One Wild Night

For a moment Alicia forgot that it was a live interview and her jaws dropped in surprise before she quickly regained her composure and blinked at Bryan with a confused frown, "Your relationship is real but your engagement was fake?" She asked, looking from Bryan to Sonia whose faces were blank as they looked at her. 

"Yes. You heard him right," Sonia responded this time.

"Does that mean that the speculation about you blackmailing him to propose to you is true?" Alicia asked, trying to get the facts right.

Bryan shook his head, "No. None of that is true. Before I go on, I will like to make something clear. I don't think my relationship is anyone's business. Most of you who seem to have a lot to say about my relationship, I know next to nothing about you or your relationship, so you should know that your opinion on my relationship doesn't really matter to me as an individual. However, the only reason I'm doing this is because as a public figure, I'm answerable to the public, and as such, I have to be honest with you. Golden stars entertainment agency released that article, criticizing Sonia only because they were concerned about how the rumors of our false engagement would affect my career." Bryan clarified.

"You're saying your agency lied against Sonia?"

"Sorry. I no longer work under that agency," Bryan cut in, surprising both Alicia and Sonia.

"What?" Alicia asked.

"I already asked my lawyer to terminate my contract with them. I can't entrust myself to an agency that only cares about my career and not about my emotional wellbeing. Paul lied against Sonia even when he knows the truth, and I can't accept that. Paul, I'm sure you're watching this. You can see that I made good my threat. We are done," Bryan said, looking directly into the camera as though he was looking at Paul.

"Wow!" Alicia exclaimed since she hadn't exactly expected Bryan to take things that far. 

Sonia turned to Bryan with a frown since he hadn't discussed that with her first, but he gave her a reassuring smile, "Trust me, okay?" He mouthed to her, and she gave him a nod. 

"I'm still confused about something. Or perhaps I should say we, as I'm sure I'm speaking on behalf of most of our viewers. How can your engagement be false when you say that your relationship is real? Can you tell us more about it? How did the both of you meet? Did Sonia approach you first?" Alicia asked, and Bryan turned to Sonia.

"Maybe she will explain better," he said, giving Sonia the go-ahead to tell them about their engagement.

Sonia gave a nod as she looked at the camera, and then at Alicia, "Well, as funny and as unbelievable as this might sound, we actually met each other for the first time the moment he knelt in front of me to propose to me," Sonia confessed.

"What?" Tom blurted out without thinking, and turned to look at Lucy in confusion, "I thought they are supposed to be telling the truth?"

"Which is what they're doing," Lucy said, without looking at him.

"You mean that is the truth? They met for the first time when he proposed to her?" Tom asked incredulously.

"Why do you sound so surprised? Didn't you know about it?" Lucy asked blinking at him innocently.

"Know about what? I thought they were being accused falsely and were just going to open up about how they met and all of that," Tom said with a frown. So he was the only one who was in the dark over this? He only just realized now that he had failed to ask Bryan what he meant by 'coming clean'. He was going to kill Bryan for deceiving him this whole time. 

"Oh! Sorry. I assumed you already figured it out. Let's focus on the comments." Lucy said, and then returned her attention to the comment section to see the reaction of the fans.

'What????? OMG, I can't believe it!'

'Is this true??'

'How is that even possible?'

'This is crazzzzzy!'

'Byran proposed to a total stranger? Unbelievable!'

'This has got to be a movie script! Who knows? Maybe the reality show is still on and they're playing us.'

Alicia on the other hand was staring at both Bryan and Sonia in confusion, "You are joking, right?" They both shook their head. 

"No. We are not. I was under a lot of pressure from my fellow actor, Sophia Riley, regarding our relationship scandal. I wasn't in a sexual relationship with her, but thanks to some incompetent journalist who published news about us being in a relationship without checking the facts, Sophia was having issues with her man and she needed me to clear the air. I needed something else to divert the attention and make her man believe her. So I decided to propose to a random stranger. If you work in the entertainment industry you'd know that the only way to cover up a scandal is by using a bigger scandal," Bryan explained.

"So you actually proposed to her just to cover up your scandal? And not because you were both head over heels in love? Not because she approached you and blackmailed you as we were made to believe?" Alicia asked for the benefit of the viewers.

"How could she have blackmailed me when we have never met before that day?" Bryan asked.

Alicia turned to Sonia, "But the engagement video... It didn't seem like it was the first time you both met. I mean, did you see the way you held him and kissed him," Alicia pointed out, and both Bryan and Sonia laughed. 

