Will I be able to look into his eyes and not fall a little bit in love with him? What if pretending turns into the real thing? My heart already goes crazy every time he looks at me.
“Do you think it will work?” I ask.
“It might. Before you make your couple debut we need to post a statement,” Claudia suggests.
“Another one? Didn’t you post one when this all started?”
“That was more of an ‘I’m shocked and saddened by the recent events and would like privacy at this time’ kind of statement. This time you need to tell everyone how sorry you are for your indiscretion and apologize.”
My spine prickles and my jaw clenches. “I’m not admitting to and apologizing for an affair I didn’t have.”
“Sweetheart,” my mother says. “We know you’re innocent in this. The statement will appease people and stop them from trying to keep proving it’s true. Then once it’s published, if you want to go with the plan Lucas suggested, we’ll work something out. We’ll fix this the best way we can.”
I thought my mother would be more upset about the breakup and maybe even suggest I work things out with Darren. Yet she seems understanding and on my side. Sometimes I put walls up around her. I have to remember she’s not out to bring me down.
“So, Darren gets away with what he’s done?” I say. “He should be the one apologizing.”
“Darren has always been the golden boy. He knows how to charm people and have them eating from his hand. Of course he comes out of this looking like the good guy,” Claudia says with resentment. She sounds more hurt about the situation than me.
“If I go ahead with the statement, what do I say?” I hate the idea of it. But if both my mother and Claudia think it’s the right way to go, I have to trust their judgment.
Claudia pulls her phone from her purse, swipes at the screen, and types something. When she’s done she hands the phone tome. “What do you think of this? If you approve it, I’ll post it right away.”
I read what she’s written.
I deeply regret my hurtful and embarrassing behavior which has affected those I care about. It was never my intention to cause any pain. For that, I’m truly sorry.
Nausea coils in my gut. I hand the phone back. I never thought I’d be dealing with something like this. It makes me want to go back to that invisible girl who no one paid any attention to. My life would be private and no one’s business.
“You haven’t admitted to the affair outright, yet it is implied. I’d wait a couple of days after I release it before you go out with Lucas.” Claudia screws her nose up slightly. She clearly has a problem with something.
“Do you not like the plan? Or doing it with Lucas? If I’m making a mistake, you’d tell me, right?”
Claudia smiles, yet something is stiff about it. What’s wrong with her? It’s risky; maybe she’s just worried.
“We have to try something,” she says. “The only way we can hopefully pull it off is with Lucas since he is part of this mess. So, do I post the statement?”
Feeling defeated, I shrug my shoulders. “Do it.”
Claudia types on her phone. “Done.”
“It will all work out. You’ll see,” my mother says with optimism that I’m not yet feeling.
“If we’re going to convince the public you and Lucas are a couple, you need to explain what’s been happening the past few days. How has the relationship developed? Are you still frosty with one another or more friendly now that you’ve talked? If you’re staying in his apartment, are you on good terms?”
My face heats, and I hope they don’t see what our relationship has really developed into. How do I tell them I went from being engaged to one man and four days later in the bed of another?
Claudia stares at me suspiciously. If there is anyone who can read me, it’s her.
I rise from the chair. “Would anyone like a drink?” Without waiting for an answer, I turn my back to hide any telltale signs and walk to the bar in the corner of the room.
“No thank you,” both Claudia and my mother say.
Pulling out a bottle of water from the mini fridge, I turn back and take a seat, hoping that my expression has settled. “We’re on good terms and have become friends.”
“I still don’t understand if he hated you so much the night you got locked out of your hotel room, why did he help you?” my mother asks.
Twisting off the lid of the bottle, I take a sip of water then say, “Just the kind of man he is. He saw I was distressed and couldn’t leave me there. Then after learning what was happening in the media, I had a little meltdown. Lucas pulled me through.” I take another sip of water. That day in the woods will always be the most memorable and important of my life. If anything good comes from what’s happening, it’s that moment feeling powerful in my own skin. “We’re on such good terms now, he even took photographs of me.” Crap! I didn’t mean to say that. I was trying to express that we’re friends, and I just blurted it out.
