“For the record?” I spoke up. “There is more to the story than the songs on Z.”
“Ooh, how interesting.” Sienna rolled her eyes and dismissed me. “We’ve done wonders to rehab your image, Ty. For the sake of the band, you’ll always be the good guy here.”
Ty fiercely defended me and himself in the process. “That was only after my image was deliberately trashed, Sienna. I’ve been a PR puppet for years, we’re done with that. I want the fans to accept Zoey.”
“You know we can’t fully control that, especially because everyone knows that Ty wrote those songs about someone. You.” Andrew glanced over at me and raised his eyebrows. “But, it’s a great opportunity to get your story out there, Zoey.”
I declined to answer, all of this was pissing me off. And scaring me.
“Exactly.” Sienna nodded enthusiastically. “Ty, the empathy you will get from reigniting the relationship with the girl who broke your heart will be amazeballs. Like I said, with one phone call we’ll have any covers we want. People? US? Vanity Fair? Full-features. Maybe even a reality show!”
“Listen to me clearly. I won’t permit anyone from the LTZ team to do anything that remotely hurts or exploits Zoey.” Ty said sternly. “Sienna, your PR plan for us is completely out of the question. After Ronni, I made it clear that I wouldn’t participate in anything remotely contrived again. Don’t fuck with me.”
Sienna narrowed her eyes and reached around Ty to touch my arm. The look I gave her must have been harsh because she immediately removed her hand. “Tyson, we would never do anything to hurt anyone in the LTZ family, how does telling the truth about Zoey hurt her?”
“I don’t mind the truth.” I got up and walked over to the window by Jace, leaving Sienna and Ty sitting side by side. “I’m not active on social media and I don’t want to be. I know we can’t control what the fans or trolls say, but I don’t want to drag it out. Ty and I are together, it’s really that simple.”
“You are kidding, right?” Andrew scoffed.
“She’s not. You both saw to it that Ty went through a million spin cycles in the press.” Jace looked up from his tablet. “When you guys took over social, your PR plan was to make it seem like he was fucking someone new every night to set the table for an image rehab. I let it happen, and I’m pissed because it was wrong to do that to Ty.”
“The press we generated made LTZ famous. Plus, the songs don’t lie.” Andrew looked like steam was coming out of his ears.
“The videos don’t lie either.” Sienna sniffed, giving me a slight almost imperceptible smirk.
I looked over at Ty, who didn’t appear to have heard her because he was staring out the window deep in thought. Not sure how much I should or shouldn’t participate, the lawyer in me couldn’t help but want to gather more information to analyze and make a decision.
“What were you saying about the videos?” Ty asked, apparently hearing her after all.
“Dude.” Jace’s voice was sharp. He looked up from under his reading glasses and Ty stopped talking, something unspoken between them. I found it interesting, but now wasn’t the time to investigate.
“It was the music that made LTZ famous,” I stated unequivocally, looking at Andrew and then Sienna in succession.
Sienna’s expression was one that could only be described as murderous. Chills ran down my spine, and I tried to catch Ty’s eye, but unfortunately, he didn’t see what transpired.
“Okay, Zoey. How about a simple piece on how you met, what happened, and how you reunited? That would be very sweet and would make the stories of the songs even more relatable than they already are,” Sienna easily slipped into a cooperative mode when Jace looked over, her fingers tapping on her tablet. “We could still do a cool photoshoot, maybe get some quotes from your families—”
Andrew snapped his fingers, “I love this! God, unraveling the Z mystery is a publicist’s dream!”
“Ooh!” Sienna pointed at Andrew. “That’s the title of the story.”
“I’m right here, you can speak to me like a real person.” Nothing about any of this felt right. The energy in the room was weird, but I didn’t know why. The problem was, I didn’t have any context or experience. I was woefully out of my element.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Zoey.” Jace stopped tapping on his tablet. “Neither do you, Ty. When we made our own rules, we did just fine. I don’t like the vibe of how this is shaping up.”
My body literally sagged in relief. I was so grateful that Jace was with us but wondered why Ty didn’t seem to have an opinion.
“Jace, with all due respect, PR is not your profession,” Sienna snarled. She sat back on the couch and glared at him.
Only then did Ty’s deep voice permeate the room with a semblance of authority. “So far, no one knows Zoey’s name, which means no one can connect her to being Z. But it's only a matter of time. There are pap pictures of us in LA, so people know I have a girlfriend. There are only two things that are important to me. One, as far as my story goes, Zoey is my one and only true love. Two, I will not fucking stand for anyone to say a word against her.”
“Which is why if you just let it go, people will do their own digging and uncover who knows what. We won’t be able to control the narrative.” Sienna stood up and put her arm around me, which I shrugged off. She was undeterred. “Zoey. Trust me. If we get on top of it, people will believe what we put out there. We wouldn’t want
