The Wrong Cinderella

Twenty

We walked into the building with our hands intertwined. Ms Green met us at the door, her sickly sweet smile in it's usual place.

"You're here!" She exclaimed, as if it wasn't obvious.

I noticed the way she stared at our joined hands. I squeezed Jason's hand tighter and forced a smile of my own.

"Yes. June said you wanted to see us." I replied.

Her eyes snapped towards my face. "Oh yes, please come in, Andrea is waiting for you."

I felt my stomach churn. Why did Andrea want to see us? The multiple possibilities filled me with dread.

Jason seemed to sense my nervousness as he flashed me an encouraging smile.

"Come on. Let's go." He whispered.

Ms Green led the way. I barely noticed the number of turns we took as countless terrifying scenarios popped into my head. By the time we reached the glass doors of a fairly big boardroom, I was convinced that we were about to get fired.

Andrea was sitting and chatting to a lady I didn't recognise when we walked in. The woman appeared to be in her late twenties and she had a beautiful smile. The two of them turned to us as we made our way into the room.

Andrea didn't seem to notice that Jason and I were holding hands. If she did then she blatantly ignored that fact as she loudly greeted us.

"Oh there you two are! We were having quite a tough time getting ahold of you. Please, take a seat." She said.

The young woman stared at us as we sat down, our hands still linked. I wasn't willing to let go of his hand and it seemed as if he wasn't willing to do so either.

"We just had a meeting with your friend, June was it?" Andrea started.

I nodded.

"Yes, June. I wanted to speak with her because a little birdie told me that she was your manager."

Ms Green and the young woman beside Andrea seemed to find this hilarious as they burst into laughter halfway through her sentence.

I frowned. "But she is."

The laughing stopped immediately. All three of them looked at me with disbelief etched into their faces.

"You can't be serious. May, you're an upcoming talent and everyone is watching you. I don't know if you've noticed or even looked but you are all over the internet. Every teenage girl in the country wants to be you and every guy wants to date you. You can't possibly have June as your manager. You need an entire PR team to control what the media says about you. Bad press could end your career before it even starts." Andrea explained.

My frown deepened. "What do you mean bad press?"

Andrea coughed. Ms Green suddenly avoided eye contact.

"Hello, I'm Jasmine and I was called here to be hired as your manager and head of PR team. I think what Andrea means when she says bad press is that she doesn't want nasty rumours spreading. And the only way to prevent nasty rumours from spreading is to make sure that you aren't seen in the company of certain people." The young woman stated, staring directly at Jason.

I couldn't believe what was going on. "Jason isn't 'certain people'. He's my boyfriend!"

"I understand that you two have a little romantic thing going on but it's not wise for the two of you to be seen in public. There are countless reporters waiting for something to tarnish your name and if they find out about this then there's no telling how chaotic the media storm can get." Andrea commented.