NO SHAME

XXXVII

"Luke!" I called from the kitchen. Luke appeared in front of me a second later and I let out a laugh at his silliness.

    "What's up?" Luke asked as he wrapped his arms around me.

    "Mark wants us to come into the office tomorrow for a meeting."

    "Ew, okay, what time is the meeting?"

    "Lucky us, we were given the liberty of a nine am last minute meeting."

    "Oh yeah, we're just so lucky aren't we," Luke said, the sarcasm rolling off of his tongue.

    I laughed at Luke before pulling out of his grasp to continue what I was doing before Mark called me. We hadn't had a meeting with Mark since getting back from tour because of my accident so I figured the meeting would be about the next steps and how well the tour went and everything. I continued making dinner for Luke and I as my silly boyfriend tried to distract me every three seconds.

    "Luke, if you don't stop distracting me, we aren't going to be eating dinner tonight," I giggled as he wrapped his arms around me from behind and attempted to pick me up.

    "Fine," Luke sighed as he set me back down on the ground. I turned around and gave him a quick kiss to hold him over until I was done with dinner.

    "How come you didn't tell your parents about what happened with Jake?" Luke asked me as he sat at the counter to watch.

    "I honestly just stopped talking to them once I moved here. The only reason they knew that I was dating him was because we've known Jake since the two of us were in elementary school," I explained.

    "They seemed very adamant that he was the perfect person for you," Luke frowned.

    "But obviously he's not," I stated and walked around the counter so that I was standing directly in front of him. "Whatever my parents said to you, is not true, Luke. You have treated me so much better than Jake ever did, and I love you, not him."

    "I love you, Aspen," Luke smiled and put his hands on my waist. I leaned into Luke, pressing a kiss to his lips. I pulled back and Luke brought his hand up to tuck my hair behind my ear.

    "Do you want to help me with dinner?" I asked Luke since he had just been sitting here watching me the whole time.

    "Sure," Luke said and joined me in the kitchen.

    Luke and I finished making dinner and sat in his living room to eat while we watched TV. After we finished eating, I dragged Luke up to bed because I was tired, and we had to get up early for our meeting with Mark the next morning.

-

    Luke and I sat down next to each other at the big table in Mark's office and talked about our plans for later while we waited for Mark to arrive to the meeting. We planned to go to lunch after the meeting and Luke suggested that we go shopping too.

    After a few minutes, Mark finally walked into the room and we were able to begin the meeting.

    "Sorry about keeping the two of you waiting, I was in another very important meeting right before this one," Mark started after sitting down. "So the two of you are probably wondering why you are here and what it is I have planned for this relationship."

    I looked at Luke with confusion in my eyes, to see the same thing reflected on his own face. We were confused, but figured that this was to talk about the tour and everything, not Mark's next steps.

    "I thought tour went how you wanted it to go," I said for me and Luke.

    "Not exactly. Aspen, it seems like a lot of Luke's fans aren't too fond of you because of the fact that you're dating their favorite band member. The whole point of this whole thing was to get the media off of Luke's back as well as to calm down his fans about his image and the girls he was with before you. However, it seems like my plan has backfired and now they all seem to hate you, because the chances of them being with Luke are gone now."

    "Those chances were never there," Luke countered.

    "That doesn't matter. The next step in this is for the two of you to pose a break up. Nothing too dramatic, just taking down photos, unfollowing, not hanging out. That sort of thing. And Aspen, that also means no more hanging out with the rest of the band for a little while," Mark casually told us, as if he hadn't just shattered both of our worlds.

    "Wait a minute, I don't think you understand, this isn't a fake relationship anymore, you can't just control us like this," I argued.

    "I get that the two of you are friends-"

    "No, we aren't just friends, we're dating. Like for real, it's not a stunt, hasn't been for months," Luke defended.

    "Also, you can't just ban me from seeing my best friends, I mean the rest of the band are all my best friends too, not just Luke's."

    "I'm not saying that the two of you have to actually break up, just make it seem like you did," Mark held his ground. "But that also means you can't live with Luke anymore, Aspen."

    "I have nowhere else to go, that's so not fair," I said, panic evident in my voice.

    "I'm sure you'll figure something out. But I need you both to cooperate here, and do as I asked. You're dismissed."

    Mark got up and left Luke and I sitting at the table, neither of us saying a word. I looked at Luke to see that he was just as shocked as me.

    "What the fuck am I supposed to do," I asked him, becoming more panicked by the second.

    "Hey, hey, hey, hey, calm down," Luke whispered and grabbed my face. "Breathe, Aspen."

    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on the feeling of Luke's hands on my face as his thumbs began to move back and forth soothingly.

    "I'm sure Calum would be more than happy to let you stay with him for a while until this blows over," Luke reasoned, his hands still holding my face.

    "You're just going to go along with what that asshole wants?" I asked him.

    "That asshole is your boss, and if we don't do what he wants, you'll get fired."

    "Fuck, right. I guess I'll call Calum on our way home."

    "Let's get the hell out of here."