The Love Campaign (Romantic Revelations Series Book 1)

by Laura Marquez Diamond

  Jaya shook her head at how hard it was to get people to listen to the facts! How many ways could she say that the whole thing was a misunderstanding. A mirage. That all of their assumptions were false. It was time to straighten the record, dammit.

  Gearing up for another round of frustrating conversation, Jaya brought her cell phone and a notebook, although what she really needed was for people to listen to the facts and leave her alone.

  CHAPTER 6

  “How did it go?” Sebastian asked over the phone pinned between his ear and shoulder.

  “I, um, I talked to Mr. Watson and Mrs. Chen. They’re my bosses.”

  “And?”

  “I told them in no uncertain terms that we’re not dating and that it was their responsibility to make the correction official,” Jaya recited.

  Sebastian was looking in the fridge, trying to scrounge together dinner. “Haven’t seen a correction, though,” he commented. All day long, he refrained from engaging in anything related to social media except to check the community center handles to see if he was tagged. He also deflected teasing remarks from his teammates and ignored calls and texts from his agent.

  Everyone needed to relax, was his thought. An official reaction didn’t need to be rushed.

  Dinner, however, was another story. He was starving after going to practice and running errands before the team left tomorrow afternoon for a series of road games.

  “That’s because there hasn’t been a correction,” Jaya said with a sigh. “I noticed nothing came from your camp either?”

  “I told you I would take whatever direction you decided on. If you have a statement, I’ll retweet and support it. If you want to ignore the whole thing, I’m fine with that too.”

  “My bosses seem to think there’s another, um, option,” she said with an inflection he couldn’t quite describe. It was somewhere between a question and a squeak. A hiccup, maybe?

  He stopped his dinner scrounging and straightened up. “Another option?”

  “They asked me,” she started to say and then made a weird sound. Was that a snort?

  “Asked you what?”

  She seemed to be holding back more wet, snorty sounds. Was she…was she laughing? “They asked me what you want. You know, where you stand,” she spit out. There were muffled sounds as if she was covering her phone.

  “I’ll support whatever statement you make,” he reaffirmed but only muffled sounds continued from her end of the conversation. “Jaya? Are you still there?” Sebastian said with a touch of irritation.

  “I’m here,” she answered and cleared her throat. “You should have seen them, Sebastian. They were, like, fawning over you and honestly panting, panting and salivating, at the donations that were coming in.”

  “That so?” He started to chew carrots. There was nothing else to eat, so it would have to be take-out tonight.

  “And the messages for the fundraising campaign were interesting. There’s a lot of interest in, um, in us,” she continued although with some difficulty. She was definitely laughing like a delirious psycho. Then, through a burst of cackles, she kept going, “Mrs. Chen in particular was…” All of sudden, she couldn’t stop snickering. It sounded like something was racking her whole body. Was she losing her mind?

  “Are you alright, Jaya?” He sounded concerned. “Should I be worried about you?”

  “Ha! Yes, you should be very worried,” she answered between inelegant guffaws and heaving breaths. “Oh my god, you should have seen them. Ouch, oh shit, my belly is cramping.”

  “Do you want to laugh less and explain more?”

  “I’m apparently,” she snorted before continuing, “I’m apparently losing my freaking mind. But also,” she was breathlessly snickering, “very, very photogenic.” Her laughter was dying down, but her speech still sounded delirious.

  “That’s true,” he confirmed, not hiding the amused confusion in his voice.

  “But only when I’m with you,” she piped. “So I’m told. By the girls.”

  “OK.”

  She took a deep breath, trying to gather herself. “I honestly don’t know how things got out of hand today. But, anyway. The Cincinnati Daily Show wants an interview.”

  “That’s great!” Sebastian said. “You’ll be awesome.” His praise was sincere.

  Jaya seemed to groan before spitting out, “With both of us.” He didn’t answer right away.

  “Sebastian? Did you hear me? They want to interview photogenic me and photogenic you about the so-called cinciromance.”

  He still didn’t answer so she prompted, “Hashtag hotbeau, are you there?”

