The elevator doors opened with a ding. Faye stood inside the elevator with her hair dripping wet. She only realized that her hairdryer had broken after she washed her hair, so she was rushing downstairs to ask the reception for a new one.
Much to her surprise, she witnessed Michael placing a container of soup on the lid of a bin the moment the elevator doors opened. It seemed like he was about to discard it.
Fayeâs eyes lit up when she saw the soup; she hadnât had a good meal since she touched down in Africa, and the town they were in had no restaurants with cuisine from her home country.
It was impossible for her to get a taste of home, and it wasnât like the production team could bring a chef over. After eating over half a monthâs worth of pilaf and McDonaldâs, they were close to being sick from the food.
When she saw Michael entering the elevator after discarding the soup which he didnât seem to want, she swallowed. âMr. Murray, youâve left your soup behind,â she said.
Michael had already entered the elevator by then. As he selected his floor, he said, âYou can have it. Eat it while itâs still hot. Itâs chicken soup.â
Heâs giving it to me?
Faye was ecstatic. Taylor actually gave her some soup! Wait a minute, this wasnât just a container of soupâshe could leverage this to create some huge news!
This container of soup had been given to her by the Adonis known as Taylor!
Faye had been constantly trying to get a chance to get into a scandal with either Taylor or Harry during their filming here, but both men and the director stayed on the VIP floor of the hotel; one would need a key card to enter. She couldnât get access with her status as an extra, so she never got the chance to stir up trouble. This container of soup was practically an opportunity that had fallen from the heavens!
Faye brought the soup back to her room; an aromatic scent wafted from the container when she opened it. Indeed, the container was filled with delicious-smelling chicken soup. She was so hungry that she was drooling, but she still tamped down on that voracious desire of hers.
She quickly blow-dried her hair and carefully put her makeup on before taking a nice selfie of herself while holding the container of soup, making sure that her face and the soup were clearly shown in the photo.
She then used a photo editing app to airbrush her blemishes and edited the photo. After half an hour of editing, she even managed to nearly remove all traces of texture on the chunks of chicken floating in the soup. With that, she uploaded the heavily-edited photo onto her Twitter and Instagram stories.
As she sipped on the soup, she typed out a caption.
âThank you so much for the chicken soup, Taylor. Everyone, please take good care of yourself while filming! Sending hearts to you guys!â
She then tagged every major account that was related to the âWar Dragonâ movie, including but not limited to Taylorâs official account, Harryâs, the official account for âWar Dragonâ promotions, Nicoleâs, Richardâs, and the official fanclub account for Taylor.
She wished for nothing more than to let the world know that Taylor had given her some soup; she wanted to shock all the staff and actors in the production team as well!
That night, the entire âWar Dragonâ production team in Africa, as well as the Harpers, Edwards, and Taylorâs fans found out that Taylor had somehow given a young, untrained model some soup.
Was there a mistake? Did this iconic man have a stroke or something?!
When Faye woke up the next day, she saw that she had made the headlines. As expected, getting on the front pages was a matter of time by tying herself to a handsome, acclaimed man.
Taylorâs fans were frothing. Why did their idol give some soup to a young bimbo in the middle of the night?!
Due to the time difference between Africa and their home country, the photo seemed suggestive since it was posted at night. However, it was daytime in their home country, so it kept getting onto the trending searches.
Michael had been so busy shooting his parts that he didnât notice Faye leeching off him for fame. The production team was on full throttle; even their bathroom breaks were timed down to the second as they squeezed every bit of time they could to rush through filming so that they could fly home earlier. He really couldnât afford to be distracted.
Back home at the military compound, Sophia was in her ward watching yet another one of Nicoleâs countryside shows, âTemptations Of Homeâ. It was a show about a village womanâs tragic life. The only brother of the female protagonist, Jane Miller, was about to marry Martha Bellstone from the same village.
However, the dowry that the Bellstones had asked for was too high and the Millers couldnât afford it, so they âhanded overâ Jane to the Bellstonesâ good-for-nothing of a bachelor son, Jake Bellstone. She was to be his wife in âexchangeâ for Martha.
However, Jane was secretly in love with the son of the village scribe, John Richter, and she was forced to leave her crush to marry Jake.
Sophia had watched until the part where Jane and John were tearily breaking up before Janeâs arranged marriage. Sophia cried until snot was running freely from her nose while watching this particular scene, and the bin next to her was piled high with tissues.
âOh, why is this so tragicâ¦â Sophia sobbed as she watched the show.
Nathan had a look of horror on his face as he looked at the screen; Stanley, a look of disgust; Sean, a twisted expression on his face.
Sophia had messaged Stanley and Sean out of the blue, inviting them over to watch a movie together.
Initially thinking that Sophia had gotten her hands on some unreleased movie of Michaelâs, they joyously trotted over. To their shock, they saw the words âTemptations of Homeâ on the screen the moment they sat down.
Stanley could already guess what kind of life his uncle was living at home.
They finally finished suffering through the teary breakup scene. Sophia had finished crying her heart out and took a few sips of water in preparation for the next episode. Stanley was about to take Sean and escape under the pretense of a toilet break, but Sean unexpectedly said, âLook, Sophia. Uncle Michael made it to the front pages.â
My Lord has made it to the headlines?
All Sophia cared about that day was watching âTemptations of Homeâ, so she hadnât been reading or watching the news. She hastily unlocked her phone and logged into Twitter to see the term âTaylor Fayeâ
trending.
What? Did Michael really give Faye some soup, not to mention late at night? He had been perfectly fine up until now, so why did he give her the soup? With so many others in the production team, why her specifically?
Fayeâs Twitter post had immediately gotten her onto Twitterâs latest trends. She was one of the entertainers that Glory Entertainment had wanted to promote, and the Edwards also held shares in Glory Entertainment. The moment this got out, Glory Entertainmentâs PR machine began to furiously milk Taylorâs name and published articles like no tomorrow.
One article stated that the two of them were dating each other, while another claimed that someone had witnessed Faye entering Taylorâs room; another report said that the two were spotted holding hands all the time. There was even an article saying that Taylor had a change of heart with his marriage and had already been living apart from his original spouse for a while.
What sort of bullsh*t was this?!
Sophia blew her top. While she didnât believe that those two were together or that Faye had gone to Taylorâs room, Michael had to explain himself when it came to the soup.
She didnât bother with her show anymore, instead spending the entire afternoon staring at her phone and waiting for Michael to call her and explain!
The atmosphere was unusually tense. Stanley suddenly felt a bone-deep chill hit him, making his entire body tremble from the cold; he was so fearful that he couldnât stop trembling. Regardless, he still stood on his uncleâs side and said, âSophia, thereâs a time difference. Itâs still night for him now! Uncleâs got to be asleep!â
Sophia continued to stare at her phone.
âUh, why donât we watch another two episodes of âTemptations of Homeâ?â Stanley asked weakly.
Sophia didnât speak as she stared at her phone.
After staring at her phone the entire afternoon, Michael still hadnât called her to explain himself. By the time night came, rumors and gossip were flying everywhere. Faye and Taylorâs supposed affair had rooted itself in reality to the point that some people had âpersonallyâ witnessed them register for marriage at the local bureau.
No one, not even Michael, his entertainment company, or the production team had stepped up to clarify things!