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Chapter Twenty-Two
Reese waited to watch the video until Staci had picked her up at the Nashville airport and driven her home. She had kept her phone off throughout the whole trip, knowing that it would be blowing up. It made her itchy not to have it on. She could imagine the number of emails and voicemails and texts increasing exponentially with every passing moment. There was only one person she wanted to hear from, but Sterling probably wasn’t calling. Or, maybe he was. She had left him a brief note, pushed under the door of his hotel room that said, simply: “Thanks and I’m sorry again. I’m not trying to fix YOU, but I will fix this mess. Love, Reese.”
She had hesitated about the love. She could have just signed her name. But the tiny part of her that held a shred of hope still made her put down those four letters. It’s not like they weren’t true. She knew even as she wrote them just how true they were. Even though now it didn’t matter.
Sterling was probably even more furious with her and Reese was sure Kevin had called to fire her. She really wanted to quit, so she was planning to call him tomorrow and say it really fast before he could fire her. It’s not like she was going to get a severance package since he was firing her for cause. Quitting at least gave her some control. And joy. Staci had taken a more conservative approach, emailing her two-week notice.
“We’ll talk about plans after we watch this,” Staci said, the celebrity entertainment show paused with Reese’s face in the middle of the screen.
“I’d like to stay in Nashville if we can, but Texas probably is more realistic. I might have to move back in with my parents.” Reese shook her head. “Did I dream this? Is this really life right now?”
“I’m afraid so. Okay, here goes.”
Staci pressed play on the DVR and Reese cringed through the entire segment about her and Sterling. They started with the photos taken at Shutters, from the balcony to the beach and by the pool. Seeing them made Reese tear up and Staci held her hand. She tried not to think about the way it had felt to be with Sterling. How his kisses felt against her lips and the strong feel of his arms around her.
They looked like they were completely in love. She would probably never see that look in his eyes ever again. At least, not looking at her. He would move on and she would run across a photo of him in the tabloids sometimes with a new woman, looking this same way. The thought made her feel nauseated.
“You okay?” Staci asked. “We can stop if you need to.”
“No, I want to see this.”
Finally, the segment got to the part with Reese on camera. It hadn’t been hard to do. The paparazzi had been mobbing the front of Shutters, so when she packed her bags to fly back to Nashville, she simply avoided the back entrance and went right out front to the middle of the fray.
At first, she looked like she was trying to fight her way to a waiting Uber, but then she stopped just before the car. Rather than answer questions, she just started talking and they mostly listened, shouting out questions that she mostly ignored.
“The truth is that Sterling isn’t seeing any of us. He isn’t the father of that baby, and DNA will prove that as soon as the baby is born. Morgan is just his best friend and I barely know him.”
“Those kisses say otherwise! Were you and Sterling in a relationship?”
“Again, we barely know each other. I was hired to help him with his social media and image. All of this is really my fault. The idea was that a bad-boy image might help with sales. There is a lot of pressure to fit into a certain rock star mold. But the truth is that Sterling is a really, really good guy. And an incredibly talented musician, as his sold-out tour shows.”
“I look like a hot mess,” Reese said to Staci, who immediately hit pause.
“You look gorgeous. Now hush,” Staci said, starting it up again.
The clip played on. “It was stupid to try and spin his image. His fans are smart enough to like Sterling whether he is a bad-boy rocker or a good guy. They’ll stick with him whether he’s playing his old hits or moving into a new sound, like what he’s been showcasing on this tour at the end of every show. The truth is always better than lies, and all this was completely my fault. I messed up. It was a bad PR plan and I take full responsibility for it.”
“Tell us the truth—were your feelings for Sterling real?”
Reese wanted to cover her eyes rather than watch the way her mouth opened and closed and how her eyes darted from side to side in the video.
“Honestly? I don’t know how any woman could spend time with him and not fall for him. He’s amazing.”
The two hosts for the show came back on the screen, talking about Reese and calling her the Spin Doctor before Staci paused it. “Ugh. Spin Doctor? Is that what they’re calling me?”
“I know, right? I personally would have gone for something having to do more with Reese’s, like the chocolate and peanut butter.”
“That’s dumb too,” Reese said. “So, did that sound believable? I was able to say everything and not lie. Sort of push the truth a bit, but like 95% truth.”
“You were just vague enough saying ‘the’ idea instead of ‘my’ idea, so you didn’t throw Kevin under the bus. You avoided answering the ‘in a relationship’ question effectively by saying you barely know each other, which is true. It sounded a little rehearsed. But then, I know you. I could tell the difference in that last part, though. You know, where you basically confessed your undying love for him.”
Reese covered her face with a pillow. “I hope that this helps. I feel like it gets him out of hot water for being a cheater and will allow him to come clean about Morgan, while blaming me for the whole thing. I can just disappear, and no one will care in a few weeks.”
“You also did a good job not outing the label for trying to pigeonhole him. But you dropped the idea of a new musical direction, while highlighting the success of this one. You’re brilliant. You know that, right? They should use this as an example in PR classes.”
“Yeah. Brilliant, but my own life is a mess.”
Staci took her hand. “We’ll figure it out. Have you talked to him yet?”
