Chapter 15
CHAPTER 15
Amber
T he ride home was quiet and uneventful...and lonely. Which was an emotion Amber had felt before, but it was different now. In the past, she’d embraced the loneliness as an old friend which came with the territory of her solitary lifestyle. But now? It didn’t feel quite so comfortable.
Could it be that her perfect life was missing something?
Scenes of their picture-perfect date danced around in her mind to a slow waltz and her inspiration ran the strongest it had ever been. Was it possible that she could have experienced this high earlier? What had she passed on by pushing everyone away for so long?
Well, that was the past and nothing could be done about it. Her time would be better spent imagining all the cute things she could do with Reuben on their next date. And the next. And the next. Her heart jumped for joy in her chest and her fingers itched for the keyboard.
The rest of the afternoon and evening were quiet. Amber made herself a cup of tea and munched on popcorn as she sat at the computer and began working again on her novel. A million thoughts swirled in her head, though few made it onto the page before night fell and she decided to go to bed. Her dreams were a jumble of nonsensical scenes with an overarching feeling of excitement that she couldn’t quite place.
As usual, morning had dawned long before Amber’s eyes creaked open. She stumbled out of bed into the kitchen in her bathrobe with bedhead and squinty eyes. Out of pure muscle memory she put the kettle on for her morning cocoa, opened her laptop, made a piece of toast, and sat down for her routine breakfast.
Her brain wasn’t quite as awake as her body, because when she opened her internet browser and the trending articles popped up, she had to read the headlines and stare at the photo for a long time before it registered what she was seeing. “Vito Vying for Human Vote?” the headline read in bold, black letters. Beneath it was a photograph of herself with her lips pressed to Reuben’s hand in the parking lot of the movie theater.
Her immediate reaction was an icy cold bucket of anxiety dumped on her head, which soaked into her spine and stomach. How? How had the media gotten this photograph?! Had they been followed? If so, for how long? She forced herself to calm down and read the rest of the article.
Reuben DeVito, the public face of HOME, was spotted yesterday afternoon attending a movie with a yet-unknown woman. Our journalists were able to capture this photograph thanks to a tip received from an anonymous source at the theater who spotted the two entering the building together, holding hands.
We were able to get an exclusive interview on the subject with Alexander Hawthorne, DeVito’s election opponent. “It’s obvious he’s trying to win the human vote,” Hawthorne told our reporter. “There’s no way someone like DeVito would date a human. This whole thing has to be staged. Vampire Vito has never shown any romantic interest in his entire career, so why start now when the election is projected to be so close? The timing and setup is much too convenient.”
The identity of the woman is yet to be discovered, but it is expected that DeVito won’t keep the secret for long. Sources in-the-know suspect that he will be bringing his new partner to HOME’s yearly alliance gala in June. We will continue to monitor the situation and update the public with any new information as it becomes available.
Amber slammed the laptop shut and angrily sipped at her drink. Slander!! How many people would read and believe this garbage?! Well...Hawthorne wasn’t wrong. Reuben really was pretending to date Amber to better his ratings in the polls, and had been quite frank and open about it.
So why did it make Amber feel so utterly furious seeing it in black and white? And who had called the paparazzi on them? She thought back on the few people they’d seen at the theater, mentally crossing them off until she remembered the look the ticket lady had given them. Could it be she wasn’t judging them as a couple, but had recognized Reuben instead? That bitch!!
She pulled out her phone with half a mind to call Reuben, but paused. Who was she mad at, anyway? It wasn’t like Reuben set them up. His phone had been in his pocket the entire time, the movie hadn’t been planned...there was no way he could have been behind the spotting. Was it instead that she was upset, and her instinct was to call her boyfriend? Well, that was new.
This was a crossroads. No amount of warning could have prepared the squirrely author to see her picture in the news. Everything in her logical brain screamed that it was time to abandon ship before someone linked her with her pen name (as if literally anything about her face or name would do so.)
And a week ago, it wouldn’t have been a question. She would have been out faster than popcorn on the stove without a lid. But her more primal emotions soothed the fear like a mother’s touch, slowing her racing heart as she remembered how she felt when their hands intertwined. Whichever way she chose, there was no turning back.
With her head still spinning, Amber did her best to bury herself in writing as a distraction. “You’re such an idiot,” she muttered as her middle finger again slammed the backspace button. “Just call him! Or at least text him. Quit being such a baby! Useless, pathetic, anxiety-ridden-”
Then Amber’s ranting was interrupted by the sound of “Vampires Will Never Hurt You” playing from her phone.
* * *
Reuben
T hat morning, Reuben woke to his phone vibrating itself around the nightstand. At first he thought it was his alarm, but the sounds were too constant. He rolled over, ripped his phone off the nightstand, and peeked at the blinding screen with one eye open.
