The Beat of Love

Chapter Three

"Isis!" I heard Rhonda calling.

"I have got to take back her key." I groaned, covering my head.

"Isis! We have an issue!" She yelled coming into my room.

"Why? What?" I sleepily groaned. "Someone better be in jail or in the hospital."

"Not in jail or the hospital. More like in the doghouse." She replied and I peeked out at her.

"Huh?"

"It's X-ile." She said. "The media is having a field day with him."

"How? He just left me at like three or four this morning. It's not even nine o'clock yet. What could he possibly have gotten into?"

"The media is spectating on your relationship with him and they're claiming he cheated on you with Miss Thang from the other night. The dancer."

"What? How? That doesn't even make sense."

"When you two collabed last year, rumors went crazy about you two dating because of the musical chemistry. Fast-forward to recently, you tweeted about his performance and then you two went out for lunch yesterday. Everyone is pointing that to a secret relationship which he cheated in."

"Are you kidding me?" I rolled my eyes. "These people are freaking crazy. We just went out to eat before hitting the studio."

"And his car was photographed dropping you off this morning."

"What paparazzi is waiting at my gate like that all night?" I asked in disgust, then sighed. "This is so stupid. We aren't even dating."

"He's lost like a million followers since the story dropped and he's trending, in a very bad way. They're calling him a cheating dog and really going in on him." Rhonda grimaced.

"Oh my God." I picked up my phone and scrolled. There were missed texts from a number and I figured they were Xavier's so I immediately called the number. Lucky for me, I was right and he answered on the second ring. "Hey. Meet me at Jonathan's office in thirty." I said and hung up. "We need to fix this crap. Damage control."

I got up and dressed, heading out the door. Going on Twitter, I sent a tweet talking about how crazy media can be. It was vague but pointed enough to stop people in their tracks. The second I walked into the office, I saw Xavier sitting with his head back on his chair, his hood up, and his hat covering his face. Jonathan seemed to be tearing into him.

"This collab was supposed to make things better, X-ile." Jonathan was saying when I walked in. Our conversation from the previous night popped in my head and my heart hurt for him.

"And it will," I said, setting my purse down. "I've already done some damage control by making the media look like liars," I told them.

"Really?" Xavier glanced at me, his eyes still fairly covered.

"Really," I replied. "I have like three live interviews today and I'm sure they'll ask about this. I'll disclaim any cheating and relationship between us. I'll do complete damage control and reframing on this for you." I told Xavier. "I don't want anyone being dragged by my fans over lies."

"Thanks." He said blandly. It was like he was numb.

"Can I talk to Xavier alone for a moment?" I asked and Jonathan was quick to leave, giving me the office. It was like he hadn't wanted to deal with the issue anyway and giving up his office was a small price to pay.

"You been reading the hate comments?" I asked when we were alone, and Xavier shrugged. I sighed, sitting in the chair near him. "Those comments can be hell. I used to read them and cry for hours. They'd ridicule my music, my body, everything about me. I was so broken by their words. Until I learned to stop giving a damn what my haters have to say."