As soon as he landed and walked down the airport, he was greeted by Murphy who had a bouquet of flowers in his hand.
“Good to see you back, sir,” he said and handed over the flowers.
“Thank you, I bet paparazzi must be flooding?”
Ian said as both the people started walking faster towards the doors of the exit. Ian had his shades on, but the flashlights were going on and off including camera noises, and lots of voices from people.
“Ian! Ian! Please, I’m a huge fan! One selfie!!!!”
“Ian! Is it true that you were mentally ill so you wanted a vacation?!”
“Can we know how France was?”
“Ian, are you and Raelynn dating? What happened to Scarlett!”
‘Wow, these people…’ Ian thought as the bodyguards covered him as he walked briskly. If it was a normal day when people ask for selfies, he would have stopped for a few minutes and given them what they asked. But on the same day, he wanted to rest from a flight of 11 hours in which he couldn’t sleep for even a second.
[...] He was finally in the SUV, as it sped to the road and got him off from all the chaos.
“How have you been, Murphy?” Ian asked as they haven’t had any proper conversation in around two weeks—when Ian got busy with the books and the script.
The people were long past gone, Ian was in the backseat while Murphy had his hands on the steering wheel.
“Things have been going smoothly, and I’m fine sir. How have you been?” Murphy asked back.
“Never been better, what do you think about Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?” Ian asked back.
Murphy looked from the little mirror and focused back on the road. “I think it's great. I enjoyed watching it.”
“Hmm… How have things been in the financial department?”
“Decent enough sir. Nothing to worry about. Although the public image is quite popular these days due to the interview Mr. Renner faced in France.”
Ian nodded and continued, “Uncle asked me to do it, as people started wondering where I’m. Although I didn’t check social media and all, I’m pretty sure people were wondering and dying out of curiosity.” he rolled his eyes at the last statement.
The first thing he did after landing was getting home so that he could rest easily. Little he knows there are a lot of people waiting for him to get back to work and start things as quickly as possible.
-
The next morning arrived sooner than he had expected. The sleep he got seemed to make him more tired, but somehow he woke up and went to meet Steven.
“Ian! So good to see you!” Steven stood up as soon as Ian walked to his office.
Around him, there were so many books and posters that were trending and from the publication, houses were hung everywhere. Ian felt proud as he saw Resident Evil and Percy Jackson banners being under his name in the corner of the room.
“Nice to see you too, Mr. Steven. How have you been?”
“Quite excited ever since you told me about the new book. Can I read it?” Steven asked enthusiastically.
“Of course… I’ve also been meaning to talk about something related to the book itself…”
The conversation from there was entirely about books, deadlines, and some more about books. As Steven was Ian's publisher and editor, he had the luck of knowing all the plans of Ian.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
[...] The conversation ended with Ian promising to work on the sequel of Percy Jackson.
"I guess it's settled then. Isn't it?" Ian stood as he shrugged the wrinkles of his suit.
"Yes, and Ian, it's so good to see you back here again," Steven said and gave a secret smile, explaining how good it was to see him back.
Ian nodded and mumbled, "no problem" while walking away after a second glance at the book corner where his name was written.
-
The next stop of the day was his good ol' office. Since it had been over a month since he last visited the office, he felt an exciting rush in his body as he got out of the cover.
His feelings and sudden emotions were dropped by the reporters who awaited Ian in front of the office building.
Putting on his shades, he walked towards the entrance.
"Look! Ian Renner is here!"
"Good morning Mr. Renner! Nice to see you again!! Can you tell us a bit more about the winnings of marriage story?!"
"Mr. Renner! Too bad you weren't there at the awards!! How are you feeling now?"
"Mr. Renner!!! Can you tell us more about what would happen in the future of Renner studios!!"
The questions knew no boundaries as Ian said nothing but walked towards his usual spot—in his office.
As soon as he walked past the entrance and towards the lobby area, he realized how even the staff and people who worked in Renner studio were awaiting his entrance.
As he walked down the aisle between the people who were working, he was greeted by many and the majority had pleasant smiles plastered all over their faces.
Ian nodded to each and replied to some while walking towards the elevator so that he could finally meet Mason and talk about what was going on.
-
Walking inside the office, Mason was already waiting for Ian and not just Mason there was another person who Ian had been expecting a call or any sort of reach-out from. Scarlett—Scarlett Johnson.
“Oh hey!” Ian greeted Scarlett the first thing he entered and nodded in Mason’s direction. “Hi, uncle!”
He said and went along to sit in the available space in front of Mason, and beside Scarlett.
“She was here to talk to you for thirty minutes now. And I was keeping her saying you’d be here at any moment. I’ll be right back with my coffee, and since we have got a lot to discuss, I should bring you one too,” Mason said and walked out of the office while Ian and Scarlett smiled at each other.
“How have you been?” Scarlett asked as soon as Ian left. Without letting him answer, she continued, “First and foremost, thank you so much, Ian!”
The words caught Ian by surprise and he raised his eyebrows in question. The expressions made Scarlett understand that he wasn’t aware of what she was talking about.
She knew that Ian wouldn’t have known but at the same time, she was thinking that maybe Ian had caught up with everything that had been going on in Hollywood (Like a normal director) but she decided against commenting on it.
“I didn’t tell you about this because I knew you were stressed about a lot of things, Ian. So, finally, I get to say this to you in person…. Thank you so much. The Oscars were held last week, and to be honest, we were expecting you around that time but you weren’t there. But, I won an award for acting in Marriage Story. Thank you!” Scarlett said enthusiastically her eyes were shining with hope, and happiness, and the fact that she achieved something through her skills was showing.
“Wow… That’s so great, I’m happy for you and… Congratulations!” Ian said and stood up, extending his arms.
Scarlett hugged him back, and they both once again settled. The cheery environment was disturbed by Ian’s voice.
“If I knew, I’d have come to congratulate in person, just that I wasn’t keeping up with any of the Hollywood news, or what's going on in here-”
He was disturbed by Mason and his loud knocking, while Scarlett chuckled awkwardly.
“Come in! And, it’s truly okay, Ian. I’m just so thankful for you because without you it wouldn't have been possible.”
“You’re an amazing actress, hope you know it,”
-
She left the small discussion between them shortly after Mason entered, then finally Mason and Ian were in the same office, after more than a month.
“...Besides all the numerical works, I wanted to talk about Jeff, Ian.” The old man mouthed his biggest concern even while Ian was away.
He wasn’t able to stop thinking about the light-cold war between them. How for the media they were happy, but in hearts, if possible they’d have torn each other apart.
“Uncle, I’m not going to stay silent this time. We have the media power, and political power and I think with the media houses, we can show where the Renner Studios lies in no time. When I’m done with my next two big plans, I’d be finally reaching out to him. Until then, we’ve to put out our best with what they do the best—movies.”
Ian stopped his explanations when Mason nodded, noticing what he was about to do. “Alright. I trust you, let’s talk about the media companies now. I did acquire enough shares for you to have a word in what’s going out of them, so….”