“We haven’t gone that far…yet. As far as Landon’s nose and eye, well, let’s just say I stood up at the same time he was bending down,” Emmerson answered Hailey with a smirk.
When it dawned on her what Emmerson meant, Hailey took a step back and gagged. “I do not need any visuals! I hate you, Emmerson! Ugh, gross. Oh my God. I’m never going to be able to look at you again, Emmerson. You gave my brother head! This is honestly something I could have gone the rest of my life being blissfully ignorant of.”
“Ah, fuck. You just put it in my head now, Hail,” Mike complained.
“I didn’t give your brother head while I was on the floor. I fell out of bed when I was admiring his penis. I gave him head when he was on the bed after I nearly broke his nose.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying not to laugh when I opened them again and saw Mike’s and Hailey’s mouths dropped open. They stared at an oblivious Emmerson as she gathered up all her stuff and turned around to head into the bathroom.
“What?” she asked, looking at the two of them and then back to me.
Hailey drew in a deep breath. “From this point on, I’m going to pretend like I don’t know you and my brother are messing around. I’m going to be in the dark, like our parents are. And you, Emmerson Wallace, will never, ever, for as long as you live, talk about my brother’s—” Hailey shuddered as she closed her eyes and forced out the next words—“penis again. Like, never speak of it again. For the love of everything holy on this Earth, I beg of you to promise me this.”
Emmerson’s cheeks turned red as she realized what she had word vomited. Trying not to laugh, she looked at my sister, crossed her heart, spit on her hand, and stuck it out to Hailey. “I promise never to speak of your brother’s—”
Hailey held up her hand to stop Emmerson.
“Right. Never again.”
“Good,” Hailey stated as she spat on her hand at the same time as Emmerson. They pressed them together as they laced their fingers.
“That’s so gross. I have never understood why two grown women still make promises like this,” I said, snarling my lip.
“Fuck off, big brother.” Hailey dropped her hand, wiped it on her jeans, and then went to grab Mike’s hand.
He held his hands up and shook his head. “I love you but not enough to touch Emmerson’s spit.”
Hailey sighed again and made her way to the door. “Y’all better hurry up. We have to meet our folks in fifteen minutes, and you both look like you’ve only slept for an hour. If you’re going to play this game,” Hailey said, turning to face us, “you’re going to have to learn to hide the fact that you’ve been doing…whatever you’ve been doing all night. Otherwise, our parents are going to see right through you both.”
Mike nodded but had a wide smile on his face as they walked out the door and shut it. I looked at Emmerson, who was now standing in the doorway to the bathroom.
“I’ll meet you back here in ten minutes. Is that enough time to look normal?” I asked.
She nodded. “See you in ten.”
I got to my room, jumped in a quick shower, changed, and then rushed back to Emmerson’s. The entire twelve minutes, I never once stopped smiling. I never dreamed I could be so damn happy.
Emmerson
“WHAT DO YOU mean, People wants to interview us?” I asked Landon as we sat in Cup of Joe coffee shop in downtown Waco.
He glanced around, making sure no one was eavesdropping. “They want to interview us about how we went from friends to lovers to engaged.”
I shook my head. “You mean friends to engaged to lovers?”
Landon rolled his eyes.
“I hope you said no.”
“I did; I told Heidi that this was why I stepped away from the spotlight. Privacy. That you were going to document stuff on your Instagram, and that was all they were getting from us.”
I sat back in my chair and sighed in relief. “Good. I don’t think I could do an interview like that knowing we were…”
My voice trailed off. It had only been two days since the charity dinner, and it felt like our worlds had been turned upside down. It was starting to get confusing. We needed to play the couple in public, but we weren’t really playing because we were dating, and when we were with our families, we had to play the role of best friends pretending to be engaged and not dating.
“What are you doing for dinner tonight?” I asked, giving him my most innocent of smiles. Since we’d gotten back to Clifton, we hadn’t had a chance to be alone again, and I knew Landon was as anxious as I was to find some time for just the two of us.