Oli paused his task to focus on him. “You mean having to go out on all those pretend dates? I’m sure it sucks, but I thought he’d be used to it by now.”
“It’s not only that though. I think he wants people to know the truth about him. About me and him.”
“Oh.”
Trevor took a deep breath. “Is that—Would that be bad? It would, right?”
Oli struggled with the zipper on his bag. Once he got it closed, he slapped his hands on his knees and stood up. “Other than the fact that Maggie would totally have your asses, I don’t know.”
“Right, I mean, wecan’tdo it. They’d never let us.”
“Can they stop you though?”
“Yes.” He was pretty damn sure they could, at least. “They control basically everything we do.”
As if on cue, there was a sharp knock on the door, and then Christian poked his head into the room. “Oh good, Trevor, there you are. Maggie wants to talk to you.”
That was fast.
He got up, shrugging in response to Oli’s questioning look, and followed Christian out the door. He was led into some sort of makeshift office.
Maggie sat in a metal folding chair on one side of a rectangular table. The bleak setting made her look even harsher than normal. She gestured for him to take a seat, and Christian sent him a sympathetic smile before backing out of the room.
“I know you’re tired, and you need to get on the bus soon,” she said, “so let’s keep this brief.”
Fine with him.
“We’d like to set you up with a girlfriend.”
Trevor jerked back at her words, almost tipping his flimsy chair. “Um. No. No way.”
Maggie went on to explain how management and the execs felt that his image could benefit from him appearing to be in a relationship. (Never mind that hewasin a damn relationship and had been for years.) And they’d decided it shouldn’t be with a celebrity if they wanted the relationship to be taken seriously by the public, so they’d already found him a regular girl willing to fill the role.
Trevor found it convenient that their so-called “regular girl” just happened to be the niece of Charlie Carmichael, head of the band’s record label. But it didn’t matter who they’d found for him because the answer was still no.
“No,” he repeated firmly.
Maggie let out a tired sigh, like he was simply being unreasonable. “Are you aware that some people think you don’t take the band seriously? You joke around a lot onstage.”
“So does Oli.” So did all of them, really.
“Yes, but he’s younger, so it’s okay. You don’t always seem to care about performing.”
Another protest was crawling up Trevor’s throat, because that wasn’t true at all. He wouldn’t have worked so hard at getting all of them involved in writing their own songs if he didn’t care. But he kept quiet because he had a feeling she actually did know how much he cared, and him caring only gave her more power over him.
“The team believes it’s time for you to be seen as in a mature, stable relationship. It’ll show a different side of you, show that you care about something.”
He bit the inside of his lip to keep from screaming, and then he told her as calmly as possible, “Iamin a mature, stable relationship with someone I care about very much. And that’s why I’m not going to do this.”
The smile she gave him was so tight, he wondered if it was painful for her. He hoped it was. “You must understand we need to do something to handle the situation with you and Skyler.”
Ah, so they’d finally reached the real reason for this.
“As you know, we currently have him dating Riley Rowland. She’s the most adored girl on the country music scene right now. Their relationship looks casual, but we’ve had them spotted together multiple times. So perhaps we make it appear more serious and then he gets caught cheating on her with someonelike a Kalabanas sibling. Those girls are always looking for extra attention, and Riley will be fine with it. She can write an angry breakup song about him, and her fans will have a new boy to hate. Everyone wins.”
Except Skyler.
Trevor’s anger was about to bubble over. “Are you fucking kidding?”
