8. NOVA

NOVA

Chapter eight

I turn over in my bed, seeing the morning light peek through my sheer white curtains. My apartment sits higher up, and I can tell the sun is fully ablaze. I reach over to grab my phone to check the time but my eyes bulge at the missed email from Shawn earlier this morning and I see that I've got an unread text from last night.

"Shit!" I shout to myself, seeing that the email is a notice of a mandatory meeting for ten o'clock which is in…thirty fucking minutes.

I turn to see that Hunter is not in bed with me. He must have left earlier this morning.

After everything that we did last night, I was exhausted and ended up falling asleep in Hunter's arms surprisingly.

I feel heat burn my cheeks at just the thought of how good he made me feel. I look down and see that I'm still only wearing my bra and t-shirt and I blush relentlessly at how he allowed me to show him only with what I felt comfortable with. But it's not that I wasn't comfortable or confident with him, it's just that he provided me with so much attention even only being half naked that the rest of the undressing part skipped my mind.

He gave me the attention I've been dying to have. Attention I never got from any other man, and he praised me while I cried out his name. When I listened to him, I was his good girl. And my whole body ignited with the recognition he gave me.

I called him daddy and it was…liberating.

I remember I have an unread text so before I rummage through my closet for something to wear and bury my honey hair into a parade of dry shampoo, I open it.

I don't like seeing another man's hands on you, Nova. You get three strikes before I decide to discipline you for your disobedience.

The message comes from an unknown phone number and as much as I want to think about what the fuck this message means, I don't have time. Besides, someone is probably just fucking with me, and I don't want to think too deeply about this. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about the fact that someone might be watching me and saw me come home with Hunter.

But then another text shoots through from the same number.

Strike 1.

Is all it reads, and I roll my eyes at the attempted mystery the sender is trying to convey. Or fear. Or both. But I don't have time to think about it any further. I need to get my ass to the office before I'm fired.

This definitely can't happen again.

***

"You're late, Miss Satterlee," Shawn announces loudly as I walk into the meeting room. All eyes are on me and I hope to God they don't notice my sex-flushed face. Though it's been hours since Hunter and I messed around, and we didn't actually fuck.

But I shake the thought and put on my best professional face as I apologize to the meeting attendees––my boss and a few of the crew members including stage managers, writers, and commentators––and I take my seat next to one of the only other girls in the room.

"As I was saying," Shawn continues once I'm seated in my chair, "We're going to need something fresh this week that no one will see coming. We need an op for Zayd and we need to make it TV worthy or we will lose our ranking for live television and lose our reputation in the business." He stops his statement and takes a look around, whispers of chatter echo throughout the room and I mentally berate myself for being late as I clearly missed something.

"I'm sorry," I say. My voice is on the verge of trembling as I wonder if I'm even allowed to speak up, but I change gears and decide to ask my question pointedly and with lack of shyness.

Everyone points their eyes in my direction.

"Again. Apologies for being late, but am I missing something here? Isn't Zayden slated to fight The Irish Hero?" I make sure I'm sitting as straight as I can and that my eyes are talking louder than my voice. I want them to take me seriously even though I clearly can't be trusted to be on time.

"Gryffin got arrested last night, for real. He threw a bottle of something at a bartender for denying him any more drinks. He's not going to be able to make it to the show on Friday," Shawn sighs an annoyed puff of air, probably more annoyed at me than at Gryffin.

"I think we can paint a storyline that indicates that Gryffin chickened out of the match." Someone with cropped, blue hair and thick, black frames speaks up.

"What's your name?" I decide to ask, realizing I don't know many of the people I'm supposed to be working with.

"Name's Chris, they/them. I'm the script editor for the writing team." They give me a brief smile and nod my way.

"Chris, don't you think the paparazzi would be all over this by now. You can't really create a false storyline unless it includes his arrest. But let's be honest, the media outlets are probably typing up their reports as we speak." I look around at some of the other members to try and gauge their apprehension of my comment and they all seem to be pretty satisfied.

"You're right," Chris admits, their eyes drawing toward their notepad as they cross out one of the bullet points listed on it.

"So then what would you suggest, Nova?" I know this person, his name is Darnel and he's the head of the creative writing team. I've dreamed of working for him and now that I'm finally here and he's asking me about my thoughts, I almost choke.

