Page 102 of Counterfeit Connection

I’ve never been more nervous to leave the safety of an apartment before. There’s a semblance of safety in these walls, and leaving just invites the chaos in.

But Gillianisright. We can’t hide. We have to show them our love is real, no matter what vitriol they spew at us. We’re keeping it simple at first. A quick trip out in his car for dinner then we will come back home. Easy and a good starting point.

It feels good to get dressed up tonight, even if it’s just in a little sundress and denim jacket. I even put on a little makeup to hide the dark circles and obvious lack of rest.

“Are you ready for this?” Griffin asks me as we approach his front door.

“As I’ll ever be.”

“If you need to leave and can’t say it, grab my pinky finger and tug. No one will know and we’ll go straightaway.”

“Will you do the same?” I ask.

“Of course. I have reservations at one of my favorite local spots. We’ll have a table in the back. No windows.” With that piece of information, I relax a little. “Your shoulders just dropped.” Griffin places a soft kiss on my forehead. “I’ll massage you when we get home and erase the rest.”

The thought of him touching me in that way makes my heart perk up. “I’ve missed you touching me.”

“Know it was out of respect, not for a lack of want.”

He takes my hand and opens the door. It’s quiet in the hallway, which is normal, but I, for a split second, let it give me a false sense of hope. The elevator ride down to the parking area is smooth, and we don’t cross paths with anyone on the walk from the lift to the car. Maybe this won’t be so bad?

I was wrong.

When he pulls out from the underground parking lot, we are accosted by flashing lights, people shouting our names, and standing in front of the car, preventing us from driving forward.

Griffin honks the horn. “Move!”

“Maybe we should just back up?” I grip the armrest on my side.

“We can do that if you want, but I know this is important.”

I look down, trying to block my face from being photographed. “I want to go.”

“Then I’ll make it so,” he says, honking the horn again in quick succession.

It doesn’t take long for building security to come to our aid, clearing the area enough for us to safely pull away and onto the street proper.

“Griffin, what the fuck? Are they seriously willing to get injured just for pictures? I’ve read this shit in magazines before and thought those people were just being dramatic. I mean, they’ve seen me naked. What more could they possibly need? This is straight out of hell.”

“I hate to say it. I’ve dealt with this from time to time my entire life. We haven’t talked about what it was like after my parents divorced or my brother’s plane crash. It was even worse than this.”

“Jesus Christ,” I whisper. “How could it get worse than this?”

Griffin doesn’t answer my question. I don’t know if I expected him to. It was partially rhetorical and if it is worse than this, I don’t want to know how. I can see by the look I know is there behind his sunglasses that it’s painful for him to even remember.

Griffin

I know that my knuckles were white for the entire drive to the restaurant, and probably even whiter when I was fisting the hand that wasn’t on Kaitlyn’s lower back as we pushed our way through the throngs of people, press and otherwise, trying to eat a simple goddamn meal together. I was trying to maintain my cool all the while, in my head, I was going over who could have leaked our reservation plans for this mob to have assembled.

This throng of savages was shoving cameras in our faces, cell phones too, looking for some kind of audio recording or statement. A few women even grabbed onto Kaitlyn’s arm, trying toforceher to stop and comment.

And I had to ignore the names and disgusting things being shouted our way by some punk teens from across the street.

Thankfully, this establishment is not a stranger to well-known guests, so they lower privacy shades over the windows and allow us to eat in a small booth toward the back of the dining room. It’s dark back here, but it doesn’t hide the fact there are tears in my girl’s eyes.

“Kaitlyn, I’m sorry this is happening. I need you to know that I never expected anything like this to happen.”

“Stop,” she says, shaking her head. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s all I’ve thought about for days. I can’t do it anymore. I don’t want you to apologize anymore either. You didn’t ask for this either.”

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