Spinning.

Signing couldn't go by fast enough.

It wasn't just that I wanted to be back with John again, but the line was insane. And on top of that, everyone asked me if John and I were together, to which I always replied with something like “We'll see where it goes from here.” I wanted more than anything to be like “YES! YES WE ARE!” Except we hadn't actually had that conversation yet, which was another reason that I wanted to find John and get this figured out.

However, I was also starving.

“Hey,” I bumped hips with John as we made our way back to the dressing rooms after signing, so we could pack up and leave.

“Hey yourself. What's up?” He grinned at me.

“Want to go get food? I'm starving.”

“Well sure, what were you thinking?”

“There's this place called the Hard Times Cafe, it's a little hole-in-the-wall place that's cheap and delicious and open really late.”

“I don't know, I can't ruin this godly physique.” John patted his non-existent stomach and I laughed.

“Shut up loser, we're getting food.” I told him, playfully shoving him as we began to gather our things.

Not long after, we were in the car and on our way to Hard Times. I drove, knowing the way by heart from all the late nights I had spent there with my friends growing up.

“Wow, this is really a hole in the wall,” John laughed as we walked inside, taking in the entire place. It was just as run-down as I remembered, causing a grin to spread across my face. With its mismatched furniture, colorful walls, and hipster vibe, Hard Times was just as I remembered it: my kind of place.

“Beret?” I heard a familiar voice and I spun around to find Marie, a high school friend, standing behind me.

“Marie!” I exclaimed, hugging her. “Oh my god how are you?”

“Shit Beret, I didn't expect to see you here! I'm great! I actually was at your show earlier!” She was surprised to see me, a giant grin on her face. She was with a guy who was probably John's height, looked like a football player, and was gawking at us as we jabbered.

“Oh man, I hope it was good! But seriously, late night, hungry, and Minneapolis means hard times. You know how it is,” I laughed.

“Do I ever.” She grinned. “Obviously, I'm here right now!”

“What have you been up to since high school?” I asked, genuinely curious. Marie and I weren't best friends back then, but we did have a fair amount in common and she was always a really nice girl.

“Oh, not too much. I just am working on my Master's in Psychology right now at the U. I'm becoming a shrink!” She chuckled. “And then-- oh! Beret this is Nate.” She gestured to the guy next to her, who stuck his hand out. “We've been dating for a couple years now. Nate, I went to high school with Beret.”

“Nice to meet you,” he smiled, shaking my hand.

“I'm guessing if you two were at the show then you know John, but just in case this is John!” I laughed, introducing him.

“Nice to meet you both,” he waved.

“Well it's late, but I guess we should probably get going. We have to drive home to visit my parents tomorrow, and you know how fun that drive is.” She rolled her eyes, causing me to chuckle.

“Ah man, well say hi to home for me!” I grinned. “We're going to go eat now.” We hugged each other goodbye, swearing that we'd have to catch up next time I was in Minnesota. As I watched the pair leave, John started laughing at me.

“What's so funny?” I asked him.

“You,” He answered, a twinkle in his eyes. “You just got so excited there, kind of like a puppy.”

“Oh shut up,” I scolded, playfully hitting him. “Let's get food.”

We ordered our food, and after John paid (much to my objections) we sat down in a little booth.

“So I asked your dad if I could um, ask you something.” John started, nervously biting his lip and grabbed my hands from across the table, lacing and unlacing his fingers with mine. “Like, uh, important.”

“And?” I asked, wondering what the question was and what my dad's answer was.

John took a deep breath, swallowed nervously, then began.

“Beret, I'm absolutely crazy about you. I'm crazy about how you chew your lip when you're nervous, how you braid your hair when you're bored, and how when you get really excited you get this cute little Minnesotan accent--”

“I do not!” I laughed, unable to process that I was finally hearing something I desperately wanted to hear.

“But you do.” He chuckled, gaining confidence as he continued. “I love the feeling of you in my arms, I love how you always make a fuss about me paying for you, and I love how you call Ava about everything because you need reassurance that you're doing the right thing. I think the fact that you're so close with your family is really incredible, I can't help but smile when you argue with me about why cats are better than dogs, and when I hear your laugh I feel like everything's a little brighter. When I go to sleep the last thing I see is you and when I wake up the first thing that crosses my mind is you. I feel like a better person when I'm around you and I honestly feel like it's because you make me a better person. And after tonight, there's nothing that makes me happier than the feeling of your lips against mine. Beret, I'm fucking nuts about you and I want you all to myself. Please be my girlfriend?”