  “I heard you. Yeah.” Sebastian was distracted and not by dinner.

  “So, guess what?”

  “What?” he croaked.

  “You just got yourself a girlfriend, buddy.”

  ***

  When she offered to pick up dinner on the way over, how could he say no?

  “We need to have a game plan,” she said.

  “Hmm,” was the only sound he came up with, being a little shocked at her complete turnaround. How did she go from “I’d die if someone saw us together” to “I’m your girlfriend” in less than twenty-four hours?

  “Sebastian, if you don’t want this…” she said over the phone, her hilarity evaporated with each serious word.

  “No! That’s not it. This is, this is fine, Jaya. And you’re right. Game plan. Got it.”

  “I just mean, like, a consistent story. You know, especially for the interview.”

  She sounded uncertain but Sebastian was also distracted. He was getting what he wanted, or at least what Chris Hoffer told him he should want. A steady girlfriend to move his wholesome image forward, good buzz before he signed that endorsement, and a much-needed boost for the campaign.

  All of it landed on his lap. So, why in the world was he distracted?

  Sebastian was cleaning the kitchen table when Carlos Fuentes, one of his housemates, walked in. “Expecting company, bro?” As a bartender, Carlos had Monday nights off. Although having him at home instead of out partying was unusual any day of the week.

  “Hey, did you get my dry cleaning too?” Travis Bear asked, following Carlos into the kitchen. Travis lived with them and also played for the Thrashers with Sebastian. The hockey players needed to be ready for a noon departure the next day.

  “Yup and yup,” Sebastian answered. “And you guys need to get lost. I’m expecting someone and it’s private.”

  Travis and Carlos glanced at each other before grinning. “This about the girl on Twitter? Your cinciromance?” Carlos teased.

  Sebastian took a deep breath. “As a matter of fact…”

  The doorbell rang and they froze a split second before all three ran to the front door to open it.

  They must have looked like idiots, three enormous men peering out the door. Sebastian managed to wrestle the doorknob out of Travis’s hands, but barely. He used his shoulders to push his housemates out of the way.

  “Come in, Jaya,” he said while relieving her of the bag of take-out pasta and salad. “Thanks for this.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said as she hobbled through the widened door. Her gaze fell on the two other large men by his side. “Hi, guys.”

  Carlos put his hand out to introduce himself. It wasn’t lost on Sebastian that his housemate’s paw kept a grip on Jaya’s hand longer than was expected of a simple handshake. That flirt had stepped right up to steady her when she wobbled slightly. She didn’t back down, either, which was expected but no less annoying.

  “Good to meet you.” Travis went next.

  “Travis Bear. Good to meet you, too!” she said enthusiastically.

  “Have we met?” Travis leaned in closer.

  “No. I’m just a regular hockey fan. Hey, is it true New York is sniffing around for you?”

  Sebastian knew, for a fact, that the gossip around Travis’s trade was legit. His friend was having a hell of a season and getting a lot of atte
ntion from different NHL teams. New York was on top of that list. How the fuck Jaya knew this, he had no idea.

  “If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” Travis said flirtatiously.

  She just shrugged, unperturbed by the sinister words said in a playful tone. “It was only a matter of time. It would be a good fit, though, since McKinley is retiring. You’d be one of their top defensemen.”

  “How do you know McKinley’s retiring?” Sebastian asked.

  Her gaze turned to him as if she finally noticed he was there. “I have my sources,” Jaya stated mysteriously. “Where do you want to talk?” she asked.

  “Back here.” She started following him, but he stopped to look back at his friends. “Just Jaya. You two scram,” he said sharply.

  “Good to meet you, Jaya,” Carlos called. “Sorry you have to eat dinner with such a jerk.”

  She shook her head and arched a perfect brow. “I know, right?” she said before going past and settling herself on a chair, the crutches leaning on the wall behind her. His two nosy housemates finally disappeared, to Sebastian’s relief.

  He had not spoken to them about the extent of the social media buzz. They heard about it but clearly didn’t track how big the damn thing was getting. Almost ten thousand posts along with retweets and comments. Some people had nothing better to do. Good thing his friends were too busy to be bothered.

