Slaying Goliath

Chapter 12

Josh was lost. The My Woman spread he'd known about. He didn't know about the Gossip Today article. How could he be so careless? He was usually so careful to stay out of the press. That's why this article was getting so much coverage. He hadn't been seen with the woman for a long time, so this was big news. The pictures of them kissing had created much speculation and he was now being followed by several photographers hoping for a follow up story. But that wasn't what had him worried.

Belinda wasn't answering his texts or his calls. In desperation he'd started to call her just to hear her voice. He needed to know if she was alright. He just needed her. But no matter what he did she wasn't answering him.

It was like she'd vanished from his life. He felt her absence like a hole in his chest. He was unable to do anything. Even the simplest tasks were too hard.

He'd danced Thursday night with still some hope that this could be sorted out. She was in court and wouldn't be answering her phone. At that stage he thought he could apologise to her and smooth it over. She would have read the letter and would have known about the other pictures, so it was just the gossip magazine spread he needed to talk to her about. But when she didn't answer his calls he started to panic.

It was Friday morning when he got Sam to ring her office. She had given him a phone number that went directly to her office. Sam had spoken to a woman called Amanda, who was her assistant, and she had told him about Boston. Josh couldn't hear the words spoken but he saw Sam's face fall. He sat down and looked at the floor.

Once off the phone Sam had given them an abbreviated version of what had happened. Josh knew that he wasn't telling them everything. Even so it was worse than anything he could have guessed. Belinda must hate him.

"What the hell are we going to do?" Drew was asking Sam, "Is she still in Boston? Should we drive to Boston to get her?"

"It sounds like she's not in Boston anymore," Sam said softly, "We can't go running off anyway, we have a show to do tonight."

"Yeah, that's going to work out well," Mark scoffed, "Look at him. How's he going to dance?"

"We can't do the show without him," Sam whispered.

"Maybe she lost her phone?" Drew said.

"Yeah, that's probably it," Mark scoffed.

"If she's not in Boston," Drew looked thoughtful, "If she'd back, lets just go see her. He can wave his hands at her and we'll translate. It's just a misunderstanding. They can fix this."

"I don't know," Sam said warily.

"What's not to know," Drew smiled, "Belinda's a smart girl. She's going to know that he wouldn't have done this on purpose. She won't blame him. It was a circumstantial thing. And who knows, maybe she's miserable down there, in Trenton, needing him to reassure her that everything is alright. She might be waiting for him to come rescue her."

"I don't know," Sam said but Josh was already up grabbing the keys.

"I'm with Sam on this," Mark said with a worried expression, "Women need time to process. If she's not answering she might not be ready to talk."

"Come on," Drew was putting on his coat, "She's got the wrong end of the stick. We just need to go and explain that to her. She'll take one look at Mr Miserable over there and Kaboom, problem sorted."

"What if," Sam started to say.

"What if, what if," Drew shrugged, "The longer he leaves it the worse it's going to get. Now, who's driving?"