Love Offline

by Olivia Spring

  ‘I think she should forget about all that and do what makes her happy. Life’s too short.’

  ‘Which is what I told her. But remember, in this business, it’s not that simple. There’s the whole contract thing. I mean, look at the trouble I had all those years ago getting out of my contract. Someone like Sasha will have one that’s iron-clad. She’s far too valuable. But equally, she has the money and contacts to try and find a way out of it.’

  ‘Okay, so I get it. You’re trying to tell me that Sasha couldn’t be interested in you because she likes women. But that still doesn’t explain the kiss thing.’

  ‘Right, okay, so the kiss. Like I said, it wasn’t how it seemed. We talked for hours, and afterwards she said I was such a great listener and how she felt a million times better. So she leant forward to kiss me: on the cheek. But you know that awkward thing where your head goes one way and the other person goes the other and then you clash? That’s all it was. Honestly. If you study the picture carefully, if you zoom in, you can clearly see that. Our lips didn’t even touch. But the angle and the point at which the photo was taken makes it look bad.’

  ‘Really?’ I glared straight into his eyes as if I’d suddenly been given X-ray lie-detector vision.

  ‘Yes, really. Get your phone out and bring up the photo if you don’t believe me,’ said Josh. ‘Zoom in and look for yourself.’

  I believed him. I don’t know how, but I could just sense that he was telling the truth.

  Shit.

  What a relief! My shoulders suddenly felt like a ten-tonne weight had been lifted from them. Josh was innocent. He hadn’t cheated on me. This was amazing news. Did this mean we still had a chance?

  ‘I looked, Em, and he’s right,’ added Chloe. ‘That’s what I was trying to say from the beginning. These people can do all sorts of trickery with photos. Even Archie told me that. You can’t always believe what you see.’

  Whilst ordinarily I knew that was true, I was so blinded by my past experiences and scared of getting hurt again that I’d let it cloud my judgment.

  ‘Sasha is a big deal around the world,’ said Josh. ‘Photos of her can earn a lot of money. Neither of us could believe it when we saw it. It was ridiculous. And all that suggestive rubbish about us leaving together at midnight. After our talk, she said she was ready to lay down the track. She asked if we could go to the studio straight away. So that’s where we went. And she nailed it. She left and went to her hotel alone and I went back to mine alone, then I woke up to that shitstorm. And that’s when I called you. I didn’t even call Sasha first to tell her. I called you because I knew how upset you’d be. We’d just spoken about paps in Central Park the day before and we’d both agreed how awful it would be to have to go through all of that. So why would I do anything to cause that kind of drama?’

  ‘I just assumed it was because you liked her. You said yourself that you’d always had a crush on her.’

  ‘That was when I was a teenager! I admire her, yes. And she’s a beautiful woman, yes. But Sasha’s not the woman for me. Not because of her sexuality. I wasn’t interested in her in that way even before I knew that. It was purely professional. I admire her as an artist. She’s an incredible songwriter. That’s inspiring. But I was with you. I was madly in love with you. Not her.’

  ‘So if you loved me so much, how come you only called a few times and then just left me to suffer and go through that nightmare, the media shitstorm that I did nothing to cause, with all those trolls saying horrible things about me online, without even bothering to see if I was okay?’

  There was no way Josh could deny that was a valid question. Just because nothing had happened between them, I couldn’t let him off the hook without a proper explanation for why he hadn’t tried harder to contact me.

  ‘But he didn’t just leave you to suffer, Em. Josh came to see you,’ said Chloe.

  ‘You didn’t!’ I glared at him. ‘You just stayed in America. You didn’t even make an effort to check how I was.’

  ‘Oh, but I did! As soon as I got your text message saying you hated me, I dropped everything. Everything. I was devastated. Told Bruce and Adrian to cancel the studio time, the interviews booked for that day. I just grabbed my passport and my wallet and I got the first available flight to London. And then I arrived at your flat that evening and saw Eric.’

