Chapter three –Smile for the Cameras
497 Words
The car door opened before I could touch the handle.
Noise rushed in.
Cameras. Voices. Someone saying his name too loudly.
Xander stepped out first.
I followed.
The ground felt unsteady, like I’d misjudged the height of a step. He didn’t look back, just lifted his arm slightly. Expecting.
I hesitated.
Then I hooked my hand through his elbow.
Shutters exploded.
“Xander!”
“Who is she?”
“Is this official?”
He didn’t answer. He kept walking.
I kept pace.
My smile came late. I fixed it quickly.
Inside, the doors closed and the noise dropped dead.
I let go of him.
“You didn’t say this would happen today.”
“I said there was no time.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
He glanced at me. Brief. Measuring.
“It is.”
Someone brushed past us, phone already raised. Another person slowed, stared, whispered. My name floated through the air, unfamiliar in a stranger’s mouth.
Xander stopped walking.
“From now on,” he said quietly, “you stay close in public. You don’t react. You don’t explain. You let me handle it.”
“I’m not an accessory.”
“No,” he said. “You’re the headline.”
I looked away.
A man approached him, murmured something. Xander nodded once.
The man glanced at me, then left.
“What did he say?” I asked.
“That it worked.”
I laughed under my breath. “That’s insane.”
“Welcome to visibility.”
We walked again.
His phone buzzed. He checked it, jaw tightening just slightly before he masked it.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
I stopped.
He took one more step before realising I wasn’t beside him anymore.
“I said stop keeping things from me.”
“This isn’t about you.”
“Everything about this is about me.”
He looked at me for a long second. Longer than before.
“Then don’t forget why you’re here,” he said. “And don’t pretend you didn’t choose this.”
I stared at him.
“I chose survival,” I said.
“That’s rarely clean.”
His phone buzzed again.
He didn’t check it this time.
“We have another appearance tonight,” he said. “Six p.m.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
He leaned closer, voice low. “You don’t get to disappear between headlines.”
I swallowed.
“Go home,” he continued. “Rest. We start properly this evening.”
He turned and walked away before I could respond.
I stood there, alone in the hallway, my phone vibrating in my hand.
A new message lit the screen.
This won’t protect you.
I locked the phone.
For the first time since this started, I understood something clearly.
This wasn’t a fake relationship.
It was a public decision with private consequences.
And it had already gone too far to undo.
- Writer
