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“I presume.”
“Why are we doing this if it’s all supposed to be a secret?”
Daria shrugged. “I guess to feed the trolls bits and pieces. Isn’t that how marketing works with celebrities? Don’ttheyfeed the paparazzi?”
Reese briefly leafed through the folder. The PR team had her doing all kinds of things all over town, many of them calling for professional photographers. “Daria, be honest with me. What is this costing me? The PR team, the marketing team, advisers, and lawyers. All of it.”
Daria pulled her chair a little closer, not that anyone else could hear them.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I don’t want to get in trouble for this, but you should know what’s going on.”
Reese could feel a heavy, hard ball forming in her stomach. She didn’t let nerves get to her, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to like what Daria had to say. “Start talking,” she said.
“Don’t get me wrong, John hired an amazing marketing and PR team, but they are costing you a small fortune. Some of the invoices have started coming in, and, well, given the state of Crush right now, he’s spending more than I think he should. All these professional videographers? It’s costing you thousands when the video Grady’s sister produced was just as good. The PR firm sent their first invoice this week, and you probably don’t want to see it, but you’re going to have to sign off on it.”
Reese closed her eyes and massaged her temples. “But what other alternatives do I have?”
“I think you should take back some control from John. At least oversee what he’s doing. He doesn’t care what he spends because it’s not his money. I think you fire the videographers and ask Grady’s sister to take the videos. As for this Muskoka trip…if you go on it, take the pictures yourself. That way they will look authentic. If everything looks too polished, it won’t seem sincere. And I can help you with filters. We can make these photos look great.”
She was right, and Reese knew it. “I’ll talk to John. I know I have to spend money to salvage my business, but I can’t go bankrupt at the same time.”
“Now that you mentioned him, he said he’d be by later. Which brings me to your legal fees…”
Reese put up a hand to stop her. “I can only take so much today. What if we save the legal fees invoice for another day?”
“Sure. In the meantime, I will need you to sign off on some things. That will probably keep you busy until John gets here.”
The paperwork did keep her busy, and when John strode into her office a few hours later with Marnie in tow, Reese could sense something in the air that she wasn’t going to like. They took seats around her desk and were joined by Daria moments later. She had coffee and some desserts. Reese realized then that Daria needed a raise—that was if there was any money left.
“The relationship with Grady is having the desired effect,” John began. “The social media response has been positive, and our PR team says that the metrics are looking good. So we are going to continue in that direction.”
Reese held up a hand. “Since I’m now in the office, I’ve had time to check over invoices and related paperwork. I’m going to be straight with you: the cost of the campaign is staggering. John, I can’t keep paying these bills when my business is on life support.”
John scowled momentarily but collected himself right away. “I understand there are some costs associated with what we are doing, but it’s all necessary.”
“We are going to have to bring costs down. I’ve done some research of my own, and I’ve found some savings. I’ll supply you with a more detailed report tomorrow, but if you want me to go to Muskoka to perpetuate this lie some more, I can take my own damn pictures with Grady. And if I can’t, I’ll find someone who can. And I’m going to approach Jodi Radcliffe about being the videographer for future workout videos. She did a great job and I’m sure she’d be less than half the price.”
“I understand you want to cut costs—”
“I want the videos and pictures to look authentic.”
“All right. If you insist, I can concede that point.”
“I’m also going to have Daria look into some cost-cutting measures. That means she won’t have every waking minute to monitor my social media pages. Before you volunteer the PR firm at a gazillion dollars an hour, I will take on some of my own social media. It’s not like I have anything better to do.”
“But if you—”
“I know. If I say or do something stupid, you’ll kill me. It won’t happen. I promise.”
John appeared to ponder all this. “Fine. I won’t argue with you about this. Now I’d like to get to the topic I came here to discuss.”
Reese braced herself. He was using his very serious voice now. “I have a feeling I’m going to want to duck for cover.”
“It’s about Jennifer.”
The hard ball in her stomach seemed to have instantly sprung painful thorns. “Go on.”
“She seems to be threatening to release more damaging emails and text messages. Our lawyers have told her lawyer that we have obtained all the text messages and emails from your phone even though we still haven’t done that. For some reason, she seems to be angry about something, and she wants to retaliate.”