  ‘Eric?’ I said, baffled. ‘Oh…’

  ‘He spotted me straight away. “You alright, mate?” he said, zipping up his flies. “If you’ve come for Em, you’re too late. After your shenanigans with Sasha, she was quite upset, so I came over to cheer her up, if you know what I mean. Think she’s exhausted now. Things got pretty heated, so I don’t think she’ll be needing you tonight.”’

  ‘He what?’ I jumped up in anger, hitting my head on the car roof. ‘But nothing happened, Josh! He came round and I kicked him out. Bastard!’

  So that’s what Eric had meant when he’d sent me that text saying that after what had just happened, Josh would never take me back. What an arsehole.

  ‘So anyway, Em, you know my views on cheating. I told you when we were at the pub that first night. It’s the one thing I can’t forgive. When I saw him pulling up his flies and basically telling me that he’d just slept with you, I felt like a bomb had just exploded inside me. It floored me. I’d flown all the way back to London to see you, to explain, and rather than trusting me, you’d just taken some tabloid photos as gospel and jumped back into bed with your ex. So I left. I went home and booked the first flight back to New York for the following morning.’

  ‘Oh, Josh! I didn’t know.’ My heart sank. ‘I didn’t know that you’d come to see me! How could you think that I would go back to Eric? You should know me.’

  ‘And you should know me, Em. You should have known that I would never have done anything with Sasha or any other woman. I told you. I don’t cheat. I also told you that I love you. A million times. We had an amazing weekend together. So how could you think that I would just say goodbye to you and then go with another woman two minutes later? That’s not me. And remember, I listened to you that night in the pub. I could see how much you loved Eric. He really got under your skin. Seemed to have quite a hold over you. So I just thought maybe it was a moment of weakness—he came round and you couldn’t resist.’

  ‘No!’ I pleaded, desperate for him to believe me. ‘No way! He came round banging on the door for ages and he said if I gave him five minutes he’d leave me alone forever, and with everything that had happened that day, I just needed the noise to stop. I needed him to go away. So I let him in. And he did try to kiss me and try to get me back, but I told him point blank that I wasn’t interested. I hurt his ego, and I think that’s why when he saw you, he knew that if he implied we did something, it would be the perfect way to get back at me. To punish me for turning him down.’

  ‘Goodness me!’ said Chloe. ‘What are you two like? Both jumping to conclusions without actually having a conversation and talking things through. That’s what all this technology does to your brains. All this texting. Makes people forget the most effective communication tool of all. Talking. Face-to-face.’

  ‘Well, I did try. But Madam Emily decided not to answer my calls!’ Josh scoffed.

  ‘I’m sorry. But I was upset. Can you blame me?’

  ‘No, I get it. I do. I guess it’s easier for me as I understand this industry. I know how it works. So much bullshit. All I want to do is make music. Not get involved with all the other stuff that comes with it.’

  ‘Yeah…what’s with having your face everywhere and all the TV shows?’

  ‘I hate it.’ He shook his head. ‘It’s not me. When I got back to New York, I was devastated. I told you the pain that cheating can cause. I’d lost the love of my life to that dickhead and was thousands of miles away from my friends. I felt like I had no one. So I threw myself into work. Both Bruce and Adrian kept going on and on about doing this show and that show and I didn’t have the energy to argue, so I just went
along with it. Thought it would be a distraction from thinking about you. But I hated every second.’

  ‘And there’s more,’ said Chloe, raising an eyebrow.

  ‘More?’ I asked.

  Jesus. My head was spinning. If they sprung anything else on me, it was going to fall off my body. I was sure of it.

  ‘Yeah. More to the Sasha story. So when I eventually did get to speak to Sasha, we were trying to work out how that picture was taken. Who had taken it and why. At first we’d just thought it was someone trying to make money selling the photo to the tabloids. But then we realised it ran far deeper. That we needed to look much closer to home.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

  ‘Our managers.’

  ‘Your managers?’

  ‘Yep. We thought about it. Adrian wanted me to blow up worldwide, right? What better way to get everyone to know about me than by having it look like I’m dating the biggest female star in the universe?’

  ‘And what better way for her managers to cover up her sexuality than pairing her up with the sexy, good-looking British singer?’ I added.

  Bloody hell.

