Zemira

The news of our impending merger with Brenton Media Inc. was highly regulated. Everything that went to the press ran through a million checks. Staff were employed whose sole job was to ensure people only heard what we wanted them to.

Thanks to Haley, we secured the prestigious James Gallagher interview, with our hotel as the venue. It was estimated to be viewed by millions. Haley's role stretched, from selecting the penthouse for the view of the vast, serene ocean to approving every single flower, portrait or even a toothpick.

Since confirmation of the live interview date, Antonio and I had spent hours rehearsing our speeches and coordinating our answers. Simple questions about likes and dislikes could reveal a couple's compatibility. Even a sweat bead out of place could unravel everything.

Ours had to be a waltz, a synchronized effort to show our compatible pairing.

Even with the chilled breeze circulating in the suite I sat in, thorns of nerves pricked my throat. My eyelids were heavy from the lack of sleep, and my neck couldn't bear the weight of my head.

When Antonio walked inside, I looked for signs of nerves or nausea in him.

His confident smile flashed brighter than fluorescent bulbs. He carried two bags, a big gray one with a fancy clothing label and another in a shade of pink.

"Only very confident men like that color in their daily wear," I said, eying the smaller bag. He chuckled, setting them on a nearby table.

"Then I'm not confident, Zem." He fished out the contents. "It's for you."

Antonio held a small bottle of Parisian perfume. As he opened the cap, wafts of tangerine and shea butter wafted through the room.

"Shall I?" He waited while my gaze shifted from the pale purple colored bottle to him.

My head bobbed, my throat too. He leaned lower to meet my hooded eyes. The mist evaporated, spritzed over my shoulder blade.

Though my mouth watered, I wasn't sure if it was the scent or something else.

"Antoni-"

"Shush." He ran a finger over my lips, drawing his face closer.

Control left my body as my eyelids fluttered shut. The room was cold, but our proximity warmed me. Antonio held the back of my neck, commanding me to look up.

I was pressed between the wall and him, my brain cells fusing, mushed into a useless mass.

"Zem, you don't know how many times..." His forehead touched mine, and warm breath hit my lower lip, a minty assault.

"How many times what?"

His reply was an airy hiss merged with a sigh. Antonio walked to the opposite side of the room. With a hand resting on the table for stability, he stood still with his back facing me.

I felt a tug at my heart, one I always had whenever realization hit. Antonio was a nice guy. But I had to hold my heart's reigns. I didn't want to ruin what we had. Not before the engagement, when it would all be a done deal.

"Tell me," I said, letting him know it was safe to surrender.

His words never came. Instead, he moved me back to the wall, caging me with his arms.

"I can't tell you what I want..." His whisper trailed goosebumps. "It's not that simple..."

"Whatever it is, I want to know."

The eyes narrowed. Antonio pulled me into his arms and crashed with me on the bed.

Never before had we navigated into this territory. Like all things unknown, there was a certain thrill and danger in this play.

"Antonio..." I sang as his body hovered over mine.

"Say it again."

I couldn't. I could only hymn the music, the chords of which he strummed.

"Let's play a game, Zem. If you win, you'll get the answer."

He dipped his head low, breathing at the nape of my neck. That charismatic smirk tipped up when he saw every bristle of hair adhering to his instruction.

"How many years have we known each other, Zem?"

I tried to recollect the number. My eyes closed, and my head leaned into the mattress. My mind was split between stating the correct answer and trying to resist the temptation my body felt.

I was wandering into unknown lands with no map and no compass to take me back.

"Do you want to know the reason or not, Zem?" he teased me, pushing me to cross the borders.

"Yes, I do. I do. Umm... over five years..." We'd barely known each other for over a month before embarking on this mission. This was just one of many lies. "We met at a party and hit it off."

Satisfied with my response, Antonio slid closer.

"Good answer," he whispered. "See, you were worried for nothing. Nobody's as prepared as you."

As soon as he pushed his hands into my hair, air filled up my lungs.

I exhaled with a request. "Please tell me what you wanted to say earlier."

"Are you sure?" he asked, sliding off the bed.

"Enough with the games, Anto." Taking hold of his shoulders, I turned him to face me.

With dipped shoulders and head lowered into his chest, Antonio nodded to himself.

"I know you think of me the same way as everyone else does." The diminished lights in his eyes gave weight to his words. "That I can't be trusted. That I'm up to no good. But I'm not that... I'm..."

He looked away.

"Why can't you tell me what you wanted to say before, Anto."

"I don't know. How shall I tell you that I like you?" He took his hands off me. The cold returned, settling inside my chest. "Or that I'm falling for you."

The grip of doubts and uncertainty loosened. Antonio wasn't speaking, he was bleeding, and I stood in the pool of his confession.

I wanted to raise his fallen face and read his truth. The ticking time on my watch didn't permit me.

"Please forgive me, Zemira. I didn't want to bring it up before our biggest interview but I couldn't help it. We can discuss this later," Antonio said, kissing my knuckles. "We have no time left."

"I know. My soon-to-be fiancé tried taking advantage of me," I said, wiggling my eyebrows at him.

He laughed, the tension between us releasing. "I promise, I won't do anything till after the interview."

And that was a promise he kept... until he didn't.

After a few hours of intense practice grilling, we were ready for a media show.

Haley walked in along with the camera crew, monitoring their setup. She was the tamer for the animal set to unleash upon us. Her presence had a calming effect on me, and Antonio had ensured she was always available for all our interviews.

In our long drawn friendship of four years that began in College, I knew almost everything about Haley. A level-headed and career conscious girl, she was my second closest friend.

