She rolled her eyes, tilting her head so that only I could see, and sat down across the table from me.
“Theo is an absolute genius when it comes to crafting a story with the bands he shoots,” Trinity began. “We want to evoke certain emotions with these pictures, as they’ll act as a guideline for how your fans will perceive you.”
“I listened to a couple of your hits,” Theo said in a tone laced with condescension. “They’re heavy, but I’d consider them still on the edge of mainstream. I want to see you two leaning into your sex appeal.”
He jumped into his idea for the shoot, and with each word he spoke, I liked him less and less. There was an unmistakable arrogance about the guy, as if he knew our songs and our vision better than we did.
I kicked Mason lightly under the table to get his attention. My bandmate cast me a weary look. He wasn’t thrilled about this either.
“Pretty sure there’s a way to do sex appeal without tapping into the most cliche rock star bullshit,” I said, interrupting Theo’s monologue. He seemed so taken aback, like no one had dared to interrupt him before.
Mason crossed his arms over his chest. “I agree with Kaz. We don’t ride motorbikes, so why would we have them in our main promo images? Plus, I doubt our female audience is going to connect to photos of multiple women draped over us. That’s not us.”
Theo’s mouth gaped. He shot Trinity a look that screamed she needed to reel us in.
Our manager cleared her throat. “I agree, we need to be mindful of what’s going to appeal to your audience. But—”
“I’m confident we can appeal to them while still being authentic to ourselves,” Mason said.
“You guys are something.” Theo’s voice was tinged with impatience. “Been a while since I met rock stars who didn’t want to have models around them.”
“We’re fine with models,” I retorted, “but the shoot you’re laying out is, respectfully, uninspired. Molly could probably take better pictures than that. Maybe we should just use some of the candids she took of us at our place.”
Molly’s eyes widened at the same time as Theo asked, “who the hell is Molly?”
Wow. The guy hadn’t even bothered to remember her name from when she was introduced to him minutes earlier?
“She is.” I pointed at Molly, despite the slight shake of her head. Now Mason was kicking me under the table, probably wondering what the fuck I was doing. He hadn’t even seen her photos. He probably thought I was losing my mind.
Theo turned to Molly, his expression twisted in confusion, as if he was noticing her for the first time. “You’re a photographer?”
Damn right, she was. Even if she didn’t want to say it out loud. Molly had had plenty of opportunities to tell us how to behave or try to stage a scene, but unlike this buffoon, she understood how to capture the real Last Rites.
Molly’s face was turning beet red. “Amateur,” she mumbled. “I’ve been helping Last Rites with their social media content.”
“She’s really fucking good,” I added, narrowing my eyes at Theo. “Maybe you should take a look at her work.”
Her eyes were pleading, clearly telegraphing a request for me to drop it, but I didn’t fucking want to. She was making a mistake by dismissing her talent, and for some reason, it felt important for me to change her mind about it.
Theo scoffed, clearly insulted. “You want an amateur to do this gig?” He scraped his chair back, looking ready to get up. “Be my guest.”
“Okay, let’s all take a deep breath.” Trinity’s acrylic nails tapped out a quick rhythm on the glass table. “If you two feel strongly about the shoot, I’m sure Theo is open to adjusting his plan based on your ideas.” She pinned the photographer with a hard look. “Theo?”
Molly bowed her head, looking defeated. Trinity hadn’t even acknowledged what I’d said about her art. I grit my teeth. This wasn’t over. If I knew anything about life, it was that creating art made it a fuck ton better, and if Molly felt that calling, she couldn’t just ignore it.
“Of course.” The bitter edge in Theo’s voice felt pointed directly at me. “I’m all about collaboration.”
Mason cleared his throat. “I think as long as you allow us to be ourselves, you’ll find we’re pretty open with most other things.”
Molly and I remained silent as Mason, Trinity, and Theo hashed out the details of the shoot. When Molly finally lifted her gaze, her eyes swam with emotions I couldn’t read. I sucked in a ragged breath. Did I just fuck things up between us?
My thoughts were interrupted by Trinity rising from her seat. The discussion was over. “We’ll see you all again next at the photoshoot.”
Mason and I shook hands with Theo, who wore a sour expression, clearly unhappy with how the meeting had played out. I wasn’t sold on him either, but I trusted Trinity enough to give him a try.
“Will you walk them out, Molly?”
“Sure,” Molly said, keeping her gaze on the ground as she walked around the table.
