"2 million dollars should have already reached your bank account. Now that you have gotten the money, please sign the NDA."
The scene was of a cafe in Toronto. Wade and Aiden were meeting up with Aaron Hart's agent.
Even after the festival had finished, Aiden needed to stay around to deal with the problem that was Aaron Hart.
After his assault on Aiden, the management of the festival had held a meeting which had decided to ban Aaron Hart from Toronto film festival for the next five years.
At the same time, the management had thanked Aiden that he had not called the police and had decided to deal with things in the background.
If the police were called, it wouldn't be good for the image of the film festival.
The only reason Aiden had even decided to deal with this without going to police or court was to get more benefits from it. Going to court might have given him more popularity but he didn't want that type of popularity.
Moreover, it was pretty messy as he would need to pay lawyers and stuff.
He and Wade had decided that it was far more beneficial to make a deal. Hence, after negotiations, Aaron Hart's agency agreed to give 2 million dollars for them to sign an NDA.
It was a lot of money and something that Aiden required at this point to take the next few steps in his career.
"Here, I signed it."
Aiden said, passing over the documents to the agent who checked it up once and nodded his head.
"With this, I hope the whole situation is over and you won't keep it in your heart."
"Trust me, I don't want to. I rather not even see Aaron's face again."
The agent didn't say anything at that and left. His job here was done and there was no need to spend more time.
After the agent left, Wade turned to Aiden and whispered.
"You are a millionaire now."
"Yeah, it must be the easiest two million one would have made."
"X-art agency that Aaron belonged to is pretty rich and his contract still has two more years in it, so they were bound to compensate us. He's one of their few A-listers after all. Though, they probably will leave him after his contract ends."
"Only if he doesn't ruin his career already by then."
One of the reasons why Aiden had not gone to the police was because he knew that it would ruin Aaron's career for a lifetime. But that was not something Aiden wanted to be a part of.
He knew very well that his career was going to ruin sooner or later on his own.
After all, Aaron Hart was a classic example of fame destroying someone. If one doesn't control things like fame and money, they easily lose their sanity.
In the past, Aiden had even heard about one of the celebrities that have run into traffic and has kept yelling while holding a gun, causing a lot of panic.
Later on, he was detained by police.
Seeing how Aaron Hart was being, he was surely going to do something insane too. Aiden was sure that he must have already been very angry after knowing that he got beat up by Aiden and his movie lost the award.
"Anyway, our flight is at night. We will finally be back in New York City."
Wade said, changing the topic and Aiden nodded. He was missing New York now after being away from it for two weeks.
It was the same feeling he had felt when he had left India for the first time.
"Let's hope reporters don't bother me there too."
"They will obviously. You should just get over the interviews one by one and get a rest day." Wade said, then added. "You can take some days off to finish your novel and then, focus on the release of [30 days of Happiness] at the box office."
Wade said and Aiden thought about it for a bit. It was the middle of September and Eternal life was going to release the movie in October to get help from the momentum of winning the People's choice award.
Aiden was obviously excited about it as it was going to be his first lead movie.
'I'm pretty close to completing my novel too.'
He had already completed half of it. As it was only going to be around 50k words, Aiden was taking his time with it and getting to learn more about his new skill 'Synchronisation'.
He had decided to show it to Wade and Uncle Sam after completing it. And obviously to Harley also as he was the inspiration to write it.
But at the same time, Aiden felt like he was forgetting something.
"What happened?" Wade asked, seeing his expression.
"Nothing. I just feel like there's too many things in my mind and I'm forgetting something important due to that."
"Oh." Wade put a hand on his chin and thought before realisation struck his face. "You are forgetting [Searching for the One]. I think today's episode would be the one where your character is going to make an entry."
"Ah, yes!"
Aiden had completely forgotten about the sitcom due to how busy he was during the film festival.
***
[30 days of Happiness] winning the People's choice award was everywhere on the internet and for a brief moment, it was even trending at 17 on Sparrow.
It obviously meant that Aiden's fan group had also gotten the news that the movie had won an award.
They were excitedly talking about it and also about Aiden appearing on [Searching for the One] tonight.
[Lilith with benis: I was so terrified that [30 days of Happiness] won't be good but it seems like my worries were for nothing. If it won a prestigious award, it would be good.]
[Benedict Cucumber: Does anyone know when the movie will be released in Texas? I'm waiting for it after the songs.]
[Skyneves: I saw an article saying that Eternal life movies got the distribution rights, so they might release it as soon as possible. I checked their website and they have no releases in the next three months, so probably you could expect them to release it in the next three months.]
[Young Fruit smiley: I'm pretty excited to watch it in the theatre. By the way, did you all see the teaser for the next episode of [Searching for the One]? Aiden was finally revealed.]
At that question, the topic of discussion changed in the group as more and more people started talking about it.
The teaser was released a day before the episode would air and it was just a 30 second clip, containing Aiden's character meeting up with Hazel in the show.
[Alon Musk's sister/niece: Yeah, I saw the teaser. It seems like the rumors saying that it's more than a celeb appearance are true. It does seem like he will have a full fledged character role.]
[Yeet the yeet: Yeah but the season will end in three episodes. I don't think the character could make a lot of impact in that. It could be that Aiden is playing a family of one of the main characters. Otherwise my guess is that the makers are introducing the character and he's going to be a mainstay in the next season.]
[Chad Putin: If that's the case, then I think it's time for those makers to visit the great country Russia. Just for 'Sightseeing'.]
[Boris Johnson's hair: Let's hope it's not like that. Although I have not seen the show in so long, Aiden coming on it is making me want to watch it again. He has a way of making things better.]
***
In a bar, four friends were sitting and talking about their lives. Every weekend, they would meet like this to talk about what had happened with them through the week.
It had already become a habit.
As they were too busy with work life, they could rarely meet. So it was a perfect solution for them.
While talking, one of the friends, a red haired girl, suddenly changed the conversation to a sitcom that she binged last week and how disappointed she was at the end of it.
"You know I was watching [Searching for the One] last week. I binged it but the last two seasons weren't that good. I was really disappointed."
"Ah, I know that one." A guy said quickly. "It's pretty good but as the quality is dropping down, fans are hating on the writers every week on social media, saying the show lost its soul."
"I can understand that but I really hope they get the quality back."
"Sitcoms rarely get the quality back once they lose it. After hitting the peak, a show could only fall. It's rare to keep going up."
As they talked, a guy who was normally the quiet one suddenly raised his finger and pointed at the television screen.
"I think [Searching for the One] is going to start airing soon. They have IBC on."
Everyone looked at the television screen and realised it was true. The girl who had first started the conversation couldn't help but smile.
"We have a good angle from where we are sitting. I think we should watch the show."
"Like you said, the quality isn't up to the mark. Isn't it better to finish up here and try to do something else. The night is still young."
"That's why, I'm saying we should watch it. We could just leave if we don't like the episode. I want to watch it now as I don't think I will get time again."
At that, everyone sighed but eventually nodded.
...
