May 2005, NYU

“You’re a coward, man.”

“No, I’m not. I just happen to have a friend whom she hates,” Liam countered, throwing an accusing look at Zach.

His friend gaped. “She hates us both. That’s a big difference. Not only me, but us.”

“It was your fault that she does. From the very first day, it was your fault. And now everything is impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible, trust me. If you can just get rid of that stupid Cameron, things will be okay.”

“And what if I can’t?”

“Then you may want to consider being close to her best friend,” Zach arched a brow.

Liam shook his head. “No. Angelica? No, not over my dead body.”

“She’s you’re only hope. Chanty trusts her. You know her and it will not be hard to get her to your side.”

“I don’t know, that girl has trouble screaming over her red head.”

“Hey, keeping her best friend closer will be your best bet if you cannot lose the boyfriend. Girls listen to their friends more than they do the men they love.”

2013

Chanty felt Pete’s finger poking at her spine. She almost fell over Zach at her friend’s last attempt and she sighed. “Zach, meet Pete, our design manager. Pete, meet Zachary Astor.”

Before anyone could say a word, Pete brushed Chanty to the side and held out his hand. She was about to open her mouth but Liam caught her by the shoulders to stop her. A naughty grin was pasted on his face. “Let him.”

The innocent Zach took Pete’s hand and shook it. When the moment that the two of them should stop, Zach’s smiling face slowly frowned. He tried to take his hand away from Pete, but the guy would not let go.

“You have to kiss it first,” Chanty said with a smile.

“What?” Zach asked, pulling harder, but the guy was strong despite his femininity.

“You have to give Pete’s hand a kiss before he can let you go,” Liam explained dryly, obviously trying to pretend that it was a normal thing.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Zach asked, his frown deepening. He looked at Pete but the guy just smiled. “Let go of my hand now before I do something you’ll regret.”

“I would gladly accept anything you do to me,” Pete said. “It’s my very own personal tradition. I do it with everyone.”

“Don’t worry, he did it to me,” Chanty said.

“I was not a victim though,” Liam admitted. “Just do it, man. Let’s get this over with.”

Zach’s face was getting red as he looked at Pete. “Are you aware that I own half of this company? Would you want to lose your job?”

Pete must have just realized that he was holding the hand of one of the owners of the company captive. He gulped and smiled. “I was only joking, Mr. Astor. You don’t have to take it seriously.” With that, he let go of Zach’s hand and scurried away before Zach opened his mouth to fire his ass.

When Chanty and Liam were done laughing, Zach said, “Now, which one of you is still willing to get my help? If you don’t want any, I can always go back to where Jules is waiting and we can fly back home.”

“Julianne’s here?” Liam asked.

“Are you serious? That woman has the tendency to go off anywhere and I don’t want to risk that.”

“Is this really necessary?” she asked.

“We can go out for coffee,” Zach suggested, not hearing her question.

“What the hell is going on?” she hissed at Liam as they followed Zach.

“He’s going to help us,” Liam whispered beside her but Chanty could see that a flash of doubt flashed across his face as he said that.

“No, I meant who is this Jules?”

He frowned. “Have you not been watching television?”

She thought for a while and then she remembered that Zach had been on a reality TV show called The Bachelor. But that was all she knew. She didn’t watch the thing religiously what with all the crazy drama the girls had going on. She had enough of it in her life and having to watch a dozen of girls tearing each other apart for one man was not worth her free time.

“I watch TV. I know he’s been on some kind of TV show but I didn’t watch it. Not once.”

“Well, to cut the story short, Zach fell for one of the girls, Julianne. He’s planning to marry her but—”

“But what?”

“She’s trying to keep him on his toes,” he said and winked at her. “He had finally found the one that he would do anything for and she is not that giddy to strip him of his wealth just yet. She’s a writer by the way.”

“Really? What kind?”

“Novels. You know Broken Bones, right?”

When Liam mentioned the book, she stopped and her jaw dropped. Zach was already a few meters ahead of them and was about to cross the street. “You can’t be telling me that I will have coffee with J. Green. The J. Green.”