He stares at me in anticipation. His dark brown eyes match his beautifully dark skin and though I've seen his beautiful bright smile before––thanks to the behind the scenes videos I researched on the tube––he's not showing it off right now, expressing serious interest in what I have to say.

He's the most talented man in this business, probably even more so than the actual wrestlers because he's the one who creates the stories behind each match, with the help of his writing team of course. But his mind works in different ways and he's asking me, Nova Satterlee, what I would suggest to help turn this change of events around.

I sit up a little straighter in my chair and mentally prepare myself for what an honor it is to even be giving him my ideas.

"Well, first. I think we say that Gryffin put on a big show at the bar last night knowing that it would get him in trouble only to purposefully get himself out of the match because he was afraid of losing to Zayden. I know that might do a little bit of damage to his Irish Hero persona but I think it could be good later down the road, we might even be able to spin it to make him the perfect heel later on. Viewers eat that shit up." I choke a bit on my use of curse words but I can't help it when my fangirl comes out sometimes, especially when talking about wrestling. I notice the slightest looks of horror as I continue with my idea.

"Zayd is angry now, right? I mean, he's already the villain but why not heighten that evil and pair it with another set of evil. He's pissed that Gryffin took the easy way out. Insert the tag-team match. We can merge the main event and the tag-team match together. We can have Zayd interrupt the match toward the end. He runs down the ramp to the stage, throws himself into the ring in the middle of the match and takes his anger out on the UKO brothers." I pause to give them time to process this as I see some of the writers writing notes down and even Shawn looks intrigued.

"Gryffin and the UKO brothers have somewhat of a friendship in this business, and all we have to do is convince the viewers that the UKO brothers put Gryffin up to his antics as some kind of drunken dare and the result is Zayd raging on the tag-team match and joining Hunter and Krew in their quest to defeat the brothers. And of course…" I trail off, waiting to see if someone will pick up what I'm dropping.

"Always the champion, never the hero." I look over to see that Chris said exactly what I was thinking.

"Zayd gets to keep his heavyweight championship belt, Hunter and Krew keep their tag-team champion title but we've also just created the deadliest trio in the business since The Shield." I refer to an older trio of wrestling legends, and that garners the full attention of everyone in the meeting room.

I feel an ounce of accomplishment wash over me as I finally see Darnel's smirk revealing his pearly whites.

"Where did you find this girl?" He turns to ask Shawn and he decides to use that moment to talk about how close he and my father were. Which cannot be further from the truth. I know he was around my father back in the day when Shawn's dad, Victor, ran things, but my dad never really liked either man.

Then again, who did my dad like?

But I let him continue with his false stories of whatever bullshit he's spewing because I don't want to think or talk about my father right now.

"I like it," Darnel turns to me as if he didn't hear a single word come out of Shawn's mouth and acknowledges my idea.

"Can you fine-tune everything Nova just said and get it to script before tomorrow night? We have less than twenty-four hours to get this story line in full blanket mode." Darnel looks over to his writing team partners and they all nod, each of them writing something down before getting up to leave.

"We'll need to inform Zayd of the change to his character storyline asap," Shawn chimes in.

"I'll tell him," I offer almost desperately. I don't know what possesses me to do so, but my mouth was blurting eagerly before my brain could shut it down.

"Umm, sure. Just find him and tell him to meet with the writing crew." Shawn gives me a confusing onceover but I don't let it linger before I pack up my own stuff to head out.

But before I make it too far, someone taps on my shoulder.

"It was Hunter wasn't it?" I turn to see that the woman I was sitting next to is now behind me and the question catches me off guard.

She's pretty. Really pretty. She has long dark, stick straight hair and green eyes that scream against her pale skin. She's only a few inches taller than me and her thin smile reaches her ears as she waits for me to answer her,

"I'm sorry?" I ask, moving out of the way as everyone filters out of the meeting room leaving only the two of us left.

"Don't think I can't tell when a girl's been puttin' in work all night, sweetie." She giggles and heat rises to my cheeks. That's when I realize that I recognize her from the club last night. She was one of the girls that was all over Krew.

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." She smirks before she walks away.

That was…weird.

But I push on to my next mission which, just thinking about it, sends appetitive chills down my spine.

I've got to go find Zayden Stone.