บท 51: Awkward Guilt

The other thing to be blamed for her entrapment was the publicity team's lack of an exit strategy.

Having a premiere in an unknown cinema had a lot of downsides after all.

Although the Creeds aren't too invested in the propaganda of their actors yet, keeping their safety throughout was at least mandatory.

"Grandpa, your premier planners really have to step up their game. We always get unwanted visitors and now something like this happened." Alexander grumbled to his already busy grandfather.

"Well, I am not too used to these things just yet. Good thing, we already know the fault before it escalates further." Sullivan had to restrategize a lot of things for his company with all that has happened.

The old man was coming up with solutions as he drove.

Jennifer, who had already regained her senses, finally settled down but was still embarrassed by the turn of events.

"I'm sorry for the trouble, sirs." She could only express her regret. She also observed the grandfather and grandson dynamic of the Creeds, which was a lot different than how she imagined it was.

"It is our fault in the first place. The good thing is that you are fine." Alexander calmly explained himself out of a potential lawsuit and asked politely. "Ms. Connelly, where should we drop you off? It is the least we could do after what happened."

"Anywhere accessible to transportation should be fine. I can take a cab from there to my place." Jennifer answered for a while thinking but her thoughts were mostly on the boy's politeness. "You are quite the gentleman for someone your age, Alexander."

"The family does have its snobbish British roots, so being hypocritically mannered should be in my bones." Alexander just shrugged at her compliment while his self-degrading joke elicited a laugh from her.

His clueless boy facade was more in the presence of competitors, so he didn't have much reservation around actresses like Jennifer. It would be too tiring to always act as a silent Sullivan lackey.

"Alex, what did I tell you about disrespecting the British?" Sullivan gave a thoughtful reprimand while observing how his grandson interacts with other people.

His reprimand didn't affect much of the two backseat passenger's conversation as Alexander continued to talk to the girl.

Alexander's socializing was much more on keeping Ms. Connelly's mind off her grievances and making them appeal as personable people. They just made enemies of a lot of people and using this faulty planning disaster as a revenge tactic was more likely.

Jennifer had long forgotten about those unpleasant things as she was already used to the weirdness of the vanity ocean. She was much more intrigued by the mysterious child star and his mature mannerism.

Old Sullivan was observing them through the rearview mirror and was hatching up on his own assumptions.

For the past few days, the boy was too caught up with computer programming and it made the old man fear that it would lead back to another gloomy, shut-in phase.

Seeing that he was proactive in the presence of Ms. Connelly, having a girl to interact with should be the best solution.

It had to be said, that when Kevin McAllister was dominating the theaters, the porn star babysitters were stopped due to their rising incessant cougar behaviors towards the famous Alexander.

Although Alexander was just stressed due to the inadequacies of his animation software, Sullivan assumed his introvertedness was because of the recent lack of pretty sisters around him.

Sullivan was thinking of screening some of the porn babysitters back but when he saw Alexander smile toward Miss Jennifer, he scratched that off and went with an even better plan.

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"Ms. Connelly, how about you stay at our place tonight?" Sullivan was too abrupt with his question that the two backseat passengers can't help but freeze.

Alexander was shocked by his grandfather's pervertedness and the timing of it all.

"M-Mr. Creed, th-that is too in-inappropriate for me to..." Jennifer stuttered and shivered as her image of a safe ride was shattered.

"What are you guys thinking?! I'm too committed to my late wife to do such things." Sullivan saw the dismay on their faces through the mirror and can't help but be appalled at their misunderstanding. "Can't an old man offer a girl a place to rest when it is this deep into the night and her place is too far away? Couple with that, Ms. Connelly might still be troubled with being surrounded by those people that an early night's sleep would be best for her."

"Grandpa, the scenario you are describing can literally be a plot for a kidnapping/rape movie!" Alexander had to knead his temple. His previous efforts of dispelling Ms. Connelly's worries were for naught. His old grandfather is way too good at ruining people's plans with simple sentences.

Alexander went on with his rant. "You also happen to be a movie producer and Ms. Connelly is just a simple actress who heard of the seedy underbelly of Hollywood. Imagine yourself in her shoes and hear someone say: How about you stay at our place tonight?! All that while, she is at a moving vehicle and not knowing that the driver is completely loyal to his late wife."

Sullivan grew increasingly guiltier while Jennifer didn't know how to react to the situation.

She was either embarrassed at her overthinking and overreaction or felt funny at Old Mr. Creed being handed some reprimands from his young grandson.

"Anyways, we are still at the moving vehicle where the misunderstanding is resolved but the catch now is that we are at a crossroads." The boy continued to narrate while the other two just listened. "It is not the literal crossroads on road but the crossroads of awkwardness."

"We can try to forget it all happened but we still can't because a decision still needs to be made. Either we see off Ms. Connelly as she rides a taxi to her home or we continue to house her as our guest." Alexander went on. "Either way, the awkwardness won't go away. When Ms. Connelly is at the taxi, she would be guilty of refusing and you would be guilty of being creepy. When Ms. Connelly would sleep at our abode, she would be guilty of overthinking while you would be just guilty for your misconstrued intentions."

"To stop it all, you just need to answer one thing, grandpa. Why do you truly want to invite Ms. Connelly over?"