“I know,” he said, as he leaned his forehead against mine. “It’s been awful for me too.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I cried, no longer able to hold back my tears as they welled up in my eyes. “I promise, I didn’t cheat. I know what Chloe did to you, and I would never hurt you like that. You have to know that.”
He took in a staggering breath. “You don’t understand what it looked like from my perspective. I know how you feel about Ethan, how close you guys are, and I always wondered if there was something more between you, and then I saw you kissing him, and I just lost it.”
“He kissed me. I didn’t kiss him, and what you didn’t see was me pushing him away and yelling at him. I don’t have feelings for him, Jase. I love you.”
I was suddenly so desperate for him to trust me that my emotions got the best of me and the tears in my eyes spilled over.
He leaned forward and kissed the first one that fell. “I believe you,” he said, kissing my cheek again and again as the tears fell harder. Then he hugged me to him once again. “Please don’t cry, Logan. Please. I know you didn’t do anything wrong. Ethan explained everything.”
“Ethan?” I asked, pulling back to look at him in question.
“Yeah, he came over tonight with Henley and demanded that I hear him out. I have to say, I’m not exactly used to people demanding things, but I was so miserable without you that I didn’t really have it in me to tell him off.”
“You were miserable?” I asked, not sure I believed him.
He nodded. “Didn’t you hear what I said? The past week has been one of the worst of my life. I missed you, and I was angry, and I felt so empty without you, but I couldn’t get that image out of my head. All I could think was that you’d picked him over me, and I just hated it. I didn’t feel like this when Chloe left. Sure, I felt betrayed, but I was more embarrassed than anything else. I didn’t love her like I love you. Logan, losing you almost killed me.”
I pulled away and stepped back, eyeing him in confusion.
“So Ethan and Henley went to your house tonight?” He nodded. “And that’s why you’re here?”
“Yes,” he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. I noticed he was wearing a suit.
“Why didn’t you trust me when I told you I didn’t kiss Ethan? Why did you need to hear it from him to believe the truth?” I asked, my stomach churning all of a sudden.
Jase took a deep breath. “Because Chloe did the same thing to me, and I have trust issues. Hearing Ethan tell me the same thing you did made me realize I was wrong, and I’d misjudged the situation. I don’t have any better explanation than that. But I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you, and I’ll never question your trust again – if you’ll have me back.”
“You want to get back together?” I asked, blinking rapidly at how fast everything was happening, but my heart swelled at the idea of getting back the only guy I’d ever loved.
Jase took a step toward me, his arms going around my waist as he pulled me close. “Yes, I want to get back together, but more than anything, I don’t want to hide anymore. I want you to come with me tonight and stand next to me, and I want to tell everyone that you’re my girlfriend, because there is nothing in the world I want more than you. Nothing.”
Then he leaned down and kissed me, punctuating his statement with the most passionate kiss he’d ever laid on me, as I processed exactly what he was saying.
A knock on the door a minute later pulled us apart. Henley entered and closed the door behind her.
“All made up?” she asked, eyeing us speculatively since we were no longer touching.
I looked back at Jase. He was watching me in anticipation, and I realized that outside the kiss, I hadn’t responded to his grand statement.
“You want me on the red carpet with you?” I asked tentatively, wondering if I’d heard him correctly.
Jase reached for my hand and laced our fingers together. “Yes.”
“But I thought you didn’t want to go public, that you didn’t want to drag me into your world.”
He sighed. “My world is crazy, and you know that, but what’s crazier, is me trying to protect you from it. You’re one of the strongest people I know, Logan. I know you can handle the media circus that follows me around – and that will follow you around once everyone knows about us – but the question is, do you want that too?”
I would go to the ends of the earth for that man, there was no question there.
“Jase,” I said, stepping up to him so I could look directly into his shimmering green eyes. “If you’re serious about this, if you want to go public, I’ll do it – for you. I don’t want to be in the spotlight any more than you do, but I love you, and I’m tired of hiding that. I want to hold your hand in public and kiss you and tell off anyone who tries to hit on you because they think you’re single.”
He grinned. “I’m not single, am I?”
I shook my head. “No, baby, you’re not.”
I slowly placed my hands on either side of his face and pulled it down to me, kissing him gently but with a fierceness that I couldn’t hold back. Jase’s lips moved in time with mine, urgently and hungrily melding us together, as my hands slid into his hair and pulled him against me.
“Ahem,” Henley said from behind me, and I whirled around, completely forgetting that she was in the room. “You don’t have much time left.”
“What?” I asked, looking at her in confusion.
“She’s right,” Jase said, looking down at me. “We have to be at the premiere in an hour.”
“Let’s get started,” Henley said with nothing but glee in her eyes. “Traffic will be a nightmare, so I have exactly thirty minutes to get you red carpet ready.”
“I’ll be right back,” Jase said, opening the door. “I’m going to call my driver and tell him it’ll be a few more minutes.”
“Wait, where’s Ethan?” I asked Henley as soon as Jase was out the door. I realized Ethan hadn’t come back into the room.
“He said to call him tomorrow,” she said stiffly, as she busied herself with digging out pots and tubes and jars of make-up.
