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“I don’t want to pressure him if it’s not something he wants to do.”
“Sterling never does anything he doesn’t want to do,” Morgan said. “He just needs a little nudge.”
Reese was quiet for a moment. She could hear Sterling’s low voice out in the hall. “It would have to be you,” she said finally.
Morgan blinked. “What?”
“The fake girlfriend. You’re the only one who makes sense. His childhood best friend reconnects as his manager and they fall in love—people would love that story. Plus, you’re right here. Easy opportunity.”
A flush crept over Morgan’s cheeks. “Me?”
“You. Still want to do it?”
Reese could see Morgan thinking about it. She was a smart girl too, probably going over the potential pros and cons. They still hadn’t had a conversation where they addressed the elephant in the room: they both had feelings about Sterling. It now hung between them, making the room feel thick with tension. Morgan swallowed and met Reese’s eyes. “Would you be okay with that?”
Reese squeezed Morgan’s hand on the table. “I would. Even if it wasn’t fake. It might not be the easiest thing, but I would be okay, yes.”
Morgan squeezed her hand. “Same.”
“Just be careful,” Reese said. “These fake relationships can cause a lot of strife. I’d hate to see you and Sterling lose your friendship.”
“We’ll be fine,” Morgan said. Reese hoped she was right.
They were both still smiling and holding hands when Sterling walked back in. He gave them a funny look and Morgan pulled her hand away. He sat down on Reese’s bed, dragging his fingers through his hair.
“I hope you guys have figured this out,” he said. “That was my rep for the label. They are not thrilled.”
Morgan looked to Reese. Clearly Morgan didn’t want to be the one to drop this on Sterling. Not that Reese wanted to. Would he hate the idea? More importantly, would he be okay with Morgan being the fake girlfriend, not Reese?
“We’ve got a plan,” Morgan said, when Reese didn’t say anything. “Both of us agree on this, so don’t fight us.”
“Why would I fight you? You’re both on my team. I trust you.”
Reese cleared her throat. “We are going to pull a famous PR play: the fake girlfriend.”
Sterling looked between the two of them. “Huh?” Morgan went to sit beside him on the bed.
“You and Morgan will pretend to be in a relationship,” Reese said. “We’ll spin a childhood sweethearts story and give the public something romantic and happy to talk about.”
Sterling’s eyes speared Reese with a gaze. “Morgan is going to be my girlfriend? Morgan.”
“Yes. It’s the perfect story and we can fake it easily since she’s on tour. A few pictures here and there. I can feed info to the media.”
“And you’re both on board with this?” Sterling asked. “Both of you?”
Reese felt like Sterling was asking why not Reese. Did he feel like this was a rejection? Obviously if he was fake dating Morgan, he couldn’t date Reese. She had already told him that she couldn’t date him because of her job. Even though it felt like they were both skating closer toward that line.
“I don’t like this,” Sterling said.
“What did your boss say about the rebrand? I heard you ask,” Morgan said. She gave Reese a look that told her she needed to sell this.
Reese looked down at the table. “He said he wouldn’t recommend taking it public at this time or making it a focus. Not with this going on.”
Sterling groaned. Leaning back in the chair, he covered his face with his hands. “Yeah, the label wasn’t happy. No way I can talk about making contract changes with things hanging over me. This was going so well. I really thought …” He shook his head.
“It won’t be a big deal,” Morgan said.
Everything in Reese was screaming to stop this. To offer a viable solution. But the only other thing she could think of was to simply ignore it. Sometimes that worked, but she worried that would make Sterling look calloused toward the woman and his potential baby. Sure, in a few months everyone would know it wasn’t his, but with his contract up in the air, this wasn’t a good time for a gamble.