  “I was surprised when you said you would drive over. I thought you didn’t own a car.”

  “My landlady, the one who lives upstairs, she lets me borrow her ride once in a while. She’s older and I help her get groceries and stuff.”

  “That’s nice,” Sebastian uttered while taking the food out and gesturing for her to get started.

  “I’m not hungry,” she said. “But I’ll keep you company.”

  “I’m freaking starving,” he said, filling his plate. “How was your ankle today?”

  She waved away his question about her ankle. Instead, she said, “I’m surprised you didn’t cook yourself dinner. You’re pretty great at it, as far as I could tell. From what you brought.”

  “He’s awesome,” someone said from the kitchen, so unexpectedly that they both jumped. Jacob Newton, the last of the bachelors living in the house, piped in.

  “Jake, what did we say about sneaking up on people?” Sebastian grumbled. “Jake, Jaya; Jaya, Jake,” Sebastian followed up, unceremoniously.

  “Did you get garlic bread with that?” Jake asked.

  “No!” was Sebastian’s harsh remark, nearly drowned by Jaya’s enthusiastic “Yes!”

  Jake rubbed his hands together as he peered from behind the kitchen island towards their table. “Want a beer, Jaya?” he asked. “Since Sebastian only offered you water.”

  “Oh, I’m fine. I only wanted water,” Jaya answered. “Thanks, though.”

  “She doesn’t drink beer,” Sebastian said between bites of his salad.

  Jaya raised her brow at Sebastian’s proprietary tone. Jake approached the table, grabbed a seat closest to her, and reached over for the bread.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, guys, but what’s with the water in this house? There must be, like, a thousand pounds of muscle between the four of you,” she stated.

  “Why thank you,” Carlos said from the hallway as he walked in and took a seat. Of course, Travis was right behind. Wordlessly, Jake split the big loaf of garlic bread and handed the half to Travis. Sebastian knew there was no point grumbling about the rampant food theft in this house. What irritated him was that even Travis pulled up a stool. There were only four kitchen chairs but neither the seating shortage, nor his scowling, was stopping anyone from congregating. Sebastian growled his displeasure at the unwelcome company.

  “You guys have nothing fucking better to do?” he complained.

  “Better than watch cinciromance up close?” Travis said. “Nah.”

  It was Jaya’s turn to groan. “As you can see, the whole buzz is beyond exaggerated. Of course, you all know we aren’t dating.”

  “The pictures were convincing, though,” Carlos said.

  “What pictures?” Jake asked. Jake was a nerdy Ph.D. student of English literature who looked down on all things social media. Acted like he was too good for the barely literate rabble masses. Though he wasn’t too good for them tonight, Sebastian thought irately as Jake scrolled through Carlos’s phone.

  “So you’re here to talk about the pictures?” Jake asked.

  “Sort of?” Jaya proceeded, her confidence seeming to have seeped away. “Honestly, Sebastian and I are thinking about—how did you put it?” she turned to Sebastian. He shrugged.

  “I think I said we could just ignore it.” Sebastian kept things vague, hoping the housemates would leave them alone.

  She nodded slightly. Then, Jaya took a deep breath as if she made a decision that she was ready to share. “You know what, I think you three are the perfect people to run this by. Everyone thinks we’re together. Or wants to believe we’re together. But you guys know we’re not.” She paused and registered the overall agreement from the table.

  Jaya continued and Sebastian watched as she absentmindedly played with the ends of her hair, twirling a wavy black strand around her index finger. “The community center I work for is having a fundraising campaign. It’s a big deal and could change, well, it could change everything. Anyway, the uptick in donations today were…they were amazing.”

  “Because of this,” Carlos said, pointing to his phone.

  Sebastian and Jaya looked at each other and both gave a resigned nod.

  “Nooo waaay,” Carlos crooned. “Are you two going to fake date? Oh shit, like in a fucking romcom!”

  “What?!” Jaya and Sebastian said together.

