Page 32 of Certified Heartthrob

But I had better, more tempting thoughts rattling around in my head, too. Like wondering whether, if things kept going well, Camille would want to move in with me or if we’d find a whole new place together. I imagined converting my extra guest room into an office for her. My place was further from her corporate office, though.

Getting ahead of yourself much, Mark?I laughed at myself, shaking my head. For someone who’d been terrified of love and romance before, I sure was plummeting headfirst into all the same old, hopeful optimisms. I just had to hope I wouldn’t end up looking back with regret, the way I had with my ex.

Things with Camille felt different, though. Different enough to bring me to that moment with the prompt displayed on my computer screen:

Do you want to disable your account or permanently delete it?

The moment of truth. Maybe I had held onto my profiles like a safety net, a sort of security blanket. In the back of my mind, I thought one scary moment with Camille could send me right back to Heartstring, resorting to my old method for sorting through the mess of my pain.

It seemed silly all of a sudden to think how much time I had wasted trying to rain on everyone else’s parade, just to avoid dealing with my own heartache. Camille was right: I had hurt other people in my determination not to get hurt again.

And now it was all behind me. Or so I hoped. I took another sip of coffee and stared at the screen, waiting for any second thoughts or doubts that might creep in. But the only thing that struck me in that moment was a flash of Camille...Her laugh and her smile. The way she always tried to act so composed, cool, and calm...but her emotions sometimes got the better of her, whether she liked it or not. She tried to be an ice queen, but the blood in her veins was as hot and full of emotion as anyone’s, which I knew secretly drove her crazy.

I flinched for a brief second over the mouse, then clicked. Boom. All of my dating profiles were gone, one by one. No more internet trolling for me.

Letting it all go left more space for what was to come...whatever the future held for Camille and me.

I clicked again at the chime of my email, expecting some sort of confirmation for deleting everything. I was surprised to see a message from Camille instead, with the subject:Have you seen this….

The email had a plethora of attached articles, each one flaunting a photo of her and me kissing on the street.Oh, shit.

The gossip columnists had heeded my call to pry deeper into the supposedly secret love lives of the Meadows siblings, only to uncover our own secret relationship...which was now on display for everyone to see.

I groaned to myself, raking my hands over my face. I didn’t care that the whole world knew we were involved, but they weren’t painting Camille’s motives, or my own, in the best light. According to them, I was just trying to weasel my way into fifteen minutes of fame. And she was seducing me for the sake of her company’s reputation. This wasn’t just bad for her, for us...it was making everyone question what happened before, with Lucas and his wife.

It may have been what I wanted at one point in time, but of course it didn’t happen until it was the last thing I wanted! This would have been a dream come true for me when I first set out against Heartstring. But how was I supposed to know I’d actually end up falling for her? Maybe I would have even considered they could be right about her reasons at one point...I would have spiraled into questions about her motives right along with them.

But that was the old Mark. Things with her were different. I knew the reporters were wrong. And now I was no better than all the other countless lovesick fools out there in the world. I had become everything I’d been set against...but I liked it.

This media scandal was all my fault. I had only just started making up for my mistakes with her, and now a whole new pile was being stacked on top of everything else!

It’s okay, I thought.I can fix this.What was the appropriate gesture for apologizing to the girl you liked after siccing the entire internet on her, while hoping to destroy her family’s company in the process? Flowers? Chocolate? It was uncharted territory in more ways than one.

Regardless of what I needed to do to fix this, it was the kind of thing that would only get worse the longer I tried to avoid it. I needed to see Camille right away and assure her we’d find a solution. Or maybe…

I thought back to the very public ordeal between Lucas Meadows and his fiance. He’d told her in front of everyone that what started as an arrangement had grown into true love for him. I used to think it was a publicity stunt, nothing more than a hoax. But if he was anything like me, or his sister, I could see his side of things more clearly than ever now.

Maybe my own statement to the press was just the thing to solve this with Camille, and it would prove to her that my feelings stood true—no matter what they said or what she thought.

I fired a text back to Camille.

Mark: Don’t worry, I’ll fix this.

Camille: What are you going to do?

I didn’t have time to explain. She’d see what I planned to do soon enough.

I hopped into the shower and changed into a nice suit, messaging a few of my contacts while I got ready. A few weeks ago, no one would have cared about anything I had to say. I was nothing more than some rich guy who slaved away for local charities to fill my time. There were plenty of guys like me in this city. I was a dime a dozen, really. Like aspiring actresses in L.A. But now I had propelled myself into the spotlight, which gave me the audience I needed to clear the air.

A number of online reporters were just chomping at the bit to hear my take on it all, and for once I was happy to oblige them. As I straightened my tie and combed back my hair, I jotted some notes down on a pad. There was no way of knowing if my speech would make Camille feel better or just enrage her more, but I was prepared to say how I really felt about her.

She was right about everything, and she had accomplished what she’d set out to do. When she got the idea to set me up and convert me to the cause of love, I doubt she expected to be the one I fell for. But now I had, and I knew she was falling for me, too.

After polishing up my appearance in the mirror one last time, I headed out the door to meet the press and issue my statement.

Before opening my front door, I could see a figure lurking on my front steps. My heart leaped at the prospect of it being Camille, but then again it could have been another gossip columnist just waiting to pounce.

But my insides dropped when I opened the door and sawherstanding there instead.

---