The price of Fame

ALEXANDRA'S POV

My phone buzzed. Once. Twice.

What the hell was it this time?

I groaned and rolled over in bed, my eyes lids heavy.

One thing I hated most was people disturbing my sleep after a night of work.

Groaning, I reached over to my bedside table and I grabbed my phone, struggling to focus my eyes on the bright screen.

Missed calls. Lots of them and messages too.

What? What happened? Did I win the lottery or something?

I decided to check my missed calls. Sarah, Ethan, and Piper.

My eyes widened. Piper?! Why had she called? She was out on a business trip with her boss, wasn't she? She never called during those times so whatever she called about had to be fucking important.

I quickly opened her messages first.

“Girl, you better call me before I lose my mind” followed by an angry face emoji.

I smiled at that. This was probably just one of her shenanigans to get me riled up so I quickly dialed her number.

After just a ring, she picked up the phone call.

“Were you expecting my call?” I teased, leaning back on my pillows.

“Where the hell did you keep your phone?! I was calling you all day!” She yelled into the phone.

“It's 4 in the morning here in New York, Piper, you know I'm not with my phone” I reminded her.

She took a long drag of breath before she continued. “Right. Still doesn't mean anything!” She huffed.

I held back a laugh. God, I missed her. She was my childhood friend and best friend. Not like I had many friends.

“So tell me, did you miss me so much that you had to call?” I said groggily into the phone, a stupid smile on my face.

Fuck, I was so sleepy. I relaxed gently on the bed, my eyelids still drooping.

As much as I missed her, this conversation better come to an end soon or I'd sleep off in the middle of it.

There was a pause on the other end before she spoke in a cool and collected voice. “Seriously, Alex? Ethan Warner?”

My eyes shot up and I sat up. “what?”

“Lexi, you better tell me everything that happened in the two days I wasn't home! Seriously? I leave for two days and then I find out you're dating Ethan freaking Warner?!” She all but screamed into the phone.

Sleep was far gone from me and I had begun to panic. How did she know that?

“Piper, who said that?” I asked, my voice shaking.

“Said what? That my best friend left me in the dark?” She asked with a sarcastic tone to her words.

“Who the fuck told you that I was with Ethan Warner?” I asked through gritted teeth.

She sighed. “It's all over the news and I had to book a flight back immediately so you have a lot of explaining to do, Miss”

“Yeah yeah, sure” I muttered, still disoriented then I hung up, my heart pounding.

It's all over the news?

I checked through the messages and all of them were about the same topic. Ethan Warner.

My fingers shook as I went online to look at the supposed news and right there in the headlines was a “Ethan Warner spotted with Alexandra Thompson. A mistake or real?”

Holy shit.

I quicklime clicked on the article and sure enough, there was a photo of him and I talking outside the company and then heading to his car.

The pictures didn't even look incriminating! What the hell was this?!

Fucking hell.

I threw the duvet away from my body and quickly checked through Ethan's message.

“Seems we have a little problem, Miss Thompson” it simply read.

Little?!

I almost shrieked. That was my career on the line!

Without wasting time, I grabbed my phone and called him, hoping he would be awake.

Sure enough, just when I was beginning to lose hope, he picked up the call.

“Yes, Miss Thompson? I assume you've seen the articles and my text which is why you decided to call me” he said, his voice sounding strained.

I paused, wondering what he was doing. “What are you doing first?”

There was a huff on his end before he replied. “What do you think productive people do really early in the morning?”

“Um, sleep” I offered.

“Sleep, no, I was just holding out my breath waiting for your call” his tone dripped with sarcasm. “Just so you know, Miss Thompson, some of us have actual work to do. I'm working out”

Oh.

“Okay uh… the article… you can bring it down, can't you?” I asked, biting my nails while waiting for a response.

“I can”

I sighed in relief. “Thank fuck for that”

“But I won't”

Well, there goes my hopes dashing against the rocks.

“What perfect way to announce the relationship than dropping hints to prepare people?” He asked.

“But not like this, I mean… you could tell them yourself. I mean..” I paused and cursed in my head.

I didn't even know what I meant again.

This was getting really annoying for me. “You're probably right but you're still wrong”

“So what happens now?” I forced myself to ask.

“What happens now is that you do whatever you want to do and come meet me in Sunshine Cafe by 10 am… wait..” he paused and I could hear him muttering something. “Yeah, 10 am works. Be there. We'll iron this out” and then he hung up.

Shit.

I sat back on the bed, burying my face in my hands. I should have known what I was signing up for when I accepted that ring.

Now, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go on, if there was one thing I hated, it was being put in the spotlight over things like this. I wasn't the type that enjoyed attention much anyway.

My phone beeped again and I was just about to scream at it when I saw it was a message from Ethan. He was the one who hung up, what now?

“Just a reminder, Miss Thompson. You're now a part of my world and in my world, secrets don't stay hidden for long”

I scoffed at that, throwing my phone face down on the bed.

That was such a pleasant way to welcome me into the family.