  “You know, like when people arrange to bring fake dates to their high school reunion or family wedding or whatever so people think they’re not losers,” was Carlos’s explanation.

  “But then they fall in love with the fake date and live happily ever after,” Travis added dryly.

  “Exactly,” Carlos confirmed.

  Jaya was shaking her head. “Wow, that was…a lot,” she said as if her head was spinning. “We just need to run with the scenario till this interview at the Cincinnati Daily Show. Hopefully, that’s all we’ll need for, you know, momentum to take over.”

  “I leave for away games tomorrow. Three days,” Sebastian said, regret in his voice. “But I’m sure my agent can arrange everything for after I return on Thursday night. That is, now that you’re cool with it.”

  She looked at the eager faces around the table. “So, guys, is this crazy? Can we pull it off?”

  Jake casually held the last bite of the garlic bread and declared, “Not looking like that,” before he popped the food into his mouth.

  Sebastian pushed his finished plate away. “What do you mean? Like what?”

  Jake took a swig from his beer bottle then used the bottle to point at them. “You’re not even sitting close together. You barely look at each other. The pictures are convincing but that’ll be old news in three days.”

  “You know, for someone who doesn’t have a single social media account, you’re suddenly passing yourself as an expert on it,” Sebastian hissed derisively.

  “Ugh, he’s right!” Jaya said, pressing her palms to her eyes so forcefully, it looked painful. “Forget it. We’ll never pull this off.” She nervously rubbed her hands on her jeans and started to reach for her crutches. “This was a mistake.”

  “Wait, wait. What are you talking about?” Sebastian said, gently touching her arm and giving Jake a sharp glare.

  “He’s right. No one who sees us together will believe we’re together,” she said, dejectedly. “The pictures were taken at night and with that backdrop of fountains and shit. And you were carrying me because of my ankle. It’s not like you can carry me into the interview to sell this stupid ruse.”

  Sebastian was about to argue but Jake puffed out his chest and did one of his annoying pro
fessorial throat clearing. His housemates frowned at him, knowing he was gearing up for a lecture of some sort. “If I may…” Jake said.

  His roommates groaned in varying degrees of distress, but Jaya looked at him attentively.

  “I wasn’t finished, Jaya,” Jake declared. “I meant to convey that although you are currently not projecting the appropriate threshold of affection expected of amorous relations, the potential for concocting a convincing façade is exponential. I offer the pictures as evidence. There’s no reason to think that the particularities of a couple’s chemistry cannot be duplicated. With concerted effort, it is almost certainly repeatable.”

  She looked at him with her mouth open. Jake’s housemates were used to these elaborate speeches when the mood moved him. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” she ventured.

  “I’m saying that the scripts and behaviors of romantic attachments are ultimately constructed by society and are therefore manipulatable,” Jake said in one breath.

  “He’s saying,” Sebastian interjected, gently reaching out to her hand and letting her fingers rest on his palm, “we can do this. With practice.”

  “Practice.” She let the word linger in the air between them. “Practice,” she mumbled, this time to herself.

  “Gentlemen, I believe this is our cue to leave,” Jake announced, still in his professorial mood.

  “Yeah, yeah,” Carlos said as the three stood up. “If you need any help, Jaya, I’m happy to practice with you while Sebastian is away.” Did he just wink at Jaya? Sebastian made a mental note to spit in Carlos’s coffee tomorrow morning.

  Jaya snorted and laughed, taking the edge off Sebastian’s heated scowl. When they walked away, she looked at him with those large eyes, the color of melted chocolate with specks of gold. “What just happened?”

  “Never mind them. And never mind who we will or will not convince. Do you want to do this, Jaya?”

  “The interview?”

  “Yeah, the interview. But also the stuff around the interview.”

  She bit the side of her cheek. Now that they were finally alone, Sebastian allowed himself to look at her mouth. Dark pink, lush, and beautifully expressive. “Today, the campaign was retweeted over twenty thousand times. Not just locally, Sebastian. It’s big. We’re getting donations from England, for fuck’s sake. Who knew that was even possible?”