She scoffs. “For his own good.”
The fact that she didn’t deny the misrepresentation suggests she knew exactly what she was doing the whole time. My heart sinks to my stomach.
“Just like you told everyone we were fake for my own good?” I place a hand to my chest as Fallon triumphantly lifts her chin.
“Exactly.”
She thinks I’m finally understanding her, and in a way, she’s right. I think I’m seeing the real Fallon Mae for the first time, without the assumption of kindness and goodwill I naturally apply to everyone. It’s not a good look.
I reach out to take her hand. “If you value our friendship at all, I need you to do this for me. For Nathan. I’ll even write the article. You just need to hit publish.”
A storm cloud darkens her eyes. “That blog pays my bills.” Her voice rolls like thunder, warning me of impending danger.
I’m stunned by her resistance, despite what I’m coming to understand.
I don’t know why I didn’t see it before, but it’s clear now. Helping Nathan realize how much he changed was never the point of Fallon’s articles. Maybe, maybe she wrote the first one with that intention, but those that followed? She was harnessing the energy of his name for personal gain.
God, I hope I’m wrong.
“You told me Nathan sees me as an opportunity, but you need to take a long hard look at yourself.” I brace myself as I channel Benjamin’s bluntness. “I think you’ve been writing these articles about him to grow your subscriber count. This was never about him. It’s about likes and clicks and money.”
“Wow, Mina. Tell me what you really think.” Fallon tosses her hair and breaks eye contact, staring blankly at the sky. “Come on, though. You know this. You know me. I was showing Nathan how much he’d changed so he’d pick himself up and put himself back together. The growth in subscribers was an unexpected bonus.”
“Maybe that’s how you started, but that’s not how it ended. Nathan isn’t the man you made him out to be and if you didn’t know that before I got together with him, you certainly did after. Even then, you obliterated best friend code, publishing things I told you in confidence, and still managed to misrepresent his every move. You made him sound like a villain when he is so not. Imagine how infuriating it is to have someone lie about you and know people believe the lies? Put yourself in his shoes. Just for a minute. And then, when you’re done, put yourself in mine. I’m furious, Fallon! Furious!”
She smooths her hair and shakes her head, still not able to look me in the eyes. “I’m so small, Nathan probably doesn’t even know I exist.”
That’s all she has to say? After I initiate the conversation I wasn’t ready to have in the first place, she has the balls to brush off my feelings with an excuse she knows isn’t true? Fallon’s been saying it this whole time. I only need to see a glimmer of goodness in someone to forgive a whole lot of bad. She just had the target wrong. She’s the one I needed to look out for. Not Nathan.
“You saw how he reacted to you in my bedroom, which, by the way, shows he definitely knows you exist.” I grimace as the truth of the woman in front of me crystallizes. “I told you how frustrated he was because of your articles. You just doubled down and said that meant your plan was working. Even when I asked you to stop, you kept going. How are you not the one seeing him as an opportunity? Explain to me how you didn’t take advantage of me, of our friendship, for personal gain. I’m desperate for a reason to forgive you, here. You gotta give me something.”
There’s a long moment with the two of us just standing there, silently staring. An older couple walks by on the sidewalk in front of the house, both lifting hands in greeting when we glance their way. A week ago, I could have seen that as a possible future for me and Nathan. Now, I’m waiting to discover if I’ve been friends with the real villain all along. Life sure does love its surprises.
“You make me sound like such an asshole,” Fallon says, but her face is so closed, I can’t tell if she’s coming around to my point of view or victimizing herself.
I raise my brows. “You have one thousand percent been an asshole. Profiting off someone’s misery? You’re better than that.”
Or at least I hope you are, I think, then wait several uncomfortable seconds for Fallon to respond.
“Fine,” she finally says. “You can write that article, but I get final say over whether I publish it. And just to set a boundary up front, if you make me sound this bad in your post, this goes no further. I won’t let you publicly humiliate me.”
“Says the woman who was fine to publicly humiliate everyone else.”
“Do you want this or not?”
The look on Fallon’s face is hard to read. She’s not happy, that much is clear. And I’m not sure how honest she’ll let me be, but I have to try. I don’t know if what I want to say will be enough for Nathan to understand I wasn’t in cahoots with Fallon, but I have to tell the world who he really is.
At the very least, I owe him that.
FORTY-TWOTHE ARTICLE
It Wasn’t Fake, Folks. Nathan West Is Not the Man You Think He Is.
There are times in life when it’s necessary to pause and take stock of who you are and what you’re doing. To judge your actions, choices, and thoughts against who you want to be and see if they align, then make Big Scary Changes if they don’t.
My name is Mina Blake and I’ve come to one of those moments.
As you may have read on this blog, I entered into a fake relationship with Nathan West.
He offered to pay me to pretend to be his girlfriend. I needed the money so I accepted, even though, at the time, I didn’t like him. I’d built my opinion of him off things I saw online and never slowed down to wonder how much was exaggerated, blown out of proportion, or just plain wrong.
I’m sure you expect me to apologize. To tell you I’m ashamed of what we did and then spin a story about a rich man taking advantage of an underprivileged woman.
But that’s not what happened. I wasn’t taken advantage of by a villain. And I’m not going to apologize for a choice that led me to fall in love with an amazing person.
I’m here to set the record straight.
I willingly entered into a fake relationship with Nathan West, but that’s where the truth in the article you read last week ends. He wasn’t using me. He didn’t seduce me for personal gain. Yes, he’s rich and sure, I’m poor, but he made me feel like a treasure, not an embarrassment.
When I first met Nathan, I called him The Prince of Darkness and thought I was cute. I’m sure many of you judge him based on the things you think you know and believe he’s a rich asshole building a villain’s lair, living in excess while the rest of us struggle to put food on the table and pay our bills.
But know this.
Nathan West is not that man.
Period. Full stop. The end.
He’s not drinking too much. He’s not with a new woman every night. He’s not sipping champagne in exclusive hotels, enjoying luxury at the expense of the little guy.
