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“Not so fast. We aren’t done talking about this. Are you going to ask her out again? This time for real?” JD asked.
“I did ask her out for real the last time. Well, sort of. Okay, you got me there. I’m going to,” I admitted.
“Good. I can only assume from the phone call that you want to make sure that everything is copacetic with my situation so that you can move forward with your own. From what I can tell, you’re trending, I’m not. This was what we wanted. You’ve done the first step thank you, now move on to step two, getting the woman you love.”
“You think the storm has passed? I was going to call Morgan and see what she thought.”
“Calling your woman’s best friend to ask advice on how to ask her out is ballsy but probably not the best idea, but you go for it,” JD said.
“Oh, yeah. Sometimes I forget they’re friends. Morgan is too perceptive and would see right through my questions.”
“You don’t need a second opinion besides mine. Believe me, I’ve tangled with enough of these scandals, including leaving the country over one, to know when it’s safe for us to move on. It is now. Go, get your girl.”
“Are you sure?” I asked and held my breath.
“Yes. Completely. Totally. I’m fine. Things are good. You’re the PR expert not me and you wouldn’t have called me unless you thought so too. Now, you don’t have any excuse to not go officially ask Hope out and start the life with her that you have always wanted.”
“I don’t know about all that.”
“Really? Are you going to tell me that you haven’t already imagined the house that you would buy with Hope and what your kids would look like and how many?”
“Four, and they would all look like Hope, if I’m lucky. I don’t want any of them to take after my ugly brothers,” I said.
“Nice. Insult your brother when he’s half-awake. I’ll remember that,” JD said slowly.
“You didn't sound half-awake when you were teasing me a minute ago.”
“That was a minute ago. Now, I think I’m going to try to go back to sleep unless you need me to call Hope for you and ask her out.”
“I’m more than capable of asking a woman out on my own,” I said and tried not to roll my eyes.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me. I can hear it even over the phone.”
“I actually refrained but it was hard. Thank you for your help, and the not so gentle push. I will talk to Hope today.”
“Where are you going to take her?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
“Very mature of you. On that note, I’m going back to sleep. Don’t bother me again unless it’s an emergency.”
“I won’t. Sleep tight.”
There was no one I trusted more in life than JD with Walker coming in a close second. Still, I wanted to check out social media one more time, to see for myself that no one was interested in JD and his love life or lack thereof anymore.
Sure enough, as soon as I opened up my social media account, the first picture I saw was of Hope and me. I was amazed at what a good picture it was. Anyone who looked at it would have no doubt that I was completely and hopelessly in love with Hope. My heart dropped as I realized how my feelings for her were so blatantly out there for the world to see and I was worried that Hope would see it too.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want her to know, I just didn’t want her to find out from a picture from a tabloid magazine. That was all it was, a random picture taken by the paparazzi, in a moment where we were playing for the cameras., There was no way she would ever think it was real. She still thought we were putting on a show for all the world to see, and we had, beautifully, but we didn’t need to anymore.
It had been easy to convince the world that I was in love with her when I already was. Now, it was time to convince her.
Chapter 16
Hope
The call from Mac came earlier than I would have thought. I had been trying to work up the courage to call him and what I would say to him when he called me. I saw the social media posts, and had numerous friends and ex-classmates text me throughout the day. Some were curious, some were shocked, and then there were some who were a bit rude and invasive. I replied to the ones I wanted to and ignored the others.
If the plan was to get everyone to forget about JD and Lizbeth’s breakup, we had more than accomplished that goal. There was not a word of them on social media and all anyone seemed to talk about was Mac and me. If I were to look at this from a purely business sense, I would say that Mac and I had done a great job, and we should and could be proud of what we had accomplished.
