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She hated to ask. Honestly, she didn’t know what he would say, but she knew that she wouldn’t like it. Social media strategy and management involved a lot of different skill sets. Reese was like a Swiss Army Knife with a bunch of different tools she could unfold depending on the situation. For a problem like this, Reese had to think like a PR person, like Kevin. She hated spin, especially of his variety. She understood it. But she hated it all the same.
Not all PR was bad, but the way that Kevin handled it tended to lean on the dishonest side, which made her distinctly uncomfortable. In the past he had set up charity work and fake photo shoots to make terrible people look amazing. That was just the start. She tried to simply ignore the other things she had ethical problems with so she could keep working at Azul without feeling like her integrity had been compromised.
“The easiest would be a relationship.”
“A fake one?” Reese put her head in her hands.
“Is he in a real one? A relationship that would look good publicly?”
“No. He isn’t. But I’m not sure—”
Kevin sighed. It was forced, fake, just for her to hear its sound. “We need someone attractive and who looks like she could realistically be his girlfriend. Photos of them together, maybe some kind of back story people can sink their teeth into. A tragedy? Dead parent? Divorce? Abusive ex?”
Reese put her hand over her face. “Kevin, even if I wanted to do that—which I don’t—we’re on a tour bus. How are we going to pull any of that off?”
“Aren’t there any women on the tour? If you can’t find someone perfect, find someone convenient and make it look perfect. Obviously you need to have a heart-to-heart with yourself about how serious you are with this job. Call me tomorrow. Let me know what you’ve decided.”
Kevin didn’t even say goodbye. There was only silence. Reese held out her phone to make sure he wasn’t still on the line.
“That sounded really awful,” Morgan said. “What did he say?”
“Was that the boss you hate?” Sterling asked.
“The very same one,” Reese said, trying to crack a smile. She was sure it looked more like a grimace.
Sterling’s phone started buzzing and he made a face. “I’m going to take this out in the hall.”
When he stood, it was abrupt enough that the chair he’d been in fell over backwards. He was out the door in a moment, flipping the deadbolt so the door wouldn’t lock behind him.
Morgan waited for the door to close and took the seat across from Reese. “What did your boss want to fake?” Morgan asked.
Reese felt better about saying this just to Morgan. Hopefully the two of them could come up with something else. She sighed. “Kevin suggested a fake relationship for Sterling. Give the public something happy and positive to latch onto. We can’t diffuse this woman’s story or prove the baby isn’t his now if she doesn’t want to do the in utero tests. So, we need a happy diversion to make Sterling look good in the press. Get them talking about something else.”
Celebrities faked relationships all the time for various reasons. It wasn’t unusual or considered that bad. The public almost never found out and in the cases where they did, it was easily brushed over in the press. There would be rumors, but people wouldn’t really ever know for sure. It would probably work. But there had to be something else.
“Personally, I hate the idea,” Reese said. “This is not how I like to do things. I prefer honesty and authenticity. Sometimes that’s harder. My boss likes things easy and has a very loose grasp on the concept of truth.”
Shockingly, Morgan didn’t seem to hate the idea. “Is this such a big deal? People do this all the time. One of the guys in the last band I managed had a fake girlfriend for a while. Helped him get more Instagram followers.”
“That’s so …” Reese made a face. She had no good words for how she felt about that.
“I’m guessing you haven’t pulled off a fake relationship before.”
“No. It’s a personal thing. I know it’s done. It isn’t the worst thing. But faking a relationship bothers my integrity. I avoid this kind of strategy. It’s not me.”
“What kind of fallout are we talking? What are the cons?” Morgan asked. “It may not be ideal, but I’m with Kevin. We need something that works.”
“The downside is that it can be hard to maintain without conflict. It’s usually someone the person knows already, just to make it easier. Some couples come to resent each other. Some fall for each other. There are so many lies and so much confusion that it can lead to messy relationships. Or it can ruin them.”
“What if people find out it’s fake?”
Reese shrugged. “Not a huge deal. Magazines and blogs and news outlets share so many stories. The public is used to fake news. I think they only half-believe what they read anyway. If they get wind of a fake relationship, the public always has doubt. Kind of like Area 51. People have heard of faking relationships, but it sounds so ridiculous that if a story like that comes out, it largely gets ignored. It usually doesn’t have a negative impact on how people see the celebrity. Unless there is something incriminating, like a video where they talk about it or a printed contract. Or if there was something bigger being hidden by the fake relationship.”
“I think we should do it,” Morgan said.
“I can’t see Sterling being on board with it.”
Morgan leaned across the table, her gaze intense. “Then we need to get him on board. I promised him that I would do my very best to get him in the best position for a rebrand. He doesn’t want to renew his contract. He needs leverage and power and good stories out there. I want to help him get that. If you and I together agree on this, we can convince him. He trusts us. It just doesn’t sound like that big of a deal.”
