*Jess’s POV*
“Did you hear that?” James asks, pulling away from me as quickly as the camera clicked. He spins around, looking for the photographer. I feel my gut wrench in my stomach; I knew I shouldn’t have done this. This was a really stupid plan. He’s going to figure it out. As soon as he spots Angeline, he’ll know I’m the one that called her and told her to be here.
“Hear what?” I force a smile, deciding to just lie and play dumb.
“The…” James starts, still searching the crowd of people bustling around London. After a minute he gives up, turning to face me again. “Never mind. Let’s eat.” Without warning he grabs my hand, squeezing it tight and pulling me along after him. My eyes fixate on Angeline as I watch her reveal herself from her hiding spot and start walking towards the restaurant yet still keeping a small distance from us as not to be noticed by James.
Do you think she knows it’s you? A little voice asks me. Maybe she thinks you’re Pen… then your plan won’t be completely ruined! I know I look nothing like Pen, and that it’s almost impossible to confuse me for her, but that voice gave me the ounce of hope I needed. Maybe James won’t hate me for ruining our arrangement entirely.
“Table for two?” I hear the host ask, zapping me back to reality.
“Yeah.” James tells him.
“Please.” I add quickly, making up for his rudeness. The host smiles at me, motioning for us to follow him as he picks up two menus. James squeezes my hand a little tighter as we walk, and still doesn’t let it go as we sit down.
“So…” he smirks, thumbing through the menu and tracing little circles on the back of my hand. “Why were you so adamant about coming out tonight?”
“Well I wanted to see you…” I smile sheepishly, looking down at my menu and looking it over.
“Hey-“ he says, squeezing my hand yet again and forcing me to look up at him. “I wanted to see you too. I meant it when I said I missed you.” He leans across the table, aiming for another kiss, as we hear the camera click again. He stops in his tracks, cocking his head to the left and looking around for the source.
“You okay babe?” I ask him, still acting as if I don’t know what’s going on.
“You didn’t hear it that time?” he asks, staring at me as if he’s trying to decide if I’m crazy or he is. I shoot him a confused look, urging him to say, “that camera. I heard a camera; did you not?”
I look around the restaurant and immediately spot Angeline about two tables away from us, looking down at her menu. “Do you see a camera anywhere?”
“Well… no…” he replies, still looking around. “I guess I’m hearing things.”
“You’re just so used to all the cameras flashing, aren’t you Buckner?” I joke, smirking at him.
“Oh, you’ve figured it out,” he goes along, laughing a little. He finally just focuses his eyes on me, staring at me with the corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly. “So what would you like to eat?”
“You know me; I’m up for anything.” I tell him, dropping my gaze to the menu on the table and smiling to myself as James starts drawing little swirls on the back of my hand again with his thumb, reminding me he still hasn’t let go. After a while of no more photograph-scares, we decide on dinner.
“Two orders of the ‘Fried Chicken Platter’-”
“Please.” I say under my breath, squeezing James’ hand to get his attention.
“Please…” he adds slightly sarcastically, “And two glasses of your finest champagne.”
“Fried chicken and champagne?” I giggle once the waiter walks away.
“What?” he smiles back. “It’s a good combo.”
“I guess I’ll have to take your word on that.”
“Are you telling me you don’t want champagne? If not, I’ll just drink yours-“
“Hey now, I never said that.” I laugh, shaking my head at him. Suddenly he leans across the table again, this time planting his lips on mine and kissing me. At first I’m a little shocked, but then happily kiss him back, reaching my free hand up to cup his cheek as he held my chin.
“You’re silly, baby…” he smiles once we break apart.
“Nuh uh!” I say in a rather childish voice, earning another laugh and roll of the eyes from him as our drinks arrive. He takes his glass and clinks it against mine before he tips his head back and downs half of it in one gulp. “You may want to slow down, wouldn’t want you getting too drunk on me now would we?”
