Stars Landing [Book 3]

Chapter 7 - Brother Complex

Static was buzzing with bodies again, some waiting to be interviewed by the afternoon team while others worked to keep the station intact. It was all because of Halloween. The 31st was two weeks away and there were so many projects and events the station had to cover. That meant there would be more guests coming in, which meant the studio had to accommodate a lot of different requests for different people. Rhea was surprisingly on top of things. It felt like she could read Sean's mind before he barked orders. Maybe it was because after dating him, she had become used to his mood swings. In her mind, he was officially harmless.

Placing down her juice box, Rhea took a deep breath. "Alright!" she rolled up her sleeves before she opened the lunchroom doors. Panic found her ears, it was Melanie, complaining about one of the morning interns and how she had screwed up a very important coffee order. Well, Rhea wanted to say, it's not like she asked to work at the station as a barista. Give the poor girl a break! Things were hard enough without Melanie snapping every twenty seconds. Rhea purposely tried to avoid her, another thing she was becoming really good at.

"Practice makes perfect," Rhea muttered turning into the afternoon station. Her phone buzzed quietly. Pulling it out, she checked to see who the message was from. Hopefully it was Warren, confirming their dinner-date at her favourite Italian restaurant. Nope. It wasn't him. It wasn't anyone she was in the mood to talk to.

'Okay, I think we have ignored each other long enough. Can we be civil now?'

Rhea scoffed. If that was her brother's way of asking to meet up then he had another thing coming. How dare he come to her city with one of her best friends and try to patch things up? Just who the hell did he think he was? Ignoring him gave her great pleasure as she turned off all notifications. It was temporary, but hopefully it would keep her fuel in check.

Francesca caught her eyes from the reception desk. "There you are," she said. "You have a guest waiting for you downstairs. Tori called me about five minutes ago and told me to tell you to come down."

Rhea was confused. "Oh really? Okay, thanks. I'll go see who it is now."

Rhea raced to the escalators and quickly descended. It was strange that someone was paging to have her come down, especially since the only two people who ever came to visit her at the station were Red and Warren. And they never had to ask the main receptionist Tori to page anyone. They timed things perfectly to Rhea's schedule so that there wasn't a need for that.

From the corner of her eyes, Rhea spotted a familiar figure lounging on one of the two sofas that were set up in the foyer. Her eyes widened as she recognized the guy's tendency to shake his left leg whenever he was anxiously waiting for someone. His leather jacket was a big give away too, and those hulky arms and legs, it couldn't be anyone but her older brother Harresh. In grade school, his friends shorten his name to Harry because it was easier to pronounce. It eventually caught on like a contagious disease.

Rhea decided to make the conversation quick. In and out. Boom. No delaying or getting aggravated unnecessarily. Taking a deep breath, she prepared her feet to move in his direction when another familiar face appeared. Tall and handsome, the sight of him always gave Rhea butterflies. It wasn't like her boyfriend had never surprised her at work before, but his timing was usually more accurate. Lunch was over, he had to know that. What could he be thinking? Was he at the station for business? Maybe Red was coming on as a guest again. Rhea hadn't heard anything. Hell, she didn't even know about his concert until Tegan brought it up.

Hiding behind one of the three pillars in the foyer, Rhea saw Tori greet Warren. Watching girls swoon over him wasn't anything new, but that didn't mean Rhea liked it. "How are you?" Tori asked, leaning over her desk to flirt with the suit-wearer.