A lump formed in my throat. Ethan had just left. He’d done his good deed to win my forgiveness, and then he’d left. Which could only mean one thing – he really did have feelings for me.
“Is he okay?” I asked Henley.
“He’s fine,” she assured me, but I knew she was stretching the truth. “You know Ethan. He’ll call Lizzie, spent the night having wild sex, and be back to normal in the morning.”
Of course he would go to Lizzie. I was the one he called when things when to shit, but she was always his second phone call because she helped him forget everything for a while. But in the morning he would remember, and I would call him and we would talk, and hopefully, in time he would be okay. Hopefully.
Before I could dwell any longer on what my future with Ethan might look like, Henley descended upon me, forcing me to sit while she began her ritual of painting my face. I knew she was using much more make-up than I’d ever worn, but I didn’t argue with her. My brain was on my best friend and what was truly going on with him. We’d never been in a situation like this before, so I wasn’t sure what to do.
But then Jase stepped back into the room, and I smiled at him. He was back in my life, and he still loved me, and we were okay. It was everything I’d wished for just an hour earlier, but it still didn’t feel real.
By the time I slipped into my dress, slid my heels on and glanced in the mirror, Jase and I had exactly a minute before we needed to be downstairs. He walked over to where I stood appraising myself in Henley’s full-length mirror and wondering how ridiculous I looked.
“You look beautiful,” he said, kissing my temple. “I’m worried Melanie will think you’re trying to steal her spotlight.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Melanie Corning was Jase’s co-star in The Mulaneys, and there was no way I was stealing the show from her. She was gorgeous, but Ja
se only seemed to have eyes for me, so it didn’t matter.
He smiled at me as he slipped his hand into mine. We said a quick goodbye to Henley and walked out the door. Halfway down the hall, we ran into Riley, and she did a double-take when she realized she recognized Jase.
“Hi Riley,” I said cheerfully, gripping Jase’s hand tightly, but he wasn’t letting go.
“Uh, hi Logan,” she said, suddenly anxious.
“Hi, I’m Jase,” Jase suddenly interjected. “I’m Logan’s boyfriend.”
“Uh, hi. Nice – nice to meet you,” she stuttered. “Where are, um, where are you two headed tonight?”
I smiled. “Jase’s movie, The Mulaneys, is premiering tonight, so we’re going to that,” I said as casually as possible. Inside I was a little hysterical.
Riley returned my smile. “Oh, I want to see that movie. It looks really good. Have a fun tonight,” she said, her confidence suddenly restored, but her eyes still held nine million questions.
“Thanks, we will,” Jase said, squeezing my hand.
“How did that feel?” I asked him as we walked down the stairs.
“What?” he asked, smiling down at me.
“Calling yourself my boyfriend.”
“I loved it,” he said, grinning one of his rare full smiles.
“Me too,” I giggled.
Thankfully there were no photographers lingering around the entrance to my dorm, so we were able to slip into the limousine unnoticed. Inside were Jase’s agent, his publicist, Gary, Ellie, wearing a beautiful red dress and looking gorgeous, and few other people who I assumed must be part of Ellie’s team. I gave them all a shy wave and followed Jase to two empty seats. Gary just looked at me with pursed lips, no doubt remembering our last encounter. I felt suddenly bad for bullying him and knew I’d need to apologize as soon as I could.
Across the limo, Ellie grinned at me, and I wondered what was going to happen now that I was walking with Jase. Would she walk alone? That didn’t seem right.
“Hi Logan!” she said, coming to sit next to me and leaning her head close to mine. “You look beautiful.”
“So do you,” I said, feeling giddy about the impending night, as the limo started to drive away.
“Guys,” Jase said, addressing the collective group who I realized where staring at me unapologetically. “This is Logan, my girlfriend.” He said it so proudly that I couldn’t help but feel all mushy inside. “She’s going to walk the carpet with me tonight.”
“What?!” his publicist, Andrea, almost shrieked. “Jase, that is not what we talked about.”
He held his hand up to her. “Andrea, I don’t care what we talked about,” he said authoritatively. “She’s walking with me. End of story.”
“What about Ellie?” his agent, Erica, asked.
She must have realized that Ellie either made us a party of three or she would have to walk alone.
“I’m walking with someone else,” Ellie chimed in.
“Who?” Andrea asked, her voice raising several octaves. She was also Ellie’s publicist, so she was equally concerned about both of her clients.
“You’ll like him,” Ellie said, smiling at Jase conspiratorially.
“Ellie, do not play with me. Who is it? Jase?”
“We’re picking him up in a few minutes,” Ellie said, not giving anything away, and I found myself wondering who she was talking about.
Before I realized it, we were pulling up to the entrance of the Chateau Marmont. The limo stopped, and we all waited for a few minutes before Garrett emerged with his agent and his publicist behind him, and I smiled widely, excited to see my friend on such a pressure packed night.
“Oh, thank God,” Andrea said, relaxing when she realized Garrett Lewis was joining us.
“Are you walking with Garrett?” I whispered to Ellie, and she nodded as she watched Garrett approach the limo looking dashing in a designer suit, a small smile creeping up on her lips.
