Spicy

Chapter 4

“Raul!”

A distant voice found its way into his Dreamland, followed by a wave of dull ache he felt in his head.

“Raul f*****g Hampton!”

The dark haired man cracked his eyes open but closed them when a blinding and stinging white light flashed into them. He hissed and pressed his heavily throbbing temples then held his breath when he felt everywhere spin.

“Raul!”

He carefully opened his eyes and exhaled before he slowly turned around on the bed and laid back flat. He stared at the ceiling fan in the room he was in.

“How much did I drink last night?” His voice came out hoarse. “Damn.” He massaged his forehead with his hands.

“Open this door, Raul!”

At the sound of who he recognized was his manager, he immediately sat up but hissed when his head ached badly, which prompted him to hold onto his head while swearing under his breath. After a minute, he flung his legs off the bed and stood up in a staggered manner.

Once he was standing straight, he dragged himself to the door, unlocked it and pulled the door open. Just as he did, he was shoved back by his manager, his personal assistant and his social media handler. They marched into the room and dispersed around until they stood with a frown on their faces.

He closed the door after standing properly then stood in front of all them, confusion swimming in his head.

“What? Why are you all looking at me like that?”

“Where's your phone?” The pepper and salt hair man asked, and looked around.

“I don know. Why are you all angry?” Raul scratched his head and walked back to his bed where he sat down and stretched.

Kayla scoffed. “So you have no idea what's happening? Are you just waking up? Wait, did you drink too much last night?”

Raul's gaze flickered from his assistant to his social media handler who pulled out his phone and threw it his way. He clumsily caught it then flipped the phone over to the screen. His eyes swept over the dark themes of what he recognized to be Twitter until he scrolled down and saw a tweet he made hours ago.

“Getting married?” He looked up from the screen then back at it, he saw he had over a million retweets, nine hundred likes and two hundred comments. “Who tweeted this?”

Raul looked up at them, and saw the pointed look they aimed at him. His manager, Henry, was tapping his foot on the floor, Kayla was shaking her head while Jane, his social media handler just stared with narrowed eyes at him.

“Do you realize what you've done?!” Henry barked, making him flinch.

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Raul stood up, holding out the phone.

“This is serious, Raul. Be serious for once! This isn't some joke!” Kayla yelled and grunted after stomping her foot on the floor. “God, how did this get to this?”

Raul opened his mouth to speak but closed them back. He raised the phone to his face and scrolled through Jane's timeline, he saw tweets about him. Most were from news stations, entertainment news blogs, magazines and even some celebrities were congratulating him. He felt the headache he once had double as the weight of his tweet dwelled into his head properly.

“Can you explain to me what reasons you had when you tweeted that s**t?! We know you aren't getting married! We know you don't even have a woman in your life!” Henry yelled and exhaled hard.

“The second you tweeted that, you had massive internet engagements on that tweet. You trended with different tags on the US trend list. From; Raul, Congratulations Raul, hashtag Raul is engaged, to Raul Hampton! You f*****g trended worldwide at number 5 until you pushed to number 1 an hour ago,” Jane breathed out after ranting and clutched her blonde hair.

Raul swallowed the hot bile in his throat and backed away as he realized the implications of what he had tweeted, which he did not remember doing. He shook his head and raised the phone back to his face. He read the tweet again and saw that the time he tweeted it was when he was at the after party. That was when he gasped.

“What? What was that gasp for? Did you stupid brain give you an answer to how we will solve this scandal?” Henry demanded through gritted teeth.

“I just remembered that I must have tweeted this while I was with Xander. Sometime around then, I don't know. After I had a drinking contest with Xander and-”

“Great, you tweeted that when you were drunk then. For God sake, how could you make such a mistake? Before we even knew what was happening, it was already early this morning, and we didn't know where you were.” Kayla found a seat and dropped on it after speaking.

“But we could just delete the tweet and I tweet that it isn't true,” Raul suggested, eyeing them.

“Are you forgetting that you are in the entertainment industry? Things don't work like that. Blogs, and brands are even eating this food up. They even love the idea of you getting married, while this news is affecting a few things too concerning you. God!” Henry facepalmed.

Raul ran his fingers through his hair and.nodded. “Let me just delete the tweet.”

“There's no point,” Henry said. “The feedbacks were having is impressive, but at the same time it's bad. The problem I'm having is that people know you are not in any relationship. You were literally spotted in a lip lock with one of those models last week. Blogs carried that too, and your haters are bringing up different agendas. Even some of the hoes you've had aren't helping matters are tweeting trash that you're lying and shit.”

The more he explained how severe the situation was, he felt a wave of panic settle within him. He sat down on his bed and gripped the phone hard.

“Worst part is this,” Henry pulled out his phone and tapped on the screen before he turned it around. It was a video of his drinking contest with Xander, and the caption on it was about him spending his last days as a bachelor. It scared him.

“f**k,” he whispered.

“Deep f**k,” Henry spat back. “As if that's not enough, watch this.” He clicked his phone again and showed him the screen. It was a video of him kissing the model that had held his phone last night.

