Alsephina

After a shower and dinner, I decide to call mom, hoping that dad will be there too. On the second ring, my mom picks up the phone,

"Hi sweetheart, how are you?"

"I'm fine mom, what about you? How's everything going?" I smile to myself after hearing my mother's voice.

"Everything's great sweetheart. How do you like your job, everything good there?" says mom.

"Everything's great. Actually that's why I called you today. My Department head gave me my first press conference to cover." I squeal with excitement while telling my mom.

"Oh!!! Congratulations sweetheart I am so happy for you." she says, I hear a muffled voice in the background, "What... Yeah, she just got her first conference to cover." Mom says, I guess to dad.

"Here sweety, your dad wants to talk to you." mom says and there is shuffling on the other side of the phone.

"My little star, congratulations. How are you?" Comes the voice of my dad through the speaker.

"I'm good dad, settling in fine and thank you. I am excited for it myself." I say gleefully.

"That's really good, Little Star. Ahem... Your apartment is in a safe neighbourhood right? You have enough security? There's nobody troubling you is it?" My dad says in a serious tone.

I stay silent for a second, remembering what happened two years ago.

"You there, little star?" comes the voice of my dad.

I snap out of my haze and answer, "Yeah, dad just zoned out for a second. But no, everything's fine."

" Hey, are you okay? Did I make you remember something?" says dad in a concerned voice.

My mom and dad still don't know the details of what happened two years ago. They just know a titbit of it. I swore my brother to secrecy, so that he does not tell everything to our parents.

"No dad. I'm fine. Listen I'll talk to you guys tomorrow, I have to do some research on the male lead for the conference."

"Sure, little star. But sleep on time, We love you." dad says gently.

"I will. I love you both too." then I hang up.

I take a few deep breaths to calm myself and not remember that incident. My phone starts buzzing again and I see my brother's name flashing on the screen. Picking it up, I say,

"Hey Addy" I say in my most cheerful voice.

"Are you okay?", he asks with concern in his voice. " I overheard mom and dad talking to you while I was going to my room. Dad mentioned security and someone troubling you."

His concern puts a smile on my face, at times like this, my brother is the only one I can talk to, except my best friend. Only when he does not behave like we are teenagers and fights with me, he is genuinely the best brother anyone could ask for. Not that I would tell him that.

"No Addy, everything is fine. Dad was just checking in on me."

"Well if you go through any trouble, call me. Okay, baby sis." he says to lighten the mood.

"Ugh.... Really Addy. Just when I think that you are a really nice brother, you ruin it, you idiot." I say trying to sound annoyed, but even I am not convinced.

He bellows a laugh, "By the way, congratulations on your first press conference. I know you are going to smash it. Now do whatever you were doing. I also do not have time, you know." he says.

"Yeah Mr. Football Player. Bye." hanging up, I think of calling Cecily to not leave her hanging.

She'll kill me if she finds out the news from my parents and not from me. She doesn't even let the phone ring and picks up immediately.

"Babe!!! How are you? I miss you so much." she says in one breath.

"Woah.... Were you waiting for me to call or something? How can you pick up the phone so quickly? And I am fine. I miss you too, girl." I say.

"How's New York treating you? Any hot boys around?" she says in a flirtatious tone.

"Cece!!! It's been great, my office is also very good. The people have welcomed me with open arms. And no, I did not see any hot guys around. Actually, I didn't see any guy around because I was busy with the settling in and new job."

She tries to say something but I cut her before she speaks,
"And no, I am not looking forward even if there are."

"Aww.. come on babe. Okay, never mind, what's up?" she says knowing that there is no room for debate.

"Well today, I was given my first press conference to cover. It's in a couple of days." I tell her.

"Congratulations babe! That's so good, well nobody deserves this job, if not you." she says haughtily.

"Thanks, girl. So how is your internship going?" Cecily wants to become a lawyer and is currently doing her internship in a prestigious firm.

"Same old, lots of documents, lots of words to check. You tell me, which movie is this conference about?" she asks.

"Well, it is about the movie 'My Fault'...." as soon as the name of the movie slips out of my mouth, I'm cut off by Cecily's shriek.

"Oh my God!!! Are you talking about the film of Gabriel Garcia?" she squeals with excitement.

"Umm... Yes, but why did you shriek like that?"  I ask.

"Babe, sometimes I think you live in medieval times. Gabriel Garcia is the hottest celebrity in the world at present. He's gotten so famous from his first film that pretty much every girl wants to marry, date or have sex with him." she says as if she's in a trance.

"Okay... That information was not needed, Cece. I am just going to be at the press conference. Asking him about the movie, that's it." I explain.

"Wait till you see him, babe." Cece replies.

"Yeah, I was just about to do research on him after talking to you."

"Oh go ahead, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Love you babe." Cece says.

I cut the phone saying, "Love you too, girl."

Now that I have told everyone about the news, I switch on my laptop and search for Gabriel Garcia. As the window opens, I see a picture taken at an event of him.

Curiously, I click on it and my breath hitches. He is genuinely the most regal and handsome man I have ever seen.

With eyes brown like dark chocolate, a sharp nose, a jawline that could cut glass, hair as black as the night and a mole adjacent to the lower lip on the right side, white teeth like pearls, thin lips but just the amount that needed to be perfect.

What would those lips feel like?

I shake my head,"Ugh.... Alsephina what are you even thinking about?"

Thinking about what both of my friends said, I get annoyed. I don't want to be the one to go all fangirling over this man.

I try to look for a picture of him that looks hideous, but of course, I can't find a single one. There are various pictures, if taken of anybody else, they would have looked awkward or bizarre. But his pictures looked like he pulled all those poses so effortlessly.

I find a full candid picture of his smiling in some direction other than the camera and it looks breathtaking.

Oh my God he looked otherworldly while smiling.

He's tall, must be 6'1" or 6'2", he looks muscular underneath that suit, but not buff and more on the lean side.

Now I understand why Jen and Cece were so enamored by him. If he looks like that, any girl would be head over heels for him.

I have to stop thinking about this.

A couple of days from now, I will do my job properly. If I am given this opportunity, I will make sure that I don't let anybody down.

I look at my laptop and instead of searching for articles I zoom in on the picture but then I snap out, and search for the most important and popular articles about him, so that I can prepare questions for the conference. I copy articles from his first film, his family, relationships and any controversy that seemed worth asking about. I paste them all in my notepad, so that all the important information is at one place.

I stare at his picture for what seems like hours, I do not realise until a yawn escapes my mouth. I decide to sleep but curiosity gets the better of me and I look for more pictures from the tabloids or paparazzi that seem controversial and copy them too. After what feels like a very long time, I finally decide to give in to my sleep.

I vow to myself to take this professionally. The last thing on my mind before sleeping is keeping myself professional when it comes to Gabriel Garcia.

Alsephina, you got this. you won't let Mr. Shiny distract you from your job.