But Rina couldn’t keep that promise she’d made to Zayn for as long as she’d hoped. When he left, she returned to her room and threw herself on her bed, still in the bathrobe, staring up at the ceiling until her eyes hurt. She got up again and paced through her space, her head spinning from everything that had occurred.
Now that she was alone, Rina allowed all her feelings to come to the fore. It was the only time she would allow herself to be that way over the fashion show because that was all she could afford. Rina was certain that when it was morning, she would be ready to face the world, along with whatever it brought. But for now, she slid onto the floor and heaved out a loud sigh.
It was useless to question the past, especially since she’d left it behind. Still, Rina wished she hadn’t become friends with Kayla, and that she hadn’t married Finn. Her life wouldn’t have been that difficult, and crushing Kayla back in the entertainment industry would have been much easier if she’d seen her only as a rival and not a friend. There had just been too many variables, and it was hard to see things objectively.
Rina’s phone rang but she ignored it, folding herself into a spoon form on the ground, her feet touching her chest. She refused to cry, refused to shed a tear about the shards that had become of her career. But it hurt nevertheless, like a strong physical pain that scratched at her chest and threatened to overcome her. Rina didn’t give it the chance to, drowning out her repeatedly ringing phone as she got lost in herself, thinking of nothing yet everything.
The phone rang for the fifth time, and Rina groaned from the sound. It gave her a piercing migraine and she wished it would just stop. But she didn’t want to have to get up and walk around the bed to reach it, so she stayed still, bearing the repeated ringing as well as the pounding in her head. She must have slept off at some point, because the next time Rina became conscious of her surroundings, there was a loud banging on her door.
“Go away!” she whispered, wondering why no one would leave her alone just for that night. The banging didn’t cease, and Rina dragged herself from the ground, tightening the belt of the bathrobe around her frame as she sauntered to the door, her wine hair sticking all over the place. Arriving in the living area, she checked the spy hole to ensure it wasn’t some crazy member of the public that had managed to discover where she stayed, before pulling the door open.
George’s eyes, wide with panic, raked through Rina from her head to her toes. For his usual dramatic flare, he turned her around on the spot, checking her exposed skin before heaving a sigh of relief. He walked into the room, his trench coat billowing around him, settling into the couch and crossing his legs. “Now tell me in detail, Rina Powers, why you haven’t been picking up my calls all night.”
Sighing, Rina closed the door, stopping the night air from coming in before walking further into the room. She dropped onto the sofa opposite George and folded her legs against her chest. “Can we start with what you’re doing in my house in the middle of the night?” Her eyes reached for the clock hanging above the door, nearly popping out of their sockets when she discovered it was way past 1 am.
“I wouldn’t have had any reason to come all the way if you had picked up your phone!” He raised his hands in the air exasperatedly, almost looking like a character from a cartoon Rina used to see. If the situation had been any different, she would have doubled over in laughter. But now, she didn’t even have the energy to put up a smile. Not for the next couple of hours.
“I had a headache, and the calls were too loud.”
“I wanted to know if you were doing alright.”
“Now that you’ve confirmed that, I think you can return to whatever you were doing before you thought about me, or were you surfing through the internet? I haven’t had the time for that since I got back but now that you mention it…” she allowed her speech trail into silence as she got off the couch and walked in the direction of the hallway.
Suddenly, George shot out of his position and stepped into her path, blocking her from going any further. “Can we take this one after the other? First, I didn’t mention anything about the internet. And even though I think it’s a good place to start so we can be done with that tonight, how about we take a deep breath first and say how you really feel? You look so exhausted and I know by morning, it would all be gone. I know you that much, Rina Power. So, let’s make it lighter for you.”
“I’m tired,” she sighed. “I’m so tired of everything. But I can’t give up now. I need to take back all that is mine and I’m going to do it. But at that moment, standing before the crowd as they threw things at me and cussed me, I wanted to yell out in anger and frustration. But it would only have made things worse.”
“You’re right,” George muttered. “It would only have led to a whole different problem and it would have made things harder for you. But now that we are done with that, we can go ahead to read the articles and posts on the internet. We are going to need something strong for that, so how about you go get your phone while I mix something up in the kitchen?”
“George,” Rina called out, stopping him on his way to her kitchen.
“Yeah?”
“What about your partner? Is he fine with you staying out tonight?” George’s partner was a twenty-five-year-old artiste fairly popular. They’d fallen in love on a set where he was in charge of the artworks displayed in the movie.
“When I told him I thought you were in danger, he practically pushed me out the door.”