Unlike Kiera's, Haley's life wasn't a guarded secret. She wanted to dominate the world, and her work at Brenton Media was the first step toward it.

Though a carefree girl, since she began dating Leo, Haley had gone into hiding, dodging questions about their relationship. According to Kiera, they were only in some sort of arrangement.

Not that I cared but I wasn't a fan of them parading their 'romance' around when I was tackling important issues like saving my business. Truth be told, whenever I saw the together, something stirred inside me.

"Zemmy..." Haley snapped her fingers, drawing my attention from the room selected for the interview. "All good?"

I nodded, walking towards her.

The spotlights warmed the place. Crème colored walls appeared brighter under harsh lights. With all sorts of equipment and people huddling inside, the room felt small. Someone in a corner cursed. Dragged furniture screeched on the wooden floor. Something broke somewhere, making more people curse.

Inside the chaotic room, I went and sat on a couch that Haley sat on a while back. With my eye tightly shut, I tried focusing on my breaths. A soft, cool touch on my jaw snapped them open.

"Nervous?" Antonio leaned over, trailing his knuckles over my cheek.

"A little."

The pressure we had on ourselves, to be admired and loved, was daunting.

As soon as the presenter of the show, James entered the room, everyone fell silent. A bottle of bubbly and two pink pills on a personalized tissue with his initials, JG, were placed on the table before his seat.

My mouth dried, watching the crew gawk. One of the screens behind displayed a live feed of the hotel entrance, of the people standing outside, holding placards and chanting my name.

My eardrums echoed with something, but it wasn't my pulse or heartbeat. Bile soared up, threatening to ruin everything.

Antonio rubbed my lower back, sliding a bottle of water towards me. The slurry mess that was my insides, warmed with his gesture. I took a long swallow, the liquid a cool respite for my uneasy stomach.

Antonio's cold palm wrapped around mine. He was nervous too.

James, dressed in a neatly fitted three-piece, his salt pepper hair gelled, pointed at the cameras to focus.

He then whined about the heat while dabbing the melting makeup from his loosened facial skin. He dropped both the pills into the bottle and guzzled it, thirsty gulps echoing in the background.

Like magic, his irritation over the heat and angry arm waves at his incompetent crew members vanished.

Antonio nodded at James' instructions, to speak looking at the host and the main camera. To enunciate difficult words. To always smile.

I wasn't sure anymore.

What if something went wrong? What if I stuttered? What if I lit myself on fire?

When I looked over to Haley, she blew me a kiss. Next to her, Kiera winked and mimed whistling. Seeing my pillars of strength at close quarters reinforced my trembling foundations.

"Shall we start?" James asked. Upon our nod, he sank into the chair and began.

The first few questions were easy and cheerful. I remembered laughing a lot when James said something about us tossing Taylor Swift and her boyfriend off the trending chart.

When the more gruelling questions emerged, my spine straightened.

"So, Zemira, what do you love the most about Antonio?"

Ahh, easy. As practiced, I smiled and leaned forward to recreate my perfect answer.

"It's Antonio's smile. It's like a little piece of heaven."

The voices of the nonexistent audience hooted and applauded that answer when the crew pressed the audience button.

Antonio leaned over and kissed my shoulder, and my heart fluttered up to my throat.

There were days in my life when I'd hear my mother's voice in my head. Most of them were the talks we had with each other when she was alive. I always felt that it was our connection that made me feel she was always around to guide me.

That day, I heard her again.

'Moments before a disaster, time will freeze for you to observe everything.' Her words entered my mind. With them arrived the thumping footsteps of uncertainty.

James straightened and dragged a sigh.

I could feel it in my bones. Laws of disaster were at play.

A crooked smile appeared on James's face like that of a hunter when he scoped and targeted his mindless prey. I could hear the clocks winding down, the spring action in his metaphorical trigger tightening.

"Antonio..." James leaned to one side, rubbing his thumb over his jawline. "Has Zemira always known about your infidelity?"

Following his question, a videotape with a week old timestamp began playing on a small screen.

A blonde woman's grunting moans filled the room as she leaned on all fours, letting Antonio penetrate her from behind. With his hand grabbing her ponytail, she winked into the camera and the room we sat in fell silent.

'Yesses' and 'Please' resonated from the video and played as a surround sound.

For the world, the video was blurred. They could only hear sounds while I sat and watched our lies being uncovered.

Everything from there on appeared hazed, like I was looking through a fog.

My heartbeats pulsed slower and slower until I felt nothing. Numb.

A hand grabbed me. It made me walk. My sandpaper mouth sought water while the flat-lining tone in my ears drowned all other sounds.

Something chimed open. Someone yelled instructions.

Somewhere I walked.

Having completed their job, the warning sirens in my head eased off. James's question bullet, however, remained lodged in my body, seeping hope like blood.

Passing through a dark hallway, I emerged into the open sir.

Outside the lobby, the bright sunlight jolted me to reality, to the blood-curdling truth that our lie was revealed.

My flooded eyes tried focusing. Rainbow hues draped my vision.

The crowd controlled on both sides of the gated entrance chanted.

"We're with you, Zemira."

"You did nothing wrong, Zemira."

They were wrong. Playing God for my failing business was as much my fault as Antonio's.

~

Hope is the plank that keeps us afloat when everything else tries to drown us.

I hope you liked this chapter.

What do you think would happen next? Would Zemira leave Antonio or will she stick around?

What would happen when things get completely out of hand? Would Leo come to the rescue?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments :)