“Danny… Danny… Wake up,” Jack sang as she ruffled her fingers through his sandy blond hair. He had fallen asleep with his arms folded on the bed and his head on top of them. Dan woke with a start. He looked around the room and yawned.
“Can I get five more minutes, please?” he mumbled.
“But, Danny, I’m hungry,” she replied.
“What do you want?” Dan sighed as he sat up and rubbed his eyes open.
“Taco Bell, a milkshake, and some fries,” Jack said.
Dan smiled as he shook his head. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed the food preference before. Standing up, he bid her goodbye and walked down the hall towards the waiting room. As he peeked inside through a crack in the door, he saw his friends huddled together, snoozing comfortably in a pile on the floor. In addition to the seven heads that were supposed to be there, another had appeared. Anna lay on the couch looking up at the ceiling. She glanced over at the door and saw Dan standing behind it. She stood up, then slowly tip toeing her with through the huddled bodies, made he way towards him.
“I came as soon as I found out,” Anna said in a concerned tone.
‘Great, I’m screwed,’ Dan thought to himself. “Thank you,” he said aloud.
“How’s Jack taking it?” she asked.
“Not too well,” he replied, beginning to walk down the hall away from her.
“Hold on! Where are you going?” Anna hollered as she ran to catch up.
“Jack’s hungry. I’m getting her something to eat.”
“I’ll come with you. I need to talk to you.”
Together, they walked silently down the halls to the exit. As they reached the sliding double doors and went outside, a mob of reporters caught them by surprise. With hundreds of bulbs flashing, Dan jumped back. He could hear the chorus of voices asking him questions, pushing to get an answer, and fighting with security to reach him. He and Anna ran back inside until they reached the waiting room.
“Leo!” Dan panted. “Leo!”
“Uh… Daniel! What do you want?” Leonie growled. She rolled out of the pile and sat up, yawning.
“We’ve got a problem,” he said, calming down. “There are reporters everywhere, and you know what happened the last time there were too many reporters?”
“Don’t remind me,” she moaned. Pausing for a moment to group her thoughts then said, “Okay, this is what we do. We’re going to hold a short press conference explaining as little as possible about the situation, answer a few questions, then tell everyone to go home.”
“Um… for the clueless one in the back, what happened the last time with the reporters?” Nadia asked as she also sat up from her spot beside Leonie.
“You didn’t hear about the incident?” Ben replied, astonished. Dan glared at him. “Maybe it’s better if you don’t know.”
“No, you’re going to tell me now or face my foot in your ass,” she warned.
“Okay,” Ben quickly answered. “To make a long story short because you already know most of it, some reporter caught Anna with a roadie, and that’s what led to a big controversy about Dan and Anna’s relationship. They broke up.” He looked over at Dan and added, “Sorry I had to tell your girlfriend. I had no choice.”
“Girlfriend!” Anna shouted as she turned to face Dan. “Are you playing me, Daniel?”
Dan backed off when he saw the anger in her eyes. “No, not exactly,” he nervously replied.
“You son of a bitch!” Nadia yelled from behind him. “Have you even told her about the baby?”
“Baby! What baby?” Anna cut in.
“Our baby,” Nadia pronounced.
“You cheated on me!” Anna exclaimed as she slapped Dan in the shoulder.
“I’m six months along, honey. He did not cheat on you,” Nadia corrected. Her fantasy of cutting Anna completely out of the picture was finally coming true.
“You fucking bastard!” Anna yelled into Dan’s face. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me? I never would have been dumb enough to date a guy who’s about to have a child that isn’t even mine! It’s so over between us, Daniel! Goodbye!” She turned around and stomped down the hall towards the closest exit.
“Fuck!” Dan yelled as he nervously ran his fingers through his hair. “She’s gonna tell the press, I know she is.”
“Better now than later,” Nadia replied.
“But I didn’t want them to know about us until you actually had the baby. I didn’t want people bothering you. I wanted you to be left at peace so that you wouldn’t be stressed out and cause yourself more problems than you already have now,” Dan explained. “I know you’re mad at me for not telling Anna, but you have to understand, I did it to protect you. Seeing what she did just now made me wish she had never even come back into my life.”
“Aw, Danny,” Nadia said as she walked over and took his hands. “That is the sweetest thing anyone has ever told me.”
“It’s al true,” he replied, leaning in to kiss her.
“Get a room!” came a chorus of voices from behind them.
“Shut up,” Dan retorted, planting a soft kiss on Nadia’s lips.
“Okay, can we concentrate on the problems at hand right now?” Leonie asked. “I’m changing the game plan. There’s still gonna be a press conference, but it’ll lean more towards you two so that people will stop asking about Darren.”
“Sounds good to me,” Nadia said, still gazing into Dan’s deep green eyes.
“Hey, how’s Jack?” Ben asked, trying to break their trance.
“Oh, shit! I completely forgot about her!” Dan exclaimed as he began looking through his pockets for his car keys.
“How is she?” Angi repeated.
“Doing better. She doesn’t know about the baby, so remember, not a word,” he replied, finding his keys. “I gotta get lunch. I’ll be right back.”