There was no way I could hide the grin on my face.

“I don't know...” I started, my voice giving away that I was kidding.

“Well shit, that blows.” He chuckled, causing me to start laughing.

“You don't have to ask twice.” I assured him. “I'm all yours.”

“Good. I was really hoping you'd say that.” He grinned with accomplishment, kissing me across the booth.

“Did you really think I was going to say something else?” I raised an eyebrow, trying not to laugh at him.

“Prior to tonight, yes.” He answered, a little embarrassed.

“You're kidding, right?” I watched him with total disbelief.

“No, I'm totally serious. I thought I fucked it up when we got into that fight.”

I rolled my eyes, laughing at him. “You're so clueless sometimes. Jared practically told you.”

“That doesn't mean I believed Jared.” He argued.

“Well obviously not.”

“Hey, I figured it out. That's the important part here.”

“Thank god you did. I think I would have gone crazy if it took much longer.”

“Hey now.” He pouted, giving me puppy dog eyes.

“You said you had a different plan earlier. What was that?” I asked curiously.

“Oh, I, uh, well I was going to wait until after the show and then just straight up ask you out and then go from there.”

“I think I like how this worked out better.” I leaned up and kissed his cheek.

“Yeah, me too.” He agreed, kissing me again. "I got to kiss you."

The conversation strayed from the night's events and went into completely random things, both of us stealing each other's food as we talked. As I scraped the last little bit of ketchup off of John's plate with my french fry, he cleared his throat.

“So on our next day off, I'm taking you out to dinner.”

“Oh, are you?” I cocked an eyebrow at him, smirking.

“Damn right I am, I want to take you, my girlfriend," he grinned, pausing for a moment, "Out on a real date. So I'm going to find a nice place and we'll get dressed up and I'll take you out.”

“Wow, I must have snagged a real gentleman here.” I giggled, piling our plates together so we could bus our table.

“I'd like to think my momma raised me right.” John grinned, taking the dishes from me. We walked together to put the dishes in the bins, before making our way back to the hotel.

When we got back, it was already 2:30 in the morning and I finally felt the effects of the day hitting me. As soon as we got into our rooms, I changed into my yoga pants and a tank top, then went straight to the bathroom to take out my contacts and get ready for bed. As I was starting to brush my teeth, there was a knock on the door. Opening the door, toothbrush still in my mouth, I wasn't too surprised to see John standing in the doorway.

“Is this a bad time?” He chuckled at the toothbrush poking out of my mouth.

I shook my head and ushered him in. I spit out the toothpaste before addressing him.”What's up?”

“Not much, I just wanted to come see you.” He smiled at me.

“Well here I am, in my ready for bed glory.” I chuckled, moving to hug him.

“It has been a long day, hasn't it?”

“You could call it that.”

I nodded and sat down on my bed, looking at my computer, and gasped. On my home page, a video was featured as a breaking headline about our evening. The headline under it read “Beret Emerson's Exciting Valentine's Day” with a link to an article attached to it.

“What is it?” John craned around to see the screen.

“We're already on the front page of MSN's website. With an article. And videos of each--”

“Kiss?”

I nodded clicked on the link, which led to an article with both videos on Wonderwall.

“Beret Emerson, latest it-girl and mastermind behind The Lady Says got a surprise today as she played a Valentine's day concert in her home state of Minnesota. Singing to a sold-out crowd of 13,000, Emerson was performing a very passionate cover of Taylor Swift's 'Enchanted' with tour mate John O'Callaghan (singer of The Maine), which was ended with a bang as O'Callaghan pulled Emerson in for an electrifying lip-lock. There has been no word on whether the pair is together or not, or on their previous relationship history. Emerson joked earlier in the concert that her date for the evening was a sock monkey and had introduced the performance of 'Enchanted' with a comment about her availability, saying that she chose the song for a special Valentine's day treat because she didn't have a beau to sing about being in love with, so instead she would sing about someone who she was 'enchanted' to meet.

“As for the lip lock itself, the pair seemed to be both surprised and thrilled about what had just happened. O'Callaghan's bandmates from The Maine joined in on the excitement, taking advantage of Emerson's presence during their encore to discuss the event, resulting in the pair locking lips again. O'Callaghan commented after this that he couldn't let her have a stuffed animal as her date. Within an hour of the initial video postings of each kiss, videos had already garnered over 5,000 hits and have been climbing even faster since.” John read off the page.

