Cage woke up to his little conversation with his favorite girl. Her voice perked up his not-so-little friend downstairs, rearing his ugly head early in the morning. He moaned as he texted her back and was about to head to the shower when his doorbell rang.

  He scurried to downstairs with his fluffy slippers on and looked through the peephole to see the familiar face of Keira Higgins peering at the camera.

  "Cage!" she said in a singsong voice, making him cringe instantly. He wondered what he should do for a moment, before deciding that the plethora of paparazzi waiting for him outside would take pictures of this and circulate it on the internet, making his life worse than it was. He just wanted to enjoy his few days of vacation before he was back on the road promoting his movie again. He would be travelling to other countries, making it difficult for him to do anything but sleep and be interviewed.

  He reluctantly opened the main door and saw her leaning against the wall. He gulped, knowing she had plans that he didn't care for.

  "Cage, you've been ignoring me," she pouted, flying into his arms, posing for the pictures. He was sure the alarms would go off if someone trespassed, but he couldn't say the same about people who were perched on trees, waiting for the right click to go down.

  "Get away from me," he deadpanned, making sure his arms were nowhere near her body. She snuggled closer into his chest, pressing her palms against the hardness of his chest.

  "But you are happy to see me," she said, giggles escaping her lips.

  He scrunched his brows, not understanding what she meant, until she reached down to palm the front of his pants. He jumped back, hard-on completely gone, a frown on his face.

  "Don't harass me first thing in the morning; it's not for you." Her face twisted into a grimace as she looked at his face.

  "Then who is it for?" For someone who had been seen with another man while they were supposedly dating, she was quite possessive about his whereabouts.

  "None of your business," he said shortly, pushing her towards the door. She refused to budge, evading his advance and slipping past him. He could hear her giggles as she ran up the stairs.

  Like a frightened bunny, he closed the door and followed behind her, wondering how he would get rid of her.

  "Please leave," he groaned when he saw her enter his bedroom. His phone lay on his bed, and it was as usual unlocked because he didn't like to put in a password every time he opened his phone. He panicked, scrambling forward to get a hold of his phone, losing out to her within a second.

  She listened intently to the recording on his Qchat, which was open and glared at him.

  "Didn't I tell you to not play around?" she sneered.

  "I'm not the one playing around here, Miss Higgins. You are." His voice was stern, but he felt a prick of anxiety at the back of his head.

  "Don't you see that we would be good together?" she said in a light voice, as if forgetting her anger from before. "I don't mind if we don't love each other, I want to be with you." she winked at him. He could feel a shudder about to break through, but he suppressed it with great strength.

  "We were never together, and I am not interested in fake relationships." He grabbed her hand and was about to drag her out, when he pulled at him, catching him by surprise.

  There was a light click and a flash that followed, blinding him for a second.

  "How dare you click a picture of me without my permission!" Enraged, he started to pull at her again. "Have you gone insane? Aren't you the least bit concerned about your image when you get thrown out of the house?"

  "I am not getting thrown out of the house," she said, shrugging off his hand. "Listen to me carefully. You are ruining my reputation. If you don't take me back, I will make sure you regret it." He was rendered stunned at the poisonous tone of her voice. Her threat hit him, and he knew that with her connections it was quite possible for her to uphold one scandal or the other.

  "I don't care," he said after a considerable amount of time. Hell, he had his own team of publicists that could handle the fire when it came at him. He had been in the industry for over 8 years and had a successful career at that. Her star team couldn't take away everything he had gained from his hard work.

  "You're making a big mistake, Cavanaugh." Her voice was low. "I have been here longer than you have. I was a child actor. What little fame you have gained in the past few months has been because you were associated with me. Don't think for a moment that the turnout would be so great without my publicist going out and releasing news of our dating."

  "I never agreed to a fake dating and I never will. Your publicist did what they did was best and I kept silent with my team because it would help the cause. It might have come from mutual discussion but in none of the publicity stunts was my team involved with how our relationship was portrayed." His voice was just as scathing.

  "You don't mind if I make a huge fuss about this whole affair?" she said, confused. "You really don't know what is good for you, Cage Cavanaugh."

  "You don't have to care about me. Go ahead and do what you can," he challenged, realizing too late that he was facing a mad person. He would soon come to regret his words.

  "Tell your little slut I said hi," she said with a flip of her hair which pissed him off beyond imagination. He wanted to push her out of his house, but he knew how that would look so he refrained.

  He opened the door graciously and she left with a small smirk on her face.

  He immediately went back to his room and fired Rinten a text, apologizing for not being able to talk to her all day.

  He finished it quickly before calling his manager.

  "Stephen, be prepared. Keira dropped by."——