Page 107 of The Spotlight Effect

“Where are we going?” Alexia asks.

“The place you asked me to take you to,” I answer.

“I thought you wanted to take me to some five-star place,” Alexia says and pulls down the mirror from the roof. I back out of her driveway as she puts on lip gloss.

“I did but you asked for this and I’m making you happy,” I tell her and pull out onto the road.

She turns on the radio to play music. “When are you going back to LA?” she asks awkwardly.

“Day after tomorrow.” Alexia turns and looks out the window at my response.

“Did that upset you?” I hope I’m not starting out on a bad note.

“Not upset, just the fact that we will be long distance is setting in,” she answers.

I guess I didn’t think about it before, but when I go back home, we will be totally long-distance and in two different time zones, plus our schedules are already crazy as is. It’s going to be hard to make this work but I’m going to everything in my power to try.

I pull into the lake restaurant and park her car. “We’re going to make this work,” I tell her. I can basically see the thoughts swirling in her head.

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m not losing you. Now we have a date to get to and I’m opening your door.” Alexia waits for me to come open her door before she gets out.

“This will be the best date ever,” I say and take her hand. I’m determined to make it so.

Walking inside the place is decorated in an old fashion way but it still has a classy charm to it. We get seated on the balcony right next to the lake.

“This is romantic,” Alexia comments.

“I wanted the best for you,” I say.

“You're being awfully nice.”

“I just want to impress you and make you feel nice.”

“You made me feel nice just the way you were before.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

We look over our menus and I decide I’m getting the seafood pasta. It looks really good. “What do you wanna get?” I ask her.

“I think the lobster and crab platter,” she answers. We decided to get the same thing and get the lobster and crab platter. As we wait for our food, I notice she doesn’t look too well, she’s deep in thought again. Too deep.

“You don’t look very happy,” I say.

“I’m scared, really scared. I really like you and you already hurt me once but besides that. You’re famous and you travel a lot especially this upcoming summer because you are going ona summer tour. That’s going to be hard. I don’t know how to do this. I’ve never had a long-distance relationship. That involves so much trust, and especially with someone being a celebrity, that's going to be even more trust. I have a lot of insecurities.” She opens up fully, explaining all her worries. “I’m happy, just scared, we aren’t together and soon you're going to be on the other side of the county.”

“What if you are my girlfriend?” Maybe it was the wrong thing to blurt out first but it's what came out.

“Are you asking me to be?” she responds.

“I guess I am. So, Alexia, will you be my girlfriend?”

“I have to think about it.” She shrugs, pretending to be casual. “I’m kidding, of course I will be your girlfriend.”

“You really wanna send me home crying,” I joke.

“You mean it? Really dating me like for real?” she asks, making sure.

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