Chapter 501: Coming Out
When Mina's face started showing up in online suntan lotion and sportswear advertisements, Ian wanted to have them all pulled. He wanted to call the woman and remind her that she was supposed to be keeping a low profile, but he did not. He needed to wait for her to call or text him, which would probably never happen, but he still chose to hold off.
With Mills' encouragement, Ian promised Zane that he would stop pursuing Mina until after he had gotten things handled between himself and Lisa. He twisted the unanswered invitation to her Wayvair 'early reunion' celebration, and he wondered if he should even attend. He tossed the invite to the side and told himself he was not yet ready to see her; a decision that sat well with both he and Zane.
Ian sent a notice to all the men who worked for him and told them that if any of them were invited to the celebration, they were to do so as regular guests. He wanted Mina to enjoy herself, not feel watched. Other than Drax and Mills, only Dom had been invited, and with the condition he was still in, Ian did not see the man attending.
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The day had arrived, and Ian's emails and text were consistently flooded with information about Mina, who had seemed to be making every attempt to do the opposite of what he asked her to do. She even had dating rumors spreading about her, which Ian left alone, because he was certain, no, he needed to believe they were untrue.
One thing Ian had not ignored were the men around Mina. Cylus Rue had a girlfriend, and while it was obvious that the man deeply cared for Mina, he was often spotted with a woman who was a retired child actress. There was also Oric Lamar, but Ian knew Mina worked for the man. Connor Boyd did not even register as a threat to Ian. The one who worried him most was the unknown man who regularly visited Mina at work and had even driven her home a few times.
Still, Ian did not get involved, because Mills assured him that Mina was uninterested in the unknown man and referred to him as a colleague; something that Ian told himself had to be the truth. Ian's thoughts were disrupted by Zane, who suggested that they pack up early and head to another city as a way of distraction. Ian's phone rang for the one hundredth time that day, and he was ready to decline the call until he saw it was Mina. He froze, and Zane had to answer the call for him.
"Hello?" Mina's question rang through the device.
"Is everything okay?" Ian asked, still in shock.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb." Mina had taken the lack of greeting as a sign the man was bothered by her call. Zane punched his friend for his stupidity, but he also knew that Ian was in uncharted territory.
"You aren't disturbing me. It's good to hear from you?" Ian did not mean to end his statement as a question, but he was caught off guard.
"Um, thanks?" Mina did not know how to continue, the man on the phone was behaving oddly and she was once again scared of the blowback. "Anyway, Willow has been on my case and she says she never received your RSVP. I just wanted to let you know that she still put you on the guest list." Back in Mina's apartment, Cylus and Willow were giving her a thumbs up. They wanted President Lee there, because oddly enough, having an association with the man would be beneficial to their plan.
"I wasn't sure you would have wanted me to come." Mina rolled her eyes. She did not want anyone to come, she just wanted to fade away, get a job, and live in peace."
"Well, it is up to you. I just wanted to let you know." With that Mina hung up, not allowing the man to speak, but he sent a text response.
[I would be honored.] Mina stared at the screen horrified. She suddenly felt like she had made a mistake, but Cylus told her that she needed him there and Willow said she needed well connected witnesses to see them interacting.
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Mina's makeup was professionally done by Candice, the woman who Cylus seemed to have on retainer. She was already at the entrance to the school's banquet hall, which was a large-scale ballroom that dated back to the school's first days of operation. Although renovated with modern lights, the ballroom was one of the only original structures left on the campus, and it was scarcely used unless there was someone to impress.
Everyone was already inside, and Mina was seated in the car with Candice, who had lit chamomile incense to help relax Mina, who'd been rocking in her seat from her rattled nerves. She told Mina that she would work herself into a panic, and Mina, knowing how true the woman's statement was, forced her brain to calm itself. Candice received a text, and she opened the door to help Mina get out. She adjusted the woman's clothing and walked her to the entrance.
"Someone will open the doors, and CEO Rue will escort you inside." Mina nodded, once again feeling jittery, but the minute she saw Cylus' proud expression, her nerves melted away. It had been years since anyone looked at her in that way and she did not know she missed it.
"You look amazing," Mina's face turned red and Cylus cupped her shoulders before extending his elbow to her.
"My brother made this dress for me," she bragged, and Cylus beamed. He had not known he was waiting for Mina to call him her relation, but something about it just felt right.
Cylus escorted Mina inside, and as planned, the MC introduced her in a grand fashion. He walked Mina to where some of the school officials were seated, many of them looked uncomfortable with the grandeur of the event, and Mina could not blame them. What was supposed to be a gathering of no more than a few hundred students from her graduating class, had become something else entirely.
The school's chancellor stood up and took to the microphone. He bellowed out a clearly prewritten and rehearsed speech about the failure of the school's 'computing system' and he apologized to Mina, and all the other students who were negatively affected by the change in their graduating rank.
Mina suddenly felt bad for that one student, who had believed that they had barely graduated in the top one hundred, only to be pushed out years later, due to no fault of their own. Mina formally accepted the school's apology, and in true Willow fashion, she watched her friend sashay her way toward the chancellor and gingerly take the microphone from his hands with a wink.
"Fellow graduates and invited guests. I hope you all do not mind, but our beautiful and young guest of honor has never been properly introduced to the world as an eligible bachelorette." The title made Mina's skin crawl, but she resisted the urge to flinch. "Some of you may know her from our time in this renown university, while others may have only just met her, and others still have only heard of her. Regardless of your reason for being here, we thank you for coming." Cylus stepped forward and extended his hand to Mina.
In an actual coming out party, Willow would have been replaced with Mina's father, and Cylus was taking on the other half of that role. He twirled Mina into the center of the room and the lights dimmed, putting a spotlight on just the two of them. Her face turned red, and she looked down, but Cylus lightly pinched her arm, as he whispered for her to be confident. Light music played in the background and Cylus released Mina. She respectfully bowed toward him, and when she looked up, she was greeted by a beautiful smile.