by Brigid Coady
Oh, maybe they could have a ski trip. That would work well.
Aspen? No, too fancy, not boy next door enough.
She googled US ski resorts.
Breckenridge. That looked good. In fact… she clicked her fingers.
They could all have a cosy couples trip there for New Year, with cutesy photos of them all with their ‘girls’ at midnight.
Before she could help herself, she’d reserved a condo.
She could always cancel it.
Santa hats. Mistletoe. Mulled wine… Hmmm, maybe not, they were underage in the US.
This was good.
Now, if one of the band actually did fall for their fake girlfriend then that would be even better. There had to be a possibility that one out of the three would fall in love over a romantic holiday in the mountains? Maybe the lack of oxygen up that high could make them do stupid things.
She made a note to ensure they went nowhere near a marijuana dispensary.
‘Jamie.’ She said it quietly not wanting to jinx the glow. That feeling she got when everything was perfectly poised, when she could feel the world turning in time with her. Before other people got involved and buggered it up.
‘Have you done it?’ His voice was as soft as hers. Jamie got it.
‘Yes.’
He came around and looked over her shoulder.
She pushed the mouse to him, so he could flip through it.
She watched him rather than the slides. Watched every narrowing of his eyes, every hitch of his breath, the whoosh of air when he was surprised.
‘That is amazing.’ He said it with awe, his eyes turning to look at her. ‘It is… perfect. The way you have it all fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle. How they meet, all the dates building up…’
It was perfect, wasn’t it, she thought. Actions and reaction, perfectly balanced. A precise plan that rolled out into the next three months, then six months and even to a year if they wanted to extend the contracts beyond the usual ninety days. Each piece of the story carefully crafted, each step choreographed until it came together into something that was greater than the sum of its parts. And by the new year everyone was going to believe there were three boys in this band who were in love. And maybe, if things went well, they would actually have fallen in love.
She could feel her heartbeat slow and her spine straighten. This was better than meditation. Better than anything.
***
Emma wished she could’ve celebrated the finish of the ‘Greatest Plan Ever’ as she kept calling it in her head, by doing something other than drinking a rainbow cocktail while trying to not get stabbed in the eye by a unicorn swizzle stick. She rubbed the sore spot on her cheek where she had been head butted by the horse on a stick when she’d been less than careful with how she held her drink.
It wasn’t the unicorns that were the problem, she was a big fan of the mythical beasts. She just would have preferred different company.
‘Don’t you think, Emma?’ Dan had said leaning forward and putting his hand on her thigh for balance.
‘Yeah,’ she’d answered without knowing what he’d said. Probably something deeply misogynistic as he had been all evening.
The tube shook, as she put some space between herself and the few hours she’d had to endure to keep Jamie and Dan’s fledging relationship on track. She should never had said yes, on Saturday. Or she should have found some other excuse when Dan had reminded her as she was getting up to leave the office. She had been so close to escape.
But that lapse in concentration this evening meant she’d agreed to joining Dan and Jamie for coffee on Wednesday.
Jamie owed her big time, because there was no way she was actually going to proposition Dan on his behalf. She just needed to get them up to the line and then let nature take its course.
She leant her head back against the window of the train. Maybe she’d drag Gee to that bar, he’d get a kick out of the kitsch. She smoothed a hand over her bag. The swizzle stick that she’d swiped for him better not be tearing a hole in the lining, she thought.
Chapter Thirteen
‘So, Emma, let’s see what you’ve got,’ Malcolm McKee said with his hands clasped in front of him. Si was next to him drumming his fingers on the white conference table. The sun was lower in the sky, hitting the room with golden light of a late September day.
Her fingers trembled as she connected the HDMI lead to her laptop. She knew she was ready. Ever since she’d shown Jamie on Monday, the most she had been doing on it was checking the text boxes on her presentation slides were perfectly aligned. You didn’t mess with perfection.
She wasn’t going to be thrown by the meeting being pulled forward to Wednesday instead of Friday. At least it got her out of coffee with Dan and Jamie. She took a deep breath, calming her heart which had gone into overdrive ever since Perrie had called this morning, and laconically stated that she be ready at midday for a run through. What had changed that they needed to move forward, she wondered. Should she be worried? She’d built in contingency to the plan, but… well, no one wants their plan to start off on the back foot.
The front page of her presentation sprang to life on the TV screen. She couldn’t help but smile at the Breach Of The Peace logo shining down. She could do this. She channeled the feeling of rightness that she’d experienced on Monday. Clicking through to the agenda slide, she looked around the room.
The boys were slumped in their seats, Will’s arms crossed as he sat across the room from Ed. He’d been pushed into the seat by Si when he’d gone to sit next to Ed. His scowl didn’t bode well.
Ed was chewing on his thumb, his eyes flicking from Malcom to Si to Emma then to Will where it stayed the longest before flicking back again.
‘The ask was to find relation…’
‘Cut to the chase, Emma. We all know why we’re here,’ Malcolm interrupted.
‘Sure.’ She tried not to stutter as with a shaking hand she pressed the button and flipped through to the next slide.