“Oh please, you’d love to get drunk with me.” Again he leans towards me and I immediately follow, meeting in the middle for a short and sweet kiss. We both hear another click of a camera, and I watch James turns his head in the direction of Angeline. Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. I’m done. We’re done. He’s going to notice her. However, he just spins back to me and doesn’t say a word.
“You okay?” I ask again, more lovingly this time as to not anger him.
“Yeah…” he says softly. “Yeah. I’m all right. Forget it.”
“Consider it forgotten.” I smile, watching as he picks up his champagne again and finishes the rest of it. I decide to join him, grabbing mine and sipping it slowly. How don’t you feel bad about this? That stupid fucking voice in my head returns, taunting me about this entire situation. Here you are… sitting across from the boy you want to admit you love and making him feel like he’s losing his mind… and for what? For some girl you’re friends with? Best friends, I remind myself. And he wouldn’t feel like he was losing his mind if I was honest with him; It’s my fault we’re even in this mess in the first place. All me.
“Are you okay?” James asks, tipping my head up with a gentle move of his free hand.
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” I smile, this time initiating a kiss. His entire face lights up as I do, kissing me harder than before as if he didn’t want to stop. However, another click of a camera sets him off.
“Alright… who the fuck keeps taking pictures?” He asks the entire restaurant, silencing every single other conversation. “And don’t YOU,” he says, looking at me again and throwing away my hand, “can NOT tell me you haven’t noticed it.” Oh shit. Here we go.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Please just calm down; we can go back to your place-“
“Have you heard it?” He asks a man in his 40s sitting with his family. “Have you heard that camera click-click-clicking away all night?”
“Um… well I don’t think I’ve heard any-“ he starts.
“BULLSHIT!” James thunders back, pointing his finger at a woman across the shop and asking her the same question.
“I am so sorry, he’s had too much to drink…” I try to apologize for him, shaking my head. A waiter walks over to us and I tell him “we’ll be leaving; I’m so sorry.”
“No, we’re not leaving until someone tells me exactly who has been taking pictures all night! Have you never seen a guy and his girlfriend out for dinner?” I uncontrollably smile at the sound of him calling me his girlfriend, never hearing him say those words. “Can’t I have one night of peace and quiet and PRIVACY?!”
“Mom… that’s Romeo!” a little girl around 12 years old says quietly, pulling on who I assume to be her mother’s sleeve and cocking her head towards our table.
“That is Romeo!” Another young girl notes. Soon, almost everyone in the restaurant recognizes him, only making him more annoyed.
“Yes, I’m fucking Romeo. Glad we got that out of the way. Now will someone please tell me who’s been stalking me?”
“Baby, can we please just go?” I say seriously, only wanting to disappear and not be here right now.
He stares at me, and I see his spirit break. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.” He reaches for my hand and yanks me to my feet, throwing money down on the table for the champagne as he does.
“Wait… if that’s Romeo, where’s Juliet?” someone in the crowd asks.
Hey guys! Again, I am so so SO sorry I haven’t updated in a while, although I think most have you have grown used to that haha. This chapter is dedicated to @gabluv128 for the B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L fanart!! If you’d like to make some for this story, please do! Just remember to send me a link so I can see it! Someone asked a while back if they can make a video trailer for this book as if it was going to be a movie, and I’d just like everyone to know that you can TOTALLY do that! Upload it to YouTube so I can watch it too! (Also it’d be cool if someone made a trailer for Romeo and Juliet with Pen and James like that’d be SO SO SO COOL OMG) Today in the comments, I’d like to play a game I like to call “Hot or Cold”… basically tell me what you think is going to happen next in this story and I’ll say if you’re hot (meaning you’re close) or cold (meaning the story’s not going to go that way) As always, please vote or comment if you liked this chapter, and follow me if you’d like to know when my next update is! I’d also just like to thank everyone for 500 followers… WOW!! I am totally shocked and so so so grateful. Alright that’s all I have to say, stay amazing guys xx