The first thing I have to do is text my family and tell them they are going to read some things in the paper that are not true. I shoot off a group text and tell them that I can’t say anything more, but will explain everything to them when I see them at the pageant.

The next thing I have to do is get to this stupid interview.

I spot Cynthia from the second Jason and I get out of the elevator. I wave at her with my big beauty-queen smile and I nearly feel sick on the inside.

Nearly. Because if I get to be attached at the hip to Jason for the next several days, maybe this will not have been a bad thing. Of course, that’s if this whole thing doesn’t completely ruin my career.

Jason slips his arm around my waist, low and steady, grounding me in the reality of what’s happening. The whole elevator ride down to the lobby was spent in silence, my heart pounding in my chest a mile a minute, so damn loud that I could hardly hear my own thoughts.

“This fucking woman,” he says under his breath. He doesn’t sound angry, though. He sounds like he’s just really pissed off that she’s orchestrated this whole thing that’s threatening to destroy everything I’ve built.

“Be nice,” I whisper. She might be the scourge of my world right now, but I have to keep it together for the sake of optics.

“Why should I?” he hisses back at me, “she isn’t.”

“Cassie!” Cynthia squeals, hopping up from the low-slung couch she’s sitting on in the middle of the hotel lobby. “I’m so glad you were able to make it.”

“Oh course,” I say, smiling through gritted teeth. “Did you think I wouldn’t come?”

She smiles in a half-genuine, half mean-girl way, the kind of smile that makes me think this is all a big joke to her. Of course, it probably is.

“A teensy-bit,” she replies, squeezing her fingers together in front of her eyes. “You aren’t mad at me?”

“So it was you,” Jason says, feet slightly parted, arms crossed in front of his chest.

I can’t help but look up at him admiringly. He’s pissed off, sure, but is it wrong that I kinda find it sexy that he’s pissed off on my behalf?

“I can’t confirm or deny that,” Cynthia says slyly, taking a seat on the couch, “but you have to admit that being in the papers is never a bad thing.”

“Let’s start the interview, if you don’t mind,” I say brightly as Jason and I sit down across from her, ignoring her question.

There’s part of me that thinks she’s right. There’s part of me that admits I remember every single scandal, fight, broken crown and girl fight a little bit more than I remember the winners of pageants past. Of course, I do remember the winners too; they’re the girls I’ve idolized my whole life, whether I was doing it consciously or not.

But yeah, she is right, of course. You never forget a scandal.

Cynthia pulls a big spiral notebook out of her purse, along with a pen and her phone.

“It’s okay if I record this, right?” she says, tapping on her phone before setting it down on the small table between us.

“Why do you have to record?” Jason asks, “if you’re recording, what is the pen and paper for?”

I glance at Jason and put a hand on his knee gently.

“Yes, it’s okay if you record.”

Jason shrugs and sits back on the couch next to me, making me remember how I always wanted to look right at him when he sat next to me by chance or on purpose. I couldn’t look right at him, though. If I tried, I know I’d start drooling right on the spot.

“Okay, so,” Cynthia says in her interview voice, “first of all, you have to tell me who this guy is. We know that he’s your old family friend. We know he’s tall, and big, and strong. So what else do we know about this man?”

“Well,” I say, glancing up at him with my perfect beauty queen smile, “we actually have a little bit of news to share.”

This is it. This is the foray into the unknown that those three women planned out for me this morning. This is the moment of truth, the moment that Jason and I announce our engagement to the world.

And suddenly, it feels cheap. I feel cheap. I feel like I’m using Jason, which I am, of course, and I feel as though an entire lifetime of feelings and friendship is being tarnished by something that just shouldn’t be happening.

“News?” Cynthia says, practically salivating like she’s got a good scoop coming.

And suddenly, I don’t know if I can go through with this.

“Yes,” Jason says, tucking his arm over my shoulder. “We have an announcement to make.”

I glance up at him and feel my heart swell. I am so grateful that he’s willing to do this for me, but the fact that he’s willing to go along with this ridiculous ruse is proof enough that it’s not right to go through with it.

I lean into Jason while glancing over at Cynthia, and I put up a finger quickly.

“We don’t have to do this,” I say, putting my lips near his shoulder so I can speak without Cynthia hearing. “You don’t have to go through with this if you don’t want to.”

He shifts his face to mine slowly, looking me straight in the eyes. Straight into my damn soul, and I feel his hands at they come up to my shoulders. I feel my insides tingle for him the way they always do when he looks at my eyes like that.

“I know,” he whispers before turning to Cynthia, “the truth is that Cassie and I are engaged.”

I turn to face Cynthia and watch as her jaw nearly falls into her lap and her eyes grow wide, looking between me and Jason.

“Engaged?” she says, scribbling furiously in her notebook.

“That’s right,” I say as Jason squeezes my hands in my lap. “Engaged.”

I look up at him and he meets my gaze, winks, and then leans forward with his elbows on his knees.

“So what else do you want to know for your story?”