It must be love

Chapter 15

Ava

The following week was hectic as I flew to New York for what I expected to be a day but had to stay the entire week when suddenly the one photoshoot turned into three and an appearance on a game show. Luckily today was Friday and I was done with all my duties except one. I was now heading to the Wilma studio where her talk show was being held as I was going to be a guest on there and speaking on the upcoming line Fashion Fun of which I was the face of and I would also be talking about my fragrance, Irresistible which was dropping next year February in time for Valentine's day which was three months from now, but the earlier you get word out there, the better.

I hadn't seen Nigel in a week but we had spoken everyday on the phone, it wasn't the same. I felt needy and clingy for some odd reason. Things between us were moving at super speed and I couldn't help but be scared but at the same time it excited me.

The car finally stopped on the curb and the big bodyguard I was with came out and opened my door, as soon as I stepped out of the car I was crowded by paparazzi and screaming fans, at times this felt overwhelming for me but I rolled with it, it was what I chose for myself I guess.

"Ava, Ava!” the screams were coming from all sides but I kept calm and took a few selfies with fans and signed a few autographs. I finally made it into the building and was immediately ushered to the green room by the Wilma staff and that's when my publicist, Leona walked in.

"Ava daaarling." She cooed then gave me a kiss on each cheek.

Leona is a complete powerhouse and the greatest publicist, she had on her signature black pantsuit with a blazer and red pumps with her brown hair in a bun, she had been with me all week along with my manager Mike who had to leave yesterday. I surveyed the green room, which was actually green and had all my favourite snacks on the table in the corner.

“Okay, so let's get down to business.” She took a seat on the green couch while I headed to the snack table. “I gave Wilma's people everything that they ask during the interview but you know how these talk show hosts get especially because the show is live, they try to box you into questions.”

“What questions could they possibly box me into? I haven't done anything scandalous or worthy of being hidden and not asked about lately.” I answered with a mouth full of Reeses pieces.

“Oh honey, trust me there's always something.” She murmured, “She may try to ask you questions about Justin's engagement and -‘’

“Justin's engaged?” I gasped, “Well good for him.”

He deserved to be happy, sure we have only been broken up for a couple of months and at first I was upset and stuff but I wished him well. In fact I didn't really care all that much since I have moved on and was in a better place, though and I know this may sound stupid but I didn't know what Nigel and I were. Our relationship status or lack thereof worried me a bit since we have never really talked about it. Was I his girlfriend? What?

“You didn't know?” Leona asked looking at me with a raised brow and I shook my head, “I haven't really been on any form of social media lately and I haven't been keeping up with the tabloids.”

“Huh… Well now you know then.” She shrugged, “Also, don't give direct answers about the line or fragrance, keep it mysterious don't give it all away.”

“This isn't my first rodeo.” I rolled my eyes, Leona, though great at her job was completely overbearing and a bit of a pain in the ass.

“We're ready for you.” A gentleman said from the doorway and I smiled then put the candy down and followed after him, he set up my microphone and then vanished as we got to the double doors. Inside I could hear the studio audience clapping and Wilma giving the introduction.

“Welcome for the very first time to our show, supermodel Ava Monroe!”

The double doors slid open and I walked out to thunderous applause, I waved and smiled walking over to the pink couch in the middle of the room where the host, Wilma Williams stood. I gave her a hug then she gestured for me to take a seat.

“Ava, welcome to our ridiculous show.”

“Happy to be here.” I laughed and waved at the still clapping audience, “Wow, you guys really are fantastic.”

We got into the interview and she asked me questions about the upcoming Fashion Fun line and Irresistible. I answered with ease and heeded all of Leona's instructions and kept the answers vague and mysterious. She asked more questions trying to get more out of me but I laughed and continued dancing around them.

“You are such a frustrating interviewee.” Wilma laughed with a shake of her head, “but it's so great seeing how successful and how far you have come especially as a young woman in this vicious industry.”

“Thank you so much Wilma,” I smiled, “It's all through dedication, hard work and the fans that I have who have supported me through everything, my family has been pretty great too.”

“Speaking of family, your father passed away last year. How has that been for you?”

“My father was my best friend and losing him was pretty hard you know, but I take it all one day at a time. My mom has been a great support system and we've just been each other's rocks.” I cleared my throat as emotion threatened to clog it.

“And your mom moved to Boston to be with family, correct?”

“Yeah and I've been visiting there for a while now and being closer to her has been so amazing.”

Wilma nodded then got a smirk on her face, “And you have managed to snag yourself a handsome Boston billionaire while you were there, are the claims of you two being a couple true?”

A picture of Nigel and I popped up on the screen, the picture was from our first date and the one below it was of me and him exiting his office building. I hadn't even noticed any photographers on any of those days.

I laughed deciding to play it cool and flipped my hair, “Well Wilma, wouldn't you like to know.” I winked.

“Damn!” she snickered, “Here I was thinking that we would be the first to get the exclusive. Anyway, we have done some digging and found that he is allegedly fellow supermodel and our favourite party girl, Tracy Jackson's baby daddy.”

I contained the shock that I felt, how stupid! When he told me about Tracy how did I not connect the dots that it was Tracy Jackson. The girl was amazingly beautiful, really nice and we hit it off immediately when we met and had proceeded to bump into one another at many events. We even walked the runway together last year at the Milan fashion week and of course Wilma put up the picture of us posing together.

“Her rant on social media this past week was said to have been her throwing shade at you, allegedly. She went on about thinking someone is your friend but then they stab you in the back and take your man.”

“I haven't seen the posts.” I shrugged, “but anyway thank you so much for having me on the show Wilma and thank you to your great studio audience. That's it for today's Couch Talk, we have Ask Wilma next.” I said staring right into the camera with a grin and the cameraman cut to commercial.

“What a way to dodge the conversation.” Wilma laughed at me basically stealing her lines and cutting to commercial, “or are you trying to steal my job?” she teased.

I snickered as I stood up, hugged her and said goodbye and waved at the audience who still clapped. I was unsettled by the whole Tracy thing. What a small world it was, who would have thought huh. I left the studio and it was the same thing as when I came in, paparazzi and fans everywhere. I got into the awaiting car with my bodyguard and then went onto social media after a long time then saw all of Tracy's shady tweets and tons of retweets of Justin's engagement.