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“Yeah, and then you can pick up the pieces later.” Sasha lets out a nervous little giggle, and we take the few steps to the door, all walking out in a line but no one touching at this stage.
At the back of the room, I see my support network, who no matter what will always be there. Xavier and Alesha, standing next to Zara and Grant. But what I didn’t expect was behind them are the whole Stevenson family, minus Sophia and Mitch who are likely on grandparent duties. On the other side of the room are Jordan’s teammates. They were briefed by Jordan and the coach this morning, and he was touched that one of his strongest allies was Chase who is now standing front and center, and his serious stare is not focused on me for once. Following his gaze, there is a certain fiery Scottish redhead publicist in his sights. Now that’s interesting.
Hearing Kenzie introduce Jordan snaps me to pay attention as he steps up to the microphones, with his arm around Sasha.
“Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for coming at such short notice. We have a few announcements to make. We hope you will help to spread the beauty of this whole day.” His voice reminds me how well he speaks in front of the media.
“Today, Sasha and I will be announcing our separation and divorce.” The gasps and sound of flashes fill the room. “We would also like to confirm the reasons for this, then we ask that you respect our privacy. Sasha and I have been in a committed friendship for years, but it has never been a true marriage. It was a marriage of convenience to help us both through some personal situations we were struggling with.” Sasha steps up beside him, deciding it’s now or never.
“I am gay and in a committed relationship with my girlfriend who I have loved since the first night we met.” The room actually goes silent, nobody wanting to miss a word she’s saying. “Sadly, I was made to believe that the world of modeling would not accept me as a proud gay woman, and I listened when I should have stayed true to myself and my partner, Dani.”
Dani steps up next to her, and similar to Jordan, places her hand on her back to let her know she is not alone.
Sasha continues, “So instead, a very incredible man let me lean on him so we could continue on without the constant barrage of questions as to who we were dating and speculation as to he was sleeping with. All of you in front of us created this unhappiness with your thirst for a scoop. So here is your scoop you so desperately want. As soon as the divorce is final in the courts, Dani and I will be legally married and look forward to traveling the world while I continue working as a model, until such time as we want to settle down with kids. No one should be made to feel like they have to choose between love or a career, but my statement for today is that I choose happiness.” Sasha steps back slightly, and Jordan leans down to the microphone again as they all start shouting questions.
“I think you will all agree the world has come a long way in the last few years, and we are all so happy to see these two wonderful women so happy together. As for me, I have the love of my life beside me who I have loved since I was eighteen years old. We both lost our way for a while, but those who are closest to us always knew we would find our way back.”
“Too right we did!” Xavier yells from the back of the room with all the team cheering him on. Trust my brother to want his minute of fame, the cameras spinning back to get the shot.
“Just like Sasha and Dani, we choose happiness to live our lives the way we want.” His arm pulls me into his side, and he leans down and kisses me quickly on the lips. Every camera in the room is clicking madly and my cheeks are burning red hot, but I don’t care.
“Thank you all for coming, and there will be no questions today.”
Our family, friends, and the team who is Jordan’s family all start cheering and clapping loudly to drown out all the media anyway.
Quickly exiting the room into the safety of the back room again, we all take the biggest, deepest breath.
“Sasha?” Jordan’s worried voice calls her.
“Good tears, Jordan, good tears. I can finally live my life. Happiest day of my life, regardless of the fallout.”
“Cheers to that. Bubbles anyone?” Jordan replies.
“Noooo!!!” we all cry out at the same time.
“What? The best ideas come from nights of bubbles and true feelings.”
No one can argue with him on that.
It took that night to change my whole world.
Sometimes in your deepest darkest moments you find your true self.
And with that true self comes the ability to let the love of your life finally convince you that you are enough.
Cheers to realizing I was and will continue to be enough.
Epilogue
Six Months Later
NATALIE
Imust admit, the fears I had about living in a celebrity life with Jordan were partly true. But what I realized fairly quickly is that my twenty-eight-year-old self is more equipped to cope with it than the shy and insecure eighteen-year-old I once was. She was making decisions when she didn’t really understand the ramifications on her heart and soul.
I had no idea what the media attention was going to be like after we made our big announcement. Even with Jordan, Sasha, and Kenzie warning me, it was still so much more than I could have understood. The strange thing about it was that I learned to ignore it and just laugh a lot of it off. We were flavor of the month for a while, but as Jordan kept telling me, soon someone would do something dumb, and then that would be a whole lot more exciting than we were. He was right, and finally we could start to breathe again.
It was through this time that I truly understood why he loved his penthouse so much. It was the one place we could be ourselves—the good, the bad, and the downright naughty. And oh, weren’t those first few months full of naughty.