Liam scratched his temple with one finger, a thing he often did when he was both confused and thinking. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Oh my god! Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I could have brought my book!” she shouted with frustration.

“In case you don’t know, I was with you when Zach came in and like you, I didn’t have any idea that he was coming. Furthermore, Julianne is not someone who would tag along with Zach so I am still shocked myself to know that she came. Zach must have moved mountains to get her to come.”

But Chanty was no longer listening to him. She was already attacking her phone and bringing it close to her ear.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling Ange. Someone has to get my book and take it here. Yes, hello, Ange. Where are you? No, nothing happened,” Chanty started walking and Liam followed beside her, scratching his head. “What do you mean you’re stalking your husband? Where? Well, can you stop doing whatever you are doing and come by my house? Go to my room and get J. Green’s book for me. Yes, the Broken Bones.” She listened to Angelica’s questions and smiled. “Well, if you’re really that curious, I should have you know that J. Green is Zachary Astor’s fiancée. Yes, believe it or not, I’m going to meet her in flesh!” She jumped with excitement as Angelica’s scream attacked her ear drum. “Okay, okay. Fine. Just hurry. I don’t know how long this meeting’s taking place. Just get the book over here!” She hung up with Liam looking at her incredulously. “What? Can’t a girl get excited?”

Liam was shocked to realize that Chanty could actually get excited over meeting Julianne. He was a fan of her book as well, but he never gushed over it when he found out that she was J. Green.

Well, as what Zach said, girls had a different way of reacting to things.

When he was finally able to absorb the fact that Chanty was crazy about Julianne and that Angelica was coming as well to do something that was surely going to be crazy, he was afraid that Julianne would walk out and never appear in front of them again. Chanty was okay if she was alone, but if she was with Angelica, she could be as wild. He had witnessed years of the two of them being together and not all of them were to be proud of. Julianne may be in shock if she got to see the two women going crazy. Maybe he ought to remind Chanty that they were here to talk about Cameron and not gush over Julianne. But it was also the first time since the Cameron problem came up that he saw Chanty being herself again. He missed this part of her and maybe it wouldn’t hurt to allow her to go crazy over a writer. He decided to let things unfold naturally. Zach could handle Julianne whatever the poor woman would feel later especially when Angelica made her entrance.

He took his phone and decided to call back-up.

Zach was already waiting for them by the door, his face beaming with excitement. Chanty walked past him and scanned the room. She was not aware what Julianne looked like. She never followed the show and if she may have happened to watch an episode, she did not pay much attention. Whenever Zach’s name came up on the paper, she would read but no pictures of the mysterious lady who kept him interested ever came up. But the moment her eyes landed on the brown-haired lady sitting by the window at the far corner of the café, she knew. The lady may not be trying to attract attention, but she had that air around her. Dressed in black shirt and a pair of pants, she looked ordinary. But add that big, wavy brown hair and her great complexion, you would have to steal another look. Chanty wasn’t sure about the glasses though. And of course, the expectant look on her face was an added factor for Chanty to recognize her. And Zach was eagerly walking to her direction like a lost five-year-old who finally saw his mother.

She could feel her smile reaching her ears. She was star struck and she didn’t care. “Oh my god, J. Green!” she shouted.

Julianne’s eyes immediately flew to Zach who was just a few paces away from the table. “Hey, I didn’t tell her!”

“I’m sorry. I’m just so excited when Liam told me about you,” Chanty gushed.

Julianne transferred her gaze to Liam. “I’m sorry, Julianne. I just kind of blurted it out.”

“Please, don’t get mad or anything. I won’t tell a soul if you don’t want to,” Chanty continued. “Uh, but I may have told a friend who is coming…but don’t worry. She’s great and you will like her.”

Zach turned at her and asked, “And who may that be?”

“Angelica, of course.”

He closed his eyes as if he received the worst news of the day. When he turned to face Julianne, who was silent during the whole exchange, his face glowed and he said, “It’s going to be fine, Jules.”

