Frenemies? Or Something More?: a Blake Gray Fanfiction *completed*

2

As we finished up our dinner, we began to talk about strategies. "How do you want to go about all of this?" Blake asked. 
I shrugged. "I think we should have a scheduled time that we film content together. I think we'll both have to take some time to adjust to each other's content, but other than that, we should be okay."
Blake laughed. "I'm not changing my content for you."
I immediately got defensive. "No one asked you to, but when content is being made to post on any of my accounts, you should tone down your bad-boy behavior. That's not the image that I need to portray to my followers."
"This is exactly like Bryce and Addison, except they actually have feelings for each other. I'm not going to censor myself for you."
"You don't really have a choice, Blake. This is supposed to be helping our follower count, and the second that one of my followers sees you do something stupid and irresponsible, they unfollow me. That's the opposite of the goal."

Blake shook his head. "Fine, but I'm going to complain the entire time."
"Me, too. Don't worry."
The waitress approached the table. "Is this going to be all on one?"
Blake didn't even give me a second to react. "Yes." I pulled out my credit card to pay, but he stopped me. "I told you that if you lost the attitude, I would pay. You lost the attitude, and I'm a man of my word."
As much as I didn't want to admit it, he was giving me butterflies. "Fine. You can pay."
Blake laughed. "I've never had a girl get mad at me for paying the bill before."
"Yeah, well, I've never had a guy seriously offer."
Blake looked shocked. "You're telling me that you, a very hot girl, have never had a guy offer to pick up the bill when you were on a date." I nodded. "I don't believe it."
"Every guy that I've ever gone on a date with has been kind of exactly how I assumed you would be," I replied, taking a sip of my water.
"Even Tucker?" It took everything that I had not to tear up.
"Especially Tucker. Every time we went out he would conveniently forget his wallet. Hell of a boyfriend, huh?"

Blake took my hand in his, and this time, it didn't feel like it was for show. "I'm sorry, Tiffany. That's really shitty, and you didn't, and don't deserve that."
I shrugged again. "Maybe I did. Maybe he's right, and I am the world's worst girlfriend." I felt like I was fishing for reassurance, but for some reason, my brain and my mouth wouldn't connect, and I couldn't stop myself from talking. 
"You've been my fake girlfriend for a total of two hours, and you're one of the best girlfriends that I've ever had. Don't beat yourself up," Blake replied, letting go of my hand.
I felt my face getting flushed. "You don't have to say that. The trauma from that relationship doesn't really affect me anymore." 
Blake stood up, holding his hand out to me. "Come on, let's go." I took his hand and followed him through the restaurant. When we got outside, Fletcher was waiting for us. 

"Hey, Blake! Tiffany! What are you guys doing here together?" he asked.
Blake flashed his smile again. "We're just hanging out, man." I nodded, ready to let Blake take the lead on whatever story we were going with. "Our Uber is here, man, or we would stay and talk. Have a good one." He pulled me through the throngs of people, opening the door to the Uber and gesturing for me to get inside. 

As we passed Sean's office, I grew weary. "Where are we going, Blake?"
"Your story about Tucker made me sad, so I wanted to show you something that always makes me happy."
I looked at him strangely, but he simply stared out the window, avoiding my gaze. 
The Uber pulled into a park, and Blake asked him to wait for a few minutes before offering me his hand and helping me out of the car. 
"When I first moved out here, I didn't know who I could trust. I lived with the boys, but I didn't know them that well. I would come out here, sit on this bench, and whisper everything that was troubling me. I let the wind carry it away, and when I was done, I always felt one thousand times better. I'm gonna go sit back in the Uber. Take as much time as you need."
He turned and headed back to the Uber, and his words danced around my head. I sat on the bench that he had gestured to, and although I was a little bit skeptical, I took his advice, and I let every painful thing out. After a few minutes, I got up from the bench, wiping a few tears from my eyes and heading back to the Uber. 

"You okay?" Blake asked, scooting over so that I could sit down. I didn't speak, I just wrapped my arms around his neck.
"Thank you," I whispered.
Blake hugged me back. "Don't mention it."
We sat in silence as we headed back to Sean's office. Blake walked me back to my car silently. "Do you want to get started on some content tomorrow? I need to start filming for YouTube so that I can post on Saturday, and we can get some stuff going."
I nodded. "Let's do it. The faster that we get content out, the faster we can stop fake dating, right?"
A pained look flashed across Blake's face, but it disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. "Right. I'll text you the address."

I drove home, but I couldn't stop thinking about Blake. I didn't want to get attached because I knew that this wasn't real, but even just thinking about him was giving me butterflies. This was either going to work out really well, or it was gonna hurt like hell.
At the end of the day, I wanted my platform to maintain its numbers, but did I want to do it at my own expense?