Sweet Downfall (19 page)

“That’s enough. We’ll talk in another day. Angelina, absolutely no more interviews from now on, you understand?” Manolo said, grim-faced.

“Certainly, Dad.”

She turned around to leave but paused. “By the way, aren’t you wondering why I did it at AZN of all networks?”

Nobody spoke. She smiled smugly. “It was Jordan’s idea. So, stop panicking. Everything will be alright. All things will proceed as planned.”

Without waiting for their reaction, she walked out of the room with her head held high.

Jordan called her some time later.

“I saw the interview.”

“Yes?”

“It was good. It’s gone viral. Thousands of positive feedbacks. You did the right thing, Angie.”

“Thank you, Jordan.” She agreed to the interview for two reasons. To come clean and put a stop to the public’s excessive fascination with the mysterious video. And more importantly, to save Jordan’s face.

“Dinner tonight? I’ll pick you up at seven.”

“Okay. See you then.”

From that conversation, it was very clear to her what marriage will be like to a man like Jordan Lavega. Business. All business.

But then she rationalized, all marriages were legalized by contracts. Every married couple signed a document to seal the deal. The whole business set up was just sugarcoated by childhood fairy tale hang-over. The sooner she got used to that fact, the better. There was no room for the idealist romantic in her current world anymore.

She was the eldest daughter of one of the richest men in the country, heiress to a hotel empire, future wife of the owner of the biggest television network in the land.

She should think and act like one.

Jaq was on edge now.

His commitments were piled ten stories high and he was busy thinking about something else. H
e hated distractions like this when he was working on a high-budget flick. Especially when his money was at stake, too. He was also an executive producer for this film. The pressure was nerve-wracking and he needed all his concentration to make everything perfect. But she was there, always at the back of his mind, always in his groin.

Pressure would always kick up his libido sky-high but it was normal for him. In his line of work, “fucking your buddies” was both a lifestyle and a necessity. Plenty of females willing to have mutual gratification at a single call. But this time around, it was different. He tried getting a quick fix but his dick wasn’t interested.

Gwenna was especially pissed about it, too.

“We haven’t fucked for weeks now, Jaq! What the hell is wrong with your dick?! My vibe is doing all the fucking work it’s nearly worn out now!” she’d ranted at him a few days back.

The babe was frustrated she couldn’t even engage him in a blow job now. That greatly alarmed him, too. Since when did his jack-in-the-box become too choosy with consumption? Especially if it was extremely hungry and needed to release a lot of tension?

But he could do nothing about it. He just couldn’t make himself lay with another woman. He wanted Angie. Tasting her once again after eight long years wasn’t enough. He had to have her again and get his fill. Really get his fill. Then he can go back to work without any more distractions.

His cellphone rang. It was his publicist, who flew into the country a few days ago to handle his current public image which was resembling a train wreck every passing day. It even got worse as he got ugly with the press at one point when they stormed his set again and disrupted shooting. Another video involving him cussing the paparazzi to hell and back went viral last week. It was so bad one of the bosses in LA called to tell him in not so pretty words to get his shit together. “Hey, Lu.”

“Since you didn’t call me, I take it you don’t know the latest shit about you.” That was Lulu, always straight up.

“You know I’m busy here. What is it?”

“Angelina Yulo did a surprise interview earlier today. Didn’t know about it, too. Was sleeping when it aired. Joey informed me. She recorded it.”

He froze. “Yeah? What did she say?”

“I don’t think it’s not on YouTube yet. But it’s all over the news. You gotta watch it, Jaq. I’m uploading the clips to Google Drive.”

“Alright. I’ll wait for it.”

Minutes later, he was watching the interview on his laptop.

Angie was being interviewed by the top female journalist of AZN channel, the number one network in the country owned by her boyfriend.

She was sitting in an armchair, elegant, sophisticated and polished in an indigo business dress and she was casually talking about her long ago “puppy love affair” with a certain DJ named Jaq Montero.

“What was your first reaction when the video came out?”

“Shock. Then mortification, of course. That’s a normal, immediate reaction, I guess. My family is very conservative. Plus I’m engaged. Old skeletons in the closet were having a merry time that day.”

“You seem to be taking this with a sense of humor now.”

“Yes, how else will I take it? It was a long time ago. I was only eighteen and teenagers do a lot of silly things including doing a silly romantic video with a DJ who worked for our hotel. I was adventurous, I guess.”

“That DJ is a huge celebrity in his own right today, a multi-awarded director and producer in Hollywood.”

“Yes, he’s come a long way from spinning music at Hysteria. Congratulations to him.”

“You were in love with him before though? You certainly said a lot of “I love yous” in that video.”

“Like I said, I was eighteen. I was in love with Tom Cruise, too, and Brad Pitt and Dare Montgomery. So, yes, I was probably in love, in a way. Puppy love, whatever you call it. I was very young. We all pass through that stage.”

“Why did you break up?”

There was a pause before Angie spoke again.

“I guess we were both too young. I had to go back to school. He had a budding career in music. We both got busy and just lost contact. It happens.”

“Jaq left the country eight years ago for Hollywood but he’s been in and out of the country. You never bumped into each other again through the years?”

“No.”

“Not even by accident?”

“No. I guess we’ve been living in different worlds. I’m a very private person and he’s showbiz. I don’t like showbiz. No offense to him and to the network, but you know what I mean. I’m only having this interview now to put closure to the whole issue. There have been a lot of things written about me, my family and my fiancé, mostly fabricated by the overly-speculating press. I’m just clarifying things once and for all. After this, it’s closed book to me.”

