Page 8 of The Pump Fake

I furrow my brow with confusion…I don’t know what she’s talking about. “See what?”

“The article?”

“What article? I was looking at the termination contract from Hunter,” I tell her.

“We can worry about the contract later.” She brushes me off continuing, “An online gossip site posted pictures of us last night from dinner.”

My stomach drops.What? No, it’s not time. We were supposed to be able to control the narrative…but perhaps we can make this work for us. First, I need to know what we’re working with.

“Send me the link,” I demand.

“Okay, give me a moment,” she says. I hear her shuffling something around on the other side when the notification for a text message beeps in my ear.

Pulling the phone away, I click on the link she sent me. The article pops up showing a few pictures of us at Blazing Tacos with a headline that reads, “Has the Ice Queen defrosted? Is Jade Gonzalez dating her manager?”

Not the worst headline I’ve seen.

Zooming in on the picture, I see it’s a moment where we had leaned in talking, making it look intimate. I can’t even place when in our conversation that was. The next picture is one of us standing really close outside of the restaurant in front of our cars. We’re so close it looks as if we were about to kiss.

Who would have taken these photos? Maybe the waitress? She did seem upset that I rebuked her advances. But it doesn’t look too bad. Besides, we want everyone to think we’re together, right?

“It’s not too bad,” I speak my thoughts out loud. “Who do you think took them?”

“I don’t know, Cliff. But I was hoping that we could tell our families before anything dropped. I already have a ton of text messages from my family, including Mya. What are we going to say?” she says, her voice getting higher and higher.

The need to calm her down wells up within me, forcing a demand to pop out of my mouth. “Jade, stop and take a deep breath.” I hear her breathe in. “Good girl.” Needing to make sure she doesn’t just hold it all in, I give her another command, “Now, let it all out.” She does as I say. “Good girl. Feel better?” I ask.

“A little,” she whispers. “You haven’t heard anything from our families?”

“I’m sure I have, but I haven’t checked. I’m focused on you,” I tell her.

“What are we going to do? I thought we would have more time.” she mutters.

“This is what we’re going to do: You’ll come over here tonight. We will call them together, letting everyone know.” Needing to remind her that this was the plan, it’s just moving slightly faster than we had anticipated, I continued. “And Jade?”

“Yeah?”

“Remember this is what we want. It’s slightly quicker but we can make it work,” I say.

“You’re right,” she sighs. Then I hear her mumble something I’m not sure she meant for me to hear, “You’re always right.”

The thought of her telling me how right I am has my body tightening and my cock swelling, but every thought is dashed when she hurriedly says, “I’ll talk to you later.” Then hangs up the phone, leaving me to wonder how the hell I’m going to get through this.

6

Jade

After hanging up with Cliff, the weight that had been sitting on my shoulders since the moment I’d opened my phone and seen the article my mother had sent me lifted. She had also sent a message wondering why I hadn’t told her that I had started dating Cliff. Which, if you were wondering, she also wrote how she fully approves of us together.

I can hear her voice in my ear saying, “Jade, that hunk of man is perfect for you. I don’t know why you haven’t dated before.”

When I read the message, I had to roll my eyes because it’s not the first time she has said something to me about dating Cliff. “Mija, he’s a good boy like his brother, Taylor.”

And though every time I’m near him my body lights up, Cliff has never showed me any interest outside of our friendship.Instead, he became my manager and then my best friend. I’m not sure I would be able to survive without him, which makes this whole plan risky.

I just pray that we can get through this and still come out the other side as friends. This idea could goreallywrong and it probably would’ve been better to do it with someone I don’t know very well, but I justcouldn’t. The thought of kissing someone who isn’t Cliff has every cell in my body revolting.

Climbing into my car, I decide it’s now or never to get some of these phone calls handled on my way to basketball practice. First, I’ll call the least of all evils which, if you can believe it, is my mother.

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