Becoming First Lead

xvi - set it up

●ALEX POV●

Shirley? As in the woman that used to be Nikki's bestfriend? The woman who was having an affair with her ex-husband?

"Shirley," Nik's words disappear in the air.

"What the hell is her problem?" Aria roars. Very rarely do I ever see her lose her calm demeanor.

The flare of Nik's nostrils makes me believe that she's also building up that anger that's inside of her . "Before I jump to any other conclusions, why did her name pop up?"

Stephanie was still reading her text as I peered over to see if I can see anything. It was quite a long message. When she finally finished , "it would seem that Shirley was shopping this story around."

"But how did she even know anything about Austin and I? Why would she do this?" Nikki asks but to no one in particular.

"She's always been selfish," Aria adds.

"What does she gain?" Stephanie asks.

"Revenge," Nikki flatly says with a realization .

"Revenge?"

Nikki nods , "she might just be the mule to this. Rick is still out there. Remember, he had me followed around. Who's to say that he didn't have eyes on me this whole time?"

Shit. She's right . Rick could very well be behind this. But why would he drag other people into this? What would this prove? He got lucky that Nik didn't unleash her father's fury on him but does the man have no fear?

"Revenge? You have more of a right to plotting revenge considering what she did to steal your husband away," Aria huffs out.

"EX- husband," Nikki reminds her . "Besides I don't think she would have done this through her own volition . But I could be wrong. Rick is a very persuasive person, and by persuasive I mean threatening," she adds .

Nikki sighs. But it was Austin that spoke up, that surprised me. "I don't know what the deal is with this guy, if it's him . But whatever you need from me I'll do , within whatever capacity I can. "

She looks at him and with softened features thanks him . They share a meaningful glance , a couple days ago this would've driven me bananas but I know she's mine .

Stephanie receives a phone call and instead of walking away she listens intently . And then asks the person on the other line if they can repeat what they told her.

"Sure thing. So this Shirley Thompson provided info and photos to the papers and to some online publications . They're not clear but you can tell that it is definitely Austin Clemmings. The woman in the photo is blocked a bit so you really can't tell who she is. But it looks like they were eating  restaurant.

We asked her how she knows for sure that the two of them are dating. Didn't give us anything legit other than her following Nicole around. So we didn't bite, we didn't take what she was trying to sell . Mostly because her aim was Nicole not Austin. Austin was just there plus she wanted to sell a story about Nicole and how she did her wrong or something."

Stephanie stepped away to finish up her conversation . While she was gone Warren had already begun the conversation on bringing a lawsuit. I know I want this to be dealt with now, but Nikki reminded us that her father is an attorney . He would know exactly how to handle this and how to get rid of Shirley .