannah!” He couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

“Hey, Simon,” she said casually. She had a cup of black coffee nursed between both hands.

“What are you doing here?” And why haven’t you answered my calls, he added silently.

“I just saw you and thought you might be the answer to my prayers.”

A shock spread through him. He would love to be the answer to her prayers. All of this sounded too good to be true, however. He cleared his throat, unsure how to respond. “Really?”

“Well, yeah. I needed someone to help me and didn’t really know who to ask. I think you could be the perfect person for the job.”

Immediately, Simon perked up a bit. If she needed him to help her with something it would give him the chance to spend more time with her.

“What can I help you with?”

“Well, this might be a weird request, and I don’t expect you to say yes. I haven’t called you back at all and I don’t expect you to be nice to me.” She started playing with her hair while she talked.

“Yes, I noticed. Was there any particular reason you avoided my calls?” He hoped she could give him a good reason, to preserve his pride.

“I just thought perhaps I had embarrassed myself beyond redemption last time we met up. That time in class my bag tripped you up, and then my dog knocked you over. I’m not used to feeling so embarrassed.”

Simon laughed. “I was the one to be embarrassed. Both times it was me falling over and almost knocking you down.”

“So, we were both embarrassed, I guess.” Hannah took another sip of coffee and smiled at him. Her cheeks were pink and her smile seemed genuine.

Simon felt himself relax and the weight that he had been carrying around seemed to ease. She hadn’t been avoiding him because of anything he had done. She was just as embarrassed as he was.

“What did you need from me?” The curiosity was killing him.

“See, my mother is sick. She has cancer.”

At this Simon couldn’t help himself. He reached across the table and grabbed her hand. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” he said. Her hand was so small. Her delicate fingers squeezed his.

“Yes, but I’ve known for a while. It is difficult, but she is so positive. She always has something good that she focuses on and is being prayed over by a lot of people.”

He could tell she wanted to be tough, but that she was very worried about her mother. After a moment he squeezed her hand once and let go.

“Okay, so here is the problem and why I need your help. My mother is worried that I will be alone if something happens to her. My father died years ago. She raised us all on her own, and now my sister and her husband live a few hours away. She is worried that I am going to need someone to love me. She has been insisting that I find someone to date.”

Simon liked where this was going.

“It wasn’t so bad at first. She just talked about it. But it has become an obsession for her, almost. And I don’t want to disappoint her. I don’t want her to worry anymore about me. I want her to focus on getting better. To be honest I don’t want her meddling in my life either. She has such good intentions, but I don’t need her to set me up with anyone.”

“I can understand that,” Simon replied.

“So back to what I needed from you. I was wondering if you would go to Thanksgiving dinner with me?” Hannah asked.

Simon was thrilled. He broke into a grin and almost did a happy dance in his seat.

“And maybe you could pretend to be my boyfriend so she won’t worry,” she finished.

His grin disappeared as he processed what she was saying. She wanted him to pretend to be her boyfriend. Not actually go as her date. He could hardly blame her. So far he hadn’t done much to win her affections. If they spend more time together though, this could actually give him the opportunity to get to know her.

“Sure,” he replied, trying to sound casual.

She smiled at him over her coffee. “Thank you so much! I promise it won’t be that bad. I can even pay you for your time. It is going to be five days, so I have been saving up for the cost.”

At this comment, his heart faltered. Perhaps she didn’t see him as a viable candidate for an actual relationship. Money wasn’t exactly what he had wanted out of getting to know her. If that was what she needed though, he would help her.

“Alright,” he said quietly and stood up. “I have to head out. I have a meeting.” His schedule was actually free, but he needed to distance himself from her and think things over.

She nodded, still smiling and obviously pleased.

“Sounds good. I’ll get back to you this week and we can meet up and go over things. I have a plan that I want to get you up to speed on. And we need to make sure we know enough about each other to make this work.”

Simon felt a stab of pain somewhere near his heart and realized that this plan of hers could end in a lot of heartache for him. Or it could end up in Hannah realizing how great they could be together. The risk was worth it. He told himself this a few times as he headed out the door.

* * *

She glanced down at her watch again. He was late. She hated being late, but more than that she hated when other people were late. This was ridiculous. She had paid him to be here, so he should have been on time. And for the price that he was charging her, she expected him to be feeding her filet mignon and lobster tail.

Stirring the drink she had in her hand, she refolded the napkin on the edge of her table, trying to keep her hands busy so she didn’t start getting upset. The waiter had already stopped by twice asking her if she was going to order.

Just about the time she was ready to stand up and leave, she glanced toward the door one final time in hopes that he would be there. Simon smiled at her from across the room and waved. She breathed a sigh of relief and frowned at him. His smile faltered slightly, but he came over and sat across from her.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” he said.

“Okay,” Hannah replied with a wave of her hand. She wanted to move on. She didn’t even care why he was late. He was here now.

“We need to get started,” she said quickly, jumping straight into work.

“What can I get for you two?” the waiter asked, interrupting her before she could continue.

Simon grabbed a menu from the center of the table. “I’m not sure yet, can you come back in about five minutes?”

The waiter left with an irritated look on his face. Hannah rolled her eyes heavenward in frustration. “I’m not hungry.”

“Oh, come now. We need to eat. That was the whole point of this meeting.”

“No, the whole point of this meeting was to talk about the plan and get to know each other. You were late and now we need to get a lot of work done in a short amount of time. I have a class in two hours and I really needed every minute to work on this with you.”

“I’m so sorry for being late. Let me make it up to you. Lunch is my treat.”

Now he was speaking her language. “Alright, you pay. But that won’t add up on my tab. I already owe you enough money for this plan and I can’t afford a penny more.”

“No strings attached. Although, since I am a poor doctorate student, would you care to share a pizza?”

“I like any kind of pizza really, so you go ahead and pick.”

Simon looked through the menu. “Okay, if I have to pick the pizza then you have to pick the dessert.”

“Sounds fair to me.” Hannah knew exactly which dessert she would pick. She had been eying the tiramisu a table over. It looked divine.

After they ordered, Hannah pulled out her yellow legal pad. She needed to write things down so she could study them later.

“Now we need to get to know each other in order for this to work. My mother would never believe I was dating someone I didn’t know. I was thinking that today we could cover religious beliefs, perhaps a bit of childhood and then relevant personal information that we need to know about each other.”

“Sounds like a very good plan.”

“Alright, why don’t you start since I had to come up with all of this stuff.” Hannah didn’t want to admit that going first was scary. She hadn’t ever opened up to anyone outside of her family and that terrified her. Perhaps if he went first it would make it a bit easier for her to confide in him.

“Well, religious beliefs. I think that was the first thing you said?”

Hannah nodded.

“Alright. I was raised as a Christian. I don’t really have a specific denomination. I grew up going to church. My mother raised me Catholic, but after I turned eighteen I decided I wasn’t really interested in attending a Catholic church. I stopped going to church for a few years after I graduated from high school.”

“That happens to a lot of people,” Hannah interrupted.

Simon continued after nodding in agreement with her statement. “Actually, I hadn’t been interested in attending another church until I moved to the states. When I started going to school here, I was invited by a friend of mine to a non-denominational Christian church and I couldn’t help but love it, to be honest. The people here in Texas are kind and very open. A small group that I joined helped me feel welcome, and I found out I could belong somewhere.”

Hannah smiled. Simon had a look of nostalgia in his eyes and she could tell he was passionate about the story he was telling.

Just then, the waiter showed up with their pizza and a couple of plates. It smelled amazing. She grabbed a piece, stretching the cheese until it broke and licking her fingers. The sauce was sweet and savory at the same time and delighted her taste buds. As she took her first bite of the scalding pizza, she closed her eyes to savor the taste even more. When she opened them, Simon was staring at her with a strange look on his face. One Hannah didn’t quite recognize.

“What?” Hannah asked with a puzzled expression.

“Oh, nothing,” Simon replied, spreading his napkin on his lap. “You just look cute when you eat.”

Hannah could feel her cheeks heating up and tried to hide it by letting her hair fall in front of her face while she continued to eat her pizza.

“Why don’t you finish your story?” Hannah asked.