“These are the controversial things surrounding your sudden tweets. Your haters aren't helping matters. They are using this against you and there's absolutely no defense with this. Even your fans are disappointed in this video. How do we defend this, Raul?” The man asked, narrowing his brown eyes.

Raul sighed.”I'm speechless. It's difficult. I don't know what to do.”

“Well, we have to think of something fast to have all these die down but in a positive way. People won't take you serious if they find out what a joke you are and it's not going to help your brand. God, the agendas stacked up against you keeps increasing each hour. And the broken hearted models you've shagged aren't helping!” Kayla hollered from her spot on her couch.

Thoughts of the many models he had used, fought with, and slutshamed crossed his mind. He felt regret eat at his heart and a nauseating feeling pounded at his throat and gut. Before he could react, he threw up on the floor, making his crew members grimace and groan.

“For f*****g sake,” Jane groaned.

“You're an adult though,” Kayla said, gagging.

Raul wiped off the mucus on the side of his mouth with the back of his hand as he sat up straight. He eyed the puddle of  food and what he suspected was alcohol on the floor before he looked up at them.

“I'm sorry.” He cleared his throat and gritted his teeth when another wave of headache pounded at his head.

The room was silent for a few minutes, the only noise was their breathing, the ticking clock and the sound of cars on the road.

“What if, never mind. It's going to bring more problems anyway,” Kayla said, waving her hand at them.

Henry frowned. “What do you have in mind? We are actually looking for ways to solve this issue.”

Raul nodded. “I caused all of these, and I'd do anything to clear my f*****g name right now. I have a reputation.”

Kayla hummed. “Well, is there a way we can prove to the whole world that Raul is indeed getting married?”

They fell silent for a moment before they burst into laughter. Kayla was silent as she glared at them one after another. She waited till their laughter had died down, before she stood up and stood in the center of the room, where they could see her.

“It's funny, right? Raul, you put yourself into this mess and right now, there's no amount of interview, denial or anything that'll erase this scandal. What are you going to tell them? That it's a prank? Ok, then where's proof? A celebrity does not joke with their social media engagements like that!” Kayla retorted, her shoulders rising up and down. “All I care for is to do my job right, and I can't work in such conditions.”

They fell into a momentary silence as they thought over what she had said to them. Raul scratched his head and shook his head.

“Look at me, I am not ready for a marriage. I'm not ready at this point of my life to settle down. I'm a man who wants absolute freedom to do what I want. I can't do all of that when I'll be tied down to someone and the whole world would be watching me. If I cheat or I am found with the set of women I want, it'll cause a deep scandal that'll affect my reputation,” Raul pointed out and ran his fingers through his hair.

“Oh, now you know the extent of your lover boy life.” Henry laughed. “Look, son. Something has to be done, and we are out of options. Well, I know that Kayla's idea is over the top, but maybe we'll think about it.”

Raul hissed. “I am not getting married! And that's that. Find something else that'll clear all of these but I'm not ready to be tied down to someone.”

Kayla groaned. “If only you allowed to explain better.”

“What else are you going to say?” Raul demanded through slanted eyes aimed at her. “What else are you going to say? That I should also get the woman I marry pregnant?”

“Can you let her speak?” Jane asked. “It's your fault all of these are happening in the first place and you don't get a say in what we plan for you to erase all of these. The last time I checked, the only person in the spotlight is you. Everything will affect you and not us. Allow us help you.”

Raul clenched his hands and gritted his teeth before he scoffed and glanced at Kayla who was smirking.

“Fine.”

“Good. My idea was that you get married to someone but you won't necessarily fall for her, or do anything with her. She'll simply be there for the public. I wanted us to contact one of the models but I don't think anyone of them would want to deal with you, especially how most of them don't like you,” Kayla said, while pacing around the room. “Now, a friend of mine works in a company called Cupid's Curse.”

“Wait, I've heard of them before. They specialize in getting you matched with a boyfriend, husband, sugar daddy or mommy. Each contract you sign with them, has a time frame attached to it. A friend of mine got a girlfriend from them and he's living happily. Infact, they are getting married next year,” Jane said with a smile on her face.

“So?” Raul shot at the blonde woman.

“So, you will fill out a form from them and they will find a perfect woman for you,” Kayla retorted.

“Hold on, how safe is this?” Henry asked, concern laced in his voice. “I understand we need to find a solution to this problem but can these people be trusted?”

“Yeah, I don't want to be matched with some freak or criminal.”

“Cupid's Curse is a government approved company and trust me, they are doing well. A lot of known business tycoons have shares in that company. All we need to do is fill out your form, pay $20,000 for it and voila, you're married for two years.”

Raul jerked. “Two years?!”

Kayla smirked. “Yes, Raul. Marriages under Cupid's Curse are for two years only. Signing a girlfriend or boyfriend contract is only for six months. If your relationship sails smoothly, you can continue, but if it doesn't, you sign out of it at the end of the relationship.”

“So, you're saying that none of the sign-in out can be done during the relationship?” Raul asked, dread filling his voice.

“Nah. Once you're matched with your partner, you'll stay married to her for two years. No cheating, no breakups or else, you face an extra year added to your contract,” Kayla said, and a smirk aligned itself on her lips when Raul had panic written all over his face.

“Shit.”