Accidentally in love

Chapter 3 - Her

Chapter 3 - Her

I arrived in the office rather late, but with a valid reason. The party I attended yesterday ended much later than I expected, and I couldn't leave earlier for fear of offending the host, who was one of our VIP clients.

Besides, as a sales person, my performance is measured by the business I bring, not by the hours I clock in.

My brain still wasn't quite awake yet, so I headed to the pantry after dropping off my bags on my desk. I needed a strong caffeine fix to get my engine running.

Two of my officemates were already there, chatting while finishing their drink, and they shrieked when they saw me.

"Olivia! Did you see the news about Jason Miller?"

"He was in the same hotel you went to yesterday! Did you see him?"

They were both talking at the same time and I laughed at their craziness. I knew they weren't really expecting an answer from me, so I just waited for them to calm down and start making some sense.

Both were avid followers of celebrity gossip news and had bonded over their love of famous celebrities, despite being in different departments and having opposite personalities.

Emmy was a tall blond who was with me on the sales team. She is normally this energetic, and gets excited over the simplest things.

The other girl, Yvette, was her polar opposite. Petite and slim, with thick black hair and tiny eyes that hinted at her Asian heritage, she kinda looked fragile as she stood beside Emmy in pantry.

Yvette was part of the administration and was usually more calm and reserved, but today even she was obviously excited.

I wonder what happened to Jason Miller that got both of them worked up like this. I knew who he was, of course. Everybody in this whole country knew - his face was splashed in almost all ads, and his films always topped the box office.

And I could understand why - the guy was handsome and you could feel his charm oozing from across the screen.

But he was also always involved in one scandal or another, so it doesn't surprise me at all to hear he has a new one.

I started to brew a stronger coffee cup for myself when Emmy pulled my arm, turning me around to face her rather forcefully.

"Girl, are you listening?" Emmy demanded, eyebrows raised.

Errr, I wasn't but I'm not going to tell her that. I need my coffee first before I can really absorb what they were blabbering about

"Here, take a look," she continued, shoving her phone to my face.

It was an online article about Jason Miller from some gossip website. The headline read : A-lister Jason Miller dating a new girl?

I was about to dismiss it when the photo at the top of the page caught my eye. It looked very familiar.

I quickly scanned the caption and felt my eyes widen in horror.

Jason Miller caught with a mystery woman at a hotel parking lot yesterday.

It was me. It was a photo of me - blurry and obviously taken from afar but I could tell it was me. I could see my car too. At least they had the decency to blur out the plate number, otherwise I would probably never get out of my house ever again.

And the guy in the photo was obviously the person who helped me out yesterday. But there was no way I could tell if he really was Jason Miller.

I mean, I didn't recognize him when he was up close, so I doubt if even anyone can say it was him from this blurry photo. Granted, his face was covered and I was in a panic when I met him, but I would have known it was him, right?

Besides, why would a top star like him offer to help out a stranger in a parking lot? And why would he even be driving himself in the first place?

This must be one of those fake news invented by those papparazzi to make money.

Feeling a bit relieved at the thought, I returned the phone to Emily.

"Read the article!" Emily demanded, eyeing me suspiciously. "It says Jason met up with this mystery woman in the hotel. They left separately, but it said it was obvious they were together for at least four hours."

I shrugged, not knowing what to say.

"Is this you? It's blurry but we think it looks like those were the clothes you had on yesterday, and that," Yvette paused for emphasis, pointing at the photo, "that looks exactly like your car."

I didn't want to confirm it was me because I would then have to tell them all the details of my encounter with my mystery guy yesterday, and I didn't have the energy for that.

Besides, it's not even really about Jason Miller, so I would just be wasting all of our time if we continue this discussion.

"Well, all I can say is that I was there yesterday, but I did not see or meet Jason Miller. I was at the client's party the whole time," I said simply.

"But what about this photo?" Yvette insisted.

"Are you even sure that's Jason Miller? Maybe they just took a photo of any random guy and claims it was Jason to get more readers. It's just a click bait," I said, trying to distract them so they will forget about me and my car in the photo.

Thankfully, it worked.

"Yeah, you have a point. I think they just have the same height but it's not really him. Why would Jason Miller be walking around by hinself in the parking lot, right?" Emmy agreed.

"Exactly my point," I quickly seconded, feeling my tensed up muscles relax as they started talking about how awful these papparazzis were and how they destroy the lives of their beloved celebrities.

I excused myself from them, grabbed my coffee cup, and escaped from the pantry before they could think of a new question to grill me with.

As I got to my desk, I saw my phone was blinking. I swiped it to check for any messages and saw I have 5 missed calls and 1 message - all from the same unfamiliar number.

Before I returned the call, I clicked open the message to see who it was.

"Is this Olivia Parker? This is Dana, Jason Miller's manager. Please call me back asap."