Chapter 6
1171 Words
JOE’S POV
Her heel slipped. One second, she was upright. The next, she was pitching forward, arms flailing like she was about to dive headfirst into the marble steps.
I moved without thinking, catching her before she hit the ground. My arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her against me, steady and solid.
She froze. I could feel her heartbeat thundering against my chest, see the startled look in her eyes.
“Easy there,” I said quietly, lips twitching. “I know you like making headlines, but breaking your neck on hotel stairs seems a little... extreme.”
Her jaw dropped. Then, her expression snapped into the familiar mask of fury. She shoved me hard, forcing distance between us.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded. “Were you following me?”
I straightened, keeping my tone deliberately casual. “Yes.”
Her brows shot up. "What?”
I shrugged. “You looked like you were walking straight into trouble, so I figured I should just tag along. Clearly, I was right.”
Her nostrils flared. “You’re supposed to be my maid, not my bodyguard.”
I smirked. “Think of it as… preventative cleaning. I stopped you from making the kind of mess you can’t sweep up later.”
She blinked at me, momentarily lost for words.
She turned away sharply, muttering something under her breath I could not quite catch. I let her go, following a few paces behind as she stormed toward the exit.
Neither of us noticed the faint glint of a camera lens hidden in the corner of the stairwell.
~~~
The next morning, my phone buzzed once, twice, then practically vibrated off the counter. I ignored it. Early morning calls never brought anything good.
Then came the scream.
I nearly dropped the coffee mug as Sienna’s voice rang down the hallway. A second later, her bedroom door flew open, and she appeared hair a tangled mess, an oversized shirt slipping off one shoulder, eyes wild with panic.
She clutched her phone like it had personally betrayed her. “Joe! What did you do?!”
I blinked. “I… made coffee?”
She marched over, shoving the phone in my face. “Look!”
On the screen: Twitter.
#SiennaAndHerMaid – #1 Trending.
The top photo was brutal it was me holding her on the stairs, her face turned toward me, my arm snug around her waist. It looked less like I was preventing disaster and more like a romantic embrace.
Another showed us exiting the hotel together, side by side. To the internet, it screamed secret couple sneaking off into the night.
The captions were merciless.
“Hollywood queen’s forbidden romance?”
“Caught in the act— Sienna Blaze’s mystery man revealed.”
“She fell… literally… and he caught her heart.”
I coughed into my fist. “Well.... At least they got our good sides.”
Her glare could have set me on fire. “This is not funny.”
She was right. This was not funny at all. What if my real identity comes out I would be done for.
"s**t"
~~~
Sienna’s POV
In forty minutes, my living room looked like a war room. Louis and the rest of the PR team had taken over the space... laptops open... coffee cups littering the table.... voices overlapping in frantic waves.
“This is a disaster,” one of them muttered, scrolling furiously.
“Not a disaster,” Louis corrected, though her tone wasn’t much steadier. “It’s… salvageable..... Maybe.”
I sat on the couch with my arms crossed, jaw tight. “Care to explain how my career is not in shreds right now?”
Louis winced but did not look away from her screen. “Because scandals do not always have to be career-ending..... Sometimes, they can be… redirected."
“Redirected?” I repeated, tasting the word like it was spoiled milk.
“Think of it like this,” she said quickly. “The public already thinks of you as… difficult.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Say that again, Louis.... slowly this time.”
She had the decency to look guilty. “What I mean is, your image has been painted as fiery and reckless. But what if we could shift the narrative? What if, instead of you being the problem, we give people something else to focus on?”
I leaned forward. “Like what? A distraction headline?”
“Yes!” Louis brightened, snapping her fingers. “A distraction. Something that reframes you to something softer and more relatable.”
Another team member piped up, nervously pushing his glasses up his nose. “Well, the photos already frame you in a certain… light.”
I frowned. “Certain Light?”
He cleared his throat. “You know.... With him.”
I didn’t have to ask who him was. My eyes darted instinctively toward the kitchen. Joe had been quiet all morning, moving in and out of the room like he was invisible, always keeping just enough distance from the chaos.
“With him?” I echoed flatly.
The guy coughed. “What if you two leaned into it?”
I blinked, sure I’d misheard. “Lean into it?”
Louis groaned, rubbing her temples. “Oh God, don’t say it.”
But it was too late. The glasses-wearing genius had already found his courage. “What if you… fake dated him?”
Silence dropped over the room like a curtain.
I stared at him, then at Louis, then back at him. “You’re joking, right?”
“It could work,” he rushed out. “The public saw you together. They already think there’s something between you two. If we don’t fight it.... if we confirm it, suddenly it's not a scandal. You’re going to be the woman who found love in the unlikeliest place. People eat that up.”
“Found love?” I repeated, half-laughing in disbelief. “With my maid?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to process the insanity. Me.... Fake dating Joe..... The man who couldn’t boil water without setting the stove on fire.
“This is insane,” I muttered.
“Ingenious,” the glasses guy corrected softly. “Insane would be doing nothing. This? This could change everything.”
The others murmured, hesitant but warming to the idea. Louis finally exhaled, sitting back. “I hate to admit it, Sienna, but… he’s not wrong.”
Before I could argue, the sound of footsteps shuffled closer. Joe emerged from the kitchen, balancing a tray with two steaming mugs of coffee. His expression was neutral, almost bored until the words hung fully in the air.
“Fake dating joe...” Louis said, meeting my gaze. “That’s our play.”
The crash came instantly.
Hot coffee splashed across the tray, cups clattering to the floor in sharp, ceramic shards. Joe froze in the doorway, wide-eyed.
At least for once, I wasn't the one losing my cool
- Writer