She could do this. She took a deep breath.
‘I have found three possible candidates for each of you and worked out the plans and scenarios for each. I’ve not contacted any of the other management companies to see if their clients are interested as yet, but from industry rumours all those I’ve chosen are definitely looking for a suitable “relationship” during the right time period,’ Emma said.
Will yawned. She never knew someone could yawn in such an aggressive way. Si was leaning forward and frowning. Malcolm, well he was wearing a slight smile but that seemed to be his default. Like a gap-toothed shark before he took a bite.
‘Okay,’ she said quickly. It was a tough crowd but she could do this. ‘I looked at all your personalities…’
Will snorted. ‘Personalities,’ he said sarcastically using his two hands to make quotation marks.
‘Will,’ Si warned, slapping the table.
She looked at Will who was now frowning hard at the table. Why was he in such a snit? He was in the most popular boyband in the world, making money hand over fist. Why did he have a problem with her? She was just some lowly publicist.
‘Okay, so taking all of the information I’ve been given,’ she continued and changed her language. It wouldn’t do for her to alienate the boys. She needed them to buy in to these stories for the plans to work, they would have to sell the idea that they were in love.
‘Taking all that, I’ve come up with a shortlist for each of you.’ She clicked through to Amit’s profile. She could do this. She was great at what she did. She stood up straighter and clasped her hands together to stop them shaking.
‘Number one, we have Dani, one of the singers in the band Candy Rebels. She was dating a footballer before this and there doesn’t seem to be any scandal. The positive part of this is the band are also managed by Mega! so we can co-ordinate with Max and the rest of their team.’
The photo showed the big smile of a girl with wild curly hair, in a skimpy stage outfit.
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There was no reaction from the people in the room. Nothing.
They were obviously waiting to see all three options.
‘Second, we have Jessie, she’s another singer in Candy Rebels. She was dating her childhood sweetheart up till about three months ago, but he’s just sold her out with a sex tape. At the moment she’s the poster girl for a woman done wrong. The demographic we want are strongly behind her. Max, in her PR team, says they need to capitalise on this before it runs out of steam. So, win win.’
She glanced around the room. Will was biting his nails and staring at the ceiling, Ed was drawing in a book he had in front of him and Amit… was he actually asleep?
‘And finally, number three. Bibi, she is an Arab-American model, about to renegotiate a contract to carry on her six-month fauxmance with Wyatt Sugar, the young Canadian solo artist. If we get in quick they might be interested. With Bibi, we can give a positive story around their shared Muslim heritage. I think that would go down well globally.’
‘But not in Middle America,’ Will said loudly.
The room turned and looked at him.
‘I’m just saying what you are all thinking. Woe betide we do anything that will upset the god-fearing, right wing Christians – and their dollars.’
He did have a point but… well, she wanted to be more inclusive. To think globally. And Bibi was scoring high in testing. Plus she’d punched that photographer who’d tried grabbing her after a fashion show.
Bad ass.
‘Hmmm,’ Malcolm said.
Amit definitely still had his eyes closed. Good to know he was committed to this. She mentally rolled her eyes. Were these boys so spoilt, that they didn’t care that she’d spent days on this?
‘A good list, Emma. I like your thinking. I’m presuming that the Dani/Jessie narrative is pretty much the same?’
‘Yes,’ she said. Because she hated to say it, but Jessie and Dani were interchangeable. ‘Bibi will be a bit more work to set up but potentially will bring in the biggest returns in terms of exposure. Also, she and Amit have more in common, it could look more real…’ And she really wanted to work on this one.
‘But Bibi doesn’t bring more exposure to Mega! It’s either Jessie or Dani, because we’ll have more cross promo opportunities plus we can keep a tight rein on them. Maybe keep that model on a list somewhere, what’s her name?’
‘Bibi,’ Emma said.
‘Yeah, maybe next year. So, its Dani or Jessie,’ Malcolm said.
‘I’d lean more to Jessie,’ Si said. ‘We have more leverage on her.’
Leverage? Emma frowned. Why would they need leverage on someone that they managed?
‘Ah, yes, the tape. Okay, Jessie it is.’ Malcolm said definitively.
The room was quiet for a moment.
‘But doesn’t Amit get a choice?’ Emma said.
That seemed to wake the whole room up. Everyone turned to look at her. Amit even opened his liquid brown eyes and blinked his extraordinarily long lashes at her.
It was weird to be the focus of collective incredulity. As if she were some ancient relic that didn’t belong in the present day.
The silence hung there like an oppressive cloud, dulling the light room.
Okay… She could take a hint.
‘Jessie it is then.’ She marked it in her notebook, using the time to gather her thoughts. So, it wasn’t the boys she had to convince with these plans. Which was tricky because she did need Amit, Ed and Will to at least agree to this to get it to work. All those frozen yoghurt dates she had planned would fall flat if they didn’t like the women who had been chosen for them.
‘Moving on to Ed…’ Emma clicked through to the next part of the presentation. She could feel her body relax slightly. She should be okay, because thank goodness she’d gone with her strongest pick first for Ed.
