The casual buzz of people floated through the shop as Kim sipped on her latte. She had been here for over thirty minutes and was simply sitting and thinking.
She observed the people at the shop, everyone had something to do, something to eat, and someone to talk to. It infuriated her that all these people could be so happy with their lives while she was in the middle of a financial crisis.
She frowned especially when she noticed a few love birds all cozied up together. Kim had been here for over thirty minutes and had been nursing one drink for all that time, which was a reminder she needed to order another one.
She signaled the waiter, a cute guy with wavy blond hair. If he were a few million dollars richer, she probably would have swooned over him. Her mind was whirling around when the waiter placed another piping hot latte in front of her.
She didn’t touch the cup immediately. Kim had come here to think and thinking was what she had been doing since she got here.
The plan she had concocted to get Damon to be with her had not been successful and the shadow of a scowl crossed her face as she thought about it.
She didn’t know why Damon had to be so difficult about everything, and now thanks to him, she was back at square one.
What Kim had in mind had been turning over in her head for ages, even when she had tried to get with Damon. At the time, it had seemed so unreasonable but now, she had no choice.
She had always fancied the idea of pushing Ruby out of Jaxon’s life and then taking her place. And she was going to do just that. But how?
She sipped on her latte as she continued to think. Jaxon was cold towards her, she had noticed it the few times she had been in his presence.
But that was probably because he didn’t know her very well, she told herself. She would have to find a way to get in close proximity to him regularly in order for her plan to succeed. And the only way to do that which came to mind was… Living with them.
This was where she had hit a stumbling block. How was she going to get Ruby to agree, no questions asked? Kim’s phone pinged in her purse and she pulled it out to check her notifications. As she scrolled, she remembered something that Ophelia had told her a while ago, and a light bulb went off in her head.
She would simply expose her relationship with Ruby. It was the perfect idea. Ophelia had once told her that when Ruby married Jaxon, the press had gone feral and started looking for information on Ruby which eventually led to her since they were close.
Ophelia had also told her the press had stalked her for weeks and were begging for interviews.
Kim didn’t remember much of what Ophelia said after that, but she remembered enough to get her plan in motion. She decided to do the press’s job and “accidentally” upload a picture of her and Ruby and explicitly state they were sisters. It couldn’t get easier than that.
Though Kim had to search really deep into her archives to find a picture of her and Ruby. She couldn’t remember the last time she and Ruby had done anything together, let alone take pictures with each other.
She chose a nice photo and then captioned it appropriately. Even a blind person could see the word sister in the caption. She uploaded the photo on her personal page.
She knew she would be fairly easy to find as there were snippets of where she lived on her page.
Kim leaned back on her chair as she lazily enjoyed the rest of her latte.
She was extremely satisfied with the plan and herself. There wasn’t much to do other than to sit and wait to see the results.
Kim’s phone pinged and she excitedly checked it thinking she would see loads of comments on it. It wasn’t even social media at all, but it was Ophelia who called. She sighed deeply before she pressed the receiver button.
“Hello,” she muttered impatiently. Her eyes widened a bit when she heard what Ophelia had said.
“Uh huh, yeah.”
“I’ll be coming home soon so see you then,” Kim told Ophelia through the phone and then ended the call. Kim signaled the waiter to bring her bill while she checked her phone one more time.
Still nothing.
She left the coffee shop and headed home.
When she got there, she noticed the cars parked were more than usual but she didn’t think anything of it.
She got out of the cab and just then, she started hearing clicks of cameras. She surveyed her environment sharply and saw paparazzi a short distance away from her and they were taking her pictures.
They were slowly advancing closer to her so she quickly rushed into the apartment complex.
As she rushed back to the apartment, Kim couldn’t help wanting to fist bump the air that her plan had succeeded. Or at least part of it
She got into the apartment and met Ophelia in the living room who gave her a quizzical stare.
“What?”
“How did you get past the press?” Ophelia asked her as she looked through one of the large windows.
“Oh, that. I made a break for it. When did they show up?” Kim asked.
“Almost thirty minutes ago,” Ophelia mumbled.
“I’m kind of worried, Kim.” She said again.
Just then, there was a heavy pounding on their door and Kim could hear the voices of reporters.
“Shit.” Ophelia let out. Kim watched her as she rushed to the doors and put all the locks in. Then she rushed around the house and checked the windows to make sure they were locked.
The voices of the reporters had increased but she couldn’t hear what they said because it sounded muffled. Who knew such a small photo could cause such a large reaction?