The Lie That Made Me Love You

Chapter 8: Meeting Day

Sophie Barnes

The previous night, I had asked my roommate and cousin to act as my manager. She was excited to play the role and even left to her family house to get the ‘right fitting’. I wondered what she meant by that.

Now I was staring at her in one of the most drop-dead gorgeous jumpsuits I have ever seen. Her hair is tied up neatly into a ponytail, and she even got it down to the heels. Gold front and black leather on the rest. The cherry on the cake was the smart Bottega glasses she had on.

“Yes…yes. Take it in. I know I look gorgeous.” She fanned herself, pouting her lips.

“You look like you are about to star in a big budget porn.”

She gasped loudly. Taking a pillow off the chair and throwing it in my direction. It was easy for me to do because, unlike Heidi, I had decided to go for something a more married woman like. It was a dull beige gown. Actually, it was a bridesmaid's dress from last year. My second bridesmaid dress in three years. I thought it would put me in good spirits. But looking at Heidi's outfit against mine, it looked more like I was her assistant and she was the cold-hearted CEO of Devil wears Prada. Just a much younger version.

“When is the meeting again?” She asked. I could tell she was nervous. Her shoulders were shaking a bit. A little habit she said she developed when she was at a camp in Alaska. I never really got the backstory. The most I knew was that Alaska was cold as hell.

“9 AM.”

“We still have a few minutes till our ride arrives.” I said, going through all of my things I had spread across the table. I decided not to take my car for reasons I just felt deep in my bones. And also I am also broke. So yeah, gas money would feel so much better in my belly than in the tank of my old eat up 2009 Toyota.

“What do we do till then?” Heidi's voice distracted me from getting my lip gloss properly closed and slipping it into the little space meant for it in my bag.

“I don't know, Heidi. Jump around, I guess. I am trying to make sure I don't forget anything and make a fool of myself anyway—”

“Hey, hey…little miss perfect. Don't work yourself up, okay? You would burn out and look old and wrinkly before your wedding day…” we shared a look that made smiles grow on our faces in sync.

“Okay, fake marriage. But marriage nonetheless, because they would be real pictures, real cake and most importantly, real champagne!” she squealed excitedly, tickling around my torso till she found my spot. Not wanting to get my clothes in bad shape, I had to put a lot of distance in between us. The ‘a lot’ being the couch, by the way.

Even though my belly is aching from laughing, she managed to kill the anxiety in me. Managing to help me shift my focus from the scary aspect of it all to the part where I was going to be eating real cake and hopefully get to know a really hot man.

My phone rang.

“He's here! Great. Now we are going to be late because I haven't packed—”

She swooped everything in my bag from the table.

“There. Problem solved, now let's move.”

I stared at her, shocked at how bossy she suddenly became.

“You asked me to play your manager. Well, I am taking charge, so move it!”

I thought about b***h slapping her for a bit, but then she had a point. I did ask her to do it and also take it seriously. And so far, that's exactly what she had been doing.

*****

I barely got a drive through the city because most of my content was shot at home or somewhere close to home. So the few times I got to go out, looking out of the window was always a necessity. I liked to watch out for the new buildings which have been taken down, and which billboards have been replaced. It was calming. For once, I forgot the intimidated feeling and focused on the beauty of the city.

We arrived 15 minutes to nine. It was a high rise building as expected. Heidi stared in awe as I did. Leaving in the town outskirts the city, all you got to see were suburbs. But something about the high rise building and busy street.

“Come on.” I said to Heidi.

She let me walk in first before we both headed for the receptionist.

She seemed to already be expecting us and read both our names out from the pad, which I confirmed.

“Alright, head to the fifth floor. Last office, deep green door.” The brunette said, smiling at us. We were about going when she called us back. She handed us a tray of mint sweets and asked if we could deliver them to Alisha.

“Of course.”

Before we got to the fifth floor, Heidi had popped one of the sweets into her mouth. I quite expected that of her to be honest. She couldn't resist sweets no matter how much she claimed to hate them.

The door opened and the smell of sophistication and proper air conditioning blew my face away. I took a long ass deep breath before stepping out. I looked to Heidi to see if she was feeling how I felt.

“The air smells like rich people,” Heidi whispered. It took everything not to laugh out loud and attract attention so easily for the wrong reasons. Fortunately, laughing was something I had learnt to stifle from years of shooting content.

Rounding up the corner to the last office section, I see the writer, Julian. He had a cup of coffee in his hand and was looking into his phone. He probably was reading all the trolling messages. Guilt ate at my chest and drove me in his direction.

“Hey…didn't know you would be here already.” I said to him,

He looked from his phone and squinted at me.

“What's that supposed to mean?”