AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Morgan laughed. “I swear, sometimes it’s like you haven’t been in this industry for years.”
Sterling glared. “I focus on the music, not all this other stuff.”
“People say and do and sell all kinds of stories,” Reese said. She had seen a lot of that kind in Azul, which is one reason she was so good at identifying it.
“She doesn’t seem like she’s going to shut up,” Morgan said. “Her people didn’t say anything when I asked about this, but what do you think she wants? What’s the end game for stuff like this? They didn’t say money, which worries and confuses me.”
“Probably fame or attention, which is my first guess. Not like Sterling’s going to give her money without a DNA test. Unless he was paying her to be quiet, but it’s too late for that.”
“I wouldn’t do that anyway,” he said.
Reese was still clicking through web pages. “As soon as she has that baby, the game is up. Likely she wanted to get her business on the map. Doesn’t always turn out the way people hope though. People always say no press is bad press, but that’s not really true. Social media can ruin lives. Yep, she’s already got hate posts on her Facebook page. She may shut up on her own. But it may start an avalanche of bad media. People love the swinging pendulum. And your press has been positive lately. This isn’t great timing with what we were trying to do with your shift, giving you a place of power so you can better negotiate with the label.”
“Can you do something about it?” Sterling said. “We did hire you for this.”
“Why are you acting like I did this?” Reese asked. “I don’t own the internet. I can’t keep things like this from happening. I’m doing my best here. Can you ease up?”
Sterling looked down at the table. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I’m just stressed. I hate this kind of thing. It’s the worst part of my job.”
“Mine too,” Reese said. Her phone buzzed to life on the table. Not the phone call she wanted at this moment. “I’m going to take this. It’s my boss. Hey, Kevin.”
“What are you doing about this disaster? I’ve seen nothing from Sterling so far. I’m calling to make sure you’ve got your game face on.”
“I’m with Sterling and his manager right now.”
There was silence on the phone for a moment.
“Am I on speakerphone?” Kevin asked.
“No,” Reese said. Both Morgan and Sterling were staring at her, as though watching for a clue from the conversation.
“Fix this. It’s not good.”
“I know it’s not.”
“Well, what are you doing about it? Give me your plan.”
“We literally just sat down—”
“Not good enough. If you don’t or can’t handle this, I don’t want you back in Nashville. At the end of the tour, you’re out. Or I can pull you sooner.”
“Kevin! You can’t—”
“Hush. Let’s talk strategy. Obviously, you can destroy her reputation, which seems like it should be easy based on a cursory glance on her social.”
“No one wants to destroy a pregnant woman,” Reese said. Morgan’s face registered shock and Sterling jerked back like he had been struck. Reese covered the phone and waved a casual hand. “It’s fine. My boss is going through potential strategies and what will or won’t work. We’re not destroying anyone.”
Kevin continued. “The other option is something good and distracting from your camp. What do we have on that front?”
“Well,” Reese said, “We’ve got a completely sold-out tour. Sterling is on the top of his game. He’s also thinking about a rebrand …”
“No. None of that. Don’t talk about the rebrand right now. People hate change. Sold-out tours are great, but not newsworthy. We’ll have to create something. You know this. Why am I having to remind you of this?”
Reese spoke through a clenched jaw. “Kevin, while I understand this strategy as well, I’m not sure we want to fabricate something. I feel very uncomfortable with that. I’ll talk with Sterling and Morgan about it.”
“You’ll feel uncomfortable if you don’t fix this because you won’t have a job. Understand?”
Reese cleared her throat. “Yes. What would you suggest?”
