Damage Control

chapter 7

I was walking out of my LGBTQ+ in medieval literature when a man with a suit approached me.

"Alexandra Thomas?" he asked.

"Who's asking?" I responded, feeling my heartbeat increase.

The man pulled out his business card and handed it to me. Starr Management it read with the name Joe Daphnis at the bottom along with a few phone numbers.

I inhaled sharply. "You're-"

Joe shook his head and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me along with him and ignoring my cries of protest.

We walked outside into the courtyard and across it to the main road. And the entire time, I was trying to free myself but the man had a grip like iron.

A sleek black car with tinted windows was waiting for us by the student parking lot. When we came closer, the door opened from the inside and I was shoved it.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" I shouted as the door closed. I pressed myself against it, trying to jiggle the handle open. But no avail. I was kidnapped.

A quiet chuckle pulled me from my attempts and I saw Hadyn Michaels sitting on the side. The car wasn't a limo, but the interior was certainly designed like it was. There wasn't rows of seats like a regular car, but instead seats facing inward around the perimeter. In the center was a glass table with various glasses and liquors on the bottom with folded napkins.

"I just got deja vu," Hadyn commented. He saw my panicked expression and sighed. "This wasn't my idea."

I glared at him. "But here you are," I replied, crossing my arms.

He looked amazing, as per usual. He wore black jeans and a tight gray shirt with sunglasses clipped to the collar. His golden-green eyes twinkled with both amusement and remorse.

"You paid off my loans," I stated.

Hadyn raised a brow. "I couldn't just leave you without anything in return," he replied.

My mouth opened and I stuttered trying to get out a reply over my rage. "I'm not a prostitute, Hadyn. You don't need to pay me for-"

He shook his head. "I know, I know. But you let me stay the night and fed me and I messed up. Just, calm down. It was really nothing, alright?"

"It's not nothing to me," I growled.

We glared at each other in silence for a few moments before the car stopped and the door opened again. Joe came inside, shut the door, and patted the screen separating us from the driver and we were moving again.

"Sorry for the rude beginning," Joe said, calmly. He glanced at Hadyn who sighed in response. "But we need to always be a step ahead of the press. This is the first step, Alexandra."

"Kidnapping me was the first step?" I demanded. "Look, I get that this is your job. And that's fine, I respect that. But I'm a college student. I don't want the spotlight, I don't want any of this!"

The two men looked at me. Hadyn with sympathy and Joe with a steely, neutral expression.

"If we just leave you alone like you wish, your life will change for the worse," Joe explained. "The paps will find you. They'll twist you into the bad guy here. They'll label you as the slut that Hadyn cheated on poor Macy with."

"Hadyn slept with me! It takes two to tango, buddy," I cried.

Hadyn shook his head. "They won't paint it like that, even though that's what happened. You know the media. They love to pin it on the women."

No matter how difficult it seemed, Hadyn was right. Without interference, I would be the bad guy. Being a girl was the worst, sometimes.

I let out a heavy sigh, biting my lip. "So what are you going to do?"

Joe straightened up, as if he had been preparing for that exact question. He pulled out a blue folder from his satchel and opened it on the table. The folder contained photos, a thick packet, another packet with screenshots of drafted tweets, and a bunch of other things I didn't understand.

"Hadyn is going to post on his Instagram that things didn't work out with Macy. That things haven't been in a long time," Joe explained. He looked at Hadyn who nodded and pulled out his phone. "Macy will do the same thing, if she hasn't already."

Hadyn unlocked his iPhone and stared at it for a few seconds, tapping. "There," he said, after a moment. "I posted it."

Joe grimly nodded. "Alright," he replied, leaning forward and pinching the bridge of his nose. He closed his eyes and exhaled.

"C'mon, man," Hadyn sighed. "This is the first time I've ever messed up."

"I told you to be more careful," Joe snapped. "You were getting too loose, anyways." He paused and looked at man he had managed for years. "It's alright, Hadyn. This is a learning experience."

Hadyn bit his lip and looked at me. I tried not to stare at his lips (or think about how soft they were). He offered me an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry."

I didn't respond, but rather gave him a look. "So what do you need me to do?"

"Do you have any form of social media?" Joe asked.

I had downloaded Instagram about two years ago. Sure, I posted a bunch back then, when I actually had friends and a life. But seeing all my friends in college, living it up proved to be too much. I couldn't take seeing certain people enjoying their carefree college experiences , partying and drinking. Once, I had been like that.

Needless to say, I deleted the app months ago. If anybody needed to reach me, they had my number.

"No," I answered.

Joe nodded. "Alright, good. That'll make your life easier. They won't be able to find you." He paused a took a breath. "Alexandra. We've been working since the beginning of his career nine years ago to build Hadyn's media personality. Let me just ask you, before you two met, what did you know about him?"

I glanced at the actor himself, who kept his expression neutral. But the way his lips were slightly pressing together, I could tell he was curious.

"I knew that he was the Fangs of Passion actor," I began, looking at my hands folded in my lap. "That he was dating Macy Hawthorne. He had a lot of shirtless and romantic scenes in the show, which made him instantly become an icon..." I trailed off.

"But you've never heard of him in the tabloids, right?" Joe pressed.

I tried to remember anything about Hadyn that I had read. "I mean, other than his fancy vacations with Macy or street style or TV stuff, no. Not really."

Joe nodded, as if that's the answer he was looking for. "Exactly," he said. "There has never been anything badly written about Hadyn. The paps love him. The fans love him. The press loves him. I'm a pretty liberal guy, and I get that one night stands happen. But to millions of teenage girls, that's pretty harsh stuff. Especially after he 'broke up' with Macy."

This was all buildup to something he wanted. And judging by Hadyn's stoic face, I could tell that he knew exactly what Joe was getting at.

"We want you to come forward as Hadyn's new girlfriend," Joe announced.

And then all hell broke loose. 

a/n: woohooooo

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