"Okay, so what do we do now?" I asked blankly, looking around me at the deserted lobby. James shrugged next to me.
"Well we can't just have you suddenly appear as my girlfriend, that'll seem off. What if I post a picture of us on Instagram or something, and then we go somewhere busy where people are bound to recognize me?" James asked hesitantly. I shrugged, then nodded.
"I guess I need to create an Instagram and Twitter, then?" I asked. James nodded, pulling me to a couch. We sat knee to knee, and James created a Twitter for me first.
"What do you want your handle to be?" He asked. I wrinkled my nose.
"My what?" I asked incredulously. What on earth is a handle?
"How about ElizabethW01?" He asked, then typed it in when I shrugged. "Okay, for right now your password is going to be, uh... missmcvey. Easy enough to remember. You can change it if you want." James said, typing it in and then typing something. "Okay, now a profile photo. Smile." James grinned at me. I smiled as best I could and he took a picture for it.
"You look lovely." He said politely, and I found myself blushing. What? Shoot me for blushing when a cute boy calls me lovely.
"Alright, now Instagram. I'll use the same password and photo and everything." James said, typing again. I nodded, all of this was flying over my head.
"Okay... so now what?" I asked. James held up a finger and took out his phone, doing a few things while my phone dinged.
"Alright, so now I follow you on both Instagram and Twitter, and I already made you follow each of us as well as a few of my friends so it's not like a fan account or something. Now all we have to do is drop some subtle hints that we're hanging out. Oh- by the way, now that I follow you a bunch of random fangirls are going to follow you as well, just ignore it." James said. I nodded, taking my iPhone back and looking down at it.
"Uh, what's a casual way to drop hints?" I asked. James bit his lip before his eyes lit up and he grabbed my phone, taking a bunch of selfies making weird faces.
"What are you doing?" I giggled, snatching my phone back. James grinned at me and leaned over my shoulder.
"Okay, I already did a little "OMG I'm on twitter now" tweet for you, and I posted your profile picture as well as a nice photo of you in front of a bakery on Instagram. Just post one of my selfies and make it sound like I stole your phone." James said. I smiled up at him, nodding.
"That was actually a really good idea." I said, and James grinned proudly at me. I uploaded one of his selfies, in which he was making a weird face, and captioned it: @iamjamesmcvey last time I let you use my phone, weirdo xx I typed, then uploaded it to Instagram. James' phone went off and he laughed when he saw it, giving me a high-five.
"Okay, now actually being seen in public... How about we go to the Starbucks right inside of London and get a coffee, that's not like a date but also makes it clear we're hanging out one on one." James said. We stood and made ourselves presentable before exiting the building and walking side by side to the city centre.
"It's going to be hard convincing the boys that this is real." James sighed, running a hand through his hair. I frowned and touched his arm, giving him a hopeful smile.
"Just... I don't know, we're starting off as "friends" anyway, so introduce me as Elizabeth and after a while we'll just pretend we like eachother." I shrugged. James laughed and grinned down at me.
"Joe was right, you're a sweetheart." James complemented, and I blushed, looking down at the ground. "And very modest, aww." James teased, and I blushed even redder. Luckily, we just arrived at Starbucks and James held to door for me, letting me get in line first.
"I don't usually come here, what would you recommend?" I asked, looking around at James. He inspected the menu board for a moment and then flashed me a smile.
"I'll order for you, don't worry. You like tea, right?" James confirmed, and I nodded. "Also, I'm paying." James said quickly, stepping in front of me to the till and ordering while I frowned, pulling out my purse.
"James, let me pay." I insisted, tapping his shoulder. The worker smiled at me and James glanced over his shoulder.
"Sorry, I don't let pretty girls pay for things." James said quickly, flashing me a smile and turning around again, finishing the order and paying before I could. I put my purse away and let my forehead stay slightly wrinkled at his actions.
"Come on, don't frown at me. I'm just being nice." James chuckled, pouting at me and poking the little dimples in my forehead. I cracked a smile, not easily cross with people for long. Why wallow in the past? James grinned when I smiled.
"There's that smile!" He cheered, and I blushed, looking away.
"Grande lemon black tea for Miss Mcvey?" The barista called. I turned and raised an eyebrow at James, who let out a loud laugh at my face. I shot him a playful look and grabbed my tea, thanking the barista. "And a grande green tea for Mister Mcvey?" The barista called before I was even back to the table. James grinned again and accepted his tea, sitting down across from me.
"You're funny." I said blankly. James laughed and took a sip of his tea, shrugging.
"Thank you, I do my best." He said, smiling at me from behind his mug. "Now, the boys won't be back at our house until later, so if we want to head back there and get to know each other, we should get going." James said, checking his phone.
"Alright... wait, your house?" I asked, confused.
"We all live together." James explained. I nodded slowly and we got to our feet, heading out the front door. "Look happy, I see a few girls watching us." James mumbled, his lips barely moving. I nodded curtly, and James pulled the door open for me.
"Ladies first." James said sweetly, grinning at me. I met his eyes and grinned back, stepping outside.
"What a gentleman." I commented jokingly. James shrugged, dropping an arm over my shoulder momentarily.
"What can I say?" He said dramatically. I giggled, a genuine giggle, and pushed his side so he let me go.
"Oh, hush you." I laughed, and James pretended to be hurt, touching his heart as we started off down the sidewalk.
"How could you? I thought we had something." James gasped. I shook my head, looking dramatically into his eyes.
"I'm sorry, I can't be with you. My heart belongs to Andrew." I replied.
"Andrew?" James asked, his voice like something off a soap opera.
"Andrew." I confirmed, motioning towards a homeless man. James burst out laughing, grabbing my hand and pulling me closer before dropping it again.
"Yeah, stay away from him, love." James chuckled, making me blush. We chatted and bantered all the way to my car, and both got in seeing as James had taken a taxi. He instructed me on how to get to their house, which was a solid twenty minute drive. As soon as I pulled into the driveway, James was tugging me up the drive and saying something about only having twenty minutes to pretend we knew each other. It really was quite laughable, our situation. I just prayed his bandmates weren't crazy.
