I'll Tell You Mine If You Tell Me Yours (G)

“Thank you so much for doing this,” Ivy Bangle told me before we went live.

I was familiar with this song-and-dance. Ms. Bangle assumed that by acting all nice now, I wouldn’t remember when she'd cornered me to get that ‘hot scoop’. It had been a bad day for me, everyone having already seen the viral clip of me with Kilson Caine, pushing him away. The last thing I’d needed was some lady pressing me for questions.

And I hadn’t forgotten that.

“I’m here for Jasper,” I said in an even tone, “not you.”

She sighed wearily. “I know. But I do appreciate it.”

“Gracie!” My Sunshine waltzed into the room. “Are you ready for this?”

I smiled for him. “Of course.”

The one thing I hated about public appearances were the damn lights. For some dumbass reason, no one ever got them quite right, so I was left fluttering my eyes like a movie character about to collapse. I should have bought those sunglasses at the beach, yet didn’t think I could pull them off, though it might have been worth it to see Jasper in them. He was always so sexy in shades. . .

Wait, what was I doing?

“We are DynaLive at the studio with pop star Grace Skybain and her boyfriend. . .” She paused as she read from her script, frowning.

“Just Jasper is fine,” my bashful boyfriend hurried to say.

I was tempted to tease him, but I knew how much he hated his name. I’d asked about it once, and he went on a rant that had lasted an hour, complete with visual aids and everything. Well, ‘visual aids’ meant more like a mini whiteboard and my hoard of stuffed animals all at his disposal. He was so adorable when he got worked up, and if that meant Fuzzy Pants had an acting gig, so be it.

“So how are you guys today?”

“I’m with my girlfriend,” Jasper said. “I’d say I’m freaking awesome.”

“Oh, shut up, lover boy,” I scoffed.

“But I’m your lover boy, Sky.”

Ivy frowned. “Sky?”

“One of my nicknames for her.” He smiled, happy to show off his creativity.

“How long have you two been together?”

“Officially or unofficially?” I asked.

We had technically been together for months before he finally got his head out of his ass to ask me out. Every day, either one or the other would be there for something. One day, Jasper missed my texts, and I went to his place to find him feverish. After getting the soup and shit ready, I was finally able to sit and watch him. Even sleeping, he was so handsome, and I couldn’t help but place a hand on his forehead—just to check for a fever. As if pulled by a string, his hand grabbed mine.

“What are you doing?” he slurred, still half-asleep.

“Taking care of you.”

His eyes grew shocked. “Really?!”

I smiled. “Of course.”

“Wow.” He grinned back. “If being sick is what it takes to get you this close, I should do it more often.”

Ivy’s voice pulled me from my sweet memories. “We’ll say officially.”

“About two months.”

Ivy took enough notes to make a schoolteacher proud. Given that this whole thing was recorded, I didn’t see much of a point in writing stuff down. I mean, unless it was to help her remember in the moment, like me with my sticky notes. Every now and again, Jasper found a fallen reminder on the floor, and each time he would carry it to its honorable end at the hands of the trash can.

“So, I know everyone is probably curious.” She paused for effect. “How did you two meet?”

Oh, I was not keen on that subject. It hadn’t exactly been my finest moment, and I wasn’t keen on reliving it just yet. Jasper, however, loved talking about it. He turned to me now, that grin of ‘haha, remember that time?’ plastered on his annoyingly sexy face.

“Sorry, Ivy,” Jasper said, humor littering his tone. “I don’t think Grace wants to answer that one, right now.”

She blinked. “Alright. How did you two end up together?”

Now it was my turn to smirk. That day was one of the biggest ‘oops’ days I’d ever been a part of. I watched in satisfaction as the color mottled his pretty cheeks, but I wasn’t quite done with him just yet.

“Aww, come on, baby! It’s one of my favorites.” And I fucking winked at him.

But I was forgetting just how far he would go to avoid losing, even in a verbal taunt. I made the mistake of challenging him to a pillow fight once, and while I was gunning for him, he created an entire fortress of furniture. Then again, we later used that hideout to relax together, staring up at the stars. In reality, we were looking at a night light, but it still felt special.

“How about this,” Jasper said, leaning over. “You can tell that story if I can tell them our first.”

I’d forgotten my Sunshine had never been on television before. I rushed to clarify what he’d meant, but I just knew someone was going to take that line out of context and, honestly?

He kind of deserved that one.

I sighed. “Fine.”

“Great, I’ll go—”

“Yeah, no way, sweet potato,” I said. “This is my time.”

He gave me a dramatic salute, looking away as if that would hide the blush coating his skin.

“So we had already known each other for a while, right?” I started.

“How long?” Ivy asked, cutting off the flow of my story completely.

“At least a year,” I replied. “Anyway, we were at my place for dinner. He had insisted on taking over the kitchen, and I kinda suck at cooking, so I let him do his thing.”

“Not five minutes goes by before I hear a giant crash and flour goes everywhere. Once again, he tells me not to worry about it. About halfway through the meal, I tried to give him his recipe book, but he brushed me off, so I just kept it. Then I waited a long time—like a long time—before he finished cooking me the best steak I’d ever tasted.”

Ivy turned to Jasper. “Wait, you cook?”

He blinked. “I mean, I dabble in it.”

“Dabble, my ass,” I scoffed. “You’re fucking awesome.”

“Mmm, pretty sure that’s your job, Sky.”

“Smooth, Sunshine.” I blinked. “Wait, what was I talking about? Oh! Jasper being an adorable fool! Right!”

“Hey!”

“Anyway,” I went on, “the whole time I’m eating, Jasper is nervously peeking at me. Figuring there was something in the steak, I slowed down. Though it was delicious, Ivy. You don’t understand. Wait, I’m losing the topic again.”

“So I reach the end and he is just confused. He tries to take the last little bit from me so he can find whatever the hell was supposed to be in there, but no one touches my steaks. Except, now he’s in my way, so what do I do?” I paused for effect. “Well, I slapped him with it, obviously.”

I waited for the laughter to die down before I continued. “Now, by this point, he’s given up and goes on this rant about how I’m the most marvelous, unique, and brazen woman he’d ever seen and that he would die if he had to spend another day with me not at least knowing he liked me. Apparently, he’d had it all in this little note that was supposed to go in the steak, but he didn’t know where it went.”

I leaned forward. “So I grabbed the recipe book, flipped it to the first page, and said in the driest tone I could muster: ‘you mean this one’?”

As the place filled with laughter, I relished in the energy. Nothing left me more fulfilled than entertaining others. It felt even better to share that moment with my dazzling sun. I was so lost in the feeling that I almost missed Jasper leaning back, that smirk of utter trouble on his face.

“And that, kids,” Jasper said, “Is how I harnessed the Sky.”

He turned to Ivy. “And she’s telling it wrong. It wasn’t a recipe book. It was a notepad I used to write down all the beautiful things she told me for future reference.”

I nearly choked on my laughter. “It was not!”

He sobered. “Actually, it was. You talked so fast back then that I had to take notes to keep up.”

Jasper looked so relaxed in the interview chair, and I forgot why I had been worried for him. My boyfriend was so great that he even made talk shows fun, and that was a fucking hard thing to do. Since I was so busy looking at him, I forgot about all the lights, and because he was supporting me, I felt comfortable in a way I never had before. That is, until he sat up straight, eyes focused—a man on a mission.

“Now,” he announced, “it’s my turn.”