He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Chapter Seven: All Press is Good Press

After that fateful night when Theo invited me out to dinner, we basically became inseparable. We spent the next day in New York, sight-seeing, going to Broadway shows and shopping. 

I felt like a princess as Theo bought me everything I wanted. If I even stopped to ooh and ah at something, he would have it wrapped up and gifted to me as we walked out of the store. It got to a point that we had to rent a car in order to carry around all the stuff he was getting me.

I tried to make him stop, but he would just nod his head in understanding and then keep buying me stuff. Even though a small part of me was a little worried he was trying to buy my affection, I had to admit I did enjoy all the attention.

I felt like a spoiled girlfriend getting whatever she wanted for the day. It was a dream come true, even though I knew his kindness came from loving me as a friend, rather then a potential romantic partner, but it was still nice to dream.

Besides, being around him was so wonderful and it only got better as Theo and I continued to hang out while he was shooting. 

He would pick me up after work and we would go to Little Louvre or grab ice cream and walk around the Plaza. Sometimes we would just sit in his car all night long and listen to music, while we told each other our tragic back stories and laughed over the cheesiest jokes.

It felt like I was in one of those world-wind romances you only ever got to read about in books or see in movies. It was amazing and exciting and made my insides tingle when I thought of him. My heart would beat dramatically and I would get swept up in this dream world, thinking about when he finally asked me to be his girlfriend and we became a real life couple.

Then, after a while,  I would have to bring myself back to reality. 

Remind myself that even though it felt like we were dating, we really weren't. Theo was my friend and all this time spent with him was friend stuff.

Even though I knew that, it didn't stop the disappointment. The heartache I would feel, when he would give me a friendly pat on the back, after dropping me off at home or stare at me for a long time only to call me a really great friend.

It was all just so disheartening. 

It made me wonder what was so bad about me that despite the endless amount of time that we spent together, Theo continued to see me as friend and nothing else. It felt like no matter how much my feelings grew for him, his continued to stay in the same place, or at least grow in the opposite direction.

And things only got more complicated once the press got wind of our relationship. 

Despite the fact that we had evaded exposure when those first photos of us together got out, it didn't take long for people to get a much better image of me.

Theo and I were practically hanging out every day. 

Even when filming for his current movie wrapped, he continued to call me, text me and come back to New Jersey to visit me.

 On one such occasion, we took Coco and Alistair for a walk around town and the very next day, there were pictures of me, in grey sweatpants, a black windbreaker and a Met's hat circulating the internet.

My heart pretty much leapt into my throat when I saw those images. 

Maya had made sure to text them to me the minute she saw them. I was lucky I was off that day, as it gave me time to spend hours scouring the internet to see what people were saying about me and what they thought about my relationship with Theo.

It was safe to say, plenty of people were none too pleased. 

I saw countless comments about how my thighs were too wide or that Savannah was obviously the better choice for Theo. There were really nice comments as well, but it was kind of hard to pay attention to the nice stuff, after seeing three comments in a row talking about how ugly I was.