  This was like a devious film plot. Gosh. I knew Adrian was ambitious and eager to make his mark in the industry, but resorting to this? Stooping that low? Seriously? Some people have no morals and will stop at nothing for success.

  And as for Sasha’s manager going to such lengths to ensure her sexuality didn’t come out, that was just disgraceful. Maybe I was being idealistic, but why shouldn’t she be free to be who she wanted to be and love who she wanted to? If I was Sasha, I’d tell them to sod off and go and marry my girlfriend. I’m sure her fans would stick by her. Maybe they’d love her even more for taking a stand and following her heart.

  ‘Exactly. It’s so fucked up.’ Josh shook his head again, then perked up as he realised what I’d said at the end of my sentence. ‘Thanks for the compliments, by the way. So does that still mean you think I’m sexy, then?’ he replied cheekily.

  ‘Maybe…’ I tried not to smile, but could already feel my heart melting.

  ‘Told you it would make your head explode!’ said Chloe.

  ‘It definitely has. So if you know your managers set you up, what are you going to do about it?’

  ‘Well, in my case, it’s already done,’ said Josh. ‘I’ve fired Adrian. I said from the beginning that I didn’t want to be a puppet. That I wanted to do this on my terms. My way. And he didn’t do that. He broke our agreement. That’s a clear case of breach of trust. I didn’t spend years suffering in that hellhole of a law firm to not make sure that my contract didn’t allow me to exit if I needed to. I wasn’t going to get stung twice.’

  ‘Wow. I can’t believe it. But what does it mean for your music? I mean, will it suffer? Can you still have the career you want?’

  ‘Yes. I can. If I want to. But,’ he said, taking my hands in his, ‘I decided today—a few hours ago, in fact, when matchmaker Chloe came knocking at my door and explained the story—that as much as I love music, there’s something, someone, that I love much more…’

  ‘I think this is the part where I go for a walk,’ said Chloe, grinning as she opened the car door, got out, then closed it gently.

  ‘Oh, Josh. I love you too.’ I edged closer to him. ‘I’ve been miserable without you.’

  ‘It’s been awful, hasn’t it? The pain was unbearable. I wanted to hold you so badly. I even found myself in a supermarket at two a.m. sniffing all of the bottles of shampoo just to find the one that smelt like you.’

  ‘Weirdo! My lovely hair-sniffing weirdo.’ I squeezed his hands. ‘Did you find it?’

  ‘No! I nearly got kicked out by the security guard. He threatened to call the police. Then he recognised my face from all the magazines and said he’d let me off if I signed a copy for his daughter.’

  ‘I suppose being famous does have its perks, then,’ I laughed.

  ‘Would’ve been much easier if you just told me what brand it was.’

  ‘Aha. Top secret! That shampoo’s made especially for me.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Of course not, Josh! I’ve got loads of it at home. I’ll give you a bottle.’

  ‘I’d rather you just give yourself to me, so I can smell you and your hair whenever I like,’ he said, twisting my curls gently around his fingers.

  ‘Mmm, I like the sound of that…’

  We both leant forward and our lips met for the sweetest kiss. My head and body felt fuzzy. Light-headed in the most amazing way. I was home. I was back with my Josh.

  At that moment, a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings also flooded my mind. Desire, naturally. That was a given. I wanted to be with Josh, completely and utterly. But it wasn’t just the physical I was thinking about. I was also feeling so grateful. Glad that I’d taken a chance to leave the airport, go after him and listen to his side of the story. Thank God Chloe had been so persistent. If only we’d spoken sooner, we could have saved so much time and heartache. But that was the past. I didn’t know what would happen next, but the main thing was, we’d been reunited. We were together again. Which was where I truly believed we were supposed to be.

  ‘God, I’ve missed kissing you,’ said Josh as he brushed a stray curl from my face.

  ‘Me too.’ I stroked his cheek. ‘Don’t ever put me through anything like that.’

  ‘Don’t you ever put me through anything like that again.’ He smirked.

  ‘You started it with your celebrity Sasha schmoozing! So what’s happening with her? And were you even allowed to tell me all about her private life? Didn’t you have to sign some sort of confidentiality agreement?’