A groan escaped his lips at seeing dozens of different notifications. Phone calls, text messages, news headlines…they weren’t making sense to his fuzzy brain, but all told the same story.
Reuben and Amber had been caught.
He shot out of bed like he had been hit by lightning, his eyes scanning over every word of every notification.
Erin
Are the headlines true?
Luna
Wow Reuben! She’s so cute!
You have to let me meet her!
Erin
You aren’t feeding off her, are you?
And the most important one from Stella.
Stella
So you weren’t lying, Reuben. Good work. She’s very cute.
His eyes froze on the picture that had been snapped of the two of them under the theater’s tree. It was lovely in the moment. Reuben had believed the two of them were in their own little world, but reality came back to bite him in the butt.
Once Reuben reached the end of the notifications, he realized that Amber hadn’t messaged him. His night owl writer wasn’t a morning person, which meant she might not have been awake yet. She might not have seen the news.
Hopefully she just hadn’t seen?
* * *
Mr. DeVito
M r. DeVito was treated like he had already won the election as he walked into the office. The gossip ranged from quiet whispers behind his back to shameless questions. The goal had been publicity, and boy was he getting it!
But he could only think about the lack of response from Amber.
The other down side was that PR pulled him into meetings for most of the morning. Discussions ranged from how the news story was both the best and the worst thing that had ever happened, to whether the stunt should be repeated. They would have to schedule a meeting with the press to get in front of the situation either way. Mr. DeVito would address issues or concerns with the people, while keeping the true arrangement a secret.
After intense rounds of ‘how do we spin this,’ PR decided on rolling with the relationship being fresh and that the annual supernatural/human singles event was a huge success this year, bringing species closer together. Mr. DeVito went to support the cause and fell for someone. It wasn’t that far from the truth and might bring greater publicity for future events.
It was noon before Reuben got a free minute. He hadn’t had a second to send a text asking how Amber was taking the lack of privacy. Fortunately, cameras weren’t allowed inside of a movie theater or they might have gotten a deeper look into their budding partnership. The media would also use any sort of misinformation if it made them a dollar.
Reuben had been hoping he could introduce Amber to the world of paparazzi in a more controlled setting; but to be fair, it could have gone much worse. The paparazzi could’ve run up to them with hundreds of deeply personal questions without shame. Or the title could have been “Vampire Vito Enslaves New Blood Bag.” And there weren’t even any angry mobs throwing rocks at his office window.
He used his lunch to hide himself in his empty office, blinds drawn shut and the door closed. Not a single soul would bother him on his break; he would make sure of it. He picked up his phone again, a frown forming on his face when he still didn’t see a single message from Amber.
His entire day had been spent thinking about the woman and how to make it up to her, yet Amber hadn’t said a thing? The vampire’s finger hovered over the call button, fearing that she would cut all ties after the news article. It took a while, but Reuben bit the bullet and pressed the call button.
“Hey sweetheart,” Amber answered.
“Hey- uh. I... did you... have you seen the news yet?” Reuben rubbed his forehead roughly, cursing himself for not coming up with words before calling. An audible sigh escaped his stressed lips.
“Oh, yeah. I did see that.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I, well. I’m sorry.” Reuben couldn’t think of anything else to say. No amount of explaining the situation would get him out of this mess. He already felt like he had failed his girlfriend even though he made it clear that paparazzi would be involved. Was it too soon, though? Yesterday was their first time in public and it had already proven that cameras followed Reuben no matter where he went.
But now that the news was out, people would be looking at him and the unknown girlfriend’s relationship under a microscope. Reuben waited not-so-patiently for Amber’s response as his foot tapped wildly against the floor. “Maybe I should’ve worn a fake mustache.”
He laughed as the mental stress cracked his armor. It wasn’t funny. Okay, Reuben in a terrible fake mustache would have been funny, but this wasn’t the time to make jokes. As his awkward laughter died down, his tone turned to a more solemn, gentle one. “Are you okay? Can I do anything to make it up to you?”
“Hey, hey. It’s alright, honey. It’s not like you set it up or anything! And I think you’d need more than a fake mustache to throw off the media. I’ll be fine, I swear. As far as I know, the drama-sucking, buzzing pests didn’t follow me home, so you’ve kept up your end of the bargain already.
“You know, it’s probably a good thing they caught me kissing your hand, or imagine the comments the article would be getting! There would probably have been a much higher percentage throwing a fit about ‘taking advantage of humans’ if the roles had been swapped.”
The thought felt like a mouthful of mud being shoved down Reuben’s throat. He had to admit that Amber was right. If the media had snapped a photo with the vampire’s mouth too close to any human body part, they may start to get other ideas. The headline could also have been infinitely nastier for Reuben’s career if one of the more extreme political papers had been called. Their little local paper was fairly center of the spectrum, so they’d lucked out this time.