‘As you know, this is Frankie Quick.’ The slide showed a picture of the singer-songwriter from a recent awards show. Legs for miles and long blonde hair with wide blue eyes. ‘She is known for her confessional style pop songs, normally written about exes. This always seems to give those exes substantially more press than they would’ve had before dating her. This means that even if the fauxmance doesn’t work out long term, there is statistically a ninety-nine percent chance that a song about Ed would be featured on her next album. This will give the whole relationship a much longer tailing off period than with anyone else. It could possibly keep Ed’s profile high for years without actually having to do anything. This is the fauxmance that will keep on giving.’
‘Except he would always be portrayed in any way that she wanted,’ Will interrupted angrily. ‘We lose any leverage on how the media and general public perceive him. Might as well hang him out to dry. You saw what she did to Josh Giggleheim? Poor bloke can’t go anywhere without being asked about her and her allegations that he cheated and they only “dated” for a nanosecond. Next.’ He liked to use his fingers to make the inverted commas, she thought.
Emma looked to Ed, was he really going to sit there and say nothing?
‘Enough, I don’t need to see anymore,’ McKee said. ‘She’s the one.’
What? It was that easy?
‘But I have…’ She had the other two. Kody, the reality star and up and coming model, plus the food blogger, Cass. Admittedly less high profile but more easily controlled.
‘Nope. And thank you, Will, for pointing out all the free publicity we can get.’
‘Erm…’ Ed said.
McKee carried on speaking. ‘And of course, she has a larger profile than you boys so she’ll drag you up to her level.’
‘Excuse me,’ Ed said politely in his deep voice.
‘What?’ Si snapped.
‘I don’t like her,’ he said bluntly.
Crap. Well, this wasn’t going to work. She needed someone that Ed had some kind of empathy with.
‘I have two other options,’ Emma said clicking through quickly. ‘This is Kody Krentel.’
‘You’re wasting your breath, love,’ Amit said sleepily.
Emma sputtered to a stop… She shifted on her feet. This wasn’t what she had in mind. They were supposed to at least be a little bit on board. It was for their own good. Mega! had their best interests at heart so why were they like this?
Chapter Fourteen
‘What do you mean you don’t like her?’ Si sounded exasperated. McKee sat back, waiting for Si to take care of things.
‘Well, she’s not very nice to people, is she? I mean she’s all passive aggressive and shady. That isn’t very nice,’ Ed mumbled.
‘Nice? This is the music business, mate. It isn’t supposed to be nice. You want to be famous then you need to sacrifice a bit. And if that means playing kissy face with whatsherface—’
‘Frankie Quick,’ Emma interrupted helpfully.
‘Frankie, Olivia, whatever… if Malcolm says this is the one you get, then this is the one you get.’ Si stared Ed down, who slumped in his chair and went back to drawing in his book.
Emma wanted out of this room, as fast as possible. This wasn’t how the meeting was supposed to go.
‘And moving on to Will,’ she rushed. Maybe if she went fast enough then there would be no questions, nothing from anyone and she could go off and start working out how they would all meet and fall in love. Because, in her stories she could make them have a happy ending.
‘Sorry, Emma, we’ve gone in a different direction with Will. I should’ve called you.’ McKee waved his hand
What was the point? If she hadn’t been in the CEO’s conference room she would have thrown her hands in the air. How was she supposed to do her job when they changed the goal posts on her?
If she had thought the quiet and tension had been bad before… well, now it was yanked up to maximum. She could almost see the sparks coming off Will. And if looks could kill, he divided his murderous look between Si and McKee.
Emma opened her mouth to ask the question everyone wanted to, but Will beat
her to it.
‘A different direction?’ Will asked the question quietly.
Had her plans not been good enough? How was it that they could bring her into a project and then not actually let her do anything with it?
‘Yeah, we think Will would do better with someone a bit calmer, someone who is less in the public eye would be better, don’t you think?’
But that didn’t make any sense. She frowned. What was the point in this strategy? A non-famous fauxmance never worked for promo, they would make him seem inaccessible but not aspirational. The only time you usually used someone non-famous was when you wanted to lock down some kind of rumour and hide something. That wasn’t the case here.
‘But, that isn’t going to help…’ Emma started.
‘It will be fine, she can be a role model to all the fans. A fan that could date the popstar,’ Malcolm said.
She shut up. She wasn’t convinced but… you didn’t argue with the chief exec’s plan even if it was a bit misguided.
‘Okay, that might take me a bit of time to find the right person. Unless Will already has a “friend” who would be happy to do it and fits the bill?’ She turned towards Will, with a small smile. Just because he was antagonistic didn’t mean she had to be. No matter how difficult it was not to mimic his air quotes.
‘You don’t have to worry about that. We’ve found the perfect girl.’ Si’s smile almost matched McKee’s. There was no warmth, as if he’d backed his prey into a corner and was waiting to deliver the killing blow. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She looked to McKee to see what he thought. This was his project, after all, but surely he would tell Si to handle it more diplomatically?
But McKee merely sat back in his chair saying nothing, his smile echoing Si’s.