71 - THEY DON'T KNOW US

“What the hell is this?” I grabbed her phone instantly from her hand. It was a gossip blog post with the headline

*Fast rising business mogul Kyle Hart in a relationship with his employee, abuse of power or not?

I gasped at the headlines and began scrolling down her phone as Kyle was also peered, his mouth falling open in shock.

“What the hell” he echoed the words that were repeatedly running through my head. Then they were pictures, firstly it was the wedding photoshoot we did together at his friend’s fashion line, they were more pictures of us standing together in Lexington hall the day we came to inquire about the building and the straw that eventually broke the came’s back was both of us together and half naked at the beach.
Instantly, Dahlia pulled her phone from her hands throwing me a dirty look and from the looks of it, it was obvious she hated my guts and I didn’t care much about her , I didn’t know anything about her and the kind of relationship she had with Kyle but that wasn’t my problem at the moment.

“What the hell is going on Kyle, why are our pictures plastered over the internet?” I said to him and he looked at me mirroring the same shocked expression on my face.

“The whole hall is blowing up and everyone is talking about you guys – ”

Kyle barely let her finish before pulling me with him and we headed towards the event and immediately we arrived there, a hush fell through the entire crowd and unconsciously I slipped my hands from Kyle’s hold as everyone stared at us. My eyes caught Janine’s at the other end of the room and she was glaring at me, her eyes shooting lasers directly at mine while I still tried to control my beating heart. I could see everyone holding their phone and then staring at me to confirm if I was the one dressed in the white wedding dress and standing next to the prince of corporate finance. I could see them judging me, assessing to see whether I was worthy enough for him. I could see some scrunching their faces in disgust, whispering among themselves and throwing side glances at me. My whole body seemed to ignite with a haze that somehow felt unreal, like I wasn’t myself and I wasn’t the one standing right here next to Kyle, who for some reason I was scared to look at his expression. What was he thinking?

“I can’t do this” I said in a whisper but loud enough for Kyle to hear and I turned around, ready to dash out of this party and ultimately wishing I never came. Who was behind this? Who was following me around and taking pictures of everything I did with Kyle. I turned swiftly around but just as I left the hall, I bumped into Dahlia.

“You” she called, her tone laced with venom and I matched her stare “So are the rumors true?”

“What does it matter to you?” I fired back, this day was turning out to be more chaotic than I imagined

Dahlia stepped closer to me in a daring manner but I held my ground and the last thing I needed to be at that moment was to be intimidated by anyone especially her.

“I barely know you” I said to her

“So do I?”

“So what do you want?”

“I want to know if the rumors are true, I like Kyle and people of the same status should be together” she looked me dead in the eye without the tiniest blink itching at the corner and I scoffed at her statement.

“What if the rumors are true, what are you going to do about it?” I held her gaze fiercely even though I might have been trembling inside a little bit.

“Then I need to get rid of you one way or the other. I’ve known Kyle for a while and he likes shiny things and sometimes he might want to get distracted by less shiny things but he knows at the end of the day, people of the same status should be together”
That was the second time in the span of a few minutes that she had spewed that of her mouth with the intention to hurt me and it was working if I was being entirely honest.

“Cut it out Dahlia” I heard Kyle’s voice as he emerged beside me, and taking my hand in his while Dahlia stared, I could see her eyes squint in anger but she managed to maintain a neutral look as she pulled her eyes away from our hands and fixed them on him instead.

“Really Kyle – her?” she looked me up and down, the ‘her’ escaping her lips like a dirty word, but he ignored her and my heart fluttered as he pulled me with him till we were outside on the street and he held me in front of him

“I don’t care about any of that” he said

“Of course you don’t, you have nothing to lose. Did you see how they looked at me, like I’m not worthy enough to stand next to you – ”

“And I don’t care, I didn’t just start loving you Aria. We’ve been through a lot together and what makes you think I’m going to stop now because of a flimsy gossip blog”

Then he pulled me into his embrace, his hands wrapping around me so I could drown in his scent. He smoothed my hair down while I rested my head on his chest and it was the most peace I had felt through out the whole day.

“I’m here” he whispered to me “You can feel me and I can feel you, I’m here and I’m not going anywhere especially not because of what others think, they don’t know us and they never will”