The Beat of Love

Chapter Thirteen

My crew, who for the most part had been on vacation while I was doing the movie, happily got to work as soon as I got the the benefit venue. I was going the whole time I was there. The president of the non-profit the benefit was for was around to welcome us. I knew that Xavier was somewhere getting ready, since he was performing too, but I never got to see him. It was obvious that somebody was working to keep us from seeing each other, and it was likely my own team.

"Is X here?" I asked Rhonda while I got my makeup done. Leslie pulled away from doing my makeup and there was an awkward pause.

"Um, yeah. He's been here prepping like you. Ty wanted to come say hey, but I didn't think that was best." She admitted.

"What? You kept Ty away?"

"We didn't know if you wanted to run into them so we kept everyone away." She replied. "Look," she stopped my reply. "You need to get ready to get on that carpet and take some photos. We don't have time for this right now."

Before I could reply, Gisele came in with her phone out. "Girl, we got problems."

"What now?" I rolled my eyes.

She put the phone in front of me. "Somebody reported that you and Helix are now dating. According to the report, you started seeing him when you were out of the country."

"What the hell?" I snatched the phone. "There's no way in hell I would be dating Helix. Even if Xavier and I never had a thing between us, I respect X as my fellow artist. I would never betray my label and X like that. On top of that, this is making me out to be some hoe. I didn't end things with X, as far as the media was concerned, until basically right before I went out of the country."

"Don't worry about this right now, Isis." Rhonda took the phone. "I'll have an official press release by morning."

"Has X seen this?" I asked, ignoring Rhonda.

"I'm not sure, but it was his choreographer that brought it to me. He and I were chilling and it popped up." Gisele answered.

"Oh my- I gotta go talk to, Xavier." I sighed, trying to get up and Rhonda stopped me. "I gotta go tell him this is a lie."

"Isis, we don't have time right now. You're due on the carpet for photos. Come on. You gotta work, babes." Rhonda replied, shaking her head when I started to protest.

Sighing, I let Leslie finish primping me.
After she was done, I was ushered out to the carpet where photos were to be taken before the show. Technically the pre-show had started, but I wasn't performing until later on at the main show on the main stage. As I was hitting my first mark, I saw Xavier come out onto the carpet as well. He was dressed in a button-down shirt with some black slacks. The first couple of buttons on the shirt were undone and the sleeves were rolled up casually. His chain and diamond studded watch glistened in the light. He wore dark glasses to shield his eyes.

I knew when he saw me because I saw him stiffen. I was sure that being on the carpet with the yelling paps was already stressing him out, not to mention my presence and the recent rumor. When he saw me, it looked like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He kept fidgeting with his watch, a tick that was clearly coming from his anxiety about the situation. I half-grinned at him then focused my attention on taking photos. When I heard more and more paps yelling at Xavier, asking about me and the break-up, I started to boil a little and worry about him. They threw out questions about Helix and I saw his jaw tighten. He was just on his second mark for pictures, there was a long way to go.