For The Press

7 - It seems that we've gotten ourselves into a little predicament

"I know," I interrupt. "I'm sorry, I swear it'll all make sense soon just, just give me time to explain. Please."

"Are you sure you're alright?" She asks.

Lord, she's so sweet. I don't have it in me to answer her, though.

So instead, I ignore the question with another question. "What music do you like?" I ask her.

"What?" She asks, obviously caught off guard. I pull out my phone and my aux and hand it to her. "Asher stop, that's dangerous."

I smile a little at her tone. "You worry too much, love. Pick out something to listen to."

She eventually puts on Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus. I smile slightly to myself. Nice taste.

Eventually, I pull into a deserted parking lot in front of an equally deserted beach. Just something I stumbled across when trying to escape the paps.

Allie looks over at me skeptically as I turn the car off. I look over into her doubtful eyes and laugh softly. "Would you just trust me?"

I open the door and jog around to her side and open her door, holding my hand out for her. She looks at it and grins, shaking her head. "You're going to kidnap me, aren't you?"

I grin and shrug. "Come find out."

She slowly places her hand in mine and stands up out of the car. Again, electricity shoots through my hand.

I love her hands. So soft, so delicate. I don't want to let go, so I don't.

I pull her by her hand towards the forest lining. I look back at her when we reach it, worry drenched all over her face. "Okay, through here. Don't worry, it's fine. I've been here before." She nods, still looking worried.

I don't want her to be worried. I want her to feel safe. I try to push away the fact that I myself feel worried too, though. But my main concern is her.

Her hands are so cold. From what I can tell, they are most of the time. It's okay, I can warm them up.

We keep walking until finally we push through and break out onto a small part of the beach. It's surrounded by the woods, but it has sand and water.

I've come here before, it's nice. Peaceful.

Her eyes light up as she stops to look around. "Asher, you've been here for, like, a week, how did you find this?"

I let go of her hand and chuckle. "First off, I've been here longer than a week, second off," I take a seat on the sand and tilt my head to look back at her, "you gotta be knowledgeable of secret places if you're going to get any kind of solitude from the cameras."

I loosen my tie around my neck, it's been suffocating me all day, and run my fingers through my hair. The wind gently blows by and I look up to see it running through her hair.

She looks like a goddess. It's golden hour and the sun is hitting her just right. She's so beautiful.

The sound of the water in front of us fills the silence and I try to take it all in before I start this conversation. Suddenly, she walks over and takes a seat beside me.

"So," she leans back on her hands. "now will you tell me what you have to talk to me about?"

I tense a little and look back at the water. "It seems," I take a breath, "that we've gotten ourselves into a little predicament."

"We?" She chuckles. I look over into her eyes.

"Yeah, we. Remember yesterday when that ball hit you, and you fell onto me?" I ask, looking down.

"Yeah?" She says cautiously.

"Well, a couple of people, and by a couple I mean a lot, may have gotten a picture of it. Specifically, the part where we were face to face."

She readjusts how she's sitting. "Okay... what are you saying?" She asks slowly.

I finally look up and meet her eyes. "They think we're dating. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of pictures all over the internet saying we're together."

Her face goes pale white. "So-so tell them we're not. That it was an accident," she stutters.

She's scared, I can see it in her eyes. Fuck, I screwed up.

I swallow the lump in my throat. "See, that's what I needed to talk to you about. The responses that we're getting are... good. Really good. It seems my fans think I'll be softer and shit like that. They're eating it up."

She looks around, panic evident in her eyes. "So? We're not dating so it doesn't matter, right?" She chuckles nervously.

This isn't going to work. Shit. What now?

"Well, my manager wanted me to ask if maybe, you'd consider.."

"What Asher?" She snaps.

"That you would consider pretending to be in a relationship with me. You know, for the press."

Her jaw drops slightly and her eyes go wide. "You're insane," she jumps up.

"No, no, no, wait please, just let me explain," I stumble trying to get up after her. I grab ahold of her arm and she whips her head around to look at me. "Please."

"No, I won't! This is crazy, we just met and,"

"Ok, ok, look. My manager really wants this to happen. He's willing to negotiate."

She searches my eyes for a moment before snapping out of it and shaking her head. "Absolutely not," she scoffs, starting to walk away.

"We'll pay you!" I shout.

Wow, sudden Asher.

"What? You'll pay me to date you?" She says in disbelief.

I close my eyes and sigh. "Yes, okay?"

She stands for a moment and looks down like she's considering it.

"And, I mean, if you go out with me, no one will mess with you. You'll be covered."

Her eyes meet mine and they soften. I struck some kind of nerve. But I mean it, every word.

She closes her eyes after a minute. "Okay, I-I'm willing to consider it."

I smile and let go of a breath I didn't realize I was holding. I let go of her arm. "Okay, good, um, we don't have much time. For this to work we either have to start or shut it down as soon as possible."

She looks down. "Okay, um, what do I need to do?" She asks in a timid voice.

Stop making her so nervous, Asher.

"Okay, fine. Let's go," she says.

The whole car ride over to my house was silent other than the music she played.

Eventually, I pull up to my house and stop the car. I look over and Allie looks in awe at the house.

This is so fucking embarrassing, why did we have to buy a whole ass mansion.

"So," I break the silence, "couple things before we go in. Matt can be a bit... he can be a lot. Just don't let him scare you."

What I mean to say is if he says one hateful thing to her I will rip his hair out.

"Matt? Is he your manager?" She asks. I nod in response. "Alright, well, let's go see Matt, then." She claps her hands enthusiastically.

I get out and smile as I do. Such a feisty side.

We walk up the long walkway and when we get to the door I put my hand on the glossy doorknob and look back at her.

"After you, love," I smirk down at her, opening the door. She takes one step inside and her jaw drops.

So fucking embarrassing.