“Too bad. You’re a natural on cam.”

Angie smiled. “Thanks. Have you seen the video?”

“Yes.”

“What can you say about it?”

“What can I say? Hmm let’s see...Well, Jaq Montero is a brilliant filmmaker, as an amateur and as a pro. No question about that. He’s had it all so quickly, which is rare. Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, even an Oscar nomination, you name it. I can fairly say he’s a prodigy. He’s so huge now that it’s funny to even think he used to make little videos like that for fun when he was younger. Well, in my book, that video hardly qualifies as a sex video. More like a romantic montage most kids do nowadays on YouTube. Except for that three-second butt exposure courtesy of Jaq, I never saw anything obscene in there. Well, unless you consider French kissing obscene. Plenty of smooching there. We get it. You guys loved to kiss.”

Angie laughed, looking a bit flustered. “Thank you!”

“How did this whole thing affect your businesses? You’re the head of all PR and Marketing concerns for your family’s hotel chain, right?”

“Oh, thanks to this scandal quote-unquote, our hotels and resorts are always full nowadays. They’re expecting copies of the video as freebies.”

The journalist’s eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

“No, I’m kidding, of course. Whoever leaked the video is raking all the profits.”

“Who do you think leaked the video?”

A few seconds passed before Angie answered with a shrug.“I don’t know.”

“No suspects at all?”

“Could be Jaq. But he denied it. So…”

“He denied it?”

“Yes.”

“Did you talk to him?”

“Our lawyer went to talk to him.”

“I heard that your family is planning to sue him.”

“No. That’s not true.”

“What does your fiancé think about all this?”

Angie smiled sweetly for the camera. “My fiancé is the greatest guy. He certainly won’t let a juvenile mistake get between us. We are both rational adults. We know where we stand in each other’s lives. Jordan has had relationships in the past and I don’t make a big deal out of that. They were in his past, before us. The most important thing right now is we are together and we are solid and we are definitely getting married.”

“When will the wedding take place?”

“Jordan and I will announce it soon.”

“So, all’s well that ends well?”

“Absolutely.”

“Any words for Jaq Montero?”

“Good luck on his movie. I’m sure he’s going to make his country proud again.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

Leaning back on his chair after watching the interview,
Jaq didn’t know what to feel. Angie’s words kept echoing in his mind over and over.

Juvenile mistake…Puppy love…Silly romantic video…

He clenched his fists until his knuckles hurt from the tension. He didn’t know what enraged him more, the fact that Angie had called their love silly or that she thought it was a juvenile mistake.

Bitch.

For her it had been a silly mistake born out of her spoiled existence, a caprice, a reckless adventure. For him however, it was a life-changing experience that killed his idealism, a major error in judgment that turned him into a hard-core cynic, a betrayal so deep he had never recovered, not even after all these years.

She hated showbiz, huh? What a phony.

She had thrown the gauntlet on national TV. It was just as well, he thought with vindictive anticipation.

She will get a dose of her own medicine.

Chapter Seven

JAQ FINALLY STEPPED INTO THE LIMELIGHT AGAIN.

He brought Gwenna with him. He knew it was going to fuel more controversy but he needed her presence right now to smoke Angie’s interview. The bitch portrayed him as a freakin’ love sick puppy she’d just played with when she was eighteen. He still couldn’t get over it. It rubbed fresh salt to his old injuries.

They attended a local awards night where he would receive a special citation and a little bronze statue as The Most Influential Filmmaker of the Decade. He got a standing ovation after delivering his speech. He was wondering if the audiences’ response had something to do with his video scandal. Were they really applauding him or mocking him?

The press went crazy when he exited the Cultural Center of the Philippines theater with Gwenna. He couldn’t avoid the press now. He didn’t want to either.

He allowed himself to get cornered first by the sexy and bouncy celebrity reporter from ABS-CBN network, his personal choice among the throng of hungry beasts waiting to devour him alive. He asked the theater security guards to hold the others at bay.

“Jaq, congratulations!”

“Thank you.”

“Hello, Miss James!”

Gwenna flashed a huge smile. “Call me Gwennie.”

“Gwennie. Wow! You guys look smashing together!”

Jaq kept Gwenna glued to his side which the starlet was greatly enjoying. Cams flashed all around them from a few meters away.

“Okay, Jaq, Most Influential Filmmaker of the Decade. What can you say about that?”

He grinned. “Truth be told, I didn’t expect to win it. There are so many great directors in this country who deserve it more than I do. They’ve worked so hard and I’d like to share the honor with all of them.”

“But you deserve it! You’ve been a dominant force in the world box office for years now. And multi-awarded, too. Let’s be honest here. No Filipino filmmaker made it to Hollywood like you did, Jaq.”

“Thank you. I can only thank my countrymen for patronizing my films despite the fact that I carry the Hollywood banner nowadays.”

“Of course we love your films! We’re so proud of you!”

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“So, how’s your new movie coming up? I heard filming is almost done?”

“I still have a couple of scenes to finish but it’s getting there.” He glanced at Gwenna and smiled. “She’s fantastic in it.”

“Oh, I still can’t get over your scenes with Leo, Gwennie!” gushed the reporter.

“It’s a DiCaprio movie. Never waste an opportunity to show some ass. You’re gonna be taken seriously,” Gwenna quipped sassily.

The reporter laughed.

Even Jaq was genuinely amused by Gwenna’s quick wit. Shit, she wasn’t bad at all.