She was a bleached blonde, the bangs of her hair getting into her face as she sauntered closer to them, a sneer desperate to be expressed. Her lips were set grimly, but her eyes told another tale, like she was about to launch out the foulness in her if given the chance. The rest of the cafeteria drowned into nothingness as Rina focused on her, her long legs approaching the table. She was in a white two-piece suit that would have given each stride power if it hadn’t been for the expression on her face.
It was a twisted version of a mix of anger and hurt in an unbalanced proportion, and George must have noticed it as well as his hands reached across the table to tap Rina. She looked back at him to answer the question in his eyes. But before she could form the words, Regina was already right in their faces.
“I never thought you would be able to claw your way in here,” she drawled, with venom dripping from her tone. “You don’t seem to get it, Rina Powers. No one wants you in here. If the board of directors found out the doorman let you walk in like every Tom, Dick, and Harry, he is going to ensure you would never get ten feet around this building. So, I advise you to end your little chatter and find your way out of here before someone lets it slip that you are in the building.”
Rina angled her head, her hair falling to the side of her face. “Regina, don’t you think you are doing a whole lot more than your pay here? Scottsdale Entertainment would be quick to toss you out on the streets at the slightest hint of a scandal. So why don’t you try to keep your head focused rather than act like you were promoted around here?”
She wrapped her hands around her frame, showing her perfectly manicured nails. “Shouldn’t you worry about trying to keep the public from tossing eggs at you each time you appear before them”
“What?” Rina looked back at George with mild panic in her eyes. It would have gone unnoticed by Regina, but because she was close to George, it was hard to hide it away from him. No one should have known about the little scene in the kitchen. There were no pictures taken. At least, none that Rina had noticed. She had looked out for the flashlights of the camera as she had taken the dump, and found none.
“You thought we wouldn’t find out?” The chuckle that escaped her lips was cold.
“Find what out?” George was seeking.
She made a huge show of retrieving her phone from her purse, handed over to her by a trainee none of them had noticed until a second ago. Rina’s face appeared devoid of every emotion as Regina scrolled through the phone, before stopping at a post that made her grin devilishly. She handed Rina the phone with a mischievous glint in her eyes, leaning over so she could check it as well.
George waited for Rina to be done with it, her eyes giving nothing away before she handed over the phone to him. His eyes searched the picture in a quick glance. She was standing by the window of her kitchen, her head bowed to avoid the impact of the eggs being tossed at her. George was already looking for ways to arrange for damage control in his head as he went through the caption. It was posted by an anonymous account, probably because the person didn’t want anyone to know who was responsible for taking the shot. It was a cowardly act, but of course, Rina’s anti-fans wouldn’t see that.
“So?” Regina muttered, her wide grin slowly faltering as George handed the phone back to her. “I’m sure we wouldn’t mind that happening here again, but you are dressed for another occasion and I want you to preserve your outfit. And besides, you are putting on red bottoms. You wouldn’t want to ruin a pair of shoes that are as expensive as those.”
At that moment, Rina wished she had returned to her cottage to get her own stuff. She didn’t want to be in that space with anything that belonged to Zayn’s woman, past or present. “Like I said earlier,” Rina said without skipping a beat. “You should look after yourself more than worry about me, only if you have something else to say.”
Her eyes showed panic, but Regina blinked it away in one second, as she looked for the next exposed skin to sink her claws. “It’s more of glee than worry, you know?” She muttered. “But have fun being stuck in limbo. I don’t know how it feels and I fathom I would never know because I’m not the one who sleeps around to get her way through anything.”
“Regina!” George got up from his seat at once, glaring at her. There was a limit to the things he could watch happen, and anyone throwing back the rumors in Rina’s face was one of them.
“Why?” She shot back at him. “It’s not news that she slept with Joel Osteen to get her way into his fashion house, you know? I reckon you stay away from her before she sleeps with you to get you away from your partner. She’s desperate.”
“I think you have overstepped your bounds, Regina,” Rina breathed, getting on her feet. She knew it was going to be an uneven battle if she hurled any abusive words at Regina, but she felt anger building in the pit of her stomach and just had to have one in.
“So what are you going to do about that? You’ve got absolutely nothing, Rina, in case it hasn’t sunk. I’m up there, and you are… well, you are here. And I know that’s where you are going to be for as long as you remain so full of yourself.” Regina taunted.
Rina scoffed. “I should have realized you would be so pained when I kept on taking the lead roles right under your nose. But how am I to blame, when producers automatically preferred me to you?”