"I've always had a crush on Bryan. I mean, I am I huuuuuge fan. I love seeing his movies and I've always imagined what kissing him would taste like. So you can't imagine the magnitude of surprise I felt while I was sitting there waiting for my editor to show up, and then Bryan Hank popped out of nowhere and knelt right there in front of me asking me to be his wife! I mean, this is Bryan Hank we are talking about. Fucking A-list actor Bryan Hank. At first, I thought it was either a prank or maybe I was just dreaming. But then I thought, fuck it! Even if it's a prank or a dream, I better seize this opportunity," Sonia said with a giggle, and both Bryan and Alicia laughed too.

"I was taken aback too. I was actually expecting her to reject me. So you can't imagine how shocked I was when she not only accepted my proposal but held on to me and kissed me. I thought she was crazy," Bryan revealed with a chuckle as he looked at Sonia fondly.

"You still think I'm crazy," Sonia murmured in amusement.

"Definitely. But I'm also crazy. Crazy about you."

"Awww. You both are so sweet. This sounds like something that would happen in a romance movie or a novel," Alicia said, and Sonia giggled some more.

"She's making it into a novel. You don't want to tell them about it?" Bryan asked Sonia.

"Yeah. I've been working on the story since the first time we met."

"Oh, wow! Save me the first copy! I will really love to read that book!" Alicia said with enthusiasm.

"The first copy is mine. You can have the second copy," Bryan offered with a grin.

"Gee! What a supportive fiance you are. Or should I just say, boyfriend? Since your fake engagement is technically off?" Alicia asked, and both couple laughed.

"Boyfriend is fine." They said in unison.

"So why didn't you call off the false engagement afterward? You were scared of public criticism? Or you both fell in love at first sight?" Alicia asked curiously, and Sonia flashed her a guilty smile as Bryan pointed at her. 

"Sonia. She refused to end things, and she disappeared with the ring without leaving a trace," Bryan said, making Alicia burst into a peal of laughter.

"You're kidding me, right?" Alicia asked, looking at Sonia in amusement.

"What did you expect me to do? Would you have returned the ring and agreed to end things with him just like that? I guess that's why I was accused of emotionally blackmailing him," Sonia said with a grin.

"Now I get why Bryan said you're crazy. No offense," Alicia said with a giggle.

"None taken. But look at it this way, if I hadn't held on to the ring, we won't be together by now. Besides, do you know how many lies I told so many people who called me that day just to make them believe that we were truly engaged? How would I have looked at them afterward? How can you expect me to give back the ring without putting up a fight? You've got to be kidding me," Sonia said with a scoff.

"I'm glad you didn't give it back," Bryan said with a grin as he kissed her knuckles.

"You just realized it now? After all the stress you put me through?" She asked with a dramatic roll of her eyes. 

"That should be my line," Bryan corrected.

Alicia kept grinning as she watched them both, "I would love to ask how your relationship blossomed from being fake couples to sweet lovers, but I wouldn't want to spoil Sonia's book," Alicia said, and Sonia gave her a thumbs up.

Alicia turned to the camera, "You heard them, guys. If this isn't a real romance story, I don't know what is. You have to agree with me that they make a great couple. You can keep dropping your questions and your comments, and we will attend to them after the short break. We will be right back!" Alicia said with a wink, and Jasmine turned off the camera immediately.

              *************

Anita who was lying face up in the beauty parlor with two round slices of cucumber covering her eyes, groaned when she heard the sound of her ringtone. 

"I can't even get an hour's rest," she sighed as she removed the cucumbers and opened her eyes, before reaching for her handbag and taking out her phone.

She raised a brow when she saw the number displayed on the screen, before receiving the call, "Hi!" She greeted, wondering why the person was calling her.

"Are you watching the interview right now?" A male voice asked.

"What interview?" She asked curiously.

"What? You don't know that Bryan and Sonia are currently shooting a live interview?"

"They are?" 

"Bryan and Sonia are currently doing a live interview, you know what this means, right?" He asked, and Anita stood up immediately.

"Who is interviewing them?" Anita asked as she took off the towel which was used to wrap her hair, and then she also took off the bathrobe which she was wearing.

"Is that even important right now? They just revealed that their engagement is fake! And their relationship is still very much intact!" He informed Anita.

"Really?" Anita asked with a slight frown. She hadn't expected them to do that. She had thought they would try to cover it up or something, especially considering the fact that they had ended their relationship. Who would have thought that the idiots would make up so soon? 

"What about my brother? You are still going to keep to your end of the bargain even though we didn't get to use the evidence I provided anymore, right?" He asked hopefully.

Anita rolled her eyes, "The deal was on the ground that we use the evidence. Since we no longer have use for it, there is no deal." 

"What? You can't do this to me after you made me leak the news to the press! Do you have any idea what would happen to me if they find out that I was behind this?" He asked furiously.

"They were going to find out after you release the evidence anyway. But since you are so worried about it, I guess you have to make sure that no one finds out that you were behind it." With that Anita hung up the call and started to dress up.

She didn't have the luxury of time to rest.. She had to come up with something else.