Next One Is a Babe

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Aurora could tell just by looking at Ian that he was struggling to figure things out on his end, but she did not ask him for details. After all, he could only be thinking about all the gossip flying around in cyberspace or his recent tiff with Cindy. Seeing as she could not help him with either of these, Aurora would rather keep her nose out of his business.

She spun around and left for the kitchen so she could get started on their dinner.

When he saw that she had left, he got up and closed the door. Then, upon returning to bed, he leaned against the headboard and grabbed his phone.

He scrolled through his phone log and stopped to fix his eyes on Cindy’s number, his thumb hovering hesitantly above it.

Hannah had said that she would put the news out in the next two days and she wanted Ian and Cindy to be ready for it.

Of course the one thing I was worried about would happen, he thought witheringly. He was petrified that Hannah would randomly ask him to put on a lovey-dovey act with Cindy and his worries came true before he knew it.

He paused for what seemed like ages and after realizing that he had no other choice, he clenched his jaw and dialed Cindy’s number.

Ian’s heart raced as he waited for Cindy to answer the call and he could practically hear his heartbeat in his ears.

Cindy’s line was not picked up. A few beats had passed, long enough for him to wonder if she was as hesitant and nervous as he was.

The ringing continued, but just as he thought it would be transferred to voicemail, someone picked up.

“What is it?” She sounded unaffected by this abrupt phone call as her voice filled the other line.

For a minute, Ian was at a loss for words. He honestly had no idea what came over him; words had never quite so suddenly abandoned him as they did now.

Cindy sighed in exhaustion. “Ian? Are you drunk again?”

That was enough to pull him out of his thoughts, and he hastily replied, “No, I called to talk to you about something.” When all he heard was silence on her end, he licked his lips and added, “Did Hannah call to tell you about what the company plans to do?”

A few seconds later, Cindy hummed in response. “She did mention that the company plans on releasing tidbits to the media to distract them and she wants me to work with you to see that through.”

Upon hearing this, Ian felt the knot in his chest loosen and he was no longer as hesitant to get to the point of this call. “So, what do you think? Do you want to come over to my place, or should I go over to yours?”

It went without saying that she would never let him go to her place. She was staying in a small town with conservative values and any girl who was caught bringing a boy home would become headline news in less than a day.

If they ever went their separate ways, there was no telling the scathing remarks she would have to endure from the townspeople if they saw her with a different guy.

Moreover, as things were, Ian couldn’t very well show up in or be any part of her life, not while he was still a celebrity anyway.

After weighing all these factors, Cindy finally said, “I’ll go over to your place. Send me the address.”

He let out a sigh of relief. As it turned out, things weren’t as hard as he had imagined them to be. See, we managed to come to an agreement in less than a minute! He agreed to send her his address, but while he was debating whether he should ask her how she was doing, she hung up.