The Secret Billionaire: A BWWM Love Story For Adults (14 page)

Jane pointed
her finger towards a TV in the lounge. The Duty Manager saw the news
piece about Vera and Archer. As the reality dawned upon him, Jane
found him frozen in his spot.

“
Tell
me now!” Jane said to the Manager. “What should we say to
these men? Better go inside and call the airport security.”

The Duty
Manager looked at Vera and walked inside the door with slow and
steady steps.

Minutes later
the airport security arrived and contained the passengers. Finally,
Vera had some peace to think. Jane sat by her side and offered her
some water.

*****

“
What
did I tell you that night?” Phillip slammed the tabloid on the
table. Archer did not need to look at it. Because by the time Phillip
had reached home, their story was all over the media. Archer knew
Phillip was going mad and so he thought it was best not to add fuel
to the fire by arguing. He knew he was at fault and did not try to
defend himself. But Phillip needed to vent his anger out, and he used
his words to do that.

“
I
was hoping you would use your brain and tell that girl who you really
were. But you wanted to play the prince and pauper so bad that you
fucked it all up.” Phillip started pacing around the room,
“When you caught that photographer that night, you were sure
that he was after Vera because of you. I did not believe that at the
moment, but I told you to reveal your identity to your girlfriend.
You ignored my advice not once but many times and now you are looking
at the consequences.”

Phillip took
a deep breath and lowered his voice, “If you don’t know
already then let me inform you that our shares are taking a hit
because of this story. Our investors did not like their CEO romancing
with an airline clerk. We say not to judge a book by its cover, but
we live in a different reality.”

“
What
do you want me to do now?” Archer finally spoke.

“
I
want you to fix this right now.” Phillip replied.

“
Do
you want me to beat that photographer? Fine, I am going to do that
right away.” Archer banged his fist into his palm. Phillip
stared at Archer with astonishment.

“
How
big a fool are you to talk like that? You are not supposed to even
touch that guy now. It will be really bad for business and your
relationship. I want you to come clean before that girl if you really
care about her. And leave that asshole to me. I will take care of
him.”

Archer
remembered that he needed to talk to Vera about it. He dialed Vera’s
number and waited to hear her voice.

“
Hello!”
Vera answered the phone. Archer could hear that she had been crying.

“
Vera,
where are you?” he asked.

“
Oh,
now you care?”

“
Don’t
talk like that. Of course I care for you.”

As she wiped
her tears, anger took her over. “Then why did you hide it from
me?”

Archer knew
there was no use of answering that question and so he stayed mum.

“
I
understand why you did not tell me during our first meetings, but why
did you hide it after we grew so close? Were you worried I would eat
through all your money? After all, you rich guys think girls like me
are gold diggers. Or you were just planning to discard me after
having your fun?”

“
What
are you talking about Vera? I am calling you right now. What does
this tell you?” Archer tried to put some sense into Vera, but
she was not ready to listen.

“
I
know why you are calling me. I am not just a dumb airline clerk as
you might think. I can understand that this story will be affecting
your business and now you need some good PR. Is this your PR call,
tell me?” Vera roared like a wounded lioness.

Archer had no
answer to that allegation. He knew that if it was him in Vera’s
position, even he would not have believed himself.

“
Vera,
please try to understand. I made a terrible mistake and now all I
want is you to be with me. I just want to make things right now.
Please, please forgive me.” Archer was now pleading.

“
Do
you know at work, people were treating me like I was a fucking animal
in a zoo. Taking pictures, gawking and saying the meanest things
possible.
Hey what
did you do to catch his attention?
Like I am some gold digging whore. Will you make
that
right?”

Again, Archer
was speechless. But this time before he could say anything, Vera hung
up on him. He tried calling her again, but she rejected his call.
Archer knew that she was not going to answer his call.

He got up and
looked at Phillip who was staring at him.

“
I
need to go and meet her.”

Phillip
nodded, “You go there and I will take care of this
photographer.”

Archer patted
Phillip’s shoulder and walked out of the room.

After much
thinking, Phillip dialed a number on his phone. “Yeah. I need
to find a man. Should be pretty easy to find right now. Hell, let me
give you his number and he will tell you his location himself.”

*****

“
It
has been quite an ordeal. At first I thought they were just having
fun, but then I saw that spark between them.” Victor said
sitting in a news studio. A small news channel had invited him to
talk about his pictures that were going viral.

“
We
have Mr Victor Cooper with us in the studio. The man behind the
images that showed us the fairy tale love story between multi
billionaire Archer Finch and an airline clerk Vera Jones.” The
news anchor addressed the camera and then she turned towards Victor.
“So Mr Cooper, for how long have you been involved in this
story?”

“
Thank
you for calling me here Felicity. It's an honor.” Victor showed
his polite side before the camera. “Like any photojournalist
involved in any project, I invested a lot of my time in this story.
And besides my time, this story had taken my sweat, money and blood
in equal parts.”

“
Ooh
blood!” the news anchor’s eyes twinkled at the mention of
the word
blood.
“Tell us more about that.”

