Spinning scandal is what Sahr Youssef does best. When Zain Hashemi's father hires her to fix his playboy son's image, that's all he's supposed to be: another troubled client. That is, until the friction between them shifts - into chemistry.
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Bzzzzz bzzzzzz. Bzzzzz bzzzzzz.
Zain slowly opened his eyes as the sound of his cell phone vibrating woke him up.
There was barely any light peeking through the crack in the hotel room's curtains, which meant it was early. Annoyed by the early morning wake up call, he untangled an arm from underneath the sheets and reached for his phone which lay on the nightstand, careful not to wake the woman who was fast asleep beside him.
He squinted as he tried to see who was calling, the brightness from the screen making his eyes hurt.
It was an unknown number, and for a second Zain was tempted to decline the call and go back to sleep, but he hit accept and brought the phone up to his ear.
"Hello?" he whispered.
"Good morning Mr Hashemi I'm Jude Keller." the caller said. "I'll be your assistant at Hashemi Industries. Your father asked me to call and make sure you were up and ready for your meeting with Miss Youssef this morning."
"There's a meeting this morning?" Zain asked.
"Uh, yes sir."
Fuck.
"What time?"
"Eight o'clock sir."
Zain checked the time on his phone. It was seven o'clock.
Double fuck.
"Sir?" Jude said when Zain didn't respond.
"Uh, right sorry. I'll be there." Zain said. "Uh......yeah, tell my dad I'll be there. And Jude?"
"Yes sir?"
"Thanks for calling."
"Of course sir." Jude said. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"No thank you. That'll be all."
Zain hung up with Jude and began getting out of bed. He froze when he heard the woman next to him beginning to stir.
"Good morning." she said, her voice still thick with sleep.
"Morning." Zain said. "Did I wake you?"
"Oh, no." the woman said. She looked at him sitting on the edge of the bed. "Planning an early morning escape are we?" she asked, smiling at him lazily.
"Uh, no." Zain said, laughing nervously. "Um, I've got a meeting actually, and I'm gonna be late if I don't get going, so...."
"It's ok." she said chuckling. "I know the drill. Most people aren't fans of the morning after one night stand talk, so I get it."
Zain smiled at her apologetically. "I'm really sorry." he said, hopping out of bed to search for his clothes. He found his boxers and his pants and pulled them on. "I really wanted to sleep in. But I got hit with this meeting and....I've gotta go now.".
"That's too bad." she said, taking the opportunity to admire his bare torso before he found his shirt and pulled it on, the muscles in his arms and back flexing from the motion. "You know you're even hotter in the morning, now that I'm sober."
Zain laughed. "Thanks." he said, grabbing his wallet and his keys. "Uh, listen, I have to go, but the room is paid for and check out's at one ok? So feel free to stay here until then."
"Cool." she said, snuggling back down under the sheets. "Hey good luck at your meeting."
"Thanks." Zain said, heading out the door.
I'm going to need it he thought as he checked the time on his phone. 7:20am. He had forty minutes to get to that meeting. In rush hour traffic. In downtown Manhattan.
Triple fuck.
*****
"Press conference?"
"No."
"Say nothing?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"It's gotta be something in between."
"Like what?"
Sahr sighed. She'd been standing in front of the board in the conference room for the past hour with Derek, Lin, and Anne, trying to finalize the details for Zain's media strategy, and she was beginning to get frustrated.
"Well what's wrong with a press conference?" Anne asked.
"It's too much." Sahr replied. "He's just starting out. He hasn't done anything yet. It's too big of a spotlight."
"So then why say anything at all? Why not stay quiet?"
"It'll look odd." Derek said. "Like we're trying to sneak him in through the back door. Like we're hiding something."
"Aren't we?" Anne asked. "Trying to hide something I mean?"
"No." Lin said. "But we don't want him center stage either."
"Well then where do we want him?" Anne asked.
"Through the front door." Sahr said. "We just don't want a big fuss when we do it. That's why we can't have a press conference, but it's also why we can't not do anything at all."
"So then...?"
"So then we find a way in between." Derek said. "We just need to figure it out."
All four of them stood there, staring at the board, hoping the solution would present itself.
After a few minutes Lin spoke up.
"What about a press release?" she suggested. "Business section. New York Times. It's in the media, it's relevant, but it's not too much."
"I like that." Sahr said. "It's perfect Lin. Good job. Alright get started on that. Anne, my meeting?"
"He's still not here." Anne said. "I've called his assistant four times but he can't get a hold of him. I think if I call again the poor guy's gonna start crying."
"I don't know about the assistant but his boss will definitely be crying by the time I'm through with him." Sahr said. "He's an hour late. I-"
She was cut off by the sound of the intercom on the conference table ringing.
"Yes?" she said, pressing down on the button to attend the call.
"Miss Youssef," Carol the receptionist said "I'm sorry for interrupting but there's a man out here in the lobby. He says he has a meeting with you. His name is Zain Hashemi."
Speak of the devil.
"Send him to my office Carol." Sahr said. "I'll be there in a minute."