However, he knew that now that the word was out, they’d have to prepare for far more slanderous pieces to crop up. Reuben already feared the media would see his new friend as a victim, which was one reason he was so careful about consent. Or what if they didn’t see her as a victim, but a traitor? “Don’t worry too much about the reaction of the public. That’s my problem, not yours. And stay out of the comment sections, okay?”
“I totally haven’t been stalking the comments on the online version of the article...at all. Not a little bit. But if I had been reading them, I’m sure I would have also seen them going on and on about how lucky you are to have such a cute girlfriend. Along with the wave who agree with the title, but I suppose that means that our plan is working. We’ll ignore the ones insisting that you must have hypnotized me or something.”
Reuben raised an eyebrow, curious as to why Amber would be subjecting herself to the comments section at all. He knew reading all the faceless remarks was absolutely aggravating. So many people proudly spewed hate when they were safe behind a screen. It was quite surprising that Amber could come out of that flood with a smile on her face.
Rather than worry about it, Reuben teased, “They did get one thing right. The girl in the photo with me was pretty cute. I wish I had a better picture than one taken in secret.” A soft chuckle accompanied the shameless compliment, but soon faded away. “Just…read those comments with a grain of salt. Don’t let their rude comments get to you.”
“ We’ll have to take a picture on our next date! But don’t worry. I’m used to comment sections. I’m a romance author, after all! Let me tell you, those reviews are all over the freaking place. Unhinged soccer moms with unhappy marriages are the worst. Actually, no. My agent Gabriella is the worst.”
Reuben leaned against the wall and closed his eyes as Amber spoke. “I can’t believe how calm you are with all of this. I expected you would be having a meltdown. I’m impressed.”
“I had my meltdown already. You missed it! But I guess nothing bad has happened yet, and freaking out would only make me miserable. So I’m doing my best to remain as cool as I ever get.”
“I suppose that’s true, and I appreciate it,” Reuben replied. “Though you said the words ‘our next date.’ I would love that. What were you thinking? Maybe a picnic hike? Painting mugs? Sunset beach campfire? A trip to the zoo? Cozy movie night at my house?”
He could have gone on and on about all the things he would like to do with Amber; even though their relationship was pretend, he finally had someone to accompany him to all the silly places he wanted to go.
“I would love every single one of those ideas. Though it might be a little early to...”
She trailed off and Reuben found the silence a bit nerve wracking, until she began again. “Nah, not too early. I think all of those ideas would be perfect.”
Reuben was pleased by the answer, but knew they hadn’t gotten through all the hard bits yet. “I promise to be a gentleman, no matter our next move.” He didn’t know which idea Amber had second thoughts about, but he assumed it was one that left them alone together. Though Amber seemed to have no problems with Reuben being a vampire, there were still the countless stories, movies and preconceived notions that the public had towards them.
“We do have to be extra careful now…I don’t want the vultures chasing you home and ambushing you outside your front door. I’d feel terrible if I left you to deal with that by yourself. At least if I was there, I’d be able to fight them off for you.”
“I appreciate that. I’ve managed to avoid having to learn how to deal with them thus far. But perhaps I’ll have to take some lessons, because I’m sure they’ll find me alone at some point. So...what happens from here, though? I have no doubt that the media is going to get their answers whether we give them or whether they have to dig them up. But I don’t know how to deal with fame other than hiding in my house. Hence the pen name…
“But I also should ask, are you okay? You’re the one who has more to lose in this situation. I’m a nobody. Do you think we were convincing enough? I guess it was a good thing we’ve been ‘practicing’ when we thought nobody was looking. Or maybe that got us into trouble. Would there have been so much of a scandal if we’d looked like casual friends going to a film? Does this qualify as a scandal?”
What did happen from here? Reuben chuckled at yet another round of Amber’s rambling, but quickly frowned and leaned forward in his chair. Would it be awkward to ask for a text message when Amber arrived home? Was it too early to ask her to spend the night on late dates so she could leave during the daylight hours, lessening her chance of being caught off guard?
“I’m a little stressed, but I’ll be okay.” He bit his bottom lip, considering if they had been convincing enough. It bothered him that he really didn’t know. The man who could come up with an answer to everything had been stumped twice in one conversation. Yes, he loved romance novels, but this was real life. What were the expectations of a new couple?
“You play the part well, Amber,” Reuben assured, figuring he could say at least that much. “The only scandal committed is showing the public that I could ever find love in the condition that I am. About the media, though...I have been scheduled to address the press in an hour. I’ve been instructed to keep it short, sweet, and to not answer questions afterwards.”
