Page 103 of From Me to You

I sighed internally. There was no hiding from him. He read me like a song that you always knew the lyrics to. Which was whyI had to be very careful in the next six months. One slip and Jay would figure out everything. And he would drag me back to Bellevue, giving up on his dreams. We would be fine but I knew it would make him miserable in the end.

It scared me what White was going to make me do. I didn’t know how far she would go to make him hate me. But I haven’t heard anything from her till now. So, I wanted to spend all the time I had left with my baby.

“No, Jay. I mean, yes, I cried, but not for the reasons you think. It was because of allergies.”

He kissed my nose, and his face scrunched up in confusion. My heart skipped a beat. God, he looked so adorable like that.

“You don’t have any allergies.”

“Apparently I am allergic to something in Los Angeles,” I told him, which was not actually a complete lie. Something in L.A. was making me allergic. “I went to the garden for a while, and I couldn’t stop sneezing and crying after that.” I pouted.

“Poor baby, you should have called me. Do you need to go to the clinic or something?” His arms curled around my body, pulling me closer to him.

I shook my head as I brushed my lips against his. I kissed him softly with all my love, savoring the moment because it terrified me that we wouldn’t get moments like this again.

Jay pulled back and pressed his forehead against mine. “I have got news to tell you.” His eyes shone with happiness, and my heart sang. My sad boy was gone, and I knew exactly why while I pretended.

“The meeting they called us in for. It turns out that the higher-ups made a mistake and they actually wanted to sign us. For real.”

“I thought you already signed a deal.” My face scrunched up in fake confusion.

“An actual deal, sweetheart. I couldn’t believe it at first, but Katy hired a lawyer, and the papers looked legit, so we had no choice but to sign them. Can you believe it? We actually got the record deal when only yesterday we thought our career was almost over and that the label fucked us up. It was weird what they did, but they apologized. It was a mistake on their end, which I still don’t understand why, but who the fuck cares? I made it, Evy.” He smiled so wide that his face was brimming with happiness.

Jay hardly smiled like that—in fact, I had seen him do it once at the cabin when we made love for the first time. His rare emotions only showed up when he truly cared about something. And when I saw that look on his face, I knew I had done the right thing. I knew I would do anything to see him radiate pure happiness and that all this pain and hurt that it caused me was worth it.

I hugged him tight. “Congratulations, Jay. I love you,” I whispered.

We ended up not going outside the bedroom that entire day, while we spent every second celebrating in our own way. I basked in his presence, soaking up all of him as I breathed into him. I already missed him too much.

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A couple of weeks had passed by since the day The Four Foxes officially signed with Pacific White. The guys were pretty busy spending most of the time in the studio that they were almost halfway through the album.

Katy had been busy promoting the band, but it was easy now with the label’s influence and team. It all looked surreal to meto see how much was taking place at the same time. The album had already garnered so much buzz that The Rolling Stones did a piece about the guys making their first debut in the music world.

And White requests for me were so deranged and crazy that it made me sick to my stomach. She told me to distance myself from Jay and the rest of the gang. As if that was possible. I didn’t know how to pretend like that. Especially with the people whom I considered my family.

When I told her that I couldn’t go with it she sent me a text that almost made me want to walk up her house and strangle her.

White- Drink, it helps. If you want, I could give you something that would loosen you up so you wouldn’t moan and complain. Just act like a bitch, Evy. The band is almost halfway through the recordings, you don’t want to mess that up now, do you?

So, I unfortunately had to try. I distanced myself from Jay in the most subtlest way possible so he wouldn’t notice a thing, but he did. Even though he was busy, he could feel me drifting away a tiny bit from him.

What he didn’t know was that it was ripping my heart to shreds doing that to him. But I willed myself to put on a cold, hard mask to get me through this. I drank. It did help. I stopped hanging out much with Katy and the rest of the gang unless it was necessary, like now.

“Sweetheart, do you want the pasta?” Jay asked, leaning into me.

We were currently celebrating the band’s success at a bougie restaurant in Los Angeles, where each item on the menu cost more than someone’s wages, but it looked like the guys could afford it now. It was Katy’s idea to do something nice—I recalled how excited she was when she told me she had arranged this for the band, but I rolled my eyes at her and walked away.

White had given me explicit details to act a certain way, talk a certain way, and even dress a certain way. I couldn’t believe her. How much of this had she planned? How crazy was she? It terrified me to leave Jay with her, unprotected. But I hoped he would be stronger than me and not fall for her manipulation.

“No, Jay, I do not want the pasta,” I said in a hard voice. My heart immediately tugged at the barest flicker of hurt that danced in his eyes. But I let the hurt fuel me as I reminded myself that I was doing this for him.

Jay kissed my cheek. “Okay, sweetheart. Whatever you want.”

I internally swooned at that, but on the outside, I showed no reaction.

“Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise?” Mikey asked in his usual goofy way.