Page 74 of Follow Your Bliss

“Not if I take the job.” He took a big breath. “And I wanted to talk to you about Becca and Brad’s honey-do shower tomorrow night.”

“What about it?” Weird thing to bring up at this moment. I didn’t get the connection, but I didn’t like where it was going.

He bit his lip and for a minute, wouldn’t meet my eye. “Do you think we can…not let everyone know we’re together when we go?”

What the fuck? “Why? Are you…embarrassed of me?”

“No! God, no.” He rubbed his hand down my arm. “I could never be embarrassed of you. It’s just…” He took and released a deep breath. “My cousin Ashley will be there, and she’s gonna be taking a ton of photos for Becca and Brad’s wedding Insta.” He rubbed his beard, shifting in his seat. “She’ll tag us all in it, and well…”

“So I guess hiding us from StudFinders is going to be more pervasive than I realized.”

He breathed out heavily. “It might be.”

Did this mean we couldn’t go on dates like a normal couple? Be seen out together in public at all? But he hadn’t acted weird when we were out and about town taking photos yesterday. The termpocketingcame into my mind from a magazine I’d flipped through in the waxing salon, where one partner hides the other from family and friends because they’re embarrassed or not monogamous. Toxic as fuck.

I twisted my lips. “Are you sure you’re not embarrassed of me?”

His mouth dropped open, and he leaned in. “No,” he murmured, kissing my cheek. “I could never be embarrassed of you. Ever. I don’twantto keep you a secret.” He smiled. “I told Alex.”

Okay. That wasn’t nothing.

“Did you tell anyone about us?” he asked softly.

My eyes snapped up, a twinge in my chest. “I haven’t really talked to anyone.” Although, I’d been texting with Abby and Heather since we’d been back from Florida and hadn’t told them. I guess I hadn’t been eager to tell the world, either.

He nodded but didn’t ask me why. If he suspected I was a serial flashpanner who leaves when things get serious—another term from that article—he didn’t call me on it now. Maybe I was the toxic one.

“But we can post the ones of us together where we’re not kissing, where I’m just a prop—I mean, I’m just a prop through the whole thing. If you post those and tag me, my followers will hopefully follow you too and build your numbers. Remember how crazy they got with our video?”

“And StudFinders won’t hate that?”

He shrugged. “We can’t control speculation.”

“So tomorrow night at the honey-do shower, we’re just gonna…drive there together and then act like you don’t free willy into my vagina at least twice a day?”

“You have a way with words. But yeah. I guess.”

He was trying to follow his dreams, and I was making this about me. I wasn’t nuts about being kept a secret, but it would hold him at some emotional length, which made me less anxious. And honestly, being welcomed into his family as his live-in girlfriend was premature, especially as weird as I was already feeling about it.

“Okay. I’ll be on my best behavior.” I pecked his lips and returned my attention to the laptop, pushing all my unease down my throat. “Now lead me out of the land of the confused with these photos. How do I even start building these into posts?”

Chapter 13

Party Business

Jason

My stomach was in knots as we parked outside Misty’s parents’ house for the honey-do shower. I was only here for my sister, otherwise I wouldn’t step foot into that house for any money. Just how disrespectful would Misty be tonight?

Too bad I was too chicken shit to tell my mom about me and Rose, or having her on my arm might be a deterrent. Not that I’d lied to Rose about tonight—the StudFinders contract was the main reason I didn’t want us to appear as a couple, and Ashley definitely would be posting photos of tonight online. But it wasn’t such a bad thing to put off telling my mom I was dating Rose, either.

Rose leaned toward me from the passenger seat. “Wait, let me straighten your tie.”

This amazing woman entering my personal space would never stop taking my breath away. I slipped my hand into her dark hair and kissed her. I dreaded walking inside the party and acting like Rose wasn’t my whole world, dreaded how I’d eventually have to tell Mom that I’d fallen for one of the women she disliked the most.

She pulled back. “Someone’ll see us. But I have a surprise for you.” She held a small, black remote out to me. “Put this in your pocket.”

I took it from her. “What’s this?”

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