3. Blaire
2063 Words
3
BLAIRE
Campbell was going back to LA.
Good. That was…good. In fact, it was exactly what I wanted. He’d been in Lubbock since Peyton’s wedding. The wedding where I had brought a date and purposely avoided Campbell all night. I’d had a good time. But I would have had a better time if he hadn’t been there at all.
Then, he’d spent the last month in town. A whole f*****g month. Hanging out at the winery, spending time with my—our—friends, and generally ruining my peace and quiet.
I couldn’t exactly tell him to leave. He had every right to be back in Lubbock. And I couldn’t tell him to stop hanging out with our friends or at the winery. We were too enmeshed to extricate ourselves from each other’s lives. Which was hilarious when I stopped to think about it. Since in high school, we had been so far from each other’s lives that he didn’t even know I existed until senior year.
LA was where he belonged. It would be better for everyone when he left.
But the last interaction had left me flummoxed. Despite myself, I’d followed Campbell’s rise to fame over the last couple of years. It was hard not to when he was in every headline. I knew the celebrities that he’d dated, the girls he was rumored to have hooked up with, the songs he’d written about the breakups. So, why in the hell had he asked me out?
Should I be flattered? Because I was mostly confused. Campbell Abbey could have any girl on the planet, so why did he want me?
Which brought me right back around to the cynical part of my brain…the realistic part of my brain…which said, of course he didn’t want me at all. He’d used the opportunity to f**k with me. To throw me off-balance for ignoring him since he’d strolled back into Lubbock. He’d used his celebrity charm and sexy, messy hair and that panty-melting smile to treat me just like every other girl. But it wasn’t going to f*****g work.
Fuck. I just wanted to go home.
“Hey, you all right?” Piper asked, dragging me out of my own circle of mental torture.
“Fine,” I lied.
Piper arched an eyebrow. “That was convincing.”
“Can I have the keys? I’m going to bail early.”
“No way!” Piper declared. “We’re celebrating. You can’t go yet.”
She was still seated in her boyfriend’s lap. Hollin wrapped his arm around Piper’s waist and looked up at me.
“Yeah, Blaire, you can’t go. We’re just getting started.” He nodded his head toward the table. “Bombay and lime.”
He winked. It was my go-to drink.
“I just want to go home,” I told her, eyeing the drink.
Piper nudged it toward me. “One drink. If you aren’t having a good time after you finish…you can go.”
I picked up the glass with a devious smile and then downed the entire contents, opening my throat and letting it slide all the way down. Hollin gaped at me as I dropped the glass back onto the table.
“Can you teach her how to do that?” he asked me.
Piper jabbed her elbow into his stomach. “Ass.”
I laughed despite myself. “I have a feeling we’re not talking about drinks anymore.”
“Gag reflexes,” Hollin said.
“Shut up,” Piper said.
It had been a stunt to get the keys, but already, I was feeling better. It was one night. Campbell would be gone in the morning. He’d forget he’d ever asked me out. There was no reason for me to ditch under those circumstances.
“You win.” I took an open seat. “I’ll stay.”
“Excellent,” Hollin said.
“What made you want to run away anyway?” Piper asked. But the smirk on her lips said she knew that something had happened with me and Campbell.
She had been trying to get me to talk about him since he returned. But no one knew what had happened with us, and I’d like to keep it that way if I could at all help it. I didn’t even want to tell my best friend.
“It’s nothing.”
Piper leaned forward. “Because Honey said that Campbell asked you out.”
I glared at her. “If you already knew, then why did you bother asking?”
Hollin choked on his drink. “I must have missed that. My brother did what?”
“He was joking.”
Piper arched an eyebrow. “Was he?”
“Can we not? I’m not going to date Campbell.”
“All right. All right,” Piper said, holding up her hands. “Hollin, you need to make your brother behave. We don’t want him upsetting my friends.”
Hollin grumbled under his breath, “As if anyone could make Campbell do anything.”
Which was so f*****g accurate.
The thing that had me worried was that not only could no one tell Campbell what to do, but he was also relentless. And I knew this firsthand. If he wasn’t leaving on the first plane out of Lubbock, I would be worried that he’d take my refusal as a challenge.
“Y’all,” Jennifer said, plopping down into the seat next to me with a huge smile on her face. “Guess what just happened.”
We stared at her expectantly. She didn’t have a ring on her finger, so Julian hadn’t proposed. Though we all assumed it was coming eventually. They had been together for a year and were entirely inseparable. Annie and Jordan had gotten engaged earlier this year, and it felt like another Wright engagement was soon to follow.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Julian asked me to move in with him.”
Piper and I exchanged a look. Jennifer had spent the last year living in Piper’s house. It was so great, having her there, even if we hadn’t actually needed a third roommate. I was going to miss her.