As he slid into the car next to her, he grinned at me and turned to Ellie.
“Hi, I’m Garrett Lewis,” he said, extending his hand to shake hers.
“Ah, my hot and popular last minute stand-in. It’s nice to meet you Garrett,” she said, shaking his hand. “Thank you for bailing me out.”
He grinned at her. “It’s my pleasure.”
They actually looked really cute together.
“Was this your doing?” I whispered to Jase, and he unceremoniously pulled me onto his lap, completely ignoring that there were other people in the limo with us as he kissed me.
I knew he wanted to get me alone as much as I wanted the same thing, but I couldn’t forget that we had an audience.
He pulled back and said, “I felt bad bailing on Ellie, so I wanted to provide her with a legitimate date who would probably think she was a pretty cool girl.”
“You set them up?” I whispered.
He smiled at me. “I sure did.”
“That was nice of you.”
He kissed me once more. “I told you I’m a nice guy.”
“You are.”
“Okay, so what would you both like me to tell the press?” Andrea interrupted.
Jase’s arms squeezed me against his chest. “Tell them Logan is my girlfriend.”
“Are you sure about this, Jase?” she asked, and I could read in her expression that once we put our relationship out there, we couldn’t take it back. “They’re going to have a field day.”
“Yes,” he said, looking at only me. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
Damn, that boy was intense and amazing and so stinking cute.
“I love you,” I mouthed to him.
He smiled his secret smile and mouthed the same words back to me.
“What about you?” she asked Ellie.
I watched Garrett watching her speculatively.
“Tell them Garrett and I met through a mutual friend, but we’re just friends.”
Garrett nodded in agreement, liking that story.
“Okay then,” Andrea said, getting the stories straight in her head.
Then she directed her attention to me and started in on what I could expect, what to say, who to say it to, what not to say, who to avoid, etc, etc, etc. There were a lot of rules, that was for sure, and it was extremely hard to focus on what she was saying, because Jase kept planting tiny kisses all over my neck while I tried to listen to Andrea.
“She’ll be fine,” he muttered. “I’ll have her hand the whole time.”
“Jase, what if they want you to pose solo?” Erica asked, and I knew it was her way of telling him he would need to let go of my hand at some point.
“Not happening,” he said firmly.
Erica just rolled her eyes. “You are so stubborn.”
“He’s a romantic,” Andrea said, winking at Jase. I was glad to see she was on his side.
“Okay, fine. Whatever,” Erica said, shaking her head. “Are you guys ready?”
I was suddenly very aware that we’d stopped and realized we’d reached our destination. The butterflies in my stomach suddenly multiplied and took flight, making me just a little lightheaded and a lot nauseous. Then Jase squeezed my hand and smiled, and everything else melted away.
“It’s going to be crazy and overwhelming,” he whispered, his lips against my ear. “But I’ll have your hand. Just walk with me, smile and stop when I stop. If any of the reporters ask you direct question, you can answer it, okay?”
I nodded, suddenly afraid I would put my foot in my mouth and let him down.
“You’ll be great,” he assured me. “You look beautiful.”
“Keep your knees together as you get out of the car,” Andrea barked, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
Then I took a deep breath, steeling myself for what I was about to face. Everything would be fine. I would be okay.
That is until the door opened, and the flashbulbs started. It was then that I truly realized that my life was about to change foreve
r, and I thought to myself, is it all worth it?
I stole a glance back at Jase, and as soon as my eyes met his, I had my answer.
Hell yeah, it was absolutely worth it.
To be continued . . .
About the Author
Thanks so much for reading Forcing Gravity, my fifth full-length novel. I really hope you enjoyed it as much as I loved writing it and developing the characters that helped bring the story to life. My other novels, Just Watch the Fireworks, Aftershocks, Broken Fairytales and Buried Castles are also available in e-book format online.
Books have always had a big part in my life, and I probably spend way more time reading that I should, engrossed in the stories that keep me captivated. I am a total sucker for romantic comedies in all forms, because at the end of the day I just want to laugh and see some really great people fall in love. When those stories are mixed with an awesome soundtrack, it just doesn’t get much better than that.
In addition to books, I have a serious love for the Florida Gators and the Boston Red Sox, I am addicted to fashion, and I never go anywhere without my iPod. Give me a grande non-fat vanilla latte from Starbucks and chips and queso from Tijuana Flats, and I am a happy girl.
You can read more about me online at: http://www.goodreads.com/monicaalexander
Playlist
I listen to music constantly, so inevitably songs have a way of working themselves into my stories. Below is a playlist of the songs I hear when I read this book. Some songs I referenced in the book itself, and others are just ones that I felt fit in nicely with story. Enjoy!
It’s Time – Imagine Dragons
Californication – Red Hot Chili Peppers
Runaways – The Killers
Disturbia – Rihanna
The (Shipped) Gold Standard – Fall Out Boy
Handwritten – The Gaslight Anthem
Long Way Down – Goo Goo Dolls
Anna Sun – WALK THE MOON
Forcing Gravity Page 31