The Reunion by Kayla Olson(15)
We make our way over, and Ford takes the lead. It’s impossible not to crack a smile when Ford focuses his full attention on you, and it turns out this is a good move: the execs aren’t exactly warm, but Ford is able to pull a hint of a smile out of three of them, and I count that a success. We keep it surface-level, keep it grateful, and then move on before it can turn flat.
By the end of the night, when things are winding down and the guests have emptied out by half, Ransom and I have chatted up almost everyone in the entire room but never quite managed to circle back around to each other. Bre and I are saying our goodbyes to Ford when Ransom finally makes his way over to us, close enough I feel heat radiating from his body even though we’re not technically touching. Somehow he smells even better than he did at the start of tonight; I silently scold myself for noticing.
I get the feeling he wants to say something, something for my ears only, but we never get a chance to break away from Bre and Ford on our way out.
“Tonight was great,” Ransom says, holding the door open as Bre and I climb into Jimmy’s car, leaving me to wonder what he would have said to only me, alone.
It’s a quiet ride home—Bre and I used all our words on everyone else, apparently. She’s got a contented smile on her face, eyes closed. I watch the streetlights pass, listen to the gentle hum of the highway. Tonight really was a good one.
We’re almost back to her place when she says quietly, “I’m right, you know.”
I look out the window to hide my smile, and to hide the way it falls.
“I’m gonna need the whole story if you continue to deny all the feelings,” she adds when I say nothing. “Maybe you don’t have them, but I’m telling you, he totally does.”
Aside from my mother, Bre knows more about my personal life than anyone else, but even she doesn’t know everything. For the first time in fourteen years, part of me wants to talk about Ransom—how close we were before we suddenly weren’t—if only to have someone there to help me untangle the thorns from my scars, to help me figure out if something’s still alive in there after all.
“Jimmy, just take us both back to my place, please,” I say, and he nods at me in the rearview mirror.
Bre lets out a little squeal, revived from near sleep in the seat beside me. “I hope you have popcorn in that gigantic pantry of yours,” she says. “I was so excited tonight I kind of forgot to eat.”
Spotted: Ransom Joel Flying Solo at Fanline Party
By Zenia DiLitto // Editor in Chief, Pop Culture, DizzyZine.com
Hello, hello, my lovely Spinners—anyone care to play a little game of speculation with yours truly?
If you’re like me (and if you’re here, chances are you totally are), you’ve spent all night spiraling down a rabbit hole of hashtags devoted to the incredibly heart-eyes-worthy Girl on the Verge party thrown by streaming giant Fanline—and you also may have noticed this little nugget dropped over at Sunset Central about how Ransom Joel inexplicably arrived without longtime girlfriend Gemma Gardner on his arm.
I know, I KNOW—THE HOPE, right?? Nothing against Gemma, she’s lovely, but the prospect that Ransom Joel might be single again after all this time is just… yeah, I’m gonna need a drink of water, stat. Especially on the heels of the engagement rumors that leaked a few weeks ago, this was an unexpected twist.
Well, sorry to burst our collective bubbles, friends—my guess is he won’t stay single for long. Ransom was spotted leaving the party alone at the end of the night, but the luminous Liv Latimer, BFF Bre Livingston, and Ford Brooks were right on his heels.
So! I’m not saying there’s reason to read into any of this, but I’m not not saying that, either. Between Ransom flying solo tonight and the way he was spotted getting rumor-worthy close to Liv on the red carpet earlier (h/t to Brandon Alexander, photo used with permission, original photo here), it’s safe to assume everyone’s favorite TV couple spent at least a bit of the evening reminiscing about old times. At any rate, it doesn’t look particularly good for Gemma. Maybe there’s trouble in paradise after all? A girl can only hope!
(Sorry, Gemma.)
Drop your most elaborate conspiracy theories in the comments below, aaaaand… go!
5
Bre plucks the giant bag of freshly popped popcorn from my microwave and dumps it all in a bowl. We’ve both ditched our dresses for oversized sweatshirts and Lululemons—fortunately, we wear the same size, and I have plenty of extras on hand.
“Seriously, you’ve got to learn to live a little.” Bre’s muffled voice comes from the pantry, where she rummages amid packages of rice cakes and nori and rolled oats. “Please tell me you have some M&M’s somewhere in here?”
“There might be some tiny packages leftover from Halloween last year?”
“Like I said”—she laughs—“you’ve got to live a little. Either dump it all in some lucky kid’s plastic pumpkin or eat it all yourself before eight months pass. Aha!” She reemerges, triumphantly holding an unopened bar of gourmet dark chocolate. “Not what I had in mind, but this’ll be even better. You’re not saving it for anything, I assume?”
“Forgot I even had it,” I say, and she laughs.
We settle onto the chaises on my patio, the bowl of popcorn between us on the low glass table. Bre chopped the chocolate up and mixed it throughout, along with a dash of salt.