Chapter 5
Ariya followed Veer back to the picnic tables, and as she walked back, she felt a weird vibration going off in her pocket. Her phone was buzzing, but it was not a call. She was getting a new notification every second.
“What in the world?” She pulled out her phone to see an overwhelming number of notifications from her online profile. She was getting new followers by the second.
“What?” Veer stopped and turned to look at her.
“I don’t know why my online profile is suddenly getting so many hits.” Ariya scrolled through the hundreds of new followers, and the number was changing as she was watching it. “I think my account is hacked… Oh no.”
“Can I take a look?” Veer took her phone, and Ariya watched as his expression went from a cool, composed one to one that was annoyance, anger, and agitation combined.
“Andy, you are dead meat,” Veer growled running toward Andy who was laughing like he couldn’t help himself. It was comical to watch Andy trying to use Stefan as a shield from Veer as everyone continued to laugh.
“What’s going on?” I asked Tony, one of the assistant directors.
Tony turned his phone toward Ariya. “Look.”
Ariya’s mouth went dry when she saw the picture on the phone. It was a picture of Veer and her, standing by the bushes, his hand on her neck and her eyes shut. Her eyes widened when she saw the comment associated with the picture.
‘Guess What Happened?’
The worst part was her online profile was tagged in the picture, and suddenly, everything started to make sense. Veer’s fans were starting to follow her.
“No, I don’t need them to follow me. I need to get him more followers… crap.”
“Wait, you are not upset about the picture?” Tony asked rather shocked.
“I’ve been in broadcasting before… thick-skinned.” She shrugged and walked over to where Stefan, Andy, and Veer were huddled.
“Ariya, make him bring down the post,” Veer growled.
“What?” She looked confused at the three men.
“I apparently have no rights to make him bring the picture down, you do. Make him delete it.” Veer looked visibly shaken.
“Ariya, just say it, and Andy will delete the picture.” Stefan’s voice was calm.
“You think the picture is the problem? Veer’s followers are following me, and that’s not what I want… how do we distract them… like away from me?” Ariya asked and took all three men by surprise.
“Gosh… it doesn’t matter. It is a breach of your privacy.” Veer growled.
“Veer, we were in public. Why does it matter?” Ariya shrugged.
“Did you see all the pictures Andy posted? Aren’t you bothered by the picture where it looks like I’m about to kiss you?” Veer sneered looking at Andy, who was still finding Veer’s reaction amusing.
“What?”
“Here, he has been very busy taking pictures when I was checking your wound.” Veer grit his teeth.
She swallowed looking at the picture that looked so intimate, but she couldn’t let that ruin her assignment. “Okay, I have an idea. Veer, how about you do a follow up to this post with the title ‘This is what happened’. Tell your followers what really happened, post a picture of what you think bit me last night and take a picture of my neck if you’d like.”
“I like that… I like that.” Veer gritted looking at Andy who looked lost.
“Stefan, can I have her on my team?” Andy asked after giving Ariya a pat on the shoulder.
“You think I haven’t tried.” Stefan laughed.
Veer was back with his phone. “Andy, this is for making something look like it wasn’t. You don’t get to shoot the video of my haircut.”
Andy’s face turned grim, but he didn’t challenge Veer as he took a short video with Ariya standing still while he educated his viewers about ‘Guess What Happened?’ He talked about the bug and its potent venom and what to do if stung by it, remedies, first response, and treatment.
“Andy, last warning… no more cheap tricks,” Veer growled as soon as he hit the upload button on the video.
“I don’t know what you are griping about, Veer. Ariya was fine with the picture.” Andy sounded defensive.
“I will get a haircut as planned tomorrow, but you still won’t get to shoot the haircut video. You asked for drama, you got drama… done.” Veer turned on his heels and left Ariya standing with Stefan and Andy.
Stefan took a deep breath and looked at Andy. “You know what to do, right?”
Andy looked at Ariya mischievously. “You got a lot of brownie points today, Ariya. You will talk to Veer about me getting to shoot his haircut?”
“Oh no, I’m going to stay out of this.” Ariya laughed, shaking her head.
“Ariya, you have to do this for Andy,” Stefan insisted.
“I barely know the guy. I can’t possibly convince him.”
“You guys are well connected, not just by rooms with connecting doors.” Andy laughed and that ticked off Ariya.
“Andy, let me be very clear, I do not like these kinds of puns when I’m on an assignment. I do not appreciate such comments,” she spat.
