Page 20 of The Emerson Effect
Her eyebrows shoot up. “That’s…cool.”
I don’t want to know what word she actually started to use there. Time to get back to the point.
“Anyway, it was easy to hate him when I thought he was some dumbass who was riding my coattails because he couldn’t come up with his own content. But he’s not a dumbass. He’s really smart, and he wants to do this for us both. Not just himself.”
“So, he’s generous, too,” she says like it’s a fact.
“Yes.”
“And nice.”
“Yes.”
“And a total smoke show.”
“Y–– Wait. What?” I stutter, and laughter peals out of her.
“Oh, my God! You have a crush on him!”
“No.”
“Yes, you do,” she says, still laughing.
“No, I don’t. You just tricked me, is all.”
“Jesus. Raven was right.”
What?
“What are you talking about?” I ask aloud.
“At girls’ night, she was talking about Callie and Royal and Dallas and me, and she predicted you’d fall for someone you hate on BingBang.”
I’m shaking my head before she even finishes. “No. Nope. Not gonna happen. This is anact, and that’s all it will ever be.”
“If you say so,” she sing-songs, then she settles into a more serious tone. “So, what is Emerson going to do next?”
I pull up a video I created a few days ago and turn the phone screen toward her. “See that painting on the wall behind me? The one of the daisies?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, he’s going to make a video while holding a bouquet of them.”
She nods like she likes it, then her face falls into a frown. She holds my gaze for a long moment, then licks her lips before speaking.
“Just be careful, okay? I don’t want to go to prison for murder because someone hurt my best friend.”
“I will be. I promise.”
And I mean it. I will be careful.
I’m going into this with my head, not my heart. No one, not even the charming Emerson House is going to have a chance to wound me where it hurts the most.
TWELVE
Emerson
The video I posted yesterday with the daisies went even more viral than the margarita one and the sweatshirt one, combined. I watch my phone’s screen intently as the numbers rise, and even though Iknewthis was a good idea, I’m a bit shocked at just how well it’s going. My follower count has doubled in the last week.