“It better be,” Julianne said, shooting daggers at him. But when she turned her head to face Chanty once again, she smiled. “That’s okay. I have now accepted the fact that my identity has become public. But I try not to attract a lot of attention.”

“Come on, you attract a lot of attention even with great effort not to,” Zach said warmly, sitting beside Julianne, wounding his arm around her shoulders. Chanty breathed a sigh of relief and sat down across Julianne. She continued to stare at the lady while Liam nudged her side.

“We have something to discuss, right, Chanty?”

“Yeah,” she answered, scanning her phone. She had to text Cassandra. The lady had to come fast.

“Chanty,” Liam tried to call her attention once again but she was busy attacking her phone to notice.

“Sent…” she beamed at Julianne. “I love your book. You should write another one with the three main characters having another great adventure. I love conspiracy theories.”

Julianne smiled and nodded. “I’m having another book coming up but—”

“Can I get an advance copy?” she asked.

“Not a chance. I am not even allowed to read the draft,” Zach complained. “And we are not talking about Jules’ book. We are here to discuss about Cameron.” He looked at his fiancée and added, “And his last name is Cameron as well, by the way. Crazy, right? Unlucky guy.”

“It’s odd, yes,” Julianne agreed with a smile. She looked at Chanty and said, “Zach filled me in with the details and I hope it is okay with you. I told him it is a personal matter between you and Liam, but he told me anyway.”

“So you know that--” she asked.

Zach cut in saying, “That you two have a son? Of course she does. She’s going to be my wife. I don’t keep secrets from her,” he said rather too proudly.

Julianne rolled her eyes but gave no comment. She must be used to this side of Zach by now but Chanty was awed. She had never heard Zach talk like this before. He had always been too cocky. Ever since she met him, he brought nothing but frustration. And what Liam said once before was true. If it weren’t for Zach, people may have seen Liam differently. Chanty had long recognized that fact and she had always been able to set Liam aside from Zach in terms of personality—not that they didn’t share anything in common for there were a lot of that, but when the two of them were together, she just couldn’t help but see them as one big trouble tailing her, and they always followed her shadow from the start.

“And do you have any conspiracy schemes you can share with us? We need a lot of it. As of now, we only have the plan about the paper,” she asked. She was trying hard to make the matter seem less heavy. She wouldn’t want Julianne to think that she couldn’t handle the situation. And she had to be more careful. She couldn’t spill her lie in front of these people, especially Zach.

“I think the morning paper move is great. It would keep this guy away from you for a while.” Julianne may have agreed on her statement, but her face also held something else that worried Chanty.

“But?” Liam and Chanty asked in unison.

“But,” Julianne continued, “it may also push him to plan for a bigger action. He may stay low for a while but the moment he comes up with a big plan to throw you off, you have to be prepared.”

That made great sense. Cameron was not someone who would just back down. He would definitely have something to throw back. If they threw him a stone, they better be prepared to catch a boulder coming their way.

She was just about to say something else when Cassandra’s voice erupted behind her.

“Oh my God, I’m a great fan!”

No introduction, no ‘excuse me’, nothing. “I thought you were not coming,” Chanty said, eyeing her pregnant sister-in-law.

“You invited me?” Cassandra asked as she tucked her blonde hair behind her head.

“You did not get my message?”

Her sister-in-law shook her head. “Liam texted me. He said he needed back-up.” She then turned to Liam and added, “I don’t see any problem here.”

Liam looked disappointed. Whatever he had in mind when he asked Cass for back-up came flying out the window. But the way Julianne was wearing her face and the way Cassandra was looking at her, Chanty felt embarrassed. Maybe Julianne was having enough of two ladies being too nice and awestruck to her. And just when Cassandra finally grabbed a chair beside Chanty to shake Julianne’s hand, Chanty’s face turned red when she heard Angelica’s stilettos clicking and nearing their table. Even without the clicking of her friend’s heels, she would have known just by seeing Zach’s reaction and how Liam gulped. Angelica was here and Chanty lost all hope.