Andy’s laughter subsided, and he almost took a step back in defense. “Sorry, that came out wrong, but you guys are on the same wavelength. Help me out here.”
“I would if I could. I met Veer less than a day ago. I don’t want him to cancel my photography assignment because I really, really want to take pictures of him.” She laughed.
“That’s cold, so cold.” Andy shook his head.
“Ariya… talk to Veer.” Stefan’s tone was calm, but she knew he meant business.
“Okay. I will. I’m not making any promises.”
*****
The crew was ready to go to the shooting location as per schedule. There were two vans with equipment, a couple of jeeps for transporting the team, and a security vehicle for the equipment.
“Ariya, you riding with me?” Stefan pointed to one of the jeeps.
She smiled and shook her head, pointing to the van. “You know.”
“You haven’t changed a bit.” Stefan laughed.
Ariya was getting into the van when she heard Veer call her name. “You are supposed to take pictures of me, why are you in riding with the equipment.”
“I… I get queasy in small vehicles. I like bigger and steadier vehicles.” She hoped he would just let her ride in the van.
“No, you’ll be fine. If you do get sick, I have a trick for that… let’s go.” He nodded his head toward one of the jeeps, and she looked at him for a moment and followed. She didn’t want to seem unfriendly when she was getting to know the crew, know Veer.
“Really? Ariya is riding in this measly little jeep?” Stefan wasn’t going to let an opportunity go to tease Ariya.
“Whatever, Stefan. Your star here said I needed to take pictures on our way there,” she grumbled.
“You were going to let her ride the equipment van?” Veer wasn’t pleased.
“It was her choice, and my buddy here is a big girl,” Stefan said turning to look at Ariya and Veer file into the back seat of the jeep.
“I’ve traveled longer distances in a van before.” Ariya started to feel the suffocation from being inside the jeep.
Veer tapped the back of her hand. “Can I hold your wrist?”
“Huh?”
He smiled and took her wrist between his thumb and index finger and applied slight pressure. “Breathe and relax.”
She relaxed her shoulders and took a deep breath taking in his masculinity that still lingered in her bathroom. She shut her eyes and took in the calm of the forest and the peace from the greenery.
Veer applied pressure on the back of her wrist on both hands for a few minutes and then released her hands. He looked at her as she rested her head on the headrest of the seat, her eyes shut and a small smile playing on her lips. He wondered if she was feeling sick from the bug bite or something else. He wondered the reason for her to take the bus to the lodge the previous day when they had so many vehicles for transportation all paid for by the network.
“Ariya,” her name resonated in her ears as she opened her eyes to look into Veer’s deep eyes. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, running the back of her hand over her eye. “That was a good power nap. I am ready to go.”
“Let’s go. We have a thirty-minute trek uphill.”
“Easy.” She smiled, gathering her backpack and followed Veer.
Ariya took pictures as the team worked out the logistics. She liked to capture candid pictures and took the pictures as Veer and Andy’s team discussed the details. She wished Veer would look at her so she could get one good, direct picture, but Veer was engrossed in the conversation. He walked around the area playing out the script he had in his mind and wasn’t satisfied until everything seemed to be as per his plan.
“What time do we start?” Andy asked.
“Six.”
“Six, it is then,” Stefan announced, and the team called it a wrap.
“I won’t have time to go to a salon tomorrow morning. Stefan, I want to get my hair cut tonight,” Veer stated and didn’t give anyone a choice.
Stefan nodded and looked at his assistant, Jerry. “Get the hairdresser to meet us at the lodge.”
“No, just have him keep the salon open until we get there.” Veer shook his head to shake out his hair from the pony.
“Andy…” Stefan started to say and stopped when he caught the look on Veer’s face.
“Andy is not going nor is his team… Ariya, you can go if you’d like to take pictures.”
Andy looked at Stefan and Ariya helplessly, but neither of them could say anything to Veer as he walked away from them.
“Ariya, talk to him,” Stefan whispered.
“Are you kidding me? What makes you think he’ll agree especially when he just said what he said.” Ariya shook her head.
“Ariya, he is upset with Andy because you got roped into the online drama. Go tell him you are not upset and that you want Andy at the salon.” Stefan wasn’t ready to take no for an answer.
“This is not what I signed up for, Stefan,” she whined and turned to follow Veer to the jeep.
“You go get him, girl,” Andy encouraged, and she laughed.