Chapter 17 - Jordan

"Foodies, Foodies, Foodies!" Kitchen Kitty's voice boomed from the sound bar speaker, "You're about to burn your tongues, this tea is so hot! Leading man, Jordan W, is winning with the number one movie at the box office but losing in love as his lady, Alexandra Montgomery, is seen sneaking around with a secret lover!" Kitchen Kitty paused to sip from her mug and adjust her pink wig.

"Let's take a closer look, ya'll! Here is the mystery man entering Alex's apartment building with a bouquet of flowers. Now this next picture is the same mystery man leaving a whole three hours later, with no flowers and a smile on his face! Of course, you're probably thinking how we know he's not visiting one of Alex's neighbors. It's because, here, they are on the Midnight Sun red carpet getting out of the same car together! He's whispering in her ear, rubbing her back, kissing her cheek-- and this is at Jordan's premiere, ya'll! So disrespectful!"

Jordan's jaw tightened as he watched the report. Nothing good could come from this.

"Well Foodies, looks like our favorite snack and a half, Jordan, is about to be back on the market, soon! And you can trust that millions of Jordan's fans will be coming for Alex on social media and beyond!"

As if on cue, Alex's phone started rattling off the night table as one notification after another came in from her Twitter and Instagram accounts. Her Instagram photos were flooded with popcorn emojis, which was the signature emoji for Jordan's fans, since popcorn is the go to snack to eat at movie theaters and Jordan was a movie star who was also considered to be a snack. On Twitter, the hashtag 'GiveAlexTheAx' was trending. She was being called every explicit name there was and even getting death threats.

"Don't worry about my fans. I'll get them in check." Jordan said quietly watching even more tears rolling down Alex's face. He began to wonder if he and Alex would ever have a moment to breathe. It seemed like they were finally falling into step with one another, but problems were sprouting from thin air, like weeds.

He figured most of his fans were harmless and the worst they would do was spam Alex's social media accounts. What worried him were the handful of outliers that could potentially be a threat to her safety. He'd be sure to speak with his full-time body guard, Vince about his concerns. Jordan figured it wouldn't be uncomfortable for Alex to occasionally travel with Vince, since the two seemed to get along well after meeting at Ralph Steven's home. He knew Vince thought Alex was cool; otherwise Vince never would have let Alex past the gates when she showed up to Jordan's house unannounced, at almost midnight. Past love interests had been turned away, on several occasions.

"I'm done with this." Alex said, standing up. "I've been sitting back and letting too much slide. These past couple of weeks have been out of control and every time my gut tells me to do something - speak up at the studio meeting; put Damien in his place for his advances; clear up rumors of our relationship when my mother said to ignore them - I just let it slide. I'm done with it, now." She accepted the tissue Jordan offered and wiped her tears away.

"Jordan, I don't know why there have been so many issues with leaks and pictures and meetings, but I've got to start listening to my gut. Right now, my gut is telling me that it's all connected. I just need to figure out how."

A feeling of pride washed over Jordan, seeing his girlfriend get fired up and take control of the situation. It made Jordan love her even more. It also made him want to finish what they'd started the night before. However, Alex wasn't the only one in their relationship to put business before pleasure. Standing up, Jordan clapped his hands twice, "Alright, then. Let's get to work!"

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When the video from his parent's cookout first leaked, Jordan called his parents asking them to find out who may have been the culprit. No one had come forward, which disappointed Jordan because he felt the number of people he could trust was shrinking by the minute.

There was no way to know what organization or random stranger took pictures of them at the park, so the only lead they had was to figure out who at the cookout took the footage. Without that information they wouldn't get anywhere.

"Ok, how about we make a list of everyone who was at the cookout when we showed up." Alex suggested. "Then we can take a look at the video and eliminate anyone who's in it."

"That makes sense. Because if they're in the video, they're obviously not filming it."

"Exactly!" Alex remarked.

Jordan grabbed two water bottles out of the refrigerator and watched Alex write names down from across the massive kitchen island. It still felt surreal to see Alexandra Montgomery sitting on the stool's plush cushion, legs tucked beneath her and her hair in a messy bun. He'd wanted to meet her for so long and now there she was, in his house, wearing his old shirt. He liked how oversized the shirt fit her, so he couldn't quite tell if she was wearing anything underneath. Business and then pleasure, he reminded himself.

Alex had initially suggested they call her mother to ask her about the studio meeting, but given Alex's near panic attack, Jordan recommended she not bring anything to her mother until they knew more.

About an hour later, the two felt like their list was complete. "Alright, so we've got everyone who was already there or showed up before we left." Alex started, "We crossed off everyone who was in the video and everyone too young to film it. That leaves these five people."

Looking over the list, Jordan crossed off his teen aged sister and great grandmother. His sister had plenty of opportunities to leak pictures and videos but never did. They were close and Jordan knew he could trust her. His great grandmother didn't like cell phones and would call them "black magic bricks", so she definitely wasn't a person of interest.

"Ok, so we're down to three people. My older cousin Doug, Aunt Kelly, and cousin Deedee."

"Do you think any of them might have done this?"

"Honestly, no. But these are our only leads, so, we need to try."

Jordan dialed Doug's number, first, and put the phone on the counter hitting the speaker button so they could both hear. Doug picked up on the third ring.

"Hey Jordan. Man, what's happening?"

"Hey Doug, you got a minute? I got something important to talk to you about." The line went quiet and Alex raised her eyebrows at Jordan.

Taking this as a sign, Jordan pressed forward. "I'm in a little bit of a situation, cuz. You know the movie just dropped."

"Yeah, you know I was in the theater Sunday night, bruh. Gotta show that support."

"I appreciate that. But things kind of got crazy, today, with the press...the studio ain't feeling it. They think it'll be bad for the film. I'm just trying to figure out who keeps leaking stuff cause I'm not trying to mess things up on my first major lead, you know?"

"Damn!" Dough responded, sounding frustrated. This time, when Dough remained silent, Jordan didn't speak. After a long and pregnant pause, Dough spoke again.

"Cuz, you know I would never do anything to mess with your work. We all proud of you and you know I wouldn't sell you out for a few coins. It's just that, when I was leaving the cookout that night, it was extra late; only a few people left cleaning up. I was walking up the block to get in my car and this man came up to me. He looked hella suspect, but he basically threatened me. I don't know how he found out about some dirt that I did, but he said if I didn't give him pictures or a video, he would let my probation officer know... so I took a video off of Aunt Kelly's phone and sent it to him. I'm real sorry, man. He could have offered me a million dollars and I would have said no, but I can't go back to jail off some bar fight. "

"It's cool, man, I understand." Jordan said, sincerely. "Here's how you can make it up to me though. Send me the phone number or e-mail address where you sent the video, and give me the guy's description."

"Ok. He was an older white guy, with dark hair. He had on shades, so I don't know his eye color. He's kinda outta shape, but he look like he used to be in real good shape. 'Bout five foot ten, tall. It was dark, so that's all I remember. I'll send you the number I have though."

"That's what's up, cuzzo. I'ma wait on that. Thanks." Once the call ended, Jordan and Alex erupted into cheers. He couldn't believe their success. Jordan received a text from Doug a moment later and he called Vince into the kitchen.

Vince had worked in the secret service before going into the lucrative business of celebrity private security. Jordan knew Vince still had major connects in both the private and public sectors.

"Vince, do you think you can find out who this number belongs to? I don't know if it's someone's direct line, or if it 's one of those encrypted cloud numbers." Vince looked at the number and nodded at Jordan. A nod from Vince meant the matter would be handled.

Now Jordan could focus on problem number two, Damien Philips.