“...And they have videos.” I put the computer at the foot of the bed, so we could see it when we sat together, and clicked play.

The first video started at the very beginning of the song, so we sat and watched the entire performance, as well as our now-viral kiss.

“Hey, we sounded pretty good.” John commented.

“Yeah, we did sound pretty good. Even on that crappy recording,” I laughed.

I clicked on the second video, which began as soon as the last notes from I Won't Back Down had faded out.

“Aren't they cute?” Kennedy's voice popped through my speakers as someone else started banging on my door. Pat's muffled voice was on the other side, but it sounded like there were others. I paused the video to get the door. The rest of the crew was outside.

“You see the videos?!” Jared rushed past me to see if John was with me.

“Yeah, we're watching them now. We're on the front page of MSN for crying out loud.”

“You're on Yahoo too!” Pat added. “That's where we saw it!”

“Oh god what did they say there?”

“Well I don't remember, do you really think my attention span is that long? What did they say about you on msn?” He scoffed. Garrett and Kennedy followed in as we re-adjusted so everyone could see my screen while we were on the bed. We started the second video again and watched it all the way through.

“Look at you two, turning matching shades of red. You're so funny when you're embarrassed.” Kennedy laughed at the screen. John and I looked at each other, trying not to laugh at our on screen reactions.

“What did the article say?” Garrett asked once the clip was over.

I read it to him, hearing it for the second time myself.

“Well that doesn't sound too bad.” He responded, shrugging his shoulders.

I went to Yahoo, and the headline there was “A Valentine's Day Surprise for Beret Emerson.” I clicked the link, which had the same two videos and a very similar article. I breathed a sigh of relief-- no smear campaigns going on there. I'm sure Alice would be pleased.

“Hey John, speaking of this being, well, everywhere, we should maybe talk.” I looked over at John, a little nervous.

“Want us to leave?” Kennedy asked.

“Uh we'll go with yes just to be safe.” John responded.

“Bye lovebirds.” Garrett teased as they walked out.

“So...” I started in. Awkward. Didn't know where to take that question. “John?”

“Yes?” He studied me warily.

“You realize being with me is going to change things, right?” I chewed nervously on my lip, suddenly anxious about a thought that had crossed my mind.

“Well yeah, we're together. Of course that changes things.” He didn't seem to understand what I meant.

“That's not what I mean.”

What are you talking about?” He looked at me, confused.

“Like, your life might become a lot more public. People follow me around constantly and write all sorts of shit about me and I don't know, I'm just worried you'll get dragged into it.”

“Did you think I hadn't thought about that?” His face held an unreadable expression.

“I don't know, I just....” I trailed off.

“Look, Beret. I've thought about it. And I know that it may happen. But just because it may happen shouldn't stop us from doing what feels right. I'm sure there are ways to keep our relationship more private, whether it's spending most of our time outside of Los Angeles or whatever, but we can make it work. Maybe it'll be a bit of a shock to start with but I'll get used to it.” He pulled me close and kissed my forehead.

I cuddled close to him, not saying anything as we stayed there.

“It's getting late, and we have to be up early for the morning show before we drive to Duluth. You should get some sleep.” He smiled, brushing his thumb along my cheek.

“So should you.” I gently smiled at him. “Are you with Jared again tonight?”

“Yup, him and Tessa.”

“You'd think they would have given Jared the room to himself since he had Tessa coming.”

“Well she surprised him, so he didn't know and it would have clued him in if he had the room to himself.”

“She surprised him? That's so cute!” I gushed. “Aww, I bet he's such a happy camper.”

“Yeah, he is. If you know what I mean.” John smirked, causing me to make a face.

“Eew, I don't want to think about that.”

“Neither do I.”

“You're the one who brought it up!”

“Well let's just forget that part then.” He waved his hands, laughing. “Anyways, you sounded like you were going to say something else before I cracked that joke.”

“Well, I was going to suggest that you stay here, but now I don't know...” I teased.

“That sounds like a good plan.” He sprawled out onto the bed. “Less moving for me.”

“I was going to sleep there.” I pouted as I began turning off lamps.

“We could share?” He gave me his cutest grin, knowing there was no way I could resist.

I crawled into bed with him, turning off the last lamp. He rolled over, kissing me one last time, then sprawled out on his back again. I laid my head on his chest, the soft thumping of his heart lulling me to sleep.