The Right Choice

Chapter 32

“Oh my God!” Jessie murmured as soon as she saw the cameras all around her.

She stood rooted to her spot as the photographers surrounded them and they were doused in camera flashes. Where did these people come from? When Jessie had entered the restaurant, there was absolutely no sign of them. Now, the entire side walk was filled with them and they were jostling each other to get a better picture. She could hear all of them yelling and screaming out her and Holden’s names. This was very bad.

“This way Holden!”

“You look good!”

“Jessica! When will you admit your relationship with Holden?”

“How was the food? What did you eat?”

“Holden! Is she going be your date this award season?”

“Is she better than Rebecca?"

"Did she send you any hate messages, Jessica?”

“You did a great job in your latest flick! Holden, when is the next one coming out? All your fans are eagerly waiting.”

"Jessica! Did you know that Holden has such a huge female fan following? They have a hate website out for you already.”

“Have you checked it out, Jessica?”

“Holden!” “Jessica!” “Holden!”

Jessie’s head began to spin as all the questions that were being randomly thrown at her. She knew that it wasn’t as though they wanted answers. The questions were just so that they could get a reaction out of either her or Holden. Jessie had heard that these people were vicious. But now that she was actually in the midst of the chaos, she realized that ‘vicious’ was a much lighter word to describe them. How did they find out that they were here? However, a bigger question lay before her. How was she going to get out of it?

Just as she was attempting to come to a fool proof solution, she heard Holden’s voice.

“Guys! It’s nothing exciting. Just lunch.”

She felt Holden quickly step up next to her. He tugged her hand to get her attention. Jessie looked at him and raised her eyebrows. It was an unspoken question that pretty much meant, how do we get past them? He smiled as the camera flashes continued and pulled her closer. Jessie tried to back away. She had been unwillingly kissed by him once and there was no way she was going to let him do that again. ‘Not even if someone transferred a billion into my bank account.’

However, her move backwards didn’t register with Holden. He tugged her once more and this time with more force than before. Jessie was pulled forward and he leaned into the side of her face, away from the line of sight of the photographers. Jessie eyes went wide as she realized that he was going to repeat his actions from the night before. She braced herself for it; however Holden simply placed his cheek on hers and his mouth near her ear.

“This is why I was really trying to stop you,” He whispered.

Jessie looked at the camera as she heard its lens zoom in. She felt his mouth move once more and heard his low toned voice.

“Now just smile pretty and walk with me to the car,” Holden continued in the softest of voice. “Or else they’ll really start interrogating. Okay?”

He then moved away and stood up straight with a smile on his face. Jessie wasn’t sure if it was fake or real. But Jessie knew that she had to put up a fake one if she ever expected to get out of here with least possible resistance. Despite what Jessie thought about all this, she had to do as suggested by Holden. It was the only way. She took a deep breath in and put on her best fake smile.