  ‘No. I asked her if I could tell you and she said absolutely. She understands what it’s like to risk losing the love of your life and she felt so bad about the whole thing. She said to do whatever I needed to fix it—even if it meant that you wanted to call and speak to her to check everything. There’s even video footage of when we were in the bar. That’s the crazy thing. If people checked their sources, they’d see that there was no story. It was all lies. But no one cares about that. They just see a photo and that’s it you’re guilty. No one verifies these things. People aren’t interested in the truth. The fantasy and the scandal are much more exciting and newsworthy in their eyes.’

  ‘Bloody hell. So underhand. Chloe always said that a lot of people posted loads of lies online, and whilst obviously I knew it could happen, I didn’t realise people would stoop that low. Talking of Chloe, you know she was so desperate to prove your innocence that she even sent multiple texts? I’m surprised she was able to drive here afterwards!’

  ‘Chloe isn’t as big of a technophobe as you think, you know.’ Josh raised his eyebrow.

  ‘You don’t know her like I do. She hates that stuff, and as for anything more advanced, forget it. Chloe would rather donate a kidney than go surfing on the World Wide Web,’ I giggled.

  ‘That’s just what she wants you to believe. How do you think she booked all those activities for you when you were doing that get out of the house challenge?’

  ‘Well…I don’t know…’ I scratched my head. ‘Maybe she found them in the newspaper or perhaps got Archie to look it up—you know, like she got him to book the ticket to New York…’ Chloe had always been resourceful and good at finding and researching things and I’d been so nervous about doing the activities that I hadn’t given it much thought, but it was a good question.

  ‘She found all the activities online! On the Meetup app. She got Archie to teach her how to use it. For you.’

  What a sneaky but amazing friend! Chloe had gone to all that effort for me. Not just with setting the challenge and booking all the activities to stop me wallowing over Eric, and the flight tickets, but also getting to the bottom of the whole Josh and Sasha debacle and then driving him up here to make sure I didn’t lose the love of my life. I really didn’t know how I could ever repay her.

  ‘God, I’m so lucky to have such an incr
edible friend.’

  ‘You are indeed.’

  ‘And a rather lovely boyfriend too…well, when he’s not dragging me into global tabloid scandals, of course,’ I chuckled. ‘I can laugh about it now. Just. But to be honest, all that celebrity and fame stuff blows my mind. I’m used to leading a simple life.’

  ‘And that’s what I want too, Em. To live a simple, calm life, with you. You’re the most important thing to me. You are all that matters.’

  ‘But you can’t give up your music! You’re way too talented.’

  ‘Thanks.’ He blushed. ‘I don’t need to give up my music, but like I’ve said from the beginning, I’ll do it on my terms. On a smaller scale. Money isn’t important to me. As long as I can write songs, make music and have enough to live a decent life with you, that’s more than enough. That’s what will make me happy. My grandma always said it’s about knowing your level. What you want to achieve in life. Some people want global superstardom, but that’s never been my goal. I want to be on the level where I put my music out, people buy it or stream it and I maybe tour once or twice a year. Or whatever. Maybe I won’t. It all depends on if my lady wants to come with me…’

  ‘Hmm. I think I can be persuaded. Since New York, I feel like I’ve caught the travel bug. Oh shit!’ I said. ‘What’s the time? I’m supposed to be getting on a plane!’

  I rummaged in my bag for my phone. I looked at the clock. I could still make it. Maybe. But I didn’t want to. I was happy right here.

  ‘Yes, you are.’

  ‘Well, I was. That was before some lunatic came chasing after me at the airport.’ I smirked.

  ‘Yeah. Crazy me. Where were you going, anyway? When I called your name, you were about to get into a taxi.’

  ‘Leaving the airport to go and chase after you, of course.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes, really. I realised that I was going to Fuerteventura to try and get as far away from you as I could, when all I really wanted to do was be right beside you.’

  ‘Oh, Em. I love you so much.’

  ‘I love you too,’ I said, placing my lips on him. As my tongue gently flicked against his, the butterflies returned and began dancing around my stomach and my heart raced. I wished that we could stay here kissing. Forever.