Exchanged Romance

The small bus roared to life as it began to slowly rattle its way out of the International Airport.
 Liam sat next me; he was with most of the Europeans who showed up as soon as my status was sent.
Liam was a nice Irish bloke, he seems to like telling a joke here and there too; we clicked right away; he was fascinated with my accent, and I loved the graphics on the shirt he was wearing.

 “Okay everybody, now the drive down to Huntsman College should be a two hour drive, so if all goes well we should get there at 10am, Now for those of you who feel jet lagged, feel free to sleep, and for those who are hungry for breakfast we will be pulling into a dinner in half an hour” Charlie gave his friendly smile to all of us; though I admit he looked nackered.

“Guys this will be an awesome time for all of you to get to know each other if you don’t know anybody already, and just so you know we have more exchange students that have already arrived, all of you here are the lucky lasts” Charlie claps his hands together, but balances himself again when the bus gives a gilt. “So everyone look out the window to see the sights, enjoy the drive, and welcome to America” Charlie sits back down, while Liam turns his body to me.

 “First trip over seas?”

“Oh nah mate, like almost every Australian, I’ve been to Bali, but other than that, no” I smile as I remember all the holidays, the long weekend away with the boys; lots of good memories there. “What about you though? I mean living so close to so many countries, you must of, yeah?”

“Oh of course mate, one school excursion during high school was to London, my families done trips to Scotland too - we have some family that live there you see - I uh, I did a trip to France as well, that’s the most resent, my girlfriend loves France so I took her there for a little get away; that took a lot of saving up, I can tell you now; but the things we do for our ladies” Liam chuckles and looks down at his fingernails which are worn down from work, they matched his rough hands as well; looks like Liam might of worked with a few cars.

“Whose your girl back home then mate? Still seeing her?”

Liam looks back up at me and gives a cheeky smile, “Oh of course mate, still going strong after a year and a bit, Emily, that’s her name, a gorgeous girl she is; don’t know how she fell for a guy like me” Liam chuckles again, “Ah but what about you my friend, handsome fella like you must a special someone waiting for you back home”

I smile awkwardly, “Uh, I, uh, no, no I’m single, have been for a bit”

“Oh well then you’re gonna have the American ladies all over you eh!” Liam nudges my shoulder, giving me a sleazy wink.

“Ha ha, ah man, I doubt that mate”

Liam leans back in his chair and laughs, “You’re kidding me mate! I hear these American girls love the Australian accent! All you have to say is ‘G’day ladies’-”
I laugh at Liam’s bad attempt of an Aussie accent.
 “Really mate, that was your best go?”

“Oh shut up!” Liam laughs, “The accent was bad, but the concept is still true my friend, say it, give ‘em a wink, a bam! You will have so many girls you wont know what to do with yourself” Liam shakes his head at the thought, “Mate, if I didn’t have my lovely lady at home, I would be using this wonderful accent of mine; the girls over here love Gerard Butler”

“Gerard Butler’s Scottish...”

Liam nods knowingly at me, “Yeah, but most of them here can’t tell the difference” 

I laugh, “You’re a silly duffa, you know that”

Liam gives me his winning smile, “Mate, I don’t even know what that means, but I’m most likely am”

“Ha ha, you tossa, besides, I can tell you right now those girls won’t be getting anything from me, so they might as well move on to the other Aussie blokes here”

Liam looks at me, I can tell he’s eyeing me up, trying to figure out what I meant. I can’t blame the guy either, I’ve told him I’m single, but then I pop that sentence out. If I was in his shoes I’d be giving me the same look too. 
Deciding to leave it at that, and ask no questions, Liam began talking about home in Ireland and why he decided to do an exchange program. I smile, nod, and laugh when appropriate, and soon the previous conversation is forgotten.
That’s what I like about guys, they know when to leave something alone.

I had never seen a real Dinner in my life, and it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen in the dinning-in industry. It looked exactly like the movies; The booths on the side, the bench wrapping around the kitchen, with the kitchen out the back with the cook yelling “Order up!”. I just need a jukebox playing and a waitress to come up and ask 'if I wanted any ice tea, sugar’. 
I didn’t get the ice tea waitress, but I did get one asking about coffee.
Now here’s the thing that Charlie told us; once you’ve ordered a coffee, you get free refills! I thought that was fantastic; that was, until I drank the coffee.

My face goes sour, “Fuck me mate, this is shit coffee”
Liam laughs at me as he takes a sip of his ‘Cup-of-Joe’ and pulls the exact face I had only seconds ago.
 “Jesus, Mother Mary, and Joseph!” He then spat the rest of the coffee back into the cup “Oh God, that’s horrible”

I shake my head in mock shame, “Using the Lords name in vain, tut, tut, tut”

“Oh bugger off Ben, not even the Lord would forgive the bloody sod who made this”
I laughed so hard at his comment that I started choking on the toast that I was eating. Liam began to laugh with me (or most likely at me). 
Here we were two men laughing our heads off with some coffee dripping off Liam’s lips and bread crumbs on my face and spread all over the table. It was a sight to see. 
Just as we were calming down we saw some of the Italian exchange students have a taste, and their reaction was worse than ours.

“Bloody hell, you know a coffee’s bad when the Italians aren’t a fan” Liam Laughed even harder at the Italians swore in their language; Charlie looked at all of us, wondering what the hell we were on, but decided to ignore it as he continued to drink his coffee with a satisfying sip.