The Sacrifices We Make

Chapter Eleven - Present Day

London, Present Day

"You're doing what now?"

Jesy had uncrossed her feet which were propped up on the conference room table, and brought her legs down in order to lean forward in her chair, ready for an explanation.

Madison also needed an explanation. And a damn good reason for the plan that was currently being presented to her, Jesy, and Leigh-Anne.

"Jade and I are going to have one night together every 30 days," Perrie said sheepishly.

"Yeah babes, that part we got. But how, exactly, does this solve anything?" Leigh-Anne was sitting on top of the table, legs crossed, sipping on a cup of coffee.

"Well, Madison had presented us with a problem yesterday. And what was that Madison?" Jade, who the girls recognized was speaking in her businesswoman voice, extended her arm to Madison for an answer.

"Fan fatigue due to there being an obvious tension between the group. Which we concluded was due to hurt feelings between Perrie and Jade because of their still-present feelings for one another,"  Madison had summed it up perfectly, mostly because she had spent the rest of the previous night trying to come up with a solution to this pickle they were in instead of getting a good night's rest.

"Right," responded Jade, "so the solution needs to be a way in which Perrie and I can resolve this tension without jeopardizing the group. When management found out about us they laid out the reasons why we can't just simply date - and we still agree with those reasons. So we've decided to stay with our boyfriends, whom we love, and then have one night with each other. That way, there won't be any hurt feelings and our friendship can go back to the way it was. Well, at least on the outside and to our fans."

Madison didn't know what to say. It was clearly an awful idea. She couldn't imagine it ending well at all. But at the same time, there didn't seem to be any other options.

"And what,  you'll just cheat on Jed and Alex and be okay with that?" Jesy was still having trouble wrapping her brain around the whole thing. 

Perrie and Jade, who were standing at the front of the conference room, looked at each other. They hadn't discussed the exact details of that particular aspect of their new plan.

"Let us worry about our boyfriends," Perrie said as she remained looking at Jade.

"And you keep this up until...when? It seems like you both are pretty serious with your boyfriends. Have you thought about what happens when one of them proposes?" Madison was verbally processing. She needed to think of all the possible scenarios in which this would go wrong and make sure there were realistic solutions.

Jade sighed.

"That is something that Perrie and I need to discuss. But marriage won't be happening anytime soon for either of us, so we have some time to think of something," Jade said.

"Girls, I love you, you know that. But it seems like you're just trying to have your cake and eat it too. You can't live on the fence for long. Eventually you will have to choose between each other and your boyfriends." Leigh-Anne, always the empathetic one, wanted to make sure no one's hearts would break because of this.

Perrie and Jade looked at one another again, uncertainty between them.

"We know this isn't ideal, by any means, but we're going to give it a try. If it ends up being a burning trash pile of an idea, then we can regroup and think of something else. But for right now, it seems to be the only solution we can think of, " Perrie concluded.

Madison nodded her head. Perrie was right. She had racked her brain for hours as she laid in bed the night before, trying to think of a way to solve the issue. Nothing had come to mind. Why not try a little experimentation?