Page 21 of Rush
‘You sure, Cowgirl?’ Marco looked to her for reassurance.
‘No, but we can try.’
Blake started to rise from his seat, his business here done the second she’d agreed. ‘You can back out of this, Savi. Just understand the consequences. And I strongly suggest you have a word with your team principal, plus Esme.’
‘Esme?’ Marco crossed his arms.
‘She knows about Jesse and I.’
‘Yes, and she needs to think you two broke up. If you have to tell anyone, the only people who can know you and Marco are faking it are you two, Jesse, your PR team, your boss, immediate family, and me. That’s it.’ If this was such a serious matter, why no contract? It wasn’t adding up, but she trusted Jesse. She didn’t tell Blake that she would absolutely be telling Esme the whole truth; no way was she lying to her best friend. She’d already kept the secret about Jesse for four years, and she trusted her with her life. She regretted having to ask her to lie to everyone, but she knew Ez would do it in a heartbeat.
‘So, what’s the first step?’ Savi asked as Blake reached the door, ready to see himself out.
‘That’s up to you two to figure out.’ He shrugged, and without so much as a goodbye, Blake was gone. Leaving Savi and Marco to process what the hell had just happened.
9
‘Did you even consider that I might not want to do this?’ Savi was pacing her hotel room with Jesse on loudspeaker, along with the buzz of whatever bar he was in on the Nashville strip. She knew this wasn’t the best time for him, but she was past caring.
‘Sav, come on. You know Blake and I wouldn’t do this without good reason. I don’t want you getting caught up in this mess, I’m just trying to take care of you.’
‘I got caught up in this mess the second you signed your record deal, Jess.’
‘Don’t be so dramatic, Savi. Please. You don’t understand what it’s like in my world, it’s harsh and there’s a lot of pressure. You see the things they say about me in the press, I don’t want that for you.’
‘My world is not all that different. You think I’m not already subjected to criticism and misogyny on a daily basis? Sure, it might not be on such a wide scale, but I know how to handle myself. Don’t you think if we had been public from the very beginning of your career that media attention might have died down by now? We’re four years in, Jesse. Where is this going if you don’t think I belong in your world? We should be able to love each other out loud, not in the shadows of secluded cabins and hotel suites.’
‘Are you saying you don’t want me anymore?’ he shotback, almost cutting her off with his bluntness. It was a defence mechanism, but it still stung.
‘No, of course not, I’m just saying I think we need to reevaluate what it is we’re doing here. I can’t do another four years of sneaking around.’ Her confidence wavered and her voice lowered to a whisper. She almost wished he hadn’t heard over the noise of a group of men cheering in the background, because she was not the type of girl to give ultimatums. She had kept quiet for their whole relationship, not voicing her concerns out of fear of losing him altogether. She was exhausted.
‘Just give it six months of this PR stunt, Sav. Okay? We’ll talk about it then, look at how to launch our own relationship into the media slowly, avoid any drama.’
Jesse was romantically linked with every woman in his vicinity, all the time. It was a huge insecurity of Savi’s, but she had learned to live with it, because she knew she was the one he always came home to. When work allowed.
‘Fine, but I’m not happy about it. And I’m not waiting until those six months are up to discuss this again.’ She was already reaching for her jacket, desperate to get some fresh air and clear her head before she’d even ended the call.
‘You’ve made that pretty clear. Can I get back to my boys now?’ She could hear him heading back into the bar he’d come from.
She hung up without another word. He’d always had a blasé attitude about a lot of things, important life things that required deep thought and honest conversations, but it was beginning to annoy Savi more than it used to. They seemed to be heading down different paths, and she wasn’tquite ready to accept that their future was looking a little shaky. She wanted to believe fame hadn’t changed him, like it hadn’t changed her except for making her more resilient, but she was struggling to deny that he wasn’t the same Jesse she’d been introduced to at a food truck all that time ago.
Suede jacket in hand, she headed down the corridor to Marco’s room. At least someone was being rational in this whole debacle, even if her real boyfriend wasn’t. Jesse was supposed to be her teammate, too. Maybe he should take notes from Marco, who upon opening the door looked happy to see her.
‘What’s up, Cowgirl?’ He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed as he took her in.
‘Are you busy?’ She peered past him and took note of his open laptop.
‘I can make time for you.’ And without questioning a thing, he shoved his feet into his trainers, grabbed his sunglasses and phone and shut the door on whatever it was he’d been doing and took her out for lunch.
‘You want to what?’ Marco stared at her, not quite believing his ears. He’d sat down barely fifteen minutes ago and she was already jumping in at the deep end. He studied her face which was slowly turning a pretty shade of pink, trying not to smirk as she defended her idea.
‘Our first kiss can’t be in front of the cameras, Marco. What if we’re, like… clunky.’
‘Clunky?’ he laughed, regretting it when she looked genuinely embarrassed.
He was great at putting his foot in his mouth with thewomen in his life, platonic or not. This was new territory for both of them, and they had gone from casual conversations at the track to teammates to fake lovers in very quick succession. They had known each other for years, but they didn’tknoweach other.
They had gone out for food away from the track, to a place that did fresh pasta and had outdoor seating. They might as well soak up the sunshine while trying to get their heads around this journey they were about to embark on. Tomorrow was qualifying day, and their heads needed to be fully focused on the race. They had to get the awkwardness out of the way first. Except the look of sheer panic on Savannah’s face told him this might be uncomfortable for a number of weeks yet, if not for the duration of their unofficial contract.
