Pretty Convincing

"I've got a surprise for you..." Carly bounced on the sofa.

"Get on with it, you're killing me!" Scott laughed.

"We know everything about each other, right? From how we like our eggs, to how you always get my mother the perfect gift at Christmas..."

"Aaaaaaand?"

"The missing piece of the puzzle is not meeting your parents, so I started a gofundme to raise money for tickets! We're going to Australia so I can meet them!"

Carly squealed. "I want to know what you were like as a baby, where your sense of humor comes from, who gave you those sexy green eyes... EVERYTHING!"

Scott went ashen. Carly stopped bouncing.

"What's wrong?"

"How much money did everyone give?" His eyes glazed with tears.

"Between fifteen, twenty thousand. Why? You're starting to freak me out!"

"I've got something to tell you."

The air was sucked from the room. Carly's mouth was agape.

"I- I'm not really from Australia."

"What do you mean? You've shown me pictures, told me all about your family in Australia, you've got the accent for Christ's sake! Are you playing some sort of joke here?!?" Her voice went from whisper to banshee.

"No joke. This is embarrassing... when I moved here I spoke in an Australian accent to mess with people, and it snowballed. For the first time in my life people found me interesting, so I guess I just... kept on going." His Australian had morphed into American midwest. "I'm actually from Indiana."

Carly was silent for a long time. "Is there anything else you've been lying about all this time?"

"I don't have green eyes. They're colored contacts."

Carly stood up, gathered her purse and keys, and headed for the door.

"I'll be back from Australia in three weeks. Feed the cat while I'm gone."