I humbly present to you cowboy!simon🤠
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You desperately needed to get out of the city. Go abroad, maybe. Life was just way too busy and way too fast and way too mundane. So you do a little research and settle on the English countryside, some village called Bibury. You find an inn to stay at so you make a reservation and buy your ticket within five minutes of each other.
The flight was a long one and then you had to take a train from London to Kemble station and then find a taxi to take you into the village from there. After almost a day and a half of travel, you arrive at the inn just as exhaustion began to settle in your bones. You walk up to the door and try to open it but find it was locked. You try the door again before peering in through the window and finding it looking rather dilapidated. You look around and find an older couple walking past and approach them.
“Hi, excuse me. I’m so sorry to ask but do you happen to know when the inn opens? The door’s locked but I’m supposed to be staying here.”
“The inn?” The woman looks toward the building and shakes her head. “Oh sweetheart, that old thing’s been closed for the better part of the year. But there’s another not too far that’s usually got vacancies.”
You exhale deeply and nod, smiling at the couple. “Of course, well thank you very much.” They walk away and you want to rip your hair out at the news. Why the hell would the website still be up if the business wasn’t even active?
You take your luggage and start the walk to the other inn the woman mentioned and even with the gps you manage to get lost. You find yourself in front of a small farm and decide to try your luck and ask for directions there. It was a quaint little house for the amount of land that surrounded it but you assumed it was another older couple living there so it would make sense they wouldn’t want a large house to worry about on top of all the animals you could see (and smell).
You knock on the door, fanning yourself before anyone answered to try and not look like you’d just walked half a mile in the heat. The door opens and instead of the old man you’d expected, it’s a tall and brawny guy maybe a few years older than you with tattoos and scars adorning his tanned skin.
“Can I help ya?” His voice was deep and accent rough, not like anyone else you’d heard in the area so far. He observes you for a moment, eyes narrowing when he sees how sweaty and overheated you looked.
“Oh! Right, so I was supposed to be staying in some inn but turns out it’s been shut down and then I was directed to another one but I got lost and I was hoping you could give me some directions?” You speak fast, mentally kicking yourself for being suddenly so nervous in front of this man. He keeps looking down at you, tongue moving the gum in his mouth to the other side.
“Y’any good with animals?”
“An- sorry, animals?” You repeat, trying to figure out why he’d ask that instead of giving you directions. “I get along with dogs I suppose.”
“You’ll learn. Come in,” he steps toward you and takes your bags, bringing them inside before getting out of the way so you could follow. Suddenly every survival instinct flew out the window because you follow him in and do him the favor of locking the door. He leads you up some stairs and into a neatly put together bedroom and sets your bags on the bed.
“Name’s Simon. Get yourself showered and meet me outside in a half hour, alright?” He walks out and down the stairs to leave you to get ready.
“But I showered before I-“ you mumble, giving yourself a smell test. “Ah.”
After you shower, you get dressed into something more weather-fitting and go down and out to the back looking around for Simon. You find him tending to a large flock of chickens and you head over, hesitating before hopping over the fence. Before you could say anything, Simon gives you a bucket of feed and directs you on how to feed the chickens and then move on to the ducks down at a pond not too far off.
“Wait-“ you turn to ask him what the hell was happening but he’s already gone, headed in the direction of probably some other animal. You feed the birds and put the bucket down, already having worked up another sweat. You go in the direction he went but don’t see him anywhere. “Simon?”
You keep walking around and eventually find the stables. You go inside and find him bringing a horse inside, taking the saddle off and putting on a rack. He hears you walking and glances over, giving a quick nod upward.
“Y’finish the feedin I take it.”
“Yeah. You ride?” You ask, pointing at the horse and he nods.
“I dabble. You?”
“Horses? Nah.” You shake your head and Simon just gives you a look, not sure if you meant the clarification in the way he was taking it.
“Right. Well come with me, I need y’to get some apples f’me.” Another task without reason. Of course. But you follow him anyway, shielding your eyes from the sun as he takes you to a small orchard and grabs a basket and a ladder that were in a storage shed. He opens the ladder and places it beneath a tree, motioning for you to get up there.
You do as he says, climbing up and looking around for apples you could only hope were ripe. You get a few, dropping them into the basket below. “Are those okay?”
“Y’doin great love, there should be more up there that are ready.”
You keep looking for and picking apples, then you reach for one but almost grab a wasp by accident. You snatch your hand away and lose your balance, the ladder wobbling before you fall back. You shut your eyes, expecting to hit the ground full force but Simon catches you just in time. You open your eyes and meet his, looking at you worried. The smell of sweat and dirt and cigarettes and whatever shampoo he uses fills your nose and for a second you forget what was going on.
“There was a wasp. Sorry.”
He grunts and sets you down carefully, his hand lingering on your waist. “Be careful.”
A silence falls over you both as he grabs the basket and starts back to the house. You follow close behind, forcing yourself to fill the silence by telling him your name and the whole story of how you found yourself in Bibury of all places. He didn’t answer but you knew he was listening. Finally, the suspense was getting to be too much and you ask him why he took you in when you were just asking for directions and then gave you work to do.
“Y’seem like the kinda person that comes out t’the country for a break.” He explains as he puts the basket down on the table. “Plus, the inn you said was shut down happens t’be the only one within five kilometers and I needed a farmhand.”
“So free labor.”
“Y’could say that.”
You would have been more annoyed that you just got roped in to manual labor so easily but could you really complain when your boss was as good looking as Simon? No one in their right mind would complain about a muscular tattooed man well over six feet telling them what to do.
“You know I bought a one way ticket here.”
“Looks like I’ll have t’find a way t’pay ya if you’re gonna be here a while, then.”
pt 2!