“
Of
course,” Victor showed his teeth. “It was a cold night
when I was sitting outside a restaurant. I knew that Archer and Vera
were regulars there and so I was waiting outside in the cold, minding
my own business. And before I could even take a picture Archer Finch
walked up to me and punched me in the nose.”

“
Wow!
That must have hurt,” the news anchor stated the obvious.

“
Like
a hammer.” Victor continued. “I pleaded with him to stop,
but he was too drunk.”

“
Did
you hear that?” the news anchor turned to the camera with a
horrified expression on her face. “Archer Finch allegedly
attacked a man under the influence of alcohol. Tell me Mr Cooper,”
she turned back to him, “Were you taking any pictures of him or
Miss Jones at that time?”

“
Absolutely
not. As I said I only took pictures when they were in public areas. I
knew they were going to be there for their dinner and so I was
waiting for them to come out. But as Archer Finch saw me and my
camera, he started attacking me. He broke my camera and destroyed my
expensive gear.”

“
Did
you file a police complaint?” the news anchor asked.

Victor
laughed, “He is a multi billionaire. And I am a small time
photojournalist. It was a cold night when nobody was watching. You
really think the cops would have helped me?”

“
It
certainly is an interesting debate Mr Cooper. Can a billionaire
consider himself above the law after having a few drinks? We will
discuss this story with Mr Cooper after these commercials.” The
program cut to the commercials.

The lounge at
the cruise was filled with elderly people who were very interested in
that story. “Fuck this guy! He seems like a cheap whore with a
camera. If her mother was being mugged, he would have photographed it
instead of saving her,” a guy yelled.

“
How
do you know?” a woman asked him.

“
Oh
I can vouch for that billionaire kid. He is such a nice boy. I am
telling you he is not a brat who would hit people after getting
drunk.” Alice said holding her drink.

“
How
do you know?” the same woman asked her too.

“
I
know him. He is dating my daughter.” Alice said casually.

The woman and
old man shared a surprised look. “Is that airline clerk your
daughter?”

Alice took a
sip from her drink, “Yeah, Vera Jones is my daughter. And that
billionaire boy is Archer. He brought my daughter to meet me here on
this cruise via a yacht.”

“
Ohh
I remember it,” another old man jumped in. “I saw you and
your daughter fighting that day.” Suddenly, all the old timers
recalled the moment when Vera and Alice had a heated argument in the
main lounge.

“
Yeah,
I remember your daughter. Now she looked like she could punch
someone,” the old man laughed after that. Alice did not feel
offended and shared the laughter.

“
So
is it true? Are they dating?” a voice asked.

“
Are
they going to marry each other?” another one asked.

“
How
rich is that fellow?”

Many similar
questions kept coming up. Alice could not make out what she was
hearing and so she raised her hands and yelled at the top of her
voice.

“
Quiet!”
The noise magically simmered down and Alice started talking again.

“
What
my daughter and that rich boy do is their own business. I am her
mother and am not worried about it. Then why should you or anybody
else? We are here on this cruise to have fun and that is the only
thing we should be concerned about.”

Alice’s
speech was met with approving hollers and cheers.

“
Fuck
that photographer!” a sound came from the photographer.

Alice settled
down in her seat. “You know what?” the old man said. “I
am going to get you a drink. It's on me.”

And soon,
Alice was being offered drinks and pastries from several companions
on the cruise. The news had turned her into a celebrity.

Victor and Felicity were
chatting between the segments. “Listen sweetheart! I am
supposed to be on another show in an hour. Could you please wrap up
my segment a little quicker? And please do plug in my website as
promised.”

Felicity smiled and
nodded. But as she turned away, her face turned as if she had tasted
a bitter fruit. The make up man came close to her face for a quick
touch up, “It this what this channel has come to? Interviewing
cheap camera whores like him?”

The make up man smiled
and went away. The show went back on air and Victor kept talking
about how much he invested in this ‘story’.

Getting out of the
studio, Victor reached the other show that was being shot close to
the first one. They asked the same questions and he gave the same
answers. But this time, he also implied that his divine intervention
played a huge part in bringing these two together. “You see, in
a way, without me, they would not have been together.” Victor
blew his own trumpet on that show. Between the commercial break, he
received another phone call asking for him to appear on another show.
Victor told them that he was already doing one show and so it
wouldn't be possible for him to be there. The show runners offered to
pick him up and Victor told them his location.

Waiting outside the
studio, Victor was growing impatient. He received another phone call.

“
Yeah.
Of course you can have them. That is why I made those pictures. Its
$500 for one picture and you get a 1 week license.” The caller
haggled about the price and Victor laughed him off. “The price
went up buddy. I just did two TV shows and so my pictures are now a
little costlier.”

The caller tried to
convince Victor to come back to his original price, but the man knew
his pictures were worth more than what they used to be. “That
is my final offer my friend. Call me if you are willing to pay up.”

As Victor hung up, a
station wagon pulled up in front of him across the street.

“
Mr.
Cooper?” the driver asked.

“
About
damn time.” Victor said walking towards the vehicle.

The car took Victor in
and drove off.

*****