“That’s amazing,” Piper told her.
“Ahhh,” I said, jumping to my feet and throwing my arms around her. “Big step.”
“It is,” she said. Jennifer flushed furiously at the thought. She was the shyest of our group and only really dropped her introversion when she was behind a camera.
“About time,” Hollin said with a laugh. He looked to his girlfriend and winked.
“Don’t get any ideas,” Piper growled at him.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
But I knew that was only a matter of time as well. Everyone was so happy. Weddings, engagements, and moving in, oh my!
“I’ll help you find someone to take my room,” Jennifer told us. “I don’t want to leave you hanging.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” Piper said.
“Yeah, we managed before.”
“Worrying is my middle name.” Jennifer bit her lip. “Like, I am so worried about the cats. How the hell am I going to move Avocado again?”
We all burst out laughing. When Jennifer had moved in, she’d transported two stray cats, Avocado and Bacon, to our property. They still lived outside and mostly fended for themselves. But Avocado had held it against her for months. I couldn’t imagine moving them a second time. It had been hard enough the first go-round.
We discussed possible new solutions for the cats. Even going as far as offering to let her leave the cats at the house. I didn’t mind feeding them. They didn’t love me as much as Jennifer. But Bacon and I had an understanding. I would be perfectly happy with having them around still.
Annie and Jordan migrated to the table at some point with Julian, who pulled Jennifer into his lap. Honey dropped into the vacated seat next to me. She had been making friends with some other Wright Vineyard regulars. I knew them by face but not name. It had been nice to not have her hovering. She was incredible at her job, but sometimes, she was a little too enthusiastic.
“Oh my God, did you see Nate’s new t****k?” Honey asked. “It already has three million views.”
She thrust her phone at me. And there was Nate King in all of his glory. Nate lived an hour and a half south of Lubbock in Midland, Texas. His family was one half of Dorset & King oil, one of the largest oil companies in the country. We’d met via social media and hit it off. After one date, I invited him to Peyton’s wedding. Only part of the reason was because I’d found out Campbell was going to be there. The other part really enjoyed his company. We’d gone on a few dates in the month since then, and our fans loved when we did videos together. Both of our followers had gone through the roof since we’d joined forces.
But…I had doubts. Nate was hot and friendly and a really stellar kisser. He just didn’t seem like the one. And if I preached to my followers that they shouldn’t settle, neither should I, right?
“Oh, let me turn the volume up,” Honey said, clicking the side buttons so I could hear the song being played.
And I froze in place. Because the song was “I See the Real You” by none other than Campbell Abbey himself. I wanted to throw the phone back at Honey, but I couldn’t. I just watched the guy I was sort of, kind of not-exclusively dating start a viral t****k trend.
The video was good. It was him looking into the camera, wearing a baseball cap, an oversize shirt, and baggy sweats, hiding how good-looking he was. Then, when the chorus dropped, the video seamlessly transitioned to show him shirtless, his eight-pack on display, in low-slung jeans. His hair was done, and he was smirking at the camera like he was going to eat them alive. The caption said, Show the world the real you.
I clicked on his hashtag and almost groaned. Already in the twelve hours since Nate’s video had gone viral, there were thousands of other people clambering to do the “I See the Real You” challenge. Just my f*****g luck.
“We’re going to have to do it,” Honey said eagerly.
I thrust the phone back at her. “No.”
“But Blaire…”
I ignored her. “No.”
Piper snatched Honey’s phone out of her hand and watched it. She nodded. “Damn.”
“Right!” Honey said.
“You could do this easy,” Piper said. “It’s just a glow up.”
Annie leaned in, and her eyes widened. “Quite a glow up. Jesus.” Jordan cleared his throat next to her. She grinned at him.
Annie offered the phone to Jennifer, but she shook her head, embarrassed. “I’ve already seen it.”
The girls all laughed.
“Speaking of, where is Nate tonight?” Annie asked.
“He’s in New York, visiting his cousin,” I told her. “Gavin King, I think.”
“You didn’t go with him?”
I shook my head. Nate had asked. Though I didn’t say that. He’d thought it would be fun to show me around the city with his cousin, who apparently knew all the people. Whatever that meant. But I knew exactly what that would mean for our relationship. We were incredibly casual at this point. New York would have meant defining it. And I honestly thought we made better friends.
“Hey, y’all. What did I miss?” Campbell asked as he exited the dressing room. His manager was nowhere in sight.
Piper glanced up at Campbell with a grin that should have been his first warning. “We were talking about the guy Blaire is dating. You remember Nate from the wedding?”
My jaw nearly dropped at Piper’s audacity. But…I had to admit, it was satisfying to see the first hint of jealousy on Campbell’s face.
- Writer
