“Ok, what happened?” Caroline asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Elena, you’re baking. You only bake when you’re really upset.”
Elena sighed heavily and put down her mixing. “My publicist called me this morning.”
Caroline nodded. “What did she say?”
“Ok you know how it’s kind of an urban legend that celebrities will fake date each other for publicity reasons?”
“Uh-huh…”
“Well my publicist wants me to fake date someone,” Elena admitted, “in fact she’s already agreed to it so I have no choice.”
“Who does she want you to fake date?”
“Niklaus Mikaelson.”
Caroline’s jaw dropped. “Niklaus Mikaelson? Like notorious rockstar never-met-a-bottle-of-whiskey-or-a-slutty-girl-he-didn’t-like Niklaus Mikaelson?”
“That would be the one.”
“Why on Earth would your publicist want you to date him?”
“Well apparently his people called mine and practically begged us to agree to it. I guess his image needs a serious overhaul and they think dating me will help make it better. He’s going to come with us on our press tour and we just have to make appearances together and act like we’re madly in love.”
“So what’s in it for you?”
“Well,” Elena said, “he has agreed to give two million dollars to my charity.”
“You must really love those puppies,” Caroline said, “but I suppose it won’t be completely awful. I guess he’s attractive at least.”
“Yeah. And he’s my costar in my next film, so I have to get to know him eventually. “I just wish that—“ Elena stopped, her eyes lighting up with another thought, “you should come with me!”
“Wait what?” Caroline blinked.
“Come on, I need someone there who is normal. I’ll be surrounded by my manager and publicist and Klaus and his entourage, I’m going to need someone to keep me sane.”
“Europe?” Caroline shook her head. “I can’t go to Europe.”
“Come on, what else do you have going on?”
“Hey!” Caroline shot back indignantly.
“I didn’t mean it like that!”
“I’ll have you know that I have the Miss Mystic pageant I have to start planning for and kid’s cheerleading camp to coordinate next month and my work at the city council office and not to mention Tyler. I think he might propose soon.”
“Oh my gosh really?” Elena said, “I didn’t know it was so serious with you guys. But I guess you have been together forever.”
“Exactly!” Caroline nodded.
“You’re right. You have a life. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ask you to drop everything for me.”
Caroline felt bad. She listed the reasons she gave in her head for not wanting to leave. But truthfully, none of them seemed that important to her. The pageant wasn’t for months, and cheerleading camp could survive without her, and Tyler…
“What time is the flight tomorrow?”
Elena brightened. “Really?”
“Yes,” Caroline replied, “I mean what girl doesn’t want to be whisked away on a dream vacation to Europe. Granted, it would be better if you were a cute guy.”
Elena threw her arms around Caroline joyfully and hugged her tight. “This is going to be so much fun! We’ll shop and eat and there will be cute guys and it will be the best summer ever!”