“Perhaps I should have been an actor instead of an author! And if that’s a scandal, then the definition needs to be changed. Because not being allowed to find love based on any trait is unacceptable. Everyone deserves to find love if that’s what they want. People are so ridiculous.”
“I agree. And like you said, they will find information about us, but I am not going to use your name or anything personal. The short sweet version? I went to support an interspecies singles night, found someone and went on a couple of dates afterwards.”
Reuben hated how cold it sounded. He could have melted hearts with the cootie-filled details, but even if Stella hadn’t given specific instructions, Reuben wanted their shared moments to be the two of them. Amber was there to act like his girlfriend to the public, yes, but he didn’t want to wave her around. He didn’t enjoy feeling like a zoo animal being watched from a camera lens and doubted that Amber did, either.
“I suppose there’s no way around it. Maybe slip in a comment about her wanting to maintain her peaceful private life? I doubt it’ll deter the slathering mongrels, but it would make me feel a little better.”
Reuben assured her, “I will make sure to ask for privacy in the nicest way possible. I’m doubtful that they will listen, though.” He rubbed his chin, knowing asking the wrong way could be problematic. The public might think he was trying to hide an ever darker secret behind their relationship.
“You mind if I use that, though? Everyone deserves to find love? You kind of summarized it perfectly and I think the media will love it.” The vampire’s thoughts got tugged back into thinking about work and the looming press conference. A soft sigh escaped his lips as he thought about the camera sharks once more.
“I’m down for more practice,” Amber admitted. “I...I want to spend more time with you. Which is something I’m completely baffled about, because I’ve never wanted to spend time with anyone before.”
A feeling of heat began spreading through Reuben’s veins and a smile spread across his marble cheeks. “That’s great! We’ll plan something for the next time I can manage to get away. I also need to talk to you about one more thing: the gala. I had intended to talk to you about it later, but the idiot press stole my thunder.”
Reuben growled a little, but knew there was nothing to be done about it now. “It’ll be a black tie event and I thought…maybe we could go together, and perhaps we should have matching outfits. Not that you weren’t absolutely ravishing at the singles event, but I want to make sure that my woman turns heads. Those reporters calling you a nobody need to be put in their place.” The thought of formalwear shopping was to die for if it was with Amber, even if he had to explain the expense to Stella.
There was a long pause, and Reuben began to worry he was going to be hung up on. But thankfully, he eventually heard Amber’s voice rather than a dial tone.
“Yes, I would like to go with you. Would you mind if I get a suit, too? Dresses aren’t exactly my thing. And ten-year-old brown tweed doesn’t exactly scream ‘black tie,’ if you know what I mean. At this point, the only heads turning would be turning to wonder who let this underdressed idiot through the door.”
“Oh hush. They already think you’re gorgeous, and that was in a parking lot with casual clothing. They haven’t seen you all dressed up yet. And hey, the tweed wasn’t bad. I thought you looked lovely.” Reuben knew it wouldn’t pass black tie standards, but he couldn’t help slipping in compliments whenever he could. “Are you sure you want a suit, though? There are options between a dress and a suit these days.”
Amber wrinkled her nose. “If you’re worried that I’ll be bothered by what people at the gala will say about me showing up in a suit, don’t. I’ve heard it all. But just because I haven’t transitioned doesn’t mean I don’t want to feel handsome sometimes.”
Reuben was momentarily taken aback as he processed what Amber was really telling him. “Oh! I see. Thank you for trusting me with that. If you want a suit, you can have a suit! I have a shop I always go to when I need a new one. They are super nice and their work is top notch. And Bryce won’t even bat an eye, I know it. Why don’t we set up a fitting soon? And…would you prefer I call you handsome instead of lovely?”
“At this point, I’m not overly bothered either way. I’m still figuring things out, you know? I appreciate the ask, though. And my calendar says that other than dinner with my parents on Sundays, I’m all yours whenever you want me. Er...whenever you have time.”
Reuben smirked as Amber tripped over her words. ‘He could have Amber whenever he wanted?’ The thought of it sent shivers down his spine. How was this woman making Reuben’s walls fall with such little effort? Before he could say anything else, their phone call was interrupted by a banging on his door, signaling that he’d already taken more time than he should have.
* * *
Amber
A mber heard the irate knocking and shouts of ‘Get your butt out here before you miss the press conference, or I’ll string your head up on the front desk to welcome visitors for the rest of eternity!’ after which the phone went dead. She laughed, flopped back onto the couch, and couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear.
A second date! Or third if coffee counted, but the more time she spent with Reuben, the more she wanted to count every minute. She knew the end of this relationship was going to be more painful the more fully she allowed herself to get attached. But that didn’t stop her from realizing that she was falling, and fast.
What if…she did her best to make him fall, too?