Make Me Smile

“I need a boyfriend.”

Natalie sipped her tea and raised an eyebrow at me questioningly. “Where is this coming from?”

I sighed and toyed with my teacup. “I’m just lonely. I mean, it’s great having you as a friend and all, “ I hastily explained as she looked a little annoyed, “but…I want some romance. I want some male attention.”

Natalie rolled her eyes. “Well, there’s always my brother.”

I looked out the window, where Elliot paced back and forth for no apparent reason. I grimaced. “He’s not my type. He’s just…too nerdy and young looking. I want a real man, somebody tall, dark, and handsome. You know, the old cliché. But there are no men on this stupid island!” I wailed. We had been living on the island for two weeks, and while a few new people had come to live here, there were no attractive, eligible bachelors to be had.

Natalie frowned at me. “Well, at least you have more selection than me. You at least have my brother to reject.” We both laughed at that, and finished our tea, chatting about what little gossip there was to be had on this tiny island.

The next day, I heard a knock on my door as I ate my breakfast. I stuffed the last bite of bread in my mouth and walked over to answer it, sure it was probably Taro, Natalie’s ever helpful grandfather, visiting with some advice about the farm. He seemed to think up things while he was sleeping, and then was pounding down my door first thing the next morning, dying to lecture me on how to plow my fields or whatnot.

I yanked the door open, and what I saw nearly made me choke on the food in my mouth. Standing there, obscuring the early morning sunlight so that it glittered aura-like around him, was a tall, dark, and handsome man. He wore a cowboy hat and rancher style clothing, and his hair was long and silvery, hanging a little over one eye. He was absolutely gorgeous! I struggled to swallow the bread, and my hands reflexively flew to my hair, which was still rumpled from bed, desperately trying to smooth it. I managed to speak.

“Um, hi?” I choked out. Yeah, that was eloquent.

The man stared at me for a moment, and then spoke. “The name’s Vaughn. I’m an animal trader, and I’ll be providing animals for this island from now on. I just wanted to come by and introduce myself, since you’ll most likely be the one buying the animals.” His voice was gruff, yet sexy. Ooh, I’m so thrilled! I was squealing inside, but I managed to stick out my hand to shake his, wishing desperately that I looked a little better right now.

“I’m Chelsea. I own this farm. But I guess you knew that, or you wouldn’t have come here. But you probably didn’t know my name, right? Or I mean, maybe you did, because somebody told you my name when they told you about the ranch here.” I giggled a little as I blathered on and on.

Vaughn just narrowed his eyes at me. I shivered a little under his cold gaze. He hadn’t once smiled since he had arrived. He cleared his throat. “Right. I’ll see you later.” And without another word, he turned on his heels and left. I watched him go, sighing a little as I admired his manly figure. Snapping to, I got busy with the days chores.

After I harvested some turnips, watered my other plants, and did some weeding, I hightailed it to Natalie’s house. She was pacing around outside. Man, she and her brother seriously need to get hobbies if they have nothing better to do than that!

I yanked her by the arm over to the side of the house, not that there was anyone who would hear or even care. “There is a man here!” I hissed excitedly.

Natalie grimaced, trying to pry my squeezing fingers off of her arm. “All right, all right, calm down, you’re freaking me out! What are you talking about?” I explained to her about my visitor and she nodded. “Oh yeah, that guy. He came by and introduced himself to my grandpa this morning.” She shrugged. “He’s not really that cute. And he seems mean.”

I widened my eyes at her. “Not cute? Not CUTE? He was soooo gorgeous!”

Natalie shrugged again. “Not really my type.”

I grinned gleefully. “Good, then we won’t have to be rivals. Oh, a man! A man, finally!”

Natalie rolled her eyes at me. “Chill out, Chels! It’s not even like he’ll be living here.”

My face dropped in despair. “What?” I cried.

Natalie nodded. “He’ll just be coming by on Wednesdays and Thursdays to do his business.”

I pouted. “Well, that sucks. Oh well, I’ll just have to see him when I see him!” I said breezily and skipped off back to my farm. Today was Monday. He must have come by special just to meet everybody. So he’d be back in two days…nice. I counted down the hours until he got there again.

Finally, it was Wednesday. I hurried through my farm chores, then set out to look for him. I felt a little like a stalker as I tried to act casual, but my eyes were scanning around desperately for him. I headed towards Mirabelle’s animal shop, figuring he might be around there. I went inside, but didn’t see him, so I mumbled some lame excuse and left quickly. I wandered around the grassy area for a while, then I decided to check the beach.

As I stepped onto the sparkling sand, my heart leapt. There he was! He was turned away, staring off over the water. I approached him quietly and then spoke. “Hey!” I said, trying not to sound too happy.

He jumped a little, startled, then slid his eyes over at me. “Oh, hello.”

I stood next to him, rocking nervously on my heels, my heart beating a mile a minute. “It’s really pretty here.” I waited, but he didn’t say anything, so I continued. “I really like living on this island, so close to nature. It makes me really appreciate things more than I did when I lived in the city. And I don’t really mind the simple life, because I think-“

He cut me off suddenly. “What do you want?”

I was taken aback. “N-nothing…I just wanted to talk, that’s all.”

He grunted. “Well, go talk somewhere else. You’re annoying me.”

My eyes widened in horror, and I stepped away slowly. I turned on my heels and walked swiftly back to my farm. My cheeks were burning. WHAT A JERK! Why did a jerk like that have to be so gorgeous? It wasn’t fair! Well, forget it. If he wanted to be like that, he wasn’t worth my time. I stalked around my farm, chopping branches with my axe to relieve my frustration. I stopped for a moment to wipe the sweat from my brow, and the image of his handsome face floated up in my mind. I pushed it away angrily. Whatever. I didn’t have that bad of a crush anyway…