“Alright,” Simon replied. “Where was I? Ah, yes. So a few months after finding the church in Houston, I decided to volunteer in ministry with the youth program, and I have done that ever since. I actually have a mission trip planned in February, to Guatemala.”

“That is a wonderful story,” Hannah said over a mouthful of pizza.

“Now you have to tell me about your religious background,” Simon said with a sly smile.

Hannah realized he might have guessed that she wasn’t really one to share her feelings easily.

“Okay, I’m Christian too,” she replied simply. She was hoping he would let her get away with short answers, but had the feeling that Simon was the type to poke and prod.

“And?” Simon asked.

“That’s it. I’m Christian.”

“Alright, then let me tell you a bit about my childhood.”

Hannah was surprised he was willing to move on and didn’t try to extract the information from her. A strange feeling of irritation mixed with the urge to spill all of her secrets to him bubbled up in her gut. She pushed those feelings down and focused on Simon’s story.

“Although it will probably take a bit longer than one sitting to tell you all about my childhood, I can start now at least. I grew up in London with a single mother. My father left when I was a baby. I never really got to meet him and I don’t remember anything about him. I went to a private school, even though my mother couldn’t afford it. She worked three jobs to make ends meet. I didn’t see her all that much except on Sundays. That was her one day off from all three jobs. She and I would spend a lot of time together on that day. She did everything she could to make sure that I had everything I needed, growing up.” He paused to fill his mouth with another bite of pizza. She noticed a tiny fleck of sauce that stuck to the bottom part of his lip.

“You have something, just there,” she said pointing at his lip. He attempted to get it off, but failed. Hannah reached over and touched the spot on his lip with the tip of her finger. She had a brief image flash through her head of him grabbing her hand and nibbling on her finger with his lips. She shook her head a bit to rid herself of the invasive thoughts.

Simon continued his story. “She paid for everything on her own. She was an only child and her parents died when she was young, so she did not have additional support. I was able to come to the States for school because of a scholarship opportunity that I found for students who wanted to study abroad, and I planned on going into the medical profession. I applied and was accepted.”

“Wow.” Hannah was stunned. This man had made it through impossible odds. She didn’t know if she would have been able to do that. Probably not. She had all the support and love that she ever needed, and she still had a hard time.

“Your turn.” This time Hannah could tell by the steely look in his eyes that he wasn’t going to let her get away with a short answer. The thought of exposing her life to him was anxiety inducing and made her want to hide. Perhaps this was a terrible idea. Maybe she should just call it quits and deal with her mom.

Hannah swallowed her bite of pizza which seemed to take a lot of effort. His childhood was rough and he had worked so hard for what he had. How could she ever compete with that? “I didn’t have a rough childhood, to be honest. It was beautiful. My mom and dad made life simple and easy. I got to focus on school. I never had anything difficult happen until I was eighteen. When my dad died, I did go through a rough time, but it was not unexpected. He had MS and he deteriorated very quickly once he got the diagnosis. We got to spend time with him before he died and he passed peacefully. I guess I just know that I will see him again someday. I still miss him though. I was his buddy. And he was who I looked up to. It’s been tough since. And with my mom having cancer, things are really difficult now. But I still have her support and love. And I have never had to work through college, because they saved up for me to go. I also got a large scholarship.”

“Sounds like you have had a really rough go as well,” Simon remarked with sincerity.

“Not as bad as you though. You have had so much happen since you were a little kid. Mine was after I became an adult.”

“It’s not a contest,” Simon remarked.

“I know that.”

The next few minutes were spent in silence. Hannah was trying to process what she had learned about Simon while simultaneously eating her last bite of pizza.

“Well, I have to head out,” Simon said abruptly.

Hannah felt a wave of confusion. Simon seemed suddenly uncomfortable. She hadn’t said anything she thought would make him feel bad. Maybe she had shared too much.

“But we haven’t had the dessert yet.”

“Yeah, but I really need to go. You enjoy it. I’ll pay on my way out.”

Hannah's thoughts turned over and over as she sat waiting for her dessert and sipping her water. What had she said that had made him uncomfortable? She waited for the tiramisu impatiently. They still had another thirty minutes that he wasted. She was going to have to schedule another meeting.