From Bringston, With Love

Chapter 7: Fake Love in LA

"Jordaaaannnnn, guess who's..." Simone says as she opens the front door. She pauses at the site of Jordan and Layla in front of her. Layla and Jordan both step back from one another and Jordan immediately goes to hug Simone.

"Simone?! Babe? Oh my gosh what are you doing here," Jordan inquires as he goes to hug her.

"Well you've come to surprise me twice, so I figured I would finally return the favor... but I feel like I was interrupting something."

Layla: "Oh no, you weren't. I was just about to leave to go meet with my dad. She reaches in to give Simone a hug. "I'll catch you guys later though."

"Okay, so I actually didn't come alone. Nate and Keisha are out in the car, but I wanted you to just see me first. You wanna go get food with us?"

They go to grab food at Slauson Cafe in Crenshaw. While they're eating, Spencer comes in carrying a box full of stuff. It's his apparel launch tomorrow and he's getting ready to set up. Since things are pretty tense between Spencer and Jordan at the moment, he comes close to avoiding their table, but then Simone says, "Spencer James don't act like you don't see me over here boy. Come give me a hug." She stands, holding her arms out. Spencer comes over to the table. "Oh my bad y'all, I just got a lot on my mind with this apparel launch happening tomorrow." Spencer gives Simone, Nate and Keisha all hugs but avoids all contact with Jordan whatsoever. "Aight y'all I gotta start getting stuff ready but y'all should come through tomorrow," Spencer says before he walks off. Jordan doesn't say a word the entire time.

Simone can sense the tension between Spencer and Jordan, but she waits until after they finish their lunch to speak with him privately. "So I figured we could all hit the beach when we're done here," she propositions. Everyone agrees, so they go for a walk on the beach.

A little later on the beach, the sun is setting, and Nate and Keisha are taking in the view as they walk a few feet ahead of Jordan and Simone.

"So, do you want to tell me what the hell is going on between you and Spencer? I didn't wanna say anything in front of Nate and Keisha earlier, but I could tell something was off. You didn't say a word to him, AND you didn't even tell me about his apparel launch. That's a big deal."

"Well, I figured I didn't need to share the apparel launch with anyone since Spencer apparently has the best QB in the nation talking about it all over his social media"

"So y'all are seriously letting football and this Wade guy get in between y'all? Y'all are supposed to be brothers."

"Yeah well I guess our brothers disappoint us sometimes," Jordan says as he grabs his phone to check his notifications.

"Okay, that's the third time you've checked your phone since we've been on this beach and your phone hasn't buzzed once. Somewhere else you'd rather be?"

"No of course not," Jordan says that he put his arm around Simone. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be." He was definitely wondering what was going on with Layla though.

"Okay well we gotta get you and Spencer right. You should go help him set up for his apparel launch."

"Nah, he doesn't need my help. I'd rather to go back to the beach house and chill with my girl."

"Okay, whatever. We can hang out for a little and then me, Nate and Keisha gotta get back to the house. I'm going to see Shanelle and Shay in the morning."

Back at the beach house, Simone and Jordan are cuddled on the couch inside, while Nate and Keisha are outside around the fire pit. They can be heard talking in the distance, but Jordan and Simone are focused on the movie they're watching. Jordan finally gets that notification he was waiting on. It's from Layla giving him a quick update on how things went meeting her dad's new girlfriend. As Jordan reads the message, Simone takes a peek. At that moment, she realizes that Jordan had probably been waiting to hear from Layla after all